Archive for March, 2011

Barney Frank: Obama might not have stomach for fight over Elizabeth Warren

President Obama may not be willing to endure the ideological battle that would result from nominating Elizabeth Warren to head the new consumer protection agency, a top Democrat said Monday.

Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.), who co-authored the law creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said that if she were nominated, Warren might not be confirmed to head the agency. While Frank argued that’s a fight worth having, he cautioned that the president might disagree.

“I think the president is too unwilling to make the kind of fights that don’t necessarily win. And I’m not sure she couldn’t be [confirmed],” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program.

Full Story Here: Barney Frank: Obama might not have stomach for fight over Elizabeth Warren – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

God’s Wife Edited Out of the Bible — Almost

God’s wife, Asherah, was a powerful fertility goddess, according to a theologian.

God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar.

In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshiped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence due to the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter.

Information presented in Stavrakopoulou’s books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in Europe, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.

Full Story Here: God’s Wife Edited Out of the Bible — Almost : Discovery News.

How the US Government Strikes Fear in Its Own Citizens and People Around the World

Glenn Greenwald:

In a recent speech, Glenn Greenwald discussed how the government and media treatment of WikiLeaks reveals a total lack of respect for the law and government transparency.

I’ve been speaking more at events like this and at various college campuses and the like over the last year. And one of the things that typically happens before the event, is that there’s a lot of time and mental energy spent on figuring out what the topic of the speech is going to be, and what the title is going to be. The speaker and the sponsors of the event go back and forth over what will be an interesting topic, what’s timely, what will be interesting to people. And then the title gets worked on and changed and edited. I have several speeches planned over the course of the next month, and there are all different topics and titles that were all worked out as part of this arduous process. What I found is that, as much time and energy that’s spent on that process, it actually ends up being completely irrelevant, because I find that no matter what the topic is, I keep speaking about the same set of issues, no matter what the title is.

The reason why that happens is not because I have some monomaniacal obsession with a handful of issues I can’t pull myself away from no matter what the topic is. That may be true, but that’s not actually the reason. The reason is because political controversies and political issues never take place in isolation. They’re always part of some broader framework, that drives political outcomes, and that determines how political power is exercised. And so it doesn’t really matter which specific topic, or which specific controversy of the day you want to discuss, the reality is, you can’t really meaningfully discuss any of them without examining all the forces that shape political culture, and that shape how political outcomes are determined. So, in order to talk about any issue, you end up speaking about these same, broad themes, that are shaping, and I think plaguing, the political discourse in the United States.

Full Story Here: Glenn Greenwald: How the US Government Strikes Fear in Its Own Citizens and People Around the World | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

Thom Hartmann: A Conservative who got mugged

Some 30+ years of commitment to a traditionally conservative ideology has very recently given way to my realization that the political movement which gained my loyalty in the ’70′s has been hijacked by forces of today’s right.

Ripples from Japan force GM to slow engine production in Buffalo

General Motors Co. today said it was halting some production and temporarily laying off workers at a Buffalo, N.Y., engine plant, another sign that Japan’s disaster is affecting automakers around the globe.

GM’s Tonawanda plant in Buffalo makes four- and five-cylinder engines for the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon compact pickups, which are assembled at a GM plant in Shreveport, La. GM has shut down the Shreveport plant this week because of a shortage of parts from Japan.

GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter Carpenter said Tonawanda has the parts it needs to make the engines, but it’s not producing the engines because Shreveport doesn’t need them.

Full Story Here: Ripples from Japan force GM to slow engine production in Buffalo | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

House, Senate Dems break from Obama’s tax policy for wealthy

Democrats in both chambers of Congress are pushing for legislation that would raise taxes on millionaires, breaking from President Obama who has long endorsed tax increases for families making more than $250,000.

The strategic shift comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are beginning to discuss tax reform, and are poised once again to engage in the debate over whether the Bush-era tax rates should be extended.

In an interesting development, liberals are calling for taxes to be raised on people making more than $1 million annually while Obama and other party leaders have embraced $250,000 or more per year. The left-leaning lawmakers stress that while they still support what Obama wants to do, the president wasn’t able to convince the Democratic-led Congress to pass his tax blueprint last year.

Full Story Here: House, Senate Dems break from Obama’s tax policy for wealthy – The Hill’s On The Money.

What AT&T’s T-Mobile Deal Means For Customers

AT&T Inc. has agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, but the deal isn’t set to close until a year from now, and it will likely face tough regulatory scrutiny. Here’s what a completed deal could mean for customers:

_ Bigger choice of phones for T-Mobile subscribers. T-Mobile, as a much smaller carrier than AT&T, doesn’t get as many exclusives on top-line phones, and it doesn’t have the iPhone. This won’t be a big benefit to T-Mobile subscribers who don’t have contracts – if they want the iPhone today, they can sign up with AT&T or Verizon Wireless. But subscribers under contract would find it easier to upgrade to an iPhone.

_ Fewer pricing plans to choose from. T-Mobile and AT&T have different offerings, some of which might disappear from the market.

Full Story Here: What AT&T’s T-Mobile Deal Means For Customers.

Workers Flee Japan Nuclear Plant As Smoke Rises

Officials raced Monday to restore electricity to Japan’s leaking nuclear plant, but getting the power flowing will hardly be the end of their battle: With its mangled machinery and partly melted reactor cores, bringing the complex under control is a monstrous job that is anything but a quick-fix.

Restoring the power to all six units at the tsunami-damaged complex is key, because it will, in theory, power up the maze of motors, valves and switches that help deliver cooling water to the overheated reactor cores and spent fuel pools that are leaking radiation.

Ideally, officials believe it should only take a day to get the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear under control once the cooling system is up and running. In reality, the effort to end the crisis is likely to take weeks.

Full Story Here: Workers Flee Japan Nuclear Plant As Smoke Rises.

Workers Flee Japan Nuclear Plant As Smoke Rises

Officials raced Monday to restore electricity to Japan’s leaking nuclear plant, but getting the power flowing will hardly be the end of their battle: With its mangled machinery and partly melted reactor cores, bringing the complex under control is a monstrous job that is anything but a quick-fix.

Restoring the power to all six units at the tsunami-damaged complex is key, because it will, in theory, power up the maze of motors, valves and switches that help deliver cooling water to the overheated reactor cores and spent fuel pools that are leaking radiation.

Ideally, officials believe it should only take a day to get the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear under control once the cooling system is up and running. In reality, the effort to end the crisis is likely to take weeks.

Full Story Here: Workers Flee Japan Nuclear Plant As Smoke Rises.

Analyst: Rising Oil Prices ‘Primary Threat’ To U.S. Economy As Libyan Violence Mounts

As international military forces strike Libya, oil prices are again rising, reviving concerns that expensive energy could impede economic recovery in the United States.

U.S. consumers and businesses got a brief reprieve this month as oil prices eased off two-and-a-half-year highs. But escalating violence in Libya and rising tensions among the Middle East’s oil-producing powers have raised fresh fears of a supply disruption. With investors nervous, benchmark crude prices are again rising, threatening a broader recovery that had barely begun to gather momentum.

“A spike in energy prices to $125 or $150 a barrel is the primary threat to the recovery at this point, now that it appears the situation in Japan has settled down somewhat,” said Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody’s Analytics. “This could play out over a period of weeks and months.”

Full Story Here: Analyst: Rising Oil Prices ‘Primary Threat’ To U.S. Economy As Libyan Violence Mounts.

US appeals court reinstates wiretap abuse lawsuit

An appeals court Monday reinstated a lawsuit challenging a law giving the US government broad authority in electronic wiretapping and monitoring of overseas calls and emails in probing suspected terrorism.

The US Court of Appeals in New York said the suit by civil liberties activists can proceed, reversing a lower court decision dismissing the case.

The suit, filed by a coalition of groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, had been dismissed by a judge who said they had not established legal standing by showing their own communications had been monitored.

Full Story Here: US appeals court reinstates wiretap abuse lawsuit | The Raw Story.

Labor movement could kick-start a ‘popular revolt’ in the U.S., Nader claims

In an extended interview with Middle East news network Al Jazeera, consumer advocate and repeat U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader suggested that President Barack Obama is not supporting the labor movement because “they have nowhere else to go” except for Democrats.

“If he doesn’t stand up for those millions of workers, we might as well call him a president in a corporate prison called the White House,” Nader said, likening Obama’s “playing” of labor unions to the stretching of an elastic band.

But this time, Nader said, the band may be just about ready to “snap.” Should that happen, it could kick-start a “popular revolt” in the U.S., he added.

Full Story Here: Labor movement could kick-start a ‘popular revolt’ in the U.S., Nader claims | Raw Replay.

EXCLUSIVE: Kucinich calls Obama’s attack on Libya ‘an impeachable offense’ | The Raw Story

Kucinich: We could impeach Obama over Libya

In an exclusive interview with Raw Story on Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) tore into President Barack Obama’s decision to order U.S. air strikes against Libya, opening the door for impeachment while emphatically declaring that Obama violated the Constitution.

“President Obama moved forward without Congress approving. He didn’t have Congressional authorization, he has gone against the Constitution, and that’s got to be said,” Kucinich told Raw Story. “It’s not even disputable, this isn’t even a close question. Such an action — that involves putting America’s service men and women into harm’s way, whether they’re in the Air Force or the Navy — is a grave decision that cannot be made by the president alone.”

“And I’m raising the question as to whether or not it’s an impeachable offense. It would appear on its face to be an impeachable offense,” Kucinich said. “Now, it doesn’t necessarily follow that simply because a president has committed an impeachable offense, that the process should start to impeach and remove him. That’s a whole separate question. But we have to clearly understand what this Constitution is about.”

Full Story Here: EXCLUSIVE: Kucinich calls Obama’s attack on Libya ‘an impeachable offense’ | The Raw Story.

OPS: And the Republicans are just hypocritical enough to use this excuse

As Food Prices Skyrocket, Republican House Committee Calls For Cutting Food Stamps Instead Of Agriculture Subsidies

In 2010, 18 percent of the country — nearly one in five households — reported not having enough money to provide food at some point during the year. Last month, food prices increased by 3.9 percent, in the largest jump since 1974. Vegetable prices increased by nearly 50 percent, driven in part by weather disasters damaging crops in place such as Australia and Russia.

These trends are occurring at the same time that unemployment has remained unacceptably high, leaving many Americans with nothing but the social safety net standing between them and going hungry. But as National Journal’s Tim Fernholz reported, the House Agriculture Committee has called for a reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) in a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI):

One part of the agriculture budget that has seen increases is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) where spending has tripled over the last ten years. Given the economic downturn and high unemployment which has left many Americans with few options, an increase in nutrition assistance spending is to be expected….But much of the cost increase has come through government action as opposed to the kind of macroeconomic forces that naturally result in increased subscriptions.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » As Food Prices Skyrocket, House Committee Calls For Cutting Food Stamps Instead Of Agriculture Subsidies.

CHART: Taxing Millionaires Would Save Billions More Than Cutting Education And Programs For Main Street

All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking Main Street Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street by attacking collective bargaining, and cutting necessary services and investments like college tuition aid and health care for the poor.

As these conservatives are cutting these services for hard-working middle class Americans, they are claiming they are acting out of need for “shared sacrifice.” Yet at the same time, the right continues to advocate for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.

Rep. Jan Schakowksy (D-IL), along with a number of her progressive congressional colleagues, has introduced a plan that demands real “shared sacrifice.” Her plan, The Fairness in Taxation Act, calls for creating new tax brackets for the richest Americans, starting at a 45 percent rate for people whose income is $1 million. Her bracket would impose the highest rate — 49 percent — on billionaires.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » CHART: Taxing Millionaires Would Save Billions More Than Cutting Education And Programs For Main Street.

Huckabee: Leaders With ‘Biblical Worldview’ Would Bring ‘Equality’ To The World

Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla catches potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee saying that he wishes the world was ruled by “people with a biblical worldview” who could bring “equality” to the world. Huckabee made the comments during an appearance at Statesville Christian School in North Carolina yesterday:

He said that the kind of “biblical worldview” taught at SCS was in the direction of unmitigated equality. “I’d love the world to be lead by people who have a biblical worldview,” he said.

“Wouldn’t it be an exciting thing to have leaders who believe all of us are equal?” he later asked …

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Huckabee: Leaders With ‘Biblical Worldview’ Would Bring ‘Equality’ To The World.

Tea Party At Its Dregs? Major Convention Attracts Few

With Fox News host Glenn Beck’s ratings down and the biggest tea party rally eclipsed by a recent pro-labor rally in Wisconsin, could the tea party be losing steam? One new sign: a big tea party convention in Tampa, FL this weekend — headlined by such conservative favorites as Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano, and former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo — attracted only about 300 people. The Save America Convention’s website lists 25 guest speakers, meaning there was one speaker for every 12 attendees. If one includes the 13 musicians and other performers listed as entertainment, that ratio drops to one for every 7 and a half.

Joseph Farah, the founder of the birther news website World Net Daily, who spoke at the event, promised “lots of opportunities for interactivity between participants and presenters.” Indeed, this photo from the convention posted by Saint Petersblog suggests attendees would have little competition to meet Farah and the other speakers:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Tea Party At Its Dregs? Major Convention Attracts Few.

CNN Foreign Corespondent Calls Out Fox News: ‘Outrageous’ ‘Lies And Deceit’

This afternoon, Fox News reported that the Qaddafi regime used foreign journalists, including teams from CNN and Reuters, as a “human shield” to thwart an attack on Qaddafi’s compound last night. The compound had already been hit by allied missiles, but in its exclusive report — which is FoxNews.com’s most read and commented story — Fox alleges that “British sources” told them that allied forces were planning a second attack, which was called off due to the journalists’ presence.

But on the Situation Room tonight, a visibly frustrated CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, who was on the CNN team that visited the compound, called the report untruthful and “outrageous.” Moreover, Robertson acccused Fox of “lies and deceit” for claiming none of their staffers went on the same trip when one in fact did:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » CNN Foreign Corespondent Calls Out Fox News: ‘Outrageous’ ‘Lies And Deceit’.

Revolution Postponed, Perhaps Indefinitely

Len Hart, :

I have been urging a ‘peaceful revolution’ for some 20 years now! I might have been wasting my breath and keyboard! The time for that has come and gone!

In America, too many progressives seemed content to post ugly caricatures of Bush Jr or the usual and almost always correct assessment of his utterly failed regime. Anyone would have been better, we supposed!

It was too easily forgotten that in the United States there is no ‘left wing’ with which to mount an effective opposition –let alone revolution. Campaigns are incredibly expensive to ‘run’ and even more so to ‘win’! Only the increasingly concentrated, corporate media benefits. In a nation in which right wing policies –most notably those of Ronald Reagan –have resulted in the enrichment of an increasingly tiny elite, the tiny elite tolerates elections to maintain the appearance of ‘Democracy’. I will not bother to post the actual ‘Gini Indices’ that prove that point –a point that should already have been made, documented, and known by all. In short, American wealth is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands with the rise of the GOP. It is not a coincidence –it’s policy! Reagan’s ‘tax cut’ and subsequent GOP largesse was and remains a payoff to the base.

Full Story Here: The Existentialist Cowboy: Revolution Postponed, Perhaps Indefinitely.

Wars Should Be Declared by Congress, Not Merely Launched by Presidents

John Nichols: :

The grotesque extremes to which Muammar Qaddafi has gone to threaten the people of Libya—and to act on those threats—have left the self-proclaimed “king of kings” with few defenders in northern Africa, the Middle East or the international community.

Even among frequent critics of US interventions abroad, there is disgust with Qaddafi, and with the palpable disdain he has expressed for the legitimate aspirations of his own people.

So it is that the advocacy for military intervention has spread far beyond the usual circle of neoconservative hawks.

The circumstance is made easier by the fact that the bombing of Libya by US and allied planes is being carried out under the auspices of the United Nations. And with his words and his initial reluctance with regard to taking military action, President Obama has seemed to avoid many of the excesses of his predecessors.

Yet, now the headline on CNN reads “Libya War.”

Full Story Here: Wars Should Be Declared by Congress, Not Merely Launched by Presidents | The Nation.

Herman Cain to Muslims: Stop Trying to Convert Us to Islam

Former pizza magnate and Republican presidential contender 

Herman Cain has no problem with “peaceful Muslims,” just with those that are trying to convert Americans to Islam.

Cain explained his views on the American Muslim community in an interview with Christianity Today.

“The role of Muslims in America is not to convert the rest of us to the Muslim religion,” he said. “That I resent.”

His position was sound, he explained, because “based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

Full Story Here: Herman Cain to Muslims: Stop Trying to Convert Us to Islam | TPMDC.

Fed Must Release Emergency Bank Loan Data as High Court Rejects Appeal

The Federal Reserve will disclose details of emergency loans it made to banks in 2008, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an industry appeal that aimed to shield the records from public view.

The justices today left intact a court order that gives the Fed five days to release the records, sought by Bloomberg News’s parent company, Bloomberg LP. The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the nation’s largest commercial banks, had asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

“The board will fully comply with the court’s decision and is preparing to make the information available,” said David Skidmore, a spokesman for the Fed.

Full Story Here: Fed Must Release Emergency Bank Loan Data as High Court Rejects Appeal – Bloomberg.

Fed Must Release Emergency Bank Loan Data as High Court Rejects Appeal – Bloomberg

The Federal Reserve will disclose details of emergency loans it made to banks in 2008, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an industry appeal that aimed to shield the records from public view.

The justices today left intact a court order that gives the Fed five days to release the records, sought by Bloomberg News’s parent company, Bloomberg LP. The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the nation’s largest commercial banks, had asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

“The board will fully comply with the court’s decision and is preparing to make the information available,” said David Skidmore, a spokesman for the Fed.

Full Story Here: Fed Must Release Emergency Bank Loan Data as High Court Rejects Appeal – Bloomberg.

VICTORY! Court Says Plaintiffs Can Challenge Bush Wiretapping Law

In a huge victory for privacy and the rule of law, a federal appeals court today reinstated our landmark lawsuit challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a statute that gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans’ international e-mails and telephone calls.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose work requires them to engage in sensitive and sometimes privileged telephone and e-mail communications with colleagues, clients, journalistic sources, witnesses, experts, foreign government officials and victims of human rights abuses located outside the United States.

A federal district court dismissed the case in August 2009, ruling that the plaintiffs did not have the right to challenge the new surveillance law because they could not prove that their own communications had been monitored under it.

Full Story Here: VICTORY! Court Says Plaintiffs Can Challenge Bush Wiretapping Law » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Fresh Oil Continues to Wash Ashore in the Bayou

Fresh Louisiana crude washed into the beaches and dock areas near Grand Isle over the weekend, creating a sickening sight for the residents of this oil battered region. The reddish brown crude and oily sheen lapped onto the sandy and rocky shores, while some people flocked to Grand Isle’s famous white beaches for spring break unaware of the oily assault nearby.

Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle said the oil had hit Elmers island and Lafourch beaches near the main beach area of Grand Isle. He said the oil appeared to be about two miles offshore over the weekend but then started coming ashore to the west of the island. “It reminded me of the first time we saw oil last summer, a brown reddish sheen.”

The Coast Guard says it is mobilizing workers to lay fresh boom in environmentally sensitive areas and arranging for additional cleanup crews to help as oil comes ashore.

Full Story Here: Rocky Kistner: Fresh Oil Continues to Wash Ashore in the Bayou.

Tennessee’s Evolution Two-Step

If it’s true that timing is everything in dance, then Tennessee legislators could use a few more lessons if they ever hope to perfect the evolution two-step they are performing this week. Today marks the 86th anniversary of the Butler Act, which was signed into law by Tennessee Gov. Austin Peay on March 21, 1925. The Butler Act criminalized the teaching of evolution or any other principle that “denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible” and sparked one of the most famous legal proceedings of the 20th century — what is often referred to now as the “Scopes Monkey Trial.” The trial, during which biology teacher John Scopes (shown right) was defended by ACLU attorneys Clarence Darrow and Arthur Garfield Hays, captured the attention of the nation, and to this day, remains a stain on Tennessee’s public education system.

In light of this unsavory history, you’d think Tennessee legislators would be eager to avoid the spotlight on this issue, especially this week. Instead, they have ensured that they will be center stage, having scheduled a House Education Committee hearing tomorrow on a recently proposed anti-evolution bill. Characterizing the scientific theory of evolution as “controversial,” the bill (H.B. 368) purports to give public school teachers freedom to help students think critically about such so-called scientific controversies by reviewing their “strengths” and “weaknesses.”

Full Story Here: Tennessee’s Evolution Two-Step » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Poll: Public already losing patience with new Congress

Once again, the public is getting increasingly disgusted with Washington.

It sees a failure to adopt remedies for even the most basic, pressing issues of the day, as Congress struggles to craft a federal budget. And incumbents are getting worried about the political implications.

“It’s hurting some of us,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who’s up for re-election next year. “They blame everybody.”

A new Pew Research Center poll shows that about half of Americans think the debate over spending and deficits has been “generally rude and disrespectful.”

Full Story Here: Poll: Public already losing patience with new Congress | McClatchy.

Nuclear Apocalypse in Japan

The widespread distortion and cover-ups to protect private profits, national and corporate interests, and to fool the people, are unacceptable.

As the sun set over quake-stricken Japan on Thursday 17 March 2011, we learned that four of six Fukushima nuclear reactor sites are irradiating the earth, that the fire is burning out of control at Reactor No. 4′s pool of spent nuclear fuel, that there are six spent fuel pools at risk all told, and that the sites are too hot to deal with. On March 16 Plumes of White Vapor began pouring

from crippled Reactor No. 3 where the spent fuel pool may already be lost. Over the previous days we were told: nothing to worry about. Earthquakes and after shocks, tidal wave, explosions, chemical pollution, the pox of plutonium, contradicting information too obvious to ignore, racism, greed — add these to the original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine and Death. The situation is apocalyptic and getting worse. This is one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever faced.

The U.S. nuke industry is blaming Japanese experts, distancing itself from the monster it created. Instead of sending nuclear or health experts to assistance the Japanese people in their time of desperate need, US President Barack Obama first sent teams of intelligence agents and FEMA trained military grunts with special security clearances. The Pentagon floated a naval strike force led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan off the coast of Japan: advertised as a ‘humanitarian’ operation, the strike force was repositioned after it was partially irradiated. Can we trust officials and the corporate news media to tell us what is happening in an honest, timely, transparent manner? Are there precedents to the nuclear crisis in Japan? What is the U.S. defense establishment really concerned with here?

Full Story Here: Nuclear Apocalypse in Japan | Dissident Voice.

Unemployment adds 9 million uninsured in U.S

The millions of Americans who lost their jobs and their health benefits during the recession often had no way to regain affordable health coverage, leaving them and their families at risk of financial ruin, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.

The spate of layoffs during the recession catapulted 9 million more Americans — or 57% of those who had had health insurance in a job that evaporated over the last two years — into the ranks of the millions already uninsured.

In addition, 19 million people anxiously seeking private coverage over the last three years were either turned down or could not find a plan that was affordable and met their needs, the report found.

The Biennial Health Insurance Survey also found a whopping 60% increase in skipped care due to cost in the past decade. The survey reported that medical debt problems and out-of-pocket spending costs were on the rise as well, with 29 million Americans using up their entire life savings to pay for medical bills and millions more unable to afford food, heat and rent due to medical payments.

Full Story Here: Unemployment adds 9 million uninsured in U.S. – USATODAY.com.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu: Indian Point Nuclear Plant Near New York City Will Be Reviewed

Energy Secretary Steven Chu weighed in on Sunday on a controversial nuclear reactor located near New York City, saying that the administration needs to look at whether it should stay where it is.

At issue is the Indian Point Energy Center, located just 34 miles from New York City. The nuclear plant supplies approximately 25 percent of the city’s power, and it has the backing of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I). As WNYC notes, “Reactors two and three were built in the 1970s and were slated for a 40-year-life. As in the rest of the country, plant operators are hoping to get an additional 20 years of productivity [out of] their reactors.”

But New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is calling for the plant to be shut down. His comments came after MSNBC recently reported that Indian Point’s No. 3 reactor has a high risk of earthquake damage, based on an analysis of data from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Full Story Here: Energy Secretary Steven Chu: Indian Point Nuclear Plant Near New York City Will Be Reviewed.

AT&T To Buy T-Mobile For $39 Billion

AT&T Inc. said Sunday it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion that would make it the largest cellphone company in the U.S.

The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny. It also removes a potential partner for Sprint Nextel Corp., the struggling No. 3 carrier, which had been in talks to combine with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.

AT&T is now the country’s second-largest wireless carrier and T-Mobile USA is the fourth largest. The acquisition would give AT&T 129 million subscribers, vaulting it past Verizon Wireless to make it the largest U.S. cellphone company. The combined company would serve about 43 percent of U.S. cellphones.

Full Story Here: AT&T To Buy T-Mobile For $39 Billion.

A New 100 Mile Oil Slick Detected in Gulf

Oil Spill Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf

Update March 20, 2011: A Coast Guard officer with a command center in Morgan City, LA, said today the Coast Guard has confirmed that oil is not coming from the Deepwater Horizon well but that they have found what appear to be smaller oil slicks in the Gulf. Their investigation into reports of large oil slicks is continuing. Additional photos and information from pilots John Wathen and Bonnie Schumaker who flew over the area yesterday are expected to be released today.

The Coast Guard is investigating reports of a potentially large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico not far from the Deepwater Horizon site. According to a knowledgeable source, the slick was sighted by a helicopter pilot on Friday and is about 100 miles long. A fishing boat captain said he went through the slick yesterday and it was strong enough to make his eyes burn.

According to the Times Picayune, the Coast Guard has confirmed they are investigating a potentially large 100 mile slick about 30 miles offshore. They are going to a site near the Matterhorn well site about 20 miles north of the BP Deepwater Horizon site, according to the paper. The Matterhorn field includes includes a deepwater drilling platform owned by W&T Technology. It was acquired last year from TotalFinaElf E&P.

Full Story Here: Rocky Kistner: Oil Spill Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf.

The Food Speculators

Capitalism and Hunger

By BORIS KAGARLITSKY

About one-sixth of the world’s population — 1 billion people — suffers from malnutrition. Stories about global hunger tend to get ignored by the media even though the number of hungry people has been increasing rapidly in recent years. This problem remains acute even as nations report renewed economic growth and as global food production remains stable.

Liberal economists love to claim that food shortages stem from ineffective state regulations. They argue that the liberalization of food markets is the surest way to achieve abundant food supplies. Alas, three decades of continuous economic liberalization have not led to an abundance of food, but to hunger on a scale never before seen in the history of mankind.

Of course, governments sometimes play a role in creating these problems, but the worst crop failures occur in free markets. Shortages of grain and other products only motivate businesspeople to indulge in profiteering. As prices skyrocket, profiteers — anticipating even higher prices — find it more advantageous to hold on to their goods than to sell them to consumers. And the longer a particular foodstuff can be stored, the faster the price for it soars.

Full Story Here: Boris Kagarlitsky: The Food Speculators.

The Mythology of American Exceptionalism

Faith in Diminishing Returns

By JOSEPH GROSSO

It is always tediously amusing the extent that politicians, pundits, and intellectuals go to reinforce the semi-intellectual concept of American Exceptionalism. Even in critical mode the instinct deliberately shows itself. Fareed Zakaria, writing part of Time magazine’s cover story debate about America’s decline begins his piece with ‘I am an American, not by accident of birth but by choice. I voted with my feet and became American because I love this country and think it is exceptional.’ A little further on, just before criticizing a political system he (correctly, if meakly) describes as creaky, he writes as if covering up before an avalanche ‘now, as an immigrant, I love the special, and, yes, exceptional nature of American democracy.’

Not to be outdone by a Time colleague, the following week Joe Klein, in a column bashing Republican misinformation about Obama notes as an example of such ‘ There is, for example, the subtly venomous notion that Obama doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism.’ Klein went on to list (apparently echoing several Obama speeches) ‘our Constitution, our democratic institutions, citizenship that is based in core beliefs rather than in ethnicity’ to buttress his credentials.

From Obama, to Newt Gringich, who that same issue of Time was reported to call for an ‘American Exceptionalism that protects the role of God in society at a visit to the Point of Grace Church in Iowa to Sarah Palin the idea of American Exceptionalism can seem to be the only declared agreement that cuts across the isle. However in these times agreement across the isle means establishment liberals striving to prove just how conservative they can be, the better to soak up Wall Street money and display the appropriate hawkish mettle. Palin may perhaps have ended up embodying a telos in American politics when it comes to speaking to and for “the folks” against snobbish New England elites and their allies in the liberal press; yet however much conservative populism in the U.S. claims the mantle of the common masses and folksy traditions, its real backbone and rallying cry as of late is American Exceptionalism. A long enough listen to conservatives of any stripe, from the Senate to the street corner, will eventually yield the phrase. Single payer health care? No, American Exceptionalism. The Employee Free Choice Act? No, American Exceptionalism. The real matter of mainstream debate is just how much of the true faith does one possess. A National Review cover story from March 8th 2010 by Richard Lowry and Ramesh Pannuru claims:

Full Story Here: Joseph Grosso: The Mythology of American Exceptionalism.

One Year Later: The Health Effects of the BP Oil Spill

What health effects have been seen so far? What kinds of symptoms are residents experiencing?

A wide array of health concerns have been reported. The predominant complaint is dermal (skin rashes) such as eczema. Many (symptoms) are nonspecific: headaches, confusion, memory problems, upper and lower respiratory symptoms, asthma, persistent cough, bronchitis, complaints of gastro-intestinal symptoms, episodic diarrhea.

There have been a couple of well-publicized cases of people who have become very sick with health issues that have not been sorted out. These individual stories are flying and there’s public concern, but it’s hard to make clear links. We’re struggling to determine how much is related to the oil and how much is coincidence.

The other set of issues is that people are under immense psychological strain due to economic insecurity and the effect of the spill on the gulf seafood industry. People are hurting. This was already an area of the country with poor health coverage and poor access to health care. It’s greatly increased the level of worry about health problems. The psychosocial issues are huge – anxiety, depression, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

Full Story Here: One Year Later: The Health Effects of the BP Oil Spill – New America Media.

Smithsonian to Sell Goods Made In America

American made products, quickly becoming a museum rarity, will be sold in Smithsonian gift shops, following threats from Congress to cut funding to the museum if it did not do so.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV), each threatened to deny funding for expansion or renovation of the museums in D.C. unless gift shops began stocking goods that are domestically made.

“[Personnel] look for good value, range of prices, where it is made (always seeking made in America first),” spokesperson Linda St. Thomas said in an e-mail. However, “There are small crafts shops and specialty manufacturers that cannot meet our need for product, especially in the spring and summer seasons,” St. Thomas said.

Full Story Here: Smithsonian to Sell Goods Made In America | Economy In Crisis.

OPS: Thank you Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV). Two of the very few true Americans in Washington

Our Unfunded Wars are Destroying the Country

We are destroying our country in four wars that we cannot afford and we are losing – badly.

1. The Iraq War – We have no exit strategy and there is no way to emerge victorious. Why are our troops still there?

2. The Afghanistan War – The citizens of Afghanistan were fighting a civil war before our troops entered their country, and the civil war will continue after we leave.

3. Phantom Terror War – We are at a standstill. At home, we are fighting more homegrown terrorists, abroad we continue to fight more emerging terrorists.

4. The Economic War – Our leaders seem unaware that we are even in an economic war. We are losing badly, and may have already lost.

Full Story Here: Our Unfunded Wars are Destroying the Country | Economy In Crisis.

At Least 130 Congressional Staffers Are Former Lobbyists, Study Finds

Up to 130 of 990 congressional chiefs of staff and legislative directors are former lobbyists, and many of them worked a number of lobbying jobs before moving to Capitol Hill, according to a study out Wednesday.

Researchers for The Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping Debate found the majority of those staffers lobbied for corporations or trade organizations.

The ex-lobbyists work for Republicans and Democrats in about equal number.

Full Story Here: At Least 130 Congressional Staffers Are Former Lobbyists, Study Finds.

OPS: Government of by and for Corporations. We use to call it Fascism.

Gadhafi vows ‘long war’ after US, allies strike

A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed a “long war” after the U.S. and European militaries blasted his forces with airstrikes and over 100 cruise missiles early Sunday, hitting air defenses and at least two major air bases and shaking the Libyan capital with explosions and anti-aircraft fire.

Despite the strikes, Gadhafi’s troops lashed back, bombarding the rebel-held city of Misrata with artillery and tanks on Sunday, the opposition reported.

In the overnight barrage, ship-fired Tomahawk cruise missiles and bombs and missiles from an international arsenal of warplanes including American B-2 stealth bombers and F-15 and F-16 fighter-bombers rained down on Libyan targets — including ground forces — in the widest international military effort since the Iraq war. The air assault came as Gadhafi’s overwhelming firepower was threatening to crush the month-old rebellion against his 41-year rule. State television said 48 people were killed in the strikes.

Full Story Here: Gadhafi vows ‘long war’ after US, allies strike – Yahoo! News.

2 Bush officials in running to be next head of FBI

Two officials who worked for President George W. Bush, including one who threatened to resign to block legally questionable anti-terror surveillance, have a realistic chance of being asked to head the FBI, according to people familiar with the search.

James Comey and Kenneth Wainstein served in sensitive national security-related posts at the Justice Department in the Bush administration. That could make for interesting confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee if President Barack Obama selects either to succeed FBI Director Robert Mueller. His 10-year, nonrenewable term expires Sept. 4.

Their service as political appointees under a Republican president is a key factor in explaining the rise of Comey and Wainstein in the search. The Obama administration faces an expanded Republican minority in the Senate with the votes to seriously complicate the confirmation prospects of any nominee who draws their united opposition.

Full Story Here: 2 Bush officials in running to be next head of FBI.

OPS: Obama still hiring the Bush Crime Family Fascists.  Still think Obama is in control or that he is a Democrat?

Japan: Renewed nuclear chain reaction feared at spent-fuel storage pool,

.Status of Fukushima nuclear power plants Sunday midnight

The following is the known status as of Sunday evening of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture, which were crippled by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11.

…snip…

– Reactor No. 4 (Under maintenance when quake struck)

Renewed nuclear chain reaction feared at spent-fuel storage pool, fire at building housing containment of reactor Tuesday and Wednesday, only frame remains of reactor building roof, temperature in the pool reached 84 C on March 14, water sprayed at pool on Sunday.

Full Story Here: Status of Fukushima nuclear power plants Sunday midnight | Kyodo News.

Murdoch’s papers busted hacking phones of liberal politicians – Looses in court

Met must hand over News of the World phone-hacking evidence

Police must pass documents seized from Glenn Mulcaire to lawyers representing growing number of people suing paper

The growing number of public figures suing the News of the World won a major high court victory when a judge said Scotland Yard must hand over a mass of phone-hacking evidence that has never before been disclosed.

The ruling by Justice Geoffrey Vos, who was appointed this week to handle the 14 phone-hacking cases currently going through the courts, means the Metropolitan police will be forced to pass reams of documents seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World, to lawyers acting for the politicians, celebrities and football figures who are suing the paper. They include Sienna Miller, Paul Gascoigne, Steve Coogan and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell.

Vos ruled on Friday that the Met must give unredacted documents – including Mulcaire’s emails, address and contacts books, and phone bills – to another hacking victim, the football agent Sky Andrew. The decision sets a precedent for the other hacking cases and has far-reaching implications for the NoW, police and other litigants. It will lead to a flood of hacking documents being released to other claimants, all of whom are seeking copies of papers seized by police in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire’s home.

Full Story Here: Met must hand over News of the World phone-hacking evidence | Media | The Guardian.

Wisconsin: GOP Justice Calls Chief Justice “Bitch”Threatens To “Destroy” Her

Prosser says he was goaded into insulting chief justice

As the deeply divided state Supreme Court wrestled over whether to force one member off criminal cases last year, Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a “bitch” and threatening to “destroy” her.

The incident, revealed in interviews as well as e-mails between justices, shows fractures on the court run even deeper than what has been revealed in public sniping in recent years. Problems got so bad that justices on both sides described the court as dysfunctional, and Prosser and others suggested bringing in a third party for help, e-mails show.

Prosser acknowledged the incident recently and said he thought it was becoming public now in an attempt to hurt him politically. Prosser faces Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg in the April 5 election.

He said the outburst came after Abrahamson took steps to undermine him politically and to embarrass him and other court conservatives.

“In the context of this, I said, ‘You are a total bitch,’ ” Prosser said.

Full Story Here: Supreme Court tensions boil over – JSOnline.

OPS:  The irrational rage of Fascism exposed.

Labor Movement Roars Again, But It’s A Wounded Sound

Labor is roaring again, like in the old days. But it’s a wounded sound now.

In the bitter aftermath of a showdown with Wisconsin’s governor, and as other states move to weaken public employee bargaining rights, unions and their allies dare to hope they can turn rage into revival. This could be a make-or-break moment for a movement that brought the nation the 40-hour week, overtime pay, upward mobility, a storied century of brawls, progressivism and corruption – and now a struggle to stay relevant in the modern age.

Not so many answer to the call anymore when labor demands, as it did in the bloody strife of Kentucky coal country generations ago, “Which side are you on?”

One way or another, the Wisconsin Waterloo and the forces it set loose will fill a chapter in organized labor’s history. The dispute mobilized masses, attracted public support on the side of workers and set up a political donnybrook to play out in the months ahead as labor leaders seek voters’ vengeance against the Republicans who eviscerated union rights.

Full Story Here: Labor Movement Roars Again, But It’s A Wounded Sound.

A U.S. Health Meltdown Over Japan’s Nuclear Crisis

The panicked phone calls and e-mails from patients and friends concerned about the potential health effects of Japan’s nuclear crisis won’t quit. Turn on the television or radio, switch on the Internet and the fear is palpable: In California and across the United States, far too many people are worrying themselves sick over the remote possibility that they and their families might be exposed to massive amounts of radiation from Japan’s nuclear power plant disaster, which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and a tsunami. Despite my attempts to resolve the anxiety among those who consult me, many can’t quell their worry about what they consider to be an imminent danger. Why is this? What’s feeding this boiling cauldron of fear?

What We Know from History and Science

Let’s acknowledge there are perfectly rational concerns about the unfolding Japanese disaster and the health harms that radiation can cause. As each day passes, the world’s concern rightly mounts as to the long-lasting damage that may be sustained in the region due to the nuclear mess in northern Japan. Experimental atomic blasts in the Pacific atolls in the 1950s and the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War II showed that radiation exposure can cause myriad health horrors, including leukemia and other cancers. Extensive investigations into the health damages of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown clearly demonstrated that children and adolescents exposed to radioactive fallout had a hundred-fold increase in the risk of developing thyroid cancer.

Full Story Here: Glenn D. Braunstein, M.D.: A U.S. Health Meltdown Over Japan’s Nuclear Crisis.

States Look To Drop Cigarette Tax Rates

As some states look to tobacco tax increases to plug budget holes, a few are bucking the national trend and saying, “If you smoke ‘em, we got ‘em,” looking at dropping the rate to boost cigarette sales.

In New Hampshire, supporters argue that reducing the tax by a dime would help the state compete with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, while opponents say it would still lose millions of dollars even if higher sales resulted.

New Hampshire’s House voted Thursday to reduce the tax and sent the bill to the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain. New Jersey and Rhode Island have also considered reducing their taxes.

Full Story Here: States Look To Drop Cigarette Tax Rates.

Japan Makes Some Progress In Nuclear Crisis

Japan made some progress on Sunday in its race to avert disaster at a nuclear power plant leaking radiation after an earthquake and tsunami that are estimated to have killed more than 15,000 people in one prefecture alone.

Three hundred engineers have been battling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant in the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Police said they believed more than 15,000 people had been killed by the double disaster in Miyagi prefecture, one of four that took the brunt of the tsunami damage. In total, almost 12,000 people are missing in the northeast, where the confirmed death toll stood at more than 7,600.

The unprecedented crisis will cost the world’s third largest economy as much as $200 billion and require Japan’s biggest reconstruction push since post-World War Two.

It has also set back nuclear power plans the world over.

Full Story Here: Japan Makes Some Progress In Nuclear Crisis.

Revealed: The Secret to Long Life and Happiness

Talk about myth-busters.

In their new book, “The Longevity Project,” researchers Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin present the results of their 20-year study on the key predictors of longevity. The results are fascinating! The researchers re-examined data first collected by Lewis Terman. In that study, which started in 1921, Terman followed up a group of high-I.Q. children from childhood to death. To find clues as to the key predictors of longevity, a team of graduate and undergraduate students associated with Friedman and Martin over the course of 20 years searched for death certificates, evaluated interviews and analyzed thousand of pages of information about the Terman participants.

What clues did they find in Terman’s rich dataset? Overall, they found that personality and social relations in childhood significantly predicted risk of mortality many years later. The findings were not what you may expect, though.

Full Story Here: Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D.: Revealed: The Secret to Long Life and Happiness.

Japan Finds More Types Of Radiation-Tainted Food

At a bustling Tokyo supermarket Sunday, wary shoppers avoided one particular bin of spinach.

The produce came from Ibaraki prefecture in the northeast, where radiation was found in spinach grown up to 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Another bin of spinach – labeled as being from Chiba prefecture, west of Tokyo – was sold out.

“It’s a little hard to say this, but I won’t buy vegetables from Fukushima and that area,” said shopper Yukihiro Sato, 75.

Full Story Here: Japan Finds More Types Of Radiation-Tainted Food.

Time to Quit Pining for a “Level Playing Field” in International Trade

Ian Fletcher: :

One of the most common plaints from those who are upset about America’s current trade mess is “just give us a level playing field.”  In particular, this is what one tends to hear from American businesses (at least those which have resisted the siren song of offshoring) that are hard pressed by “unfair” foreign competition.  It’s hard not to be sympathetic, and on an individual basis, my heart goes out to them.

Unfortunately, the whole idea of a level playing field in international trade is basically a mirage as an aspiration, and we’ll all be better off if we stop pining for one right now.

As I pointed out in a previous article, the concept of “fair” trade, while of some finite usefulness in the context of things like fair trade coffee, is basically a non-starter as a serious solution for economic problems, either here or abroad.  And unfortunately, the cry of  “all we want is a level playing field” is just another way of asking for fair trade.

The fundamental problem is this: a true level playing field would require not just equal rules for international trade, but also that nations have the same domestic economic policies, as these can also confer an export advantage.

First, consider international trade rules. Foreign protectionism doesn’t only mean obvious policies like tariffs and quotas; it also includes local content laws, import licensing requirements, and subtler measures (some of them covert, hard to detect, or infinitely disputable) such as deliberately quirky national technical standards and discriminatory tax practices.

That’s not even mentioning outright skullduggery such as deliberate port delays, inflated customs valuations, selective enforcement of safety standards, and systematic demands for bribes. One study by the Congressional Research Service identified 751 different types of barriers to American exports worldwide.

Now consider purely domestic ways in which foreign governments put their thumbs on the scale in trade.  There are literally thousands of places in an economy where export subsidies can be hidden, from the depreciation schedules of the tax code to state ownership of supplier industries, land use planning, credit card laws, non-performing loans, cheap infrastructure, and tax rebates.

Thanks to all these practices, a true level playing field would require America to supervise the domestic policies of foreign nations, which is obviously not feasible. Even if we reached agreements on paper to end these subsidies, we would still have to enforce these agreements on the ground, as the other side would have a multi-billion dollar incentive to cheat.

Foreign governments often face strong domestic political pressures to keep these subsidies in place even when they want to strike a deal with the U.S. to eliminate them. China, for example, is full of effectively bankrupt state-owned companies that can’t be allowed to collapse for fear of unleashing a tidal wave of unemployment.

In other nations, subsidies are products of the day-to-day political bargaining that goes on in every country as governments buy political support and buy off opposition, so eliminating subsidies just to keep America happy would risk unraveling the balance of power.  Our own difficulties abolishing unjustified agricultural subsidies illustrate just how hard it is to repeal entrenched subsidies.

Level playing fields tilt the other way, too: Americans tend not to realize how many subsidies our own economy contains. But judging by the same standards the Commerce Department applies to foreign nations, they are legion.

Agricultural subsidies are just the beginning, and already a flashpoint of international trade disputes. (They basically scuttled the Doha round of WTO talks in 2008.) But there are thousands of others, ranging from the Import-Export Bank (cheap loans for exporters) to the Hoover dam (cheap electricity).

This is just on the federal level; states and localities constantly bid subsidies against each other to attract businesses. Every tax credit, from R&D and worker training on down, subsidizes something, and if that something is exported, then it constitutes an export subsidy.

So unless we are prepared to have foreign bureaucrats pass judgment on all these policies, subsidies both here and abroad are unavoidable and a true level playing field is impossible. And if a level playing field is impossible, then no free-market (or to be realistic, “free” market) solution will ever balance trade, and balanced trade will have to be some kind of managed trade.

Managed trade doesn’t have to be a scary word.  It doesn’t imply a bunch of Soviet commissars determining who buys what.  We basically had a system of managed trade under the 1945-71 Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates and capital controls. During that period, we had more economic growth, and much lower trade deficits, than we have today.  There’s a lesson in that.

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank, and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.

12 Things You Should Definitely Buy Organic

By now, we all know there’s a benefit to buying some stuff organic. But these days you’re faced with the option of getting everything organic — from fruits and veggies to mattresses and clothing. You want to do right by your body, for sure, but going the all-natural route en masse can be pricey.

So we wondered: What’s really essential for our health? That’s why we came up with this definitive list. Here’s what should be in your cart — and what you don’t have to worry about.

Full Story Here: 12 Things You Should Definitely Buy Organic.

Mike Mullen: U.S. Mission In Libya ‘Limited’, But No End In Sight

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen made the rounds of the morning talk shows on Sunday, and one of the main messages that emerged on Libya is that, right now, there just aren’t many answers: how long the U.S. will stay involved, how long a no-fly zone will stay in place, and how much capacity the U.S. military has to sustain another conflict.

On “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace pointed out to Mullen that with the U.S. at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there were already concerns that America’s armed forces were stretched too thin. “How can you take on a third operation?” asked Wallace. “Is something going to have to give?”

Mullen stressed that, at this point, the mission in Libya remains very “limited,” and therefore, the U.S. military has been able to carry it out effectively.

Full Story Here: Mike Mullen: U.S. Mission In Libya ‘Limited’, But No End In Sight.

OPS: Another bottomless pit of blood and treasure.  “We’re broke’ but we always have enough money for war over oil.

DoJ still protecting Bush eavesdroppers, says ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union has released a statement that memos it requested by way of the Freedom of Information Act have been released, but in “heavily redacted” form.

The two memos, one by former head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith, and another by then deputy assistant Attorney General John Yoo contain details about National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping programs. They were released to the public on Friday but the ACLU states that they are “most notable for what they don’t reveal”.

Attorney for the ACLU National Security Project Alexander Abdo says, “Despite a much-trumpeted commitment to transparency and accountability, the Obama administration has continued to shield the surveillance practices of the past from meaningful scrutiny. Nearly a decade after President Bush authorized a set of intelligence activities that almost led to the resignation of the attorney general, the FBI director and other Justice Department officials, the American public still knows virtually nothing about what it was that President Bush authorized.”

Full Story Here: DoJ still protecting Bush eavesdroppers, says ACLU | The Raw Story.

GA GOP Rep. Bobby Franklin Says America Is Like Qadaffi Because Abortion Is Legal

Today, allied militaries of several Western countries began a military campaign in Libya focused on enforcing a UN No Fly Zone. This military invention has spawned a lively debate, with eloquent arguments being made for and against this action.

Yet as Georgia Politico’s Dustin Baker notes, one state legislator raised a particularly odd objection to the No Fly Zone on his Facebook page. Reacting to a news article about Western strikes in Libya, Franklin asked, “How would we like it if other countries launched attacks upon these United States because of our regime’s war against the unborn?” — seemingly drawing a moral equivalency between Libya’s Qadaffi dictatorship and legal abortion in the United States:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GA GOP Rep. Bobby Franklin Says America Is Like Qadaffi Because Abortion Is Legal.

US Coast Guard Investigating Gulf Of Mexico Oil Slick Reports

The U.S. Coast Guard said late Saturday that it is investigating reports of a miles-long oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard said in a news release that it received a report of a three-mile-long rainbow sheen off the Louisiana coast just before 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday. Two subsequent sightings were relayed to the Coast Guard, the last of which reported a sheen that extended from about 6 miles south of Grand Isle, La. to 100 miles offshore.

Full Story Here: US Coast Guard Investigating Gulf Of Mexico Oil Slick Reports – WSJ.com.

Feds approve third permit for deepwater drilling banned after BP spill

Federal regulators have granted a new permit for previously suspended deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the third such approval in the last three weeks and just the third awarded since a controversial moratorium was lifted in October.

This permit goes to ATP Oil & Gas Corp. for a revised new well in Mississippi Canyon Block 941, which is 80 miles south of Venice and southwest of the Macondo well where BP’s massive oil spill took place last April.

ATP got initial approval to drill its Well No. 4 in 2008, but stopped the following year, just short of extracting any oil. The well was drilled 12,000 feet below the seabed and the company installed the ATP Titan, an oil production platform that it contends is state-of-the-art, with safety redundancies and a blowout preventer at the surface. It was about to resume work in April 2010 to install final production equipment, but was forced to stop when the Deepwater Horizon well blowout caused the Obama administration to impose the moratorium.

Full Story Here: Feds approve third permit for deepwater drilling banned after BP spill | NOLA.com.

“Two Steps Above An Anarchist”: Beck’s Webcast Is A Barrage Of Fringe Views

Last night, Glenn Beck’s website streamed a video that it billed as a “a special prime time broadcast celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Insider Extreme,” Beck’s $75-a-year Web subscription service. Beck’s site described the video as “an exclusive glimpse inside Glenn’s New York City home as he hosts a very special dinner” with four guests to “tackle the issues the mainstream media just won’t talk about.”

Beck promoted the special on his Fox News show yesterday as well, encouraging viewers to visit GlennBeck.com to see “a conversation with four experts that I had the other night on what is coming in the next 12 months. It is a conversation that America must have. And not one that I expected, actually, to have when we started. It’s amazing.”

He was right — it was amazing. In the course of the video, Beck and CNN’s Dana Loesch expressed a baffling sympathy for anarchism. Loesch said, “I’m two steps above anarchy conservatism, just as it was intended by the Founding Fathers. I mean, really, that’s really what we’re supposed to be.” In response, Beck said, “[W]hen you say we’re two steps — you’re two steps above an anarchist — and I think I am, too. I mean, I’m really closer to Washington than any president, even Reagan. They really were organized, controlled anarchists.”

Full Story Here: “Two Steps Above An Anarchist”: Beck’s Webcast Is A Barrage Of Fringe Views | Media Matters for America.

$11,000 Pay Raise for Wisconsin State Senator’s Mistress

Salary boosted for worker with ties to Hopper (R-Fond du Lac)

A state worker with ties to Sen. Randy Hopper is being paid $11,000 more annually than her predecessor in a position at the department of regulation and licensing.

State officials said the woman, 26, was hired to a limited term, communications specialist position last month, with a salary equivalent to $42, 328 annually.

State officials Friday said the woman’s predecessor left the position in January, with a salary equivalent to $31,200 annually. No explanation was given for the new hire’s higher pay.

Full Story Here: Salary boosted for worker with ties to Hopper.

Pentagon Papers leaker: ‘I was Bradley Manning’ – CNN.com

It’s supposed to be sunny on Saturday in Washington, which is good news for Daniel Ellsberg. The most famous whistle-blower in American history is hoping to get arrested in the name of Bradley Manning.

“Oh, it’s easy. I’ve done it before,” he explains. “You don’t have to do much to get arrested at the White House.”

A spry 79-year-old with neat, silver hair, Ellsberg doesn’t look threatening. But he’s pretty mad. Disgusted is the word he uses to describe how he feels that Manning, a 23-year-old Army private, has been locked up for nearly eight months at Quantico military prison.

Charged with 34 counts, including “aiding the enemy,” Manning faces life in prison and maybe execution. He is accused of illegally downloading hundreds of thousands of secret military and State Department documents and giving it to WikiLeaks.

To many Americans, Manning is a traitor. To many Americans, Manning is a hero.

To Ellsberg, Manning is something else.

Full Story Here: Pentagon Papers leaker: ‘I was Bradley Manning’ – CNN.com.

New: Oil Spill Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf

The Coast Guard is investigating reports of a potentially large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico not far from the Deepwater Horizon site. According to a knowledgeable source, the slick was sighted by a helicopter pilot on Friday and is about 100 miles long. A fishing boat captain said he went through the slick yesterday and it was strong enough to make his eyes burn.

According to the Times Picayune, the Coast Guard has confirmed they are investigating a potentially large 100 mile slick about 30 miles offshore. They are going to a site near the Matterhorn well site about 20 miles north of the BP Deepwater Horizon site, according to the paper. The Matterhorn field includes includes a deepwater drilling platform owned by W&T Technology. It was acquired last year from TotalFinaElf E&P.

Independent pilots are attempting to reach the slick today. Bonnie Schumaker with Wings of Care reported she saw a slick two days ago and is attempting to reach the site.

Full Story Here: Rocky Kistner: Oil Spill Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf.

Carlos Pascual Resigns: U.S. Ambassador To Mexico Out, Says Clinton

The U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigned Saturday amid furor over a leaked diplomatic cable in which he complained about inefficiency and infighting among Mexican security forces in the campaign against drug cartels.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Paris to meet with U.S. allies on Libya, said Carlos Pascual’s decision to step down was “based upon his personal desire to ensure the strong relationship between our two countries and to avert issues” raised by President Felipe Calderon.

Clinton didn’t say specifically what she was referring to, but a furious Calderon has publicly criticized Pascual’s cable, which was divulged by the WikiLeaks website.

Full Story Here: Carlos Pascual Resigns: U.S. Ambassador To Mexico Out, Says Clinton.

Minnesota GOPers Want to Criminalize Poor People Carrying Money

Well, not all poor people — only those receiving public assistance!

Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.

On March 15, Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee testified in front of the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee on House File 171. Buechner told committee members, “We would like to address the provision that makes it illegal for MFIP [one of Minnesota’s welfare programs] families to withdraw cash from the cash portion of the MFIP grant – and in fact, appears to make it illegal for MFIP families to have any type of money at all in their pockets. How do you expect people to take care of business like paying bills such as lights, gas, water, trash and phone?”

Full Story Here: Minnesota GOPers Want to Criminalize Poor People Carrying Money | AlterNet.

70 Year-Old Pennsylvania Man Stoned to Death “Because the Old Testament Refers to Stoning Homosexuals”

Authorities in suburban Philadelphia say a 70-year-old man was stoned to death with a rock stuffed in a sock by a younger friend who alleged the victim made unwanted sexual advances.

According to the criminal complaint, 28-year-old John Thomas of Lansdowne has told police he killed 70-year-old Murray Seidman because the Old Testament refers to stoning homosexuals.

Delaware County authorities announced Friday that Thomas was arrested and charged with murder.

Full Story Here: 70 Year-Old Pennsylvania Man Stoned to Death “Because the Old Testament Refers to Stoning Homosexuals” | AlterNet.

Wisconsin’s coalition against corporate power

Stirred to action, a new popular movement is determined to roll back the rightwing assault on collective bargaining rights

The streets of Madison, Wisconsin are teeming – with people, placards, even farmers’ tractors – in a moment of democratic uprising unlike anything in recent memory. This spontaneous eruption of massive popular resistance, with hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life demonstrating for weeks on end, was sadly not enough to stop the state from stripping workers of their rights. Yet it has given birth to a newly engaged and radicalised working class in Wisconsin and kindled a broader democracy movement whose impact will be tested both in its immediate response to these attacks and its ability to sustain itself and progress as a popular movement.

The uprising began the day that Governor Scott Walker unveiled his radical austerity budget that included billions of dollars of upward redistribution of wealth, mass privatisation, the slashing of programmes essential to the survival of low-income families, and the repeal of collective bargaining rights that public workers have enjoyed for more than 50 years. As news of his shock doctrine budget spread, thousands of Wisconsinites, many invoking the inspiring events of Tahrir Square, spontaneously gathered at the Capitol. As the protests grew to tens of thousands, the Democrats in the state senate fled into Illinois to deny the Republicans the quorum needed to act.

Full Story Here: Wisconsin’s coalition against corporate power | Austin King | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

“Super moon” to brighten the skies on Saturday

When the full moon rises on Saturday night, it will be bigger and brighter than at any time for almost 20 years — and that is setting off alarm bells for those who make it their business to warn of impending doom.

The moon’s orbit around the earth is not a perfect circle, and it reaches its point of closest approach, or perigee, once every month. This month, however, is special, because the moon will reach that point — a mere 221,565 miles away — with 50 minutes of when it is also at its moment of maximum fullness.

These two events are occurring more closely together than at any time since 1993, and the combination will cause the full moon to appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than on average.

Full Story Here: “Super moon” to brighten the skies on Saturday | The Raw Story.

CBO: Obama Understates Deficits by $2.3T

A new assessment of President Barack Obama’s budget released Friday says the White House underestimates future budget deficits by more than $2 trillion over the upcoming decade.

The estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that if Obama’s February budget submission is enacted into law it would produce deficits totaling $9.5 trillion over 10 years — an average of almost $1 trillion a year.

Obama’s budget saw deficits totaling $7.2 trillion over the same period.

The difference is chiefly because CBO has a less optimistic estimate of how much the government will collect in tax revenues, partly because the administration has rosier economic projections.

Full Story Here: CBO: Obama Understates Deficits by $2.3T – TIME.

Japan mulls Fukushima food sale ban

Japan is considering whether to halt sales of food products from near a crippled nuclear plant because of contamination by a radioactive element which can pose a short-term health risk, the U.N. atomic agency said.

“There is an investigation into the possible need to stop food sales,” Graham Andrew, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters.

The IAEA had earlier said Japan’s health ministry “ordered a stop to the sale of all food products from the Fukushima Prefecture” but Andrew said this was due to a mistranslation of information provided in Japanese.

Full Story Here: Japan mulls Fukushima food sale ban | The Raw Story.

GOP Congressman: NPR Defunding ‘Does Not Actually Save Taxpayer Dollars’

Yesterday, the House narrowly voted to defund NPR by prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being used by local radio stations to purchase NPR content. Every single Democrat voted against the bill, joined by seven Republicans, and one, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who voted “present.” Amash opposes taxpayer funding for NPR, but explained his opposition in a statement to Fox News by noting that the bill voted on yesterday would not save a dime of taxpayer money:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GOP Congressman: NPR Defunding ‘Does Not Actually Save Taxpayer Dollars’.

Gingrich Says We Should ‘Celebrate’ Corporate Tax Dodgers, Argues Employees Should Pay Instead

One of the top priorities for Republicans this year has been to preserve and extend corporate tax breaks. This includes GOPers like former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) who have eagerly defended corporations like Bank of America, ExxonMobil, and GE which have avoided paying a dime in corporate income taxes in recent years, but rake in huge annual profits.

Another one of those companies making millions in profits but failing to pay any corporate income tax is Arch Coal. In 2009, for instance, the corporation netted over $42 million, yet was able to use tax loopholes and gimmicks to avoid contributing anything in corporate income taxes.

ThinkProgress asked Gingrich about these corporate tax-dodgers this week at a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Nashua, New Hampshire. Gingrich defended Arch Coal and other corporations who avoided paying income taxes because “they don’t owe that” to the U.S. government. Striking an anti-populist note, the former House Speaker also praised the fact that even though many corporations were avoiding taxes, their employees would still be forced to contribute to the government’s coffers.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Gingrich Says We Should ‘Celebrate’ Corporate Tax Dodgers, Argues Employees Should Pay Instead.

New Hampshire House Approves Tax Cut On Cancer-Causing Cigarettes, Cuts Health And Education Funding

In a flurry of legislative activity this week, the New Hampshire House approved a tax cut on cigarettes even while cutting funding for education, and health care. The ten cent tax cut bucks a national trend of raising taxes on tobacco since “forever” and, according to multiple studies, could lead to a 6.6 percent increase in respiratory cancer deaths.

Republican lawmakers claim that the tax cut, which the New Hampshire chapter of the Koch-funded front group Americans for Prosperity strongly pushed for, will attract out-of-state smokers and raise revenue in the “long run.” Yet a spokesman for Gov. John Lynch (D) notes that the state already has the second-lowest tax burden in the nation. And with rising gas prices, the odds of smokers driving to New Hampshire for their cigarettes are slim.

Instead lawmakers have chosen to weaken an extremely effective policy tool: cigarette taxes not only reduce smoking but help limit underage smoking, exposure to second-hand smoke, and related health care costs. The tax cut is just one part of a legislative agenda that New Hampshire Republicans pushed through this week that cuts programs that keep Main Street healthy and strong:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » New Hampshire House Approves Tax Cut On Cancer-Causing Cigarettes, Cuts Health And Education Funding.

Collaboration against Democracy

US Chamber of Commerce and US Supreme Court – -

A few days over a year ago, or to be more precise on January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court handed over what little was left of this nation’s pretensions to democracy on a silver platter to the Big Banks and the US Chamber of Commerce. The case was titled Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission and the Court’s decision removed all limits on corporate campaign contributions. Elections are now a sham proceeding at every level US government. The vast majority of the American people who no longer participate in the electoral charade are the smartest among us. The willfully ignorant and delusional still cling desperately to their faux-alternative Democratic politician or their Tea Party Republican politician with the tin-foil hat.

The Big Banks are running the show. Not the banks, there are 956 of those operating in the US and 950 of them lost money last year. Its the Big Banks headed by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase and the six of those made so much money last year that the banking industry as a whole turned a handsome profit. Goldman Sachs, the top campaign contributor to Barack Obama, decided that he rather than John McCain would take over for George W. Bush in January 2009 and also dictated that there would be essentially no changes in the direction of the United States. And the transformation has been seamless.

Full Story Here: Collaboration against Democracy | Dissident Voice.

Nuclear Nightmare

Ralph Nader: :

The unfolding multiple nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan is prompting overdue attention to the 104 nuclear plants in the United States—many of them aging, many of them near earthquake faults, some on the west coast exposed to potential tsunamis.

Nuclear power plants boil water to produce steam to turn turbines that generate electricity. Nuclear power’s overly complex fuel cycle begins with uranium mines and ends with deadly radioactive wastes for which there still are no permanent storage facilities to contain them for tens of thousands of years.

Atomic power plants generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. Over forty years ago, the industry’s promoter and regulator, the Atomic Energy Commission estimated that a full nuclear meltdown could contaminate an area “the size of Pennsylvania” and cause massive casualties. You, the taxpayers, have heavily subsidized nuclear power research, development, and promotion from day one with tens of billions of dollars.

Full Story Here: Nuclear Nightmare | Common Dreams.

Is the Conservative Value of Tax Cuts for the Wealthy a Christian Virtue?

Earlier this week, Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, along with nine Democratic co-sponsors, tried to slow down the tax cuts for the wealthy train by introducing “millionaire’s – billionaire’s tax rates” in the US House. Called the Fairness in Taxation Act, this legislation wants to tax people making over a million dollars at least 45 percent all the way up to 49 percent for billionaires, and that would include their capital gains and dividends counting as income to be taxed at those rates. Since the Republicans and the Tea Party have a stranglehold on this branch of government, this proposal hardly has a prayer.

All over this country, state legislatures are grappling with shortfalls and massive deficits. But the poor and working class are taking the brunt of the austerity schemes via cuts in education and social services. In 2010, President Obama caved into Republican demands (without any real fight) to keep the Bush tax rates for the wealthy even as the federal budget deficit and national debt continued to soar. Money from the feds for social services for the needy is being cut and/or being considered for cuts.

Tax cuts for the wealthy have long been championed by conservatives, especially in the last 30 years since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, when marginal tax rates on the rich began to be dramatically cut, from 70 to 50 percent (to begin with). Ironically, conservatives en masse love to tout their love for Christian teachings. Yet in the Holy Bible is the account from Mark 12, where the Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus into telling folks not to pay certain taxes to the government. Yet Jesus ingeniously retorted back, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

Full Story Here: Is the Conservative Value of Tax Cuts for the Wealthy a Christian Virtue? – Yahoo! News.

US Cost of Living Hits Record, Passing Pre-Crisis High

One would think that after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Americans could at least catch a break for a while with deflationary forces keeping the cost of living relatively low. That’s not the case.

A special index created by the Labor Department to measure the actual cost of living for Americans hit a record high in February, according to data released Thursday, surpassing the old high in July 2008. The Chained Consumer Price Index, released along with the more widely-watched CPI, increased 0.5 percent to 127.4, from 126.8 in January. In July 2008, just as the housing crisis was tightening its grip, the Chained Consumer Price Index hit its previous record of 126.9.

“The Federal Reserve continues to focus on the rate of change in inflation,” said Peter Bookvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Sure, it’s moving at a slower pace, but the absolute cost of living is now back at a record high in a country that has seven million less jobs.”

Full Story Here: CNBC’s Fast Money: US Cost of Living Hits Record, Passing Pre-Crisis High – CNBC.

America’s Not Broke, Wisconsin’s Not Broke; We’re Just Wasting Money on War

John Nichols | The Nation:

“There is simply no rationale for continuing American involvement with no end in sight, rising deaths for civilians and our brave soldiers, declining public sentiment, and serious economic pain at home,” Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich explained to his fellow House members during Thursday’s debate on ending the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. “Continuing our involvement in Afghanistan is not affordable, it’s not just, and it hurts American foreign policy interests. It’s time to go.”

That message, long true but truer now than ever, resonated with 92 other members of the House, who joined Kucinich in voting for a new bill to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2011.

At a time when President Obama and Republican congressional leaders are both peddling different versions of the fantasy that America is broke, an when Republican governors are claiming that states are facing such hard times that only busting unions will balance budgets, Kucinich and his colleagues have found the missing money. It’s being wasted on a war of whim in Afghanistan.

As Kucinich explains, “There is simply no rationale for continuing American involvement with no end in sight, rising deaths for civilians and our brave soldiers, declining public sentiment, and serious economic pain at home. Continuing our involvement in Afghanistan is not affordable, it’s not just, and it hurts American foreign policy interests. It’s time to go.”

Full Story Here: America’s Not Broke, Wisconsin’s Not Broke; We’re Just Wasting Money on War | The Nation.

The government sues some bankers. Finally!

The FDIC charges three Washington Mutual execs with gross negligence. Please tell us this is only the beginning

As a former customer of Washington Mutual (though not willingly — my much smaller bank was swallowed up by WaMu during their great 1990s expansion drive) I have followed the twists and turns of the saga of the financial crisis’ poster-boy for reckless lending with great interest over the years. Way back in August 2006, I was jolted to learn that WaMu had been booking negative amortization — roughly speaking, the amount of money owed that its mortgage borrowers were falling behind on paying — as earnings. I called it “Enron Economics” then and I think that subsequent events have borne me out.

So now, in what is being billed as the biggest legal action taken by a regulator against executives of a financial institution involved in the great crash, the FDIC is suing WaMu’s three top corporate officers for, among other things “gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraudulent conveyance.” The gist of the case: CEO Kerry Killinger and his two right-hand men knew that they were taking big risks by putting people in homes they couldn’t afford. They were warned countless times of the danger they were exposing the bank to. But they went ahead and did it anyway, continuing their reckless gambling even as the housing boom collapsed around them.

Full Story Here: The government sues some bankers. Finally! – How the World Works – Salon.com.

Right-Wing Media Respond To Japanese Nuclear Crisis By Attacking Renewable Energy

In the wake of the earthquake in Japan and the resulting threat of nuclear disaster in that country, right-wing media have attacked renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, arguing that it’s a waste of time to pursue these sources as possible alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear power. However, studies show that the use of wind and solar energy is increasing at a record pace, and continuing investment in wind and solar will yield significant economic benefits.

Conservative Media Dismiss Wind, Solar As Viable Energy Sources

Fox’s Bolling Bashes Renewables By Pointing To Birds, People “Killed By Wind Turbines” And Installing Solar Panels. On his Fox Business show, discussing the nuclear crisis in Japan, Eric Bolling turned to what he said “the left wants to talk about — a wind turbine,” and showed footage of a hawk flying into a spinning wind turbine and being knocked to the ground. He then followed with footage of what appeared to be a crime scene: barrier tape in front of a solar panel sitting on the ground next to a house, and the chalk outline of a body on the ground. Bolling stated:

Full Story Here: Right-Wing Media Respond To Japanese Nuclear Crisis By Attacking Renewable Energy | Media Matters for America.

Bernie Sanders: Obama Primary Challenge From A Progressive Would ‘Enliven’ 2012 Debate

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in an interview this week that President Barack Obama facing a primary challenge from the left could serve to “enliven” the race for the White House in 2012.

In an interview on New York-based radio station WNYC, Sanders tamped down speculation that he might be considering challenging Obama himself. However, he then went on to endorse the idea of the president having to defend himself on Democratic turf.

“But if a progressive Democrat wants to run, I think it would enliven the debate, raise some issues and people have a right to do that,” Sanders said. “I’ve been asked whether I am going to do that. I’m not. I don’t know who is, but in a democracy, it’s not a bad idea to have different voices out there.”

Full Story Here: Bernie Sanders: Obama Primary Challenge From A Progressive Would ‘Enliven’ 2012 Debate.

Why confidence in America is at an all time low

Thom Hartmann:  Video

U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Had 14 ‘Near-Miss’ Problems In 2010

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the tragic earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan has turned the public conversation toward nuclear power and its potential risks in the U.S. A new report reveals that 14 “near-miss” problems prompting investigation at 13 power plants in 2010 may have been the result of poor oversight.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a report Thursday examining the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) — the government agency tasked with enforcing safety regulations at U.S. nuclear plants — and 14 investigations it launched in 2010 in response to “troubling events, safety equipment problems, and security shortcomings.”

When an event occurs at a nuclear reactor, or NRC inspectors discover damaged or deteriorating equipment, the commission reviews the risk to the reactor. According the UCS report, over 200 such reviews were conducted by the NRC in 2010. Most incidents discovered at nuclear plants are low risk, but when an event or condition increases the risk of reactor core damage by a factor of 10, the NRC likely dispatches a special inspection team (SIT). When the risk increases by a factor of 100 or more, an augmented inspection team (AIT) may be sent to investigate, and an incident inspection team (IIT) is sent if the risk increases by a factor of 1,000 or more. While no IITs were dispatched in 2010, there were 14 instances, known as “near-misses,” when the NRC had to dispatch inspection teams, including one AIT.

Full Story Here: U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Had 14 ‘Near-Miss’ Problems In 2010: UCS Report (PHOTOS).

We Are All Wisconsinites Now

The Nation: :

It was, paradoxically, at once a significant loss for the protest movement in Wisconsin and a measure of its extraordinary success that Governor Scott Walker and his Republican allies had to resort to legislative legerdemain to pass their unpopular unionbusting measure on March 10. By separating the attack on collective bargaining from the budget bill, they ensured its passage, but they also stripped the veneer off their own agenda: this was never about budgets, and always about class war. As Michael Moore put it in his rousing speech to the crowd of tens of thousands who had assembled a few days before in Madison, “America is not broke…. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just that it’s not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and portfolios of the über-rich.”

To be frank, this is a war working people have been losing for decades without much of a fight. But the pro-worker movement seems at last to have something resembling a battle plan. Next up for Wisconsin activists is a crucial state Supreme Court election on April 5, in which Walker’s favored anti-worker candidate, David Prosser, faces a strong challenge from the Democratic assistant attorney general, JoAnne Kloppenburg. Then there’s the recall effort against eight Republican senators who voted for the bill, with Joint Committee on Finance co-chair Alberta Darling, Walker’s point person on budget issues, as the choicest target. These drives may prepare the way to recall Walker himself early next year. Meanwhile, a shrewd Move Your Money union campaign is targeting one of Walker’s big bank backers, Wisconsin’s M&I Bank.

Full Story Here: We Are All Wisconsinites Now | The Nation.

Pentagon overpaid oilman millions, audit finds

A Pentagon audit has found that the federal government overpaid a billionaire oilman by as much as $200 million on several military contracts worth nearly $2.7 billion.

The audit by the Defense Department’s inspector general, which was posted on the Pentagon’s Web site this week, estimated that the department paid the oilman “$160 [million] to $204 million more for fuel than could be supported by price or cost analysis.” The study also reported that the three contracts were awarded under conditions that effectively eliminated the other bidders.

Harry Sargeant III, a well-connected Florida businessman and once-prominent Republican donor, first faced scrutiny over his defense work in October 2008, when he was accused in a congressional probe of using his close relationship with Jordan’s royal family to secure exclusive rights over supply routes to U.S. bases in western Iraq.

Full Story Here: Pentagon overpaid oilman millions, audit finds.

The Forgotten Millions

More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.

Paul Krugman: :

Jobs do get mentioned now and then — and a few political figures, notably Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, are still trying to get some kind of action. But no jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts.

So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.

Full Story Here: The Forgotten Millions – NYTimes.com.

U.S. nuclear plants store more spent fuel than Japan’s

U.S. nuclear plants use the same sort of pools to cool spent nuclear-fuel rods as the ones now in danger of spewing radiation at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, only the U.S. pools hold much more nuclear material. That’s raising the question of whether more spent fuel should be taken out of the pools at U.S. power plants to reduce risks.

Workers in Japan have been struggling for days to get water into the spent-fuel pools at the plant, so that the fuel rods won’t be exposed to the air, burst into flames and set off a large radiological release.

Experts are debating whether America’s spent fuel pools would fare as badly or worse in an accident, and whether they could be made safer.

Full Story Here: U.S. nuclear plants store more spent fuel than Japan’s | McClatchy.

The Eyes of Texas Cops are Upon You

One day in June the police in the Dallas suburb of Highland Village received a call from a motorcyclist, who complained that he’d nearly been run off the road by a car. With only a license plate number to go on, the cops decided to try out a powerful new tool. The Highland Village Police Department had used $60,000 in federal stimulus funds four months earlier to purchase three automated license plate recognition systems.

License plate readers are a deceptively simple technology: They basically consist of cameras – either in a fixed location or mounted on the top of a car – that are capable of capturing and processing thousands of license plates each hour even at high speeds, low light and bad weather. The plates are then automatically checked against databases of stolen vehicles, warrants, kidnapped children, and more.

Whereas before a patrol officer might have been able to check a dozen or so license plates in a shift, the computer can check hundreds a minute. All the cop needs to do is wait for the system to alert him to a match.

Full Story Here: The Eyes of Texas Cops are Upon You – The Texas Observer.

Dane County judge halts collective bargaining law

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.

Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.

Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.

“It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law),” she said.

The judge’s finding – at least for now – is a setback to Republican Gov. Scott Walker and a victory for opponents, who have spent weeks in the Capitol to protest the bill.

Asst. Atty. Gen Steven Means, who was part of the state’s legal team, said after the ruling that “we disagree with it.”

Full Story Here: Dane County judge halts collective bargaining law – JSOnline.

GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits

Were you raped? Was it incest? And other questions the government’s tax cops would have to ask women who’ve terminated pregnancies.

— By Nick Baumann

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans’ “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they’d have to detemine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

Full Story Here: GOP Bill Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits | Mother Jones.

Pro-Labor Group Working America Recruits 20,000 New Wisconsin Members In Wake Of Budget Protests

While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) may have won the most recent battle in Madison by securing passage of an anti-union bill, labor activists are optimistic they may emerge as the victors in the long run.

Forming a union is a lengthy process, and although labor officials say they already see more interest from workers, it’s too soon to measure an increase in membership numbers. But there is one indication the battles in Wisconsin are providing a boost for labor.

Working America, an advocacy organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO that provides an outlet for non-union members to support the labor movement, has signed up approximately 20,000 new members since Feb. 15. The group was active in the state in 2008, when it built up the bulk of its membership, which now stands at 65,000. It was inactive for the past couple years, however, and just reopened shop the beginning of 2011.

Full Story Here: Pro-Labor Group Working America Recruits 20,000 New Wisconsin Members In Wake Of Budget Protests.

House Republicans Amplify Attacks On Elizabeth Warren, Consumer Protection

In a hearing marked by openly hostile questioning from House Republicans, consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren made her highly anticipated first appearance before Congress as a member of the Obama administration, emphasizing the need for stronger oversight of big banks and small mortgage firms.

Warren, who is currently tasked with setting up the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, was subjected to two and a half hours of inquiry before a Financial Services subcommittee regarding her role at the emerging agency and the scope of its powers. In her testimony, she focused on the need for easily-understood consumer lending terms and stronger enforcement of predatory lending regulations.

“I don’t care how big you are, I don’t care who you your friends are, everybody follows the law,” Warren said, adding later, “What this agency is about is making the prices clear, making the risks clear, making it easy to compare one product to another. The point is to get an informed consumer, because I believe that American families are good at making decisions when they have good information upfront.”

Full Story Here: House Republicans Amplify Attacks On Elizabeth Warren, Consumer Protection.

New Dinosaur, ‘Angolan Giant,’ Discovered

Scientists say they have discovered the first fossil of a dinosaur in Angola, and that it’s a new creature, heralding a research renaissance in a country slowly emerging from decades of war.

A paper published Wednesday in the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences describes a long-necked, plant-eating sauropod, among the largest creatures ever to have walked the earth. The international team that found and identified the fossilized forelimb bone say it is from a previously unknown dinosaur, citing unique skeletal characteristics.

The fossil was found along with fish and shark teeth in what would have been a sea bed 90 million years ago, leading its discoverers to believe the dinosaur might have been washed into the sea and torn apart by ancient sharks.

Full Story Here: Angolatitan Adamastor: New Dinosaur, ‘Angolan Giant,’ Discovered.

At California Nuclear Plant, Emergency Response Plans Don’t Include Earthquakes

As the world’s attention remains focused on the nuclear calamity unfolding in Japan, American nuclear regulators and industry lobbyists have been offering assurances that plants in the United States are designed to withstand major earthquakes.

But the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which sits less than a mile from an offshore fault line, was not required to include earthquakes in its emergency response plan as a condition of being granted its license more than a quarter of a century ago. Though experts warned from the beginning that the plant would be vulnerable to an earthquake, asserting 25 years ago that it required an emergency plan as a condition of its license, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission fought against making such a provision mandatory as it allowed the facility to be built.

Officials at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the utility that operates Diablo Canyon, did not respond to calls seeking comment before the story was published. After publication, a spokesman for the company said the plant does have an earthquake procedure that had been implemented during a 2003 earthquake near the facility, and that staff are trained to respond. The company did not provide further details upon request.

Full Story Here: At California Nuclear Plant, Emergency Response Plans Don’t Include Earthquakes.

U.S. Concerned Japan Facing Situation That Could Be ‘Deadly For Decades’

The White House is preparing for a situation in Japan that could be “deadly for decades,” a U.S. official tells ABC News.

According to the official, the U.S. believes a larger evacuation zone should be imposed and that the next 24-48 hours are “critical.”

“It would be hard to describe how alarming this is right now,” ABC quoted the anonymous official as saying.

The nuclear crisis in Japan has intensified since the massive earthquake first damaged nuclear facilities. On Wednesday, the White House advised Americans within 50 miles of the Fukushima nuclear facility to evacuate and plant employees were temporarily forced to retreat as radiation levels “soared.”

Full Story Here: U.S. Concerned Japan Facing Situation That Could Be ‘Deadly For Decades’: ABC News.

Haiti cholera epidemic to hit 800,000: study

Up to 800,000 Haitians will contract cholera this year, double the estimates of UN agencies, a report published by The Lancet on Wednesday claimed.

A US team led by Jason Andrews from Harvard School of Public Health also found that a recent dip in reported cases was likely a temporary phase of the epidemic and not related to the intervention efforts.

“Although worldwide estimates of the epidemic at present are based on the assumption that the epidemic will attack four percent of the population, this assumption is essentially a guess,” the report said.

Full Story Here: Haiti cholera epidemic to hit 800,000: study | The Raw Story.

White House calls on Congress to make ‘illegal streaming’ a felony

A white paper recently published by the White House’s Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator urged Congress to make “illegal streaming” of content a felony and allow law enforcement to wiretap those suspected of being involved in copyright infringement.

Under current law, copyright infringement already carries felony penalties, but the 20-page white paper [PDF] noted that questions have been raised about whether broadcasting audio or video live over the Internet constitutes the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works.

The white paper called on Congress “to ensure that DOJ and U.S. law enforcement agencies are able to effectively combat infringement involving new technology” by clarifying that streaming unauthorized audio or video is a felony.

Full Story Here: White House calls on Congress to make ‘illegal streaming’ a felony | The Raw Story.

REPORT: In 12 States, GOP Plans To Slash Corporate Taxes While Increasing Burden on Working Families

ThinkProgress has been documenting conservative efforts to shift the burden of record budget shortfalls onto middle-class Americans, while simultaneously doling out tax cuts to corporations. While progressive governors have proposed raising revenue from those who can afford it, alongside painful cuts to programs, Republican governors have unveiled budgets that cut taxes for corporations and raise them on the middle-class and working poor. In this report, ThinkProgress evaluates the priorities conservatives have set in twelve states:

NEW JERSEY: Last year, Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) budget raised taxes on the working poor and middle-class by cutting the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and homestead rebates — yet still found money for lucrative corporate tax cuts. This year, Christie’s budget calls for $200 million in business tax cuts, while cutting mental health services, $540 million from Medicaid, and witholding property tax rebates for seniors until public workers give up many of their health and pension benefits. Many New Jerseyans have said they prefer a tax on millionaires to Christie’s draconian cuts.

MICHIGAN: Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) budget would make Michigan’s already regressive tax system even more unfair for the state’s poorest residents. The plan cuts taxes on business by more than 86 percent while slashing $1.2 billion in funding for “schools, universities, local governments and other areas.” Snyder also wants to raise personal taxes by 30 percent — an increase that will fall disproportionately on Michigan’s lowest income residents.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » REPORT: In 12 States, GOP Plans To Slash Corporate Taxes While Increasing Burden on Working Families.

FL GOP Rep. Says 11-Year-Old Was Gang Raped ‘Because She Was Dressed Like A 21 Year-Old Prostitute’

A Florida state house subcommittee passed a bill — the so-called “Sagging Pants” bill — that would require state school districts to adopt a dress code that prohibits students from “wearing clothing that exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner.” “This would make for a better school district and more productive students,” said the bill’s sponsor Rep. Hazelle Rogers (D). Referring to a horrific story of an 11-year old girl in Texas being gang raped by as many as 17 men and boys, GOP florida lawmaker Kathleen Passidomo — taking a page from Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s book — applauded the measure with an offensive justification:

There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute. And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » FL GOP Rep. Says 11-Year-Old Was Gang Raped ‘Because She Was Dressed Like A 21 Year-Old Prostitute’.

What The Frack: Ohio Gov. John Kasich Wants To Open Up State Parks For Oil And Gas Exploration

At the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, an exemption was inserted into a 2005 energy bill — dubbed the “Haliburton loophole” — which stripped the EPA of its power to regulate a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. This method, called fracking, entails drilling a L-shaped well deep into shale and pumping millions of gallons of water laced with industrial chemicals — chemicals which the energy companies are not legally bound to disclose. The poisonous fluid fractures the shale and releases natural gas deposits for collection.

Due to the documented water contamination issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing, both New York and New Jersey have imposed bans on fracking in their states. But the public health risk doesn’t seem to bother Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and state Republicans. The Ohio House introduced a bill early this month that would create a panel to open any state-owned land for oil and gas exploration to the highest bidder. This week, in an unreleased portion of Kasich’s proposed budget, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would be given authority to lease 200,000 acres of state park land for oil and gas exploration.

Kasich has fully endorsed drilling in Ohio state parks, saying, “Ohio is not going to walk away from a potential industry.” State Rep. John Adams (R), the House bill’s sponsor, said drilling in state parks can help erase a projected $8 billion budget deficit, and “keep our parks and our lakes up to the standards that the citizens of Ohio want.”

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » What The Frack: Ohio Gov. John Kasich Wants To Open Up State Parks For Oil And Gas Exploration.

Jan Schakowsky Introduces Bill To Raise Taxes For Wealthiest Americans

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) announced new legislation on Wednesday that would create new tax brackets for earners who make significantly more than the baseline for the current top income bracket.

Currently, the top marginal tax rate of 35 percent applies to income starting at $373,650, and the tax code fails to distinguish between earners making a few hundred thousand dollars a year and those making a few hundred million dollars a year. “LeBron James and LeBron James’s dentist: same difference,” New Yorker financial columnist James Surowiecki quipped last year during early debate over the extension of the tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, income inequality continues to soar, as Schakowsky, one of the 18 members of President Barack Obama’s debt commission, noted on Wednesday.

Full Story Here: Jan Schakowsky Introduces Bill To Raise Taxes For Wealthiest Americans.

Police arrest 5 at Michigan Capitol sit-in protest against governor’s union policies

Police have arrested five protesters who’d been sitting in at the Michigan Capitol in a protest against what they say are Gov. Rick Snyder’s anti-union policies.

Others came out of the Capitol voluntarily Wednesday evening, but a small number remained inside.

The five were led to an Ingham County sheriff’s van, their hands secured behind their behind their backs about 8:10 p.m.

Full Story Here: Police arrest 5 at Michigan Capitol sit-in protest against governor’s union policies :: The Republic.

State police arrest protesters after scuffle inside Capitol

At least four protesters were handcuffed and arrested inside the state Capitol this evening as demonstrations continued against Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget and legislation opponents say is anti-union.

Five others have linked arms and are seated on the glass floor of the rotunda, challenging State Police to arrest them, as well.

State Police Capt. Gary Nix said those arrested will be charged with trespassing and some could face additional assault charges. Some of those inside the Capitol scuffled with police when the protesters charged a door adjacent of the rotunda in an attempt to allow in protesters who were outside pounding on the doors.

The arrests capped a day when at least 3,000 demonstrators flooded the state Capitol for the biggest and rowdiest protest yet against Gov. Rick Snyder’s plans to tax pensions and weaken collective bargaining rights.

Full Story Here: State police arrest protesters after scuffle inside Capitol | detnews.com | The Detroit News.