Archive for April, 2011

The legal tsunami is on its way

The significance of a Palestinian state joining the UN is that, for the first time, it will be the Palestinians who will decide what the international legal framework is that is binding in their territory.

By Michael Sfard

Israel’s cautious foreign policy on legal matters over the past 44 years is likely to collapse in September. The mechanisms of legal defense that it built since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to combat the “danger” of international jurisdiction about its conduct toward millions of people who are under its control, are likely to turn into dust at the stroke of the diplomatic moves.

If indeed the international community recognizes a Palestinian state, the question whether officers in the Israel Defense Forces who are involved in assassinations, shooting at unarmed demonstrators and using phosphorus bombs will be interrogated and brought to trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the question of whether international human rights treaties ‏(and other treaties‏) will obligate Israel during action in the territories, will no longer be decided in the government offices in Jerusalem but rather in the corridors of the Muqataa in Ramallah.

Full Story Here: Haaretz.Com.

“Ghost Towns” and Other Disturbing Trends

While home vacancy rates are more than 50 percent in some cities, this is just one of many signs that the U.S. economy isn’t heading for recovery, but for more trouble unless sensible economic and trade policy is enacted.

Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30 percent. Because of this the average American now spends approximately 23 percent of his or her income on food and gas.

At a time when critical goods are rising in prices, there are 7.25 million less jobs than when the recession began. Employment is lower now than at the start of the last decade. The average length of unemployment is now 39 weeks, an all-time record.

Full Story Here: “Ghost Towns” and Other Disturbing Trends | Economy In Crisis.

Nutrition Needs In Your 30s, 40s and 50s

You don’t have to act your age. And you definitely don’t have to look it: After all, 50 is the new 30. (Hello, have you seen Madonna lately?)

But when it comes to nutrition, eating the best foods for your age is the secret to conquering the changes going on in your body — and to fueling up for the challenges in your life. That’s why we created this guide to what you need most, and why, when you’re in your 30s, 40s and 50s.

Full Story Here: Nutrition Needs In Your 30s, 40s and 50s.

America’s Fate Under Chinese Hegemony: a Review of Eamonn Fingleton’s Jaws of the Dragon

Ian Fletcher:

The news has recently hit the press that China’s economy, measured on the purchasing-power basis that adjusts for price differences between nations, may surpass the U.S. in only another five years or so.

Surprisingly, China has still shown no signs of morphing into the cuddly liberal and democratic nation, devoted to American ways from Coca-Cola to democracy, whose eventual appearance has been assumed by American policy for thirty years now.

Our policy during this period has, after all, enthusiastically cooperated with China’s efforts to build up its economic power—which entails, of course, every other kind of power, including the military kind.  So our assumption of a benign China had better be right, or else we have been abetting the creation of a monster.  A hostile China will be arguably even worse than the USSR, because it will not do us the favor of sabotaging its economy by adhering to a dysfunctional economic ideology.

The above realities are the subject of Eamonn Fingleton’s book In The Jaws of the Dragon: America’s Fate Under Chinese Hegemony.  Fingleton is a Tokyo-based Irish journalist who has lived in East Asia for over 25 years, and he has a long and distinguished record of telling truths about the region’s politics and economics that the establishment (on both sides of the Pacific!) would rather the public did not learn.  This is one of those books that one wishes the President would read.

While it is hardly news that America is facing a Chinese challenge, the seriousness of this challenge is still poorly appreciated.  For example—this was my big takeaway from the book—China is not just another despotism.  It is the implementer of a systematic and sophisticated political philosophy, which Fingleton calls Confucianism, which will almost certainly constitute a serious threat to liberal democracy in the years ahead.

Confucianism, as the reader may recall from a comparative religions class taken long ago, is the political philosophy derived from the ancient Chinese sage Confucius. It was the official ideology of the state in Imperial China for thousands of years.

Now Confucius wasn’t a bad man, but he did base his political philosophy on taking authoritarian government as a given and trying to civilize it.  He did not, as Western political thinkers since the dawn of democracy in Ancient Greece have done, base his political ideology on trying to prevent despotism in the first place.  As a result, he simply wasn’t that interested in concepts like individual freedom or limited government.

The bottom line, after a few thousand years of history and some astonishing ideological twists and turns, is an approach to politics that is systematically opposite to liberal democracy.

It is the velvet glove on the iron fist, and increasingly a very sophisticated one.  It has tamed capitalism and mastered modern media.  It is not headed for collapse or metamorphosis any time soon.  If anything, it is currently more successful at imposing its will on us than we are at the reverse.

To be fair to poor old Confucius, the political system of contemporary China is not a direct extrapolation of any blueprint he drew up, and its flaws should not blind humanity to the genuinely civilizing aspects of his teachings (which are real).  But, as Fingleton shows in considerable detail, a Confucian mentality underlies the politics of not only China, but also, in a soft-authoritarian version that has mastered the surface rituals of democracy, the politics of neighboring nations like Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

Make no mistake: East Asia is on a fundamentally different civilizational track than the U.S., and it isn’t going to get off any time soon.  And why should it, when East Asians are currently watching America decline?

If the U.S. had not chosen, by its unconditional embrace of economic globalization by means of (one way) free trade, to render itself vulnerable to China, the above might not matter very much.  After all, for most of its long history, China has maintained a civilization upon principles very different from those of the West, and it didn’t do us much harm.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has, in fact, chosen the opposite course, with the result that our own government is increasingly slipping under the control of an ethically alien and geopolitically hostile power.

To take just the most obvious example: because political bribery is, by way of political action committees, essentially legal in the U.S., Beijing can manipulate the U.S. Congress and the presidency almost at will. Why? Because it can manipulate the profits of the Fortune 500 companies that do business in China, and they do its bidding as lobbyists here.  Because they are still headquartered in the U.S., they find welcome on Capitol Hill, but it is Beijing that is calling the shots.

Americans sometimes puzzle over why their government doesn’t “get” the Chinese threat.  The answer is simple: because it has been bribed not to by China.

The most important issue on which our government has been bribed is, of course, trade.  China runs astronomical trade surpluses with the U.S.  In fact, a majority of our trade deficit is now with China. This is no accident: it is the product of China’s aggressive embrace of predatory mercantilism plus America’s government being bribed not to take defensive measures.

To find an historical parallel, one would probably have to go back to something like the suicide of the old Polish state in the 18^th century, carved up by its adversaries after its domestic politics was paralyzed by foreign bribery.

America’s defense against Chinese mercantilism is further sabotaged by the fact that, despite our using similar policies earlier in our own history, mainstream American economists are largely blind to the fact that mercantilism even works. Trapped in the same “free” market thinking that led to the 2008 financial crisis, they don’t believe that China’s policies can possibly be a winning move for that country.  An economy that has gone from peasant agriculture to superpower in 30 years doesn’t seem to persuade them.

Why are China’s economic policies so effective?  The aggressive pursuit of exports is a game other nations, like Germany and Japan, also play well.  But these are both medium-sized high-wage nations that are already developed, not gigantic low-wage nations still on the early stage of their development path. (China is an economic superpower because it has so many workers, but their per capita output still only qualifies China as a middle-income nation globally, behind nations like Jamaica.)

China is unique because it combines standard-issue (if exceptionally cynical) mercantilism with other policies, like forced savings and systematic technology acquisition, made possible by its despotic ex-Marxist political system.  For example, it has, by deliberate state fiat, a savings rate close to 50%, while America’s is close to zero.  This gives China a tidal wave of investment capital to put into everything from factories to freeways.  (It is also enabling China to accumulate ownership of American government securities and private-sector assts.)

Japan never took over the world, so some people dismiss the Chinese threat as yet another big wolf-cry. But China has ten times Japan’s population, nuclear weapons, and a hard-authoritarian rather than soft-authoritarian political system. This time, it’s different.

Beijing is already extending its political tentacles everywhere from the Middle East to Latin America.  Now that Uncle Sam worships democracy (at least in principle) and doesn’t cut dictators the slack he did during the Cold War so long as they were anti-communist, China is the new best friend of despots everywhere.  China’s voracious demand for natural resource imports alone guarantees that this rivalry will not remain trivial forever.

If worst does come to worst, don’t say you weren’t warned.  This is a readable and very important book.

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.

Consequences and Casualties of Trade War

As China continues its rise to becoming the world’s most prosperous economy, the U.S. government’s refusal to participate in the trade war between the two nations has cost the economy dearly and will only do further harm in the future.

“I don’t blame the Chinese, they’re just pursuing their national interest,” Patrick Mulloy said, a member of the Congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “I blame us for not realizing what’s happening to us and for doing nothing about it.”

The government’s failure to craft any form of trade policy to counter China’s predatory trade practices has cost the nation more than 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since allowing China to join the WTO. Last year alone, America’s trade deficit with China hit a record $273 billion.

Full Story Here: Consequences and Casualties of Trade War | Economy In Crisis.

Understanding the Corporate Takeover

“The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago,” says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. “The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy.”

Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world.

Video at link

Full Story Here: Vandana Shiva: Understanding the Corporate Takeover | Common Dreams.

Children and Radiation

The Hindu reports that the special adviser to the Japanese prime minister has resigned over new standards raising the allowable radiation exposure for schoolchildren in Fukushima.

The standard set for schoolchildren’s exposure to nuclear radiation in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture has caused a political furore. In prime focus is an expert’s disapproval of the “high” permissible limit set for annual exposure, at 20 millisieverts, for outdoor activities at school.

Citing this limit and the government’s alleged track record of ad hoc responses to the continuing nuclear radiation crisis, Toshiso Kosako, special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, resigned on Friday night. However, the Japanese government on Saturday downplayed this development and said Prof. Kosako “misunderstands the situation.”

I think ‘ad hoc’ is Latin for duct tape. The Japanese government has raised the acceptable limit of exposure for workers in an emergency.

Full Story Here: Children and Radiation | Kmareka.com.

Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible

A dramatic and surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers could lead to solar power without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.

The researchers found a way to make an “optical battery,” said Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.

In the process, they overturned a century-old tenet of physics.

“You could stare at the equations of motion all day and you will not see this possibility. We’ve all been taught that this doesn’t happen,” said Rand, an author of a paper on the work published in the Journal of Applied Physics. “It’s a very odd interaction. That’s why it’s been overlooked for more than 100 years.”

Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these circumstances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect.

Full Story Here: Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible.

Kapanke recall (R, WI) election could fall July 12 (& all other recalls)

Kapanke recall election could fall July 12

A judge gave Wisconsin election officials more time Friday to review recall petitions filed in the past month against eight state senators, including Republican Dan Kapanke of La Crosse.

That means Kapanke and others will likely face special elections July 12 if the petitions are ruled sufficient, although more legal challenges could lead to further delays.

The Government Accountability Board is now scheduled to meet May 23 to rule on recall efforts against Kapanke and two other Republicans and again May 31 for the other five senators.

Full Story Here: Kapanke recall (R, WI) election could fall July 12 (& all other recalls) – Democratic Underground.

The real gasoline price investigation that’s needed.

Capitalism and the heart of our economic system is based on two principles — free markets and the laws of supply and demand.

What the current spike in gas prices has exposed, and I do mean exposed, is that the oil industry, which is clearly involved in unwritten and unspoken price collusion, does not price its product based on the laws of supply and demand but on another little talked about economic tool. Blackmail.

Unlike any other product in the United States, unlike sinus remedies, orange juice, diapers, laundry detergent, or any other product you can think of, oil and gasoline is unique in that without it the United States would virtually shut down. To call the U.S. dependent on oil is a gross understatement.

Full Story Here: Tom In Paine: The real gasoline price investigation that’s needed..

European antitrust regulators probe major banks

Europe launched antitrust probes Friday into giant US and European banks whose fine-slicing of the insurance market was blamed by debt-ridden eurozone states for pushing them into bailouts.

The investigation focuses on Credit Default Swaps (CDS), derivative financial products traded between financial institutions or investors originally meant to protect investors in the event a company or state they have invested in defaults on payments, but also used today in speculative investment portfolios.

These products have helped push up yields when trading government bonds issued by Greece and other struggling European states.

The antitrust probe comes amid slow-moving work on legislation by European Union financial services commissioner Michel Barnier aimed at curbing leeway for the main players in a lucrative and hugely influential market.

Full Story Here: European antitrust regulators probe major banks | The Raw Story.

OPS: Someone has to. god know it won’t be Obama or Holder

14-Year-Old Challenges Rep. Frank Guinta On Privatized Medicare: ‘What Am I Going To Do?’

As ThinkProgress has reported, Republicans across the country have faced backlash at town halls for voting for the GOP budget plan that effectively ends Medicare. While many of the challenges have come from concerned older Americans, freshman Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) faced a unique opponent at a town hall in Manchester yesterday: a 14-year-old boy. The Boston Globe reports:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » 14-Year-Old Challenges Rep. Frank Guinta On Privatized Medicare: ‘What Am I Going To Do?’.

GOP Freshman Ends First Town Hall After Tough Questions On Tax Cuts For The Wealthy: ‘We’re Done’

Freshman Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) became the latest Republican to face the ire of his own constituents for voting for the Medicare-ending GOP budget when he was repeatedly challenged by attendees at a town hall meeting in Jonesboro, AR last night. At his first town hall since being seated, Crawford had attendees write their questions on index cards and then read them out loud, “but a handful of audience members weren’t satisfied and shouted at Crawford from their seats.”

While Republicans have insisted that their budget saves Medicare, Crawford veered off message at one point, responding to the question “why are you going to end Medicare as we know it?” by saying, “the answer to that is because Medicare as we know is bankrupt.”

Later, Crawford faced a heated question about why the GOP budget cuts taxes for the wealthy and corporations while slashing social services. Crawford replied, “I don’t support tax cuts for the wealthy over help for socio-economically challenged individuals.” A number of his constituents repeatedly challenged him on this claim, accusing Crawford of “class warfare against the poor people” and explaining that tax cuts don’t create jobs. Crawford apparently did not appreciate this, and ended the session:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GOP Freshman Ends First Town Hall After Tough Questions On Tax Cuts For The Wealthy: ‘We’re Done’.

Freshman GOP Rep. Hultgren Dumbfounded After Constituent Grills Him On Oil Subsidies

Video recorded by ThinkProgress Blog Fellow Micah Uetricht, a reporter from the Chicago area.

On Tuesday at a town hall in Sycamore City, IL, freshmen Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) was asked about the nearly $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies Big Oil companies receive every year, which the House GOP recently voted to preserve. A well-informed man in the audience asked Hultgren why he had done nothing to cut the subsidies, in light of the high national debt. The constituent noted that the billions in cuts forced by the GOP in the FY 2011 budget deal from valuable programs like Pell Grants and FEMA is about equivalent to the amount of money given to incredibly profitable oil companies. Hultgren hemmed and hawed before finally saying he would “look into that”:

CONSTITUENT: With the oil industry, we’re giving them $63 billion in oil subsidies. And you cut what, thirty one, thirty two billion?

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Freshman GOP Rep. Hultgren Dumbfounded After Constituent Grills Him On Oil Subsidies.

Top Climate Scientist On The Monster Tornadoes: ‘It Is Irresponsible Not To Mention Climate Change’

Throughout human history, the climate system has been a source of life and death, the sun and rain capable of feeding our crops and bringing us comfort, or unleashing terrible devastation in wind, fire, drought, storm, and flood. Each tragedy that occurs — such as the terrible outbreak of tornadoes and flooding storms this week in the South — reminds us of that awesome power, which is beyond our control and at the limits of our comprehension. We have also learned that humanity is meddling with that power, primarily through the burning of coal and oil that increases the amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere and oceans. Scientists have been warning our leaders for decades that this interference with the climate system is dangerous, and have worked tirelessly to explain how these threats are now coming to pass.

However, the Republican Party is now dominated by ideologues who deny the threat of polluting our climate, even when faced with direct evidence of what the climate system can do to the people they are sworn to protect.

Conservatives attack any discussion of climate policy within the context of the killer tornadoes as “grotesque,” saying that to do so is blaming the victims.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Top Climate Scientist On The Monster Tornadoes: ‘It Is Irresponsible Not To Mention Climate Change’.

GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold Compares Unemployed Americans To Alcoholics And Drug Users

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) held a “listening session” at Burns Elementary School on Tuesday where he discussed a variety of issues with a crowd of nearly two dozen constituents. One of the attendees uploaded video of the session on YouTube.

At one point during the session, a man asked about drug testing for “welfare recipients.” Farenthold said that this is an idea worth considering, and then went on to complain that unemployment insurance is too generous. He then compared Americans on unemployment insurance to alcoholics and drug addicts:

FARENTHOLD: Drug testing for recipients of various welfare programs, I really think that’s something that needs to be considered. We’ve gotta, you know, nobody wants to starve anybody. Everybody wants to help folks out. But we’ve got a system where you can stay on unemployment for an awfully long time. And I think we need to create a system of decreasing benefits over time to encourage you to get a job. I think anybody who’s had an alcoholic in their life or somebody with a drug problem, realizes that until things get bad enough there’s no incentive to change. I think that we’re so generous in some of our social problems that people are unwilling to get a job outside in the heat. Rather than get 15 dollars to go get roofing they’d rather get 9 or 10 dollars in benefits. I think drug testing is not an unreasonable requirement to get benefits.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold Compares Unemployed Americans To Alcoholics And Drug Users.

Chief Offshore Drilling Regulator Criticizes Lack of Oversight for Contractors

The top regulator of offshore drilling said this week that his agency is exploring expanding its oversight to include thousands of contractors on offshore rigs. The majority of offshore oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico are contractors and their central role in safety issues came into focus after last year’s Gulf oil spill . BP had leased the Deepwater Horizon rig from the contractor Transocean and relied on the contractor Halliburton to provide casing for the Macondo well.

The government currently regulates only operators of offshore drilling rigs, such as BP, and in turn holds them responsible for any contractors they hire. Experts say that by delegating the supervision of contractors the government is essentially taking the word of rig operators that facilities are safe and comply with regulation.

As Reuters reported, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement , Michael Bromwich, first raised the issue Monday , saying he thinks his agency has the authority to oversee contractors and that he intends to do so.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Chief Offshore Drilling Regulator Criticizes Lack of Oversight for Contractors.

Reagan insider: GOP destroyed economy

MarketWatch:-:

- “How my G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy.” Yes, that is exactly what David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse.”

Get it? Not “destroying.” The GOP has already “destroyed” the U.S. economy, setting up an “American Apocalypse.”

Yes, Stockman is equally damning of the Democrats’ Keynesian policies. But what this indictment by a party insider — someone so close to the development of the Reaganomics ideology — says about America, helps all of us better understand how America’s toxic partisan-politics “holy war” is destroying not just the economy and capitalism, but the America dream. And unless this war stops soon, both parties will succeed in their collective death wish.

Full Story Here: Reagan insider: GOP destroyed economy Paul B. Farrell – MarketWatch.

OPS: this article was originally published in 2010

Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto’s Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

It turns out that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide might not be nearly as safe as people have thought, but the media is staying mum on the revelation.

Dr. Don Huber did not seek fame when he quietly penned a confidential letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in January of this year, warning Vilsack of preliminary evidence of a microscopic organism that appears in high concentrations in genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and soybeans and “appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals and probably human beings.” Huber, a retired Purdue University professor of plant pathology and U.S. Army colonel, requested the USDA’s help in researching the matter and suggested Vilsack wait until the research was concluded before deregulating Roundup Ready alfalfa. But about a month after it was sent, the letter was leaked, soon becoming an internet phenomenon.

Huber was unavailable to respond to media inquiries in the weeks following the leak, and thus unable to defend himself when several colleagues from Purdue publicly claiming to refute his accusations about Monsanto’s widely used herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) and Roundup Ready crops. When his letter was finally acknowledged by the mainstream media, it was with titles like “Scientists Question Claims in Biotech Letter,” noting that the letter’s popularity on the internet “has raised concern among scientists that the public will believe his unsupported claim is true.”

Full Story Here: Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto’s Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced? | | AlterNet.

Why Older Nuclear Power Plants Remain ‘Cash Cows’ Despite Fukushima

There are no new nuclear plants in the foreseeable future for Exelon Corp., the largest U.S. reactor operator. Old plants, though, are a different story.

Exelon’s proposed acquisition of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, announced yesterday, would add five nuclear reactors at three plants to the 17 reactors at 10 plants that the Chicago-based company already runs. Exelon’s total nuclear capacity would climb from 17,047 megawatts to nearly 19,000 if the projected $7.9 billion deal is completed.

“They can buy them much more cheaply than they can build them,” said Ellen Vancko, nuclear project manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Full Story Here: Why Older Nuclear Power Plants Remain ‘Cash Cows’ Despite Fukushima – NYTimes.com.

Shiloh Baptist Church receives threats after comments from Sean Hannity

Shiloh Baptist Church in the District said it has received threatening phone calls and e-mails after an Easter visit from President Obama and a conservative television commentator’s subsequent playing of a videotape in which the pastor said that those espousing racial prejudice do so “under the protective cover of talk radio.”

The Rev. Wallace Charles Smith said the church has received more than 100 threats since Fox News channel’s Sean Hannity aired a tape Monday of a speech Smith gave in January 2010 at Eastern University in Saint Davids, Pa.

“We received a fax that had the image of a monkey with a target across is face,” Smith said. “My secretary has received telephone calls that have been so vulgar until she has had to hang up.”

Full Story Here: Shiloh Baptist Church receives threats after comments from Sean Hannity – The Washington Post.

Insurers Getting Rich By Not Paying for Care

If I had stayed in the insurance industry, my net worth would have spiked between 4 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Thursday last week — and I wouldn’t even have had to show up for work.

I’m betting that just about every executive of a for-profit health insurance company, whose total compensation ultimately depends on the value of their stock options, woke up on Good Friday considerably wealthier than they were 24 hours earlier. Why? Because of the spectacular profits that one of those companies reported Thursday morning.

Among those suddenly wealthier executives, by the way, are the corporate medical directors who decide whether or not patients will get coverage for treatments their doctors believe might save their lives.

Full Story Here: Insurers Getting Rich By Not Paying for Care | Center for Media and Democracy.

OPS: These are the ACTUAL Death Panels that the Republicans have been supporting and protecting.  Send this article to all of your Teabaggin’ Wingnuts.

NIH Stem Cell Injunction Vacated by D.C. Circuit

The federal government can continue funding research using human embryonic stem cells, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today, reversing a lower court injunction against the National Institutes of Health.

Two scientists who work with adult stem cells sued NIH to stop embryonic stem cell research, charging that revised 2009 guidelines violated the 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment that bars federal funding for research in which a human embryo is destroyed.

In August, Judge Royce Lamberth granted their motion for a preliminary injunction, concluding they were likely to succeed at trial.

Full Story Here: NIH Stem Cell Injunction Vacated by D.C. Circuit – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.

Half of All Americans Breathe Polluted Air

The United States has made progress in cleaning up air pollution, but 154.5 million people, about half the population, live where the air is so polluted with smog and particles that it is often dangerous to breathe, the American Lung Association said today.

In its annual report on air quality, State of the Air 2011, the American Lung Association says that the Clean Air Act is working and warns against legislators who are trying to weaken the law.

“State of the Air tells us that the progress the nation has made cleaning up coal-fired power plants, diesel emissions and other pollution sources has drastically cut dangerous pollution from the air we breathe,” said Charles Connor, American Lung Association president and chief executive

Full Story Here: Half of All Americans Breathe Polluted Air.

From Democracy to Plutocracy

By Jim Hightower

In American politics, the past not only sticks with us, but it often provides the best definition of what’s going on in the politics of the present, so it can be useful to revisit some powerful words from our history.

Today’s media and political powers, for example, keep using the word “conservative” to describe current political trends in our democratic republic. Poor choice of words. From the Koch brothers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, from GOP House Speaker John Boehner to such anti-worker governors as Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an autocratic power grab is underway to enthrone corporate power and moneyed elites to rule unilaterally over our government, economy, and environment. There’s nothing conservative about that.

Rather, a word from America’s past best encapsulates their goal: plutocracy. It’s the direct opposite of democracy, which is government by the many, by all of the people–by us. Plutocracy, on the other hand, is government by the wealthy–by them and for them.

Full Story Here: From Democracy to Plutocracy – OtherWords.

Reclaiming Oil Subsidies: Senate Democrats Prepping Bill That Would Recover Billions From Big Firms

Seizing the moment, Senate Democrats are working on legislation that would reclaim billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil and redirect the money toward developing cleaner and cheaper fuel sources instead.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced on Thursday that his committee is crafting a measure that would repeal major tax breaks for the five largest oil and gas companies, which reported huge spikes in first-quarter profits this week due to skyrocketing oil prices.

“Now is not the time to stand idly by while large oil and gas companies get billions of dollars in tax breaks — now is the time to take concrete steps toward cleaner, more affordable, domestically-produced energy,” Baucus said in a statement. “Reducing dependence on foreign oil isn’t easy, but this plan puts us on a path toward a clean, affordable energy future that works for our planet — and our pocketbooks.”

Full Story Here: Reclaiming Oil Subsidies: Senate Democrats Prepping Bill That Would Recover Billions From Big Firms.

Pork that ‘glows,’ beans with cancer chems among China’s latest poison foods

A wave of tainted-food scares has renewed fears in China over continued product-safety problems despite a government promise to clean up the food industry following a deadly 2008 milk scandal.

Tainted pork, toxic milk, dyed buns and other dodgy foods have surfaced in recent weeks, sickening consumers and highlighting the government’s apparent inability to oversee China’s huge and under-regulated food industry.

The litany of stomach-turning headlines has caused officials to scramble to contain the damage and sparked an anguished lament last week from Premier Wen Jiabao about unscrupulous food producers

Full Story Here: Pork that ‘glows,’ beans with cancer chems among China’s latest poison foods | The Raw Story.

GOP opponents of debt ceiling raise are like terrorists, former Bush official says

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill likened Republicans who are trying to block raising the federal debt ceiling to terrorists.

“I think the people who threaten not to pass the debt ceiling are our version of al-Qaeda terrorists,” O’Neill said in an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s InBusiness With Margaret Brennan. “They’re really putting our whole society at risk by threatening to round up 50 percent of the members of Congress — who are loony — who would put our credit at risk.”

O’Neill was George W. Bush’s first Treasury secretary.

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said the House may refuse to vote on raising the debt limit, which could force the United States into default in the next few months — potentially inciting an economic calamity.

Full Story Here: GOP opponents of debt ceiling raise are like terrorists, former Bush official says | The Raw Story.

Supreme Court rules that companies can block class-action lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday handed businesses such as AT&T Inc a major victory by upholding the use of arbitration for customer disputes rather than allowing claims to be brought together as a group.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that an AT&T unit could enforce a provision in its customer contracts requiring individual arbitration and preventing the pooling together of claims into a class-action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

The plaintiffs, Vincent and Liza Concepcion, filed their class-action lawsuit in 2006, claiming they were improperly charged about $30 in sales taxes on cellphones that the AT&T Mobility wireless unit had advertised as free.

Full Story Here: Supreme Court rules that companies can block class-action lawsuits | The Raw Story.

Bush Economist Schools Bush, Republicans: Domestic Oil Drilling Won’t Lower Gas Prices

President George W. Bush stepped away from the ranch yesterday to “opine on the issues of the day” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. First up, a lesson on Texas tea. Bush suggested Americans try to “understand how supply and demand works” and realize that offshore drilling is key solution to rising gas prices. “If you restrict supplies of crude, the price of oil is going to go up and it affects gasoline,” he said.

But, in what is becoming an unfortunate pattern for the ex-president, his own former administration official disagrees. Doug Holtz-Eakin, the White House’s Chief Economist under Bush, joined MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Tuesday to discuss the problem of rising gas prices. When asked whether the conservative “dig, drill” mantra would actually lead to lower gas prices, Holtz-Eakin — who was also the cheif economic adviser for Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) 2008 presidential campaign — offered a simple answer: “no“:

MATTHEWS: If we were taking apart the ANWR and drilling everywhere, would the price of gas be much different? In the world market, since this all fungible, if we were doing all that here in the United States, would the price of gas be much different? I‘m just asking that question.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Bush Economist Schools Bush, Republicans: Domestic Oil Drilling Won’t Lower Gas Prices.

Tennessee GOP Votes To Allow Corporations To Contribute Directly To Candidates

After the 2009′s Citizens United ruling that allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money in American elections, corporations were able to play an unprecedented role in 2010 election cycle. In the wake of the decision, many corporations set up front groups that allowed them to donate large sums of money to candidates without having to disclose information regarding their contributors.

Now, in Tennessee, lawmakers are trying to replicate the corporate takeover of the federal government by lifting the state’s own ban on direct corporate contributions and raising the amount of money PACs can contribute. The bill was sponsored by three Republican legislators and was approved by committees in both the House and Senate on party-line votes. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Tennessee GOP Votes To Allow Corporations To Contribute Directly To Candidates.

Rep. Barletta Laughs At Constituents Who Question His Support For Oil Subsidies

At a time when oil companies are posting record profits, Republican congressmen across the country are being challenged by constituents about their support for roughly $4 billion in annual tax incentives for the oil industry. Last month, every single Republican voted to preserve these subsidies, but under pressure, several GOP leaders, including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), have admitted that Big Oil shouldn’t continue to receive taxpayer-funded subsidies. But yesterday Congressman Lou Barletta (R–PA) took at different approach: scoffing at the idea.

When a constituent asked him how he could vote for tax breaks for the oil industry, the congressman simply laughed at the woman and shook his head, ignoring her question. Another constituent then responded angrily, telling Barletta, “You’re our congressman, don’t laugh at us!”

Barletta continued to smirk in amusement as constituents began to debate one another, at one point even turning his back on the crowd and rifling through papers as he appeared to completely disengage from the discussion. Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Rep. Barletta Laughs At Constituents Who Question His Support For Oil Subsidies.

Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers

Today, news agencies are still tallying reports of deaths from the most devastating storm system in the United States in decades:

Dozens of massive tornadoes tore a town-flattening streak across the South, killing at least 250 people in six states and forcing rescuers to carry some survivors out on makeshift stretchers of splintered debris. Two of Alabama’s major cities were among the places devastated by the deadliest twister outbreak in nearly 40 years.

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers.

A more militarized CIA for a more militarized America

The first four Directors of the CIA (from 1947-1953) were military officers, but since then, there has been a tradition (generally though imperfectly observed) of keeping the agency under civilian rather than military leadership. That’s why George Bush’s 2006 nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden to the CIA provoked so many objections from Democrats (and even some Republicans).

The Hayden nomination triggered this comment from the current Democratic Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein: “You can’t have the military control most of the major aspects of intelligence. The CIA is a civilian agency and is meant to be a civilian agency.” The then-top Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, said “she hears concerns from civilian CIA professionals about whether the Defense Department is taking over intelligence operations” and “shares those concerns.” On Meet the Press, Nancy Pelosi cited tensions between the DoD and the CIA and said: “I don’t see how you have a four-star general heading up the CIA.” Then-Sen. Joe Biden worried that the CIA, with a General in charge, will “just be gobbled up by the Defense Department.” Even the current GOP Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, voiced the same concern about Hayden: “We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time.”

Of course, like so many Democratic objections to Bush policies, that was then and this is now. Yesterday, President Obama announced — to very little controversy — that he was nominating Gen. David Petraeus to become the next CIA Director. The Petraeus nomination raises all the same concerns as the Hayden nomination did, but even more so: Hayden, after all, had spent his career in military intelligence and Washington bureaucratic circles and thus was a more natural fit for the agency; by contrast, Petraues is a pure military officer and, most of all, a war fighting commander with little background in intelligence. But in the world of the Obama administration, Petraeus’ militarized, warrior orientation is considered an asset for running the CIA, not a liability.

Full Story Here: A more militarized CIA for a more militarized America – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Exxon Earns Whopping $11 Billion in First Quarter

Exxon (XOM) earned nearly $11 billion in the first quarter, a performance that will likely land it in the center of the national debate over high gasoline prices.

The world’s largest publicly traded company on Thursday reported net income of $10.65 billion, or $2.14 per share, in the first three months of the year. That compares with $6.3 billion, or 1.33 per share. Revenue increased 26 percent to $114 billion.

The results surpassed Wall Street estimates of $2.04 per share on sales of $112.6 billion, according to FactSet.

Full Story Here: Exxon Earns Whopping $11 Billion in First Quarter – DailyFinance.

OPS: And they need another tax break that YOU have to pay for?

It’s Time to Revive an Old Rallying Cry: Labor Is Not A Commodity!

For America’s labor movement to survive, it must recommit to—and defend—the principles that once defined it

During last year’s strike against Mott’s, the apple juice maker, Tim Budd, an employee on the bargaining team, heard a plant manager say across the bargaining table that employees were “a commodity like soybeans and oil, and the price of commodities goes up and down.” Mott’s management quickly disavowed their errant manager’s statement. After all, comparing workers to soybeans is not smooth, even for a unionbusting employer.

The verbal slip-up did, however, reveal a fundamental belief of management which has much to do with the future of the labor movement. To management, human labor is a simply commodity—nothing more, nothing less.  A commodity is an object traded in the marketplace without differentiation, such as lumber, oil, or soybeans. In this context, commodities are inputs into the production process. They are things.

To the traditional labor movement— from the 1880s up through the 1960s—the notion that human beings were mere objects to be used up during the production process was highly offensive. As Samuel Gompers, the conservative head of the American Federation of Labor in the first part of the 20th century, melodramatically stated, “You cannot weigh the human soul in the same scales with a piece of pork.”

Full Story Here: It’s Time to Revive an Old Rallying Cry: Labor Is Not A Commodity! – Working In These Times.

Obama Denies Vermont Healthcare

Here’s the news as I received it in an Email from Thom Hartmann’s radio show on Wednesday:

“Vermont is one step-closer to becoming the first state to set up a truly universal, single-payer health care system. The Vermont Senate passed the new healthcare bill yesterday – following in the footsteps of the state House that passed the bill last month. Now – it just needs to be signed into law by Governor Peter Shumlin who’s already expressed his support for the measure. There IS one last step though – Vermont would need to secure a waiver to opt out of Obamacare in order to build its own healthcare system.

“A handful of lawmakers have introduced legislation to allow states – in particular Vermont – to drop out of Obamacare if they prove they can cover just as many people with insurance as the law would have without adding to the deficit. But surprise, surprise, Republicans don’t like the idea. That’s right – after bashing Obamacare for 2 years – they don’t want to let states drop out of it. What happened to their whole “state’s rights” platform – does that only apply to stuff like abortion and gay marriage – and not to giving people free healthcare? The truth is – Republicans are trembling at thought of Vermont having a single-payer healthcare system to serve as a model for other states. Canada’s single-payer healthcare system started in just one province – Saskatchewan – and then spread across the country because people in other provinces demanded it.

“Republicans fear that the same thing is likely to happen in the United States and they’ll do anything they can to stop it in Vermont. They don’t care about sick people – they care about profits for their buddies – the millionaire private health insurance executives.”

Of course it’s not a surprise that passing a bill through Congress allowing states to create real healthcare solutions is an uphill climb. Congress does what the insurance companies like, and the insurance companies like continuing to exist. But way back yonder in July 2009, the House Committee on Education and Labor, voted 27 to 19 with 13 Republican Yes votes to pass Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s amendment to the healthcare reform bill. This amendment would not have altered the federal legislation except to allow states to create single-payer healthcare systems if they chose to. That’s the one and only thing this amendment did.

First among the 19 members who voted No was Committee Chairman and Democrat George Miller. Congressional staffers who knew told me that President Obama had personally told Miller to block the amendment.

Full Story Here: Obama Denies Vermont Healthcare | War Is A Crime .org.

Banks Play Shell Game with Taxpayer Dollars

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):-:

BURLINGTON, Vt., April 26 – A study requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) found numerous instances during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 when banks took near zero-interest funds from the Federal Reserve and then loaned money back to the federal government on sweetheart terms for the banks.

The banks pocketed interest on government securities that paid rates up to 12 times greater than the Fed’s rock bottom interest charges, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis conducted for Sanders.

“This report confirms that ultra-low interest loans provided by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks,” Sanders said. “Instead of using the Fed loans to reinvest in the economy, some of the largest financial institutions in this country appear to have lent this money back to the federal government at a higher rate of interest by purchasing U.S. government securities.”

Full Story Here: Banks Play Shell Game with Taxpayer Dollars – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont).

Yoo: President Can Slaughter Village, But Not Force Disclosure Of Political Donations

Torture advocate John Yoo thinks that the President of the United States has the executive power to order a village of civilians slaughtered. But force federal contractors to disclose their political donations? That’s a bridge too far.

In an editorial former Bush-era Justice Department official Yoo and David Marston wrote for the Wall Street Journal, the authors argued that the “only purpose” of an executive order being considered by President Barack Obama to require companies seeking federal contracts to disclose political contributions “is to dangle the specter of retaliation.. and harassment.”

Full Story Here: Yoo: President Can Slaughter Village, But Not Force Disclosure Of Political Donations | TPMMuckraker.

In Nuclear Accident, Risks Extend Beyond Evacuation Zone

The nuclear power accidents at Fukushima this spring and at Chernobyl 25 years ago Tuesday show that radiation releases can endanger people and contaminate land many miles beyond evacuation zones.

The advocacy group Physicians for Nuclear Responsibility, which opposes nuclear power, said Tuesday that the U.S. 10-mile evacuation plan was inadequate and should be extended to 50 miles. One-third of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of nuclear power plants.

In Japan, much of the radiation plume went over the Pacific Ocean in the early weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but wind’s and rain drove some of it onto land. The release of radioactive materials raises the risk of cancer, especially for children, who are more vulnerable than adults, Ira Helfand, a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said at a news conference.

Full Story Here: In Nuclear Accident, Risks Extend Beyond Evacuation Zone | Common Dreams.

Health Care for All Takes Big Stride in Vermont

Vermonters are as close to winning “single-payer” health care legislation as residents of any U.S. state have ever been, but they are fighting for every inch as they near the goal line.

On Tuesday the Vermont Senate passed a bill that activists hope will be a big stride towards health care for all. The House had already passed a similar bill.

Activists are dominating legislative hearings with their message that health care is a human right, but business interests—including IBM, the power company Entergy, and health insurer MVP—are pouring resources into weakening the legislation.

Full Story Here: Health Care for All Takes Big Stride in Vermont | Labor Notes.

Thom Hartmann: Is this the end of class action suits as we know it?

Thom talks Attorney & co-host of the Ring of Fire Radio Show, Mike Papantonio on the end of consumer class actions?

Thanks to trickle down – we’re headed to another collapse

Thom Hartmann’s daily take.

Federal Reserve plans to end stimulus, but leaves door open for more giveaways

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled it is ready to scale back support for the US economy, despite what it called a “moderate” recovery.

Hinting at a second attempt to edge back from crisis-era policies, the Fed said it would complete hundreds of billions of dollars of crisis spending in June as planned.

In a statement, the Fed’s top interest-rate setting panel said it “will complete purchases of $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the current quarter.”

But it left wide open the possibility of further stimulus efforts if the economic outlook worsens.

Full Story Here: Federal Reserve plans to end stimulus, but leaves door open for more giveaways | The Raw Story.

BP expects to resume drilling in Gulf of Mexico within months

• BP takes additional $400m in charges from oil spill costs
• UK budget changes cost BP £414m in extra taxes

BP has predicted it will be back drilling in the Gulf of Mexico within a matter of months despite continuing legal threats and rows over pollution from last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. “We expect to be back and actively drilling during the second half of the year,” Byron Grote, the company’s chief financial officer, told financial analysts from the City of London on Wednesday.

The comments are likely to infuriate environmentalists who believe BP should be kept away from the Gulf, and could upset a US offshore regulator still considering whether to grant permits to BP.

Verbal gaffes by former chief executive Tony Hayward in the wake of the Macondo well accident 12 months ago damaged the company’s reputation in America as it attracted widespread criticism from the White House downwards.

Full Story Here: BP expects to resume drilling in Gulf of Mexico within months | Business | The Guardian.

The ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Likens Obama To Qaddafi, Threatens White House

Earlier this month, the White House floated the possibility of an executive order to require “companies seeking government contracts” to disclose contributions to groups that air political ads. And a few days ago, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission to demand rules mandating donor disclosure.

The move by the White House has been met with a fierce denunciation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which ran one of the largest ad campaigns using secret corporate money in the midterm election last year. In an interview with the New York Times, Chamber executive Bruce Josten compared President Obama to Muammar Qaddafi, claiming that the Chamber will fight the order with the same resolve as military leaders currently bombing Libya:

The lobbyist, R. Bruce Josten, said in an interview that the powerful business bloc “is not going to tolerate” what it saw as a “backdoor attempt” by the White House to silence private-sector opponents by disclosing their political spending.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » The ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Likens Obama To Qaddafi, Threatens White House.

In Wake Of Widespread Town Hall Backlash, Rep. Allen West Only Answers Pre-Screened Questions

As voters around the country continue to voice their anger at town halls over the Republican plan to end Medicare, Republican congressmen are using a range of tactics to try to avoid constituent wrath. In a heated Orlando town hall yesterday, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) largely ignored contentious questions, leading many in the crowd to demand the congressman “answer the question!” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget, even ducked out a back entrance during his town hall last night and left in a police car rather than his own vehicle.

Last night, ThinkProgress was in attendance for a Fort Lauderdale town hall where Rep. Allen West (R-FL) took a different approach: pre-screening all questions. Not only were all questions pre-approved by the congressman’s staff, but the attendees were not even permitted to ask the screened questions themselves; staff members read the questions instead, lest a constituent ask an unscripted question. The Sun Sentinel noted that West’s move to pre-screen questions was a far cry from “his usual practice at previous town hall meetings, where West took questions from people who lined up at microphones.”

Watch a short clip:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » In Wake Of Widespread Town Hall Backlash, Rep. Allen West Only Answers Pre-Screened Questions.

As Gulf Coast Suffers, BP Profits Increase To $7.1 Billion

One year after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, “the cleanup isn’t done,” but the foreign oil giant’s profits are back up on surging gas prices. “BP has not yet lived up to its legal, financial, or moral obligations to the Gulf and its residents,” says Antonia Juhasz, author of the book, Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill. Sea turtles and dolphins keep dying, scientific research is stifled, and the spill still stains the Gulf Coast economy. Meanwhile, BP is contributing to pro-oil politicians and ramping up lobbying spending, fueled by $7.12 billion in first-quarter profits:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » As Gulf Coast Suffers, BP Profits Increase To $7.1 Billion.

Cantor Claims He’ll Make GE Pay Taxes; Imus Responds, ‘No You’re Not. You’re Not Really For That’

Last March, the New York Times broke the news that General Electric, which reported global profits of $14.2 billion — $5.1 billion of which came from its domestic operations — had not paid a cent in taxes for 2010. In fact, GE’s US tax rate for the year was actually negative, since it got a $3.2 billion American tax benefit. As Ryan Chittum noted, “Over the last five years, GE made $26 billion in what it says were American profits, but got the IRS to pay it $4.1 billion total.”

This is all well and good with Congressional Republicans, who believe American corporations are taxed too much already on federal and state levels. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) has dismissed the need for raising corporate taxes because “we don’t need more revenue!”; Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA) wants “the lowest corporate tax rate we can get”; and Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), rather astonishingly, believes that untaxed corporations are still overburdened.

Given the Republican Party’s lack of enthusiasm for taxing multi-billion dollar corporations, Don Imus could forgiven for assuming during this morning’s interview with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) that Cantor feels likewise.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Cantor Claims He’ll Make GE Pay Taxes; Imus Responds, ‘No You’re Not. You’re Not Really For That’.

VIDEO: Town Hall Attendees Tell GOP Rep. That Ending Medicare Is ‘Unconscionable,’ Demand ‘Tax The Rich!’

As ThinkProgress has been reporting, all over the country a Main Street Movement of ordinary Americans is fighting back against right-wing attacks on their basic services and safety net. In recent days, this movement has been focused on conservative legislators who voted for the GOP budget plan that would effectively end Medicare.

Rep. Charlie Gibson (R-NY) felt the heat of that movement last week when constituents responded to his fear mongering about undocumented immigrants not paying taxes by asking him, “You mean like GE?!” Yesterday, at yet another town hall meeting captured on YouTube, his constituents angrily and passionately rejected the GOP’s budget plan and demanded that the rich pay their fair share.

At one point, a young man named Daniel challenged Gibson about eliminating Medicare and handing seniors over to insurance companies. Gibson earned lengthy applause from the audience when he said it is “unconscionable” to put Medicare in the hands of the insurance industry:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » VIDEO: Town Hall Attendees Tell GOP Rep. That Ending Medicare Is ‘Unconscionable,’ Demand ‘Tax The Rich!’.

Donald Trump’s personal experience with questionable Ivy League admittance standards

The prospective candidate accuses the president of being unqualified for the Ivy Leagues — like his son-in-law was

Donald Trump added a blatantly race-baiting component to his already racially charged campaign against Barack Obama’s Americanness this week when he claimed — based on things he’s “heard” — that Obama was a “terrible student” who got into Columbia and then Harvard based solely on affirmative action:

“How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I’m thinking about it, I’m certainly looking into it. Let him show his records,” he said, without providing backup for his claim.

Trump added, “I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can’t get into Harvard.”

Full Story Here: Donald Trump’s personal experience with questionable Ivy League admittance standards – War Room – Salon.com.

The Wageless Recovery

Robert Reich :-:

This week’s biggest economic show occurs tomorrow (Wednesday) when Fed chair Ben Bernanke steps in front of the cameras for the Fed’s first-ever news conference. The question on everyone’s mind: Will the Fed signal it’s now more worried about inflation than recession?

Much of Wall Street thinks inflation is now the biggest threat to the US economy. As has been the case in the past, the Street is dead wrong. The biggest threat is falling into another recession.

The most significant economic news from the first quarter of 2011 is the decline in real wages. That’s unusual in a recovery, to say the least. But it’s easily explained this time around. In order to keep the jobs they have, millions of Americans are accepting shrinking paychecks. If they’ve been fired, the only way they can land a new job is to accept even smaller ones.

Full Story Here: Robert Reich (The Wageless Recovery).

Chernobyl Survivor Warns of ‘Bombshell’ in Japan | Common Dreams

A survivor of the Chernobyl disaster says people exposed to radiation from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant will spend the rest of their lives fearing the “bombshell” of cancer and other dire illnesses.

Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear calamity and coincides with efforts to stop radiation seeping from the Fukushima plant after its cooling systems were knocked out by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11

“The Fukushima accident is like the twin brother of Chernobyl,” said Pavel Vdovichenko, 59, who had already accepted an invitation from Japanese anti-nuclear groups to join a rally marking a quarter-century since Chernobyl.

Full Story Here: Chernobyl Survivor Warns of ‘Bombshell’ in Japan | Common Dreams.

U.S. investigates elevated radiation readings at Ohio nuclear power plant

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has launched an investigation into an incident at a nuclear power plant in Ohio on Friday in which elevated radiation readings were detected.

The incident happened on Friday at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northeast of Cleveland. Details of the incident were not publicly disclosed until Tuesday afternoon.

According to the NRC, the issue involved the removal of a source range monitor from the reactor core while the plant was shut down for a refueling outage. A source range monitor measures nuclear reactions during start up, low power operations and shutdown conditions.

Full Story Here: U.S. investigates elevated radiation readings at Ohio nuclear power plant » Breaking News | Wire Update News | News Wires -.

‘Disturbing’ revelations in probe of possible gas price manipulation

An investigation into possible manipulation of gasoline prices has uncovered “disturbing” revelations, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

“There are a couple things that … are disturbing,” Holder said, declining to elaborate.

He indicated the information would be reviewed by a fraud task force formed last week.

For the week that ended Monday, the nationwide average cost of a gallon of gasoline rose 3.5 cents, to $3.879, the Energy Department reported.

Full Story Here: ‘Disturbing’ revelations in probe of possible gas price manipulation -.

Olbermann’s Current TV Show Called ‘Countdown,’ Launches June 20 (VIDEO)

Keith Olbermann finally announced what his new Current TV show will be called, and when it will air.

The new name? “Countdown With Keith Olbermann.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Olbermann joked in a video announcement posted to his “Fok News Channel” site on Tuesday morning.

Previously, Olbermann would only say that the show would air in “late spring.” In the video, he at last gave a specific date: Monday, June 20, at 8 PM Eastern.

Olbermann’s show has been in the works since he abruptly left MSNBC in January.

WATCH:

Full Story Here: Olbermann’s Current TV Show Called ‘Countdown,’ Launches June 20 (VIDEO).

Do You Know How Many Genetically Modified Foods You’re Eating? 8 to Pay Attention To

Do you have any idea how much of what you eat each day has been made from genetically modified organisms? Though I try to eat organic, like most Americans I’ve been consuming genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified (GMO) foods for the past 15 years.

It’s hard not to: 70 percent of our corn farmland and 93 percent of soy farmland are planted with crops genetically engineered to resist pests and herbicides and increase crop yields. And in the next few years new science may provide genetically modified apples that don’t turn brown, rice that helps build up vitamin A, even an “Enviropig” which produces less phosphorus in its manure. Find out more about the latest news on these and more common genetically modified foods including tomatoes, canola and sugar beets.

And as early as 2012, you may be able to buy a GE super salmon that grows to maturity in just two years. As John McQuaid writes in his special report, “The Future of Food,” in the March/April issue of EatingWell Magazine, “As science. this is pretty cool.”

Full Story Here: EatingWell: Do You Know How Many Genetically Modified Foods You’re Eating? 8 to Pay Attention To.

Water Supplies In Western U.S. Threatened By Climate Change: Interior Department Report

Climate change is likely to diminish already scarce water supplies in the Western United States, exacerbating problems for millions of water users in the West, according to a new government report.

A report released Monday by the Interior Department said annual flows in three prominent river basins – the Colorado, Rio Grande and San Joaquin – could decline by as much 8 percent to 14 percent over the next four decades. The three rivers provide water to eight states, from Wyoming to Texas and California, as well as to parts of Mexico.

The declining water supply comes as the West and Southwest, already among the fastest-growing parts of the country, continue to gain population.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called water the region’s “lifeblood” and said small changes in snowpack and rainfall levels could have a major effect on tens of millions of people.

Full Story Here: Water Supplies In Western U.S. Threatened By Climate Change: Interior Department Report.

Backdoor Bailouts

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont)

The Federal Reserve propped up banks with big infusions of cash during the depths of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Banks that took billions of dollars from the Fed then turned around and loaned money back to the federal government. It was a sweet deal for the bankers. They received interest payments on the government securities that were up to 12 times greater than the Fed’s rock bottom rates, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis conducted for Sen. Bernie Sanders. “This report confirms that ultra-low interest loans provided by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks,” Sanders said. “Instead of using the Fed loans to reinvest in the economy, some of the largest financial institutions in this country appear to have lent this money back to the federal government at a higher rate of interest by purchasing U.S. government securities.”

The Federal Reserve claimed at the time that the emergency loans were needed so banks could provide credit to small- and medium-sized businesses that desperately needed money to create jobs or to prevent layoffs. “Instead of using this money to reinvest in the productive economy, however, it appears that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America used a large portion of these near-zero-interest loans to buy U.S. government securities and earn a higher interest rate at the same time, providing free money to some of the largest financial institutions in this country,” Sanders said.

The Fed transactions during the financial crisis were detailed in documents that the central bank was forced to disclose last Dec. 1 to comply with a Sanders provision in the Wall Street reform law. Sanders subsequently asked the Congressional Research Service to compare the emergency Fed loans with investments in government securities by the nation’s six largest bank holding companies. The study found, for example, that:

Full Story Here: Backdoor Bailouts – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont).

Less Than Two Months After GOP Voted To Preserve Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies, Boehner Now Opposes Them (Updated)

As oil companies are about to announce record profits from skyrocketing gas prices, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has conceded that their multi-billion-dollar subsidies should be on the negotiating table. Under tenacious questioning by ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl about “obscene” oil industry profits and $4 gas, Boehner admitted that oil companies have “some part of this to blame.” “I don’t think the big oil companies need to have the oil depletion allowances,” he said, which is a nearly $1 billion annual subsidy for smaller oil companies, part of the $4 billion in subsidies identified by President Obama. In the interview, Boehner recognized that oil companies are not “paying their fair share”:

It’s certainly something we should be looking at. We’re in a time when the federal government’s short on revenues. We need to control spending but we need to have revenues to keep the government going. They ought to be paying their fair share.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Less Than Two Months After GOP Voted To Preserve Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies, Boehner Now Opposes Them (Updated).

VIDEO: Bedlam Erupts At Town Hall In Orlando As GOP Rep. Defends Ending Medicare, Tax Breaks For Rich

During a town hall in Orlando earlier today, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) faced a barrage of questions from outraged constituents about the Republican budget. The Orlando Sentinel accurately described the scene as “bedlam.”

For nearly an hour, Webster was peppered with one question after another about his support for ending Medicare, his desire to see tax breaks for the wealthy extended, and his vote to repeal health care reform, including its protections for people with preexisting conditions. For his part, Webster didn’t just avoid the questions by resorting to talking points, as most politicians commonly do. On numerous occasions, Webster simply declined to give an answer to contentious questions altogether, moving on to take a new question instead.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Blog Archive » VIDEO: Bedlam Erupts At Town Hall In Orlando As GOP Rep. Defends Ending Medicare, Tax Breaks For Rich.

The Vermont Senate Passes Bill Establishing A Single Payer Health Care System In The State

As ThinkProgress previously reported, the Vermont legislature, led by Gov. Peter Shumlin (D), has been considering a proposal to establish some sort of single payer health care system — a system in which a single public insurer provides health insurance to all state residents, similar to the Medicare system for American seniors.

Last month, the Vermont House of Representatives voted 92-49 to advance a bill that would create a single payer system in the state. Now, the Vermont Senate has followed suit, voting 21-9 for the bill:

The Vermont Senate gave final approval to health care reform legislation Tuesday. The vote came after lengthy debate on amendments– many of them aimed at making the bill more palatable for businesses. Republicans introduced several amendments that they say would reduce the costs for businesses. But the strong Democratic majority easily rejected those amendments. [...] The bill passed 21-9.

Now that the bill has passed both the House of Representatives and Senate, it will move to a conference committee to reconcile the two versions of the bill. It will then go to the desk of Gov. Peter Shumlin (D), who strongly supports the bill. Shumlin has said that it will make Vermont the first state where “health care will be a right and not a privilege.”

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » The Vermont Senate Passes Bill Establishing A Single Payer Health Care System In The State.

Missouri Levee Failure Highlights Need For Increased Infrastructure Investments

For several days, the midwest and southern U.S. have been pounded by deadly storms, which have brought tornadoes and widespread flooding. Today, a levee in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, failed in at least four locations, which is “expected to send flood waters from the Black River racing into a populated but rural area of Butler County.” It is currently unclear how many people will be affected by the flooding, but the threat of the levee failing at another location prompted the evacuation of 1,000 people.

The levee’s failure is a tragic reminder of the sorry state of America’s infrastructure. This particular levee failed a federal inspection in 2008, receiving an “unacceptable” rating from the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers. In the U.S. patchwork levee system, many local communities are responsible for levee upkeep, and this particular community couldn’t afford the cost.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, nearly ten percent of the levees in the country are expected to fail during a flood event. The Civil Corps. of Engineers gave the U.S. levee system a D- grade in 2009, and estimated that it would take a $50 billion investment to get those levees into adequate shape:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Missouri Levee Failure Highlights Need For Increased Infrastructure Investments.

The Warped US Tax System: Taxpayers Subsidize Their Own Destruction

One of the more interesting battles being waged right now is between labor and Boeing, the aerospace and defense corporation. The National Labor Relations Board accuses the company of illegally retaliating against its largest union when it decided in 2009 to put a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in a nonunion plant in South Carolina.

Originally, Boeing intended to construct the Dreamliner in Washington, but only if the state approved a twenty-year, $3.2 billion package of tax credits. Officials ultimately conceded, but Boeing took its toys and went to play elsewhere anyway when South Carolina lured it across state lines with the promise of a whopping $900 million subsidy package aka taxpayer dollars, and a non-union plant to set up shop in.

Boeing also happens to be one of the shining examples of government-subsidized businesses that pay meager amounts of state and local taxes. In 2010, Boeing received a net tax refund of $137 million from state and local governments despite earning more than $4 billion in pretax profits.

Full Story Here: The Warped US Tax System: Taxpayers Subsidize Their Own Destruction | The Nation.

How did Japan’s nuclear industry become so arrogant?

What has stood out at the countless press conferences by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and the Cabinet Office’s Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) of Japan that I’ve attended in covering the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, is the rampant use of cliches such as “unanticipated state of affairs” and “unprecedented natural disaster.”

The excuses made by the organizations involved go to show that so-called nuclear power experts have no intention to self reflect or admit their shortcomings. It was this self-righteousness — evidenced over the years in the industry’s suppression of unfavorable warnings and criticisms, as well as in their imposition of the claim that the safety of nuclear energy was self evident — that lay down the groundwork for the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

At press conferences, TEPCO officials repeatedly express their “deep apologies” for the trouble caused to the Japanese people. However, as soon as reporters’ questions turn to the actual safety of nuclear power stations — about which they had long boasted a multilayered safety system referred to as “defense in depth” — they begin to act coolly. Their speech may feign civility, but they never admit to any wrongdoing and merely keep insisting the righteousness of their own claims. When particularly unflattering questions are posed to them, some TEPCO executives glower at the reporters who dared to ask and give only a brusque response.

Full Story Here: How did Japan’s nuclear industry become so arrogant? – The Mainichi Daily News.

OPS: Answer: same way US and every other Country’s Nuke industry’s did

154 terabecquerels per day. 154 Time More that previously stated

Atmospheric radiation leak underestimated

Data released by the government indicates radioactive material was leaking into the atmosphere from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in early April in greater quantities than previously estimated.

Radioactive material was being released into the atmosphere from the plant at an estimated rate of 154 terabecquerels per day as of April 5, according to data released by the Cabinet Office’s Nuclear Safety Commission on Saturday.

The NSC previously estimated radiation leakage on April 5 at “less than 1 terabecquerel per hour.”

Iodine-131 and cesium-137 were released into the atmosphere that day at the estimated rates of 0.69 terabecquerel per hour and 0.14 terabecquerel per hour, respectively, the NSC said.

Emissions are converted into iodine-131 equivalents for assessment on the international nuclear event scale (INES), to arrive at the total 154 terabecquerels per day, the nuclear safety watchdog said.

Full Story Here: Atmospheric radiation leak underestimated : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri).

OPS: Let’s see…. Di they really ‘underestimate’ it, or did they flat out LIE about it?

Let’s Take a Hike

Paul Krugman: _:

When I listen to current discussions of the federal budget, the message I hear sounds like this: We’re in crisis! We must take drastic action immediately! And we must keep taxes low, if not actually cut them further!

You have to wonder: If things are that serious, shouldn’t we be raising taxes, not cutting them?

My description of the budget debate is in no way an exaggeration. Consider the Ryan budget proposal, which all the Very Serious People assured us was courageous and important. That proposal begins by warning that “a major debt crisis is inevitable” unless we confront the deficit. It then calls, not for tax increases, but for tax cuts, with taxes on the wealthy falling to their lowest level since 1931.

Full Story Here: Let’s Take a Hike – NYTimes.com.

State Department wants passport applicants to reveal lifetime employment history

The U.S. Department of State has proposed a new questionnaire that would make it almost impossible for some people to get a passport.

The new document (PDF) would require that certain applicants submit a list of every residence and every job they’ve ever had since birth.

In February, the department published a request in the Federal Register allowing 60 days for comment before the new rules go into effect.

“The Biographical Questionnaire for a U.S. Passport, form DS-5513, is used to supplement an application for a U.S. passport when the applicant submits citizenship or identity evidence that is insufficient or of questionable authenticity,” according to a supporting statement (PDF) issued along with the request for comment.

“This form is used prior to passport issuance and solicits information relating to the respondent’s family, birth circumstances, residences, schooling, and employment,” the statement added.

Full Story Here: State Department wants passport applicants to reveal lifetime employment history | The Raw Story.

Rising Gas Prices Expected To Increase Exxon’s Earnings By More Than 50%

The country’s five biggest oil companies — BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell — made a total profit of nearly $1 trillion over the last ten years. In 2008, ExxonMobil broke its own record for most profitable year for a public company in history by making more than $45 billion. And according to an analysis in the Wall Street Journal, rising oil prices in 2010 mean that Big Oil’s profits this year “could come close to rivaling the industry’s record year in 2008”:

First-quarter crude prices averaged about $100 a barrel, or about 20% higher than a year ago, pushed upward by oil-supply concerns due to political unrest in the Arab World and a recovering global economy. That spike is expected to lift earnings by about 50% at Exxon Mobil Corp., and about 33% each at Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, compared with a year earlier.

Despite these sky-high profits, House Republicans voted unanimously last month to preserve the billions in subsidies that oil companies receive from the federal government every year. Gas prices in many parts of the country are currently higher than $4 per gallon.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Rising Gas Prices Expected To Increase Exxon’s Earnings By More Than 50%.

Rep. Chris Gibson Says ‘Illegal’ Immigrants Not Paying Taxes, Town Hall Attendee Asks: ‘You Mean Like GE?!’

As ThinkProgress has previously reported, while services and investments in Main Street America are being gutted, many of the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations are getting away with paying little to nothing in federal corporate income taxes, exploiting a tax code filled with loopholes, carve-outs, and giveaways.

At a town hall meeting last week, Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) faced the ire of constituents who are upset about this tax dodging by some of our nation’s biggest corporations. In a video posted on YouTube, Gibson responding to a question from a constituent concerned over border security by explaining his plan for dealing with the immigration system.

Towards the end of his answer, Gibson said that Americans actually pay higher taxes because “there are people in the country that are not paying taxes because they’re illegal.” At this point, a town hall attendee cried out, “You mean like GE?!” which actually forced the congressman to say that he agrees and that the company needs to pay its fair share:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Rep. Chris Gibson Says ‘Illegal’ Immigrants Not Paying Taxes, Town Hall Attendee Asks: ‘You Mean Like GE?!’.

RI State Rep. Who Joked Of Pot-Smoking Immigrants Arrested On DUI Charge And Marijuana Possession

Earlier this year, Rhode Island House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson (R) garnered attention when he made insensitive remarks about the General Assembly’s work at a meeting of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. Watson stated, “I suppose if you’re a gay man from Guatemala who gambles and smokes pot, you probably think that we’re onto some good ideas here.” He was quickly forced to apologize.

Yet last Friday Watson’s bigoted comment took an ironic twist. The state lawmaker was pulled over at a routine police checkpoint in East Haven, Connecticut. Police quickly arrested him when he appeared to be driving under the influence and possessing marijuana:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » RI State Rep. Who Joked Of Pot-Smoking Immigrants Arrested On DUI Charge And Marijuana Possession.

Reaganomics will bring our cities to ruin

Chicago and Colorado Springs have been praised as models — but wrecking public infrastructure isn’t the answer

That calculation is at the center of Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal to replace Medicare with a voucher system, but only for those reaching retirement age in a decade.

Ryan and the Republicans have sought to dilute the political toxicity of their radical plan by grandfathering in people who are currently within the Medicare system and those who are now 55 or older.

Senior citizens vote in higher percentages than other demographic groups and thus could overturn the GOP’s House majority if they felt threatened by the transformation of Medicare.

Full Story Here: Reaganomics will bring our cities to ruin – War Room – Salon.com.

Republicans Embrace ‘Greedy Geezers’

The Republicans are making a cynical bet that Americans over 55 really are the “greedy geezers” of conservative ideology, people who care only for themselves and not for their children and subsequent generations.

That calculation is at the center of Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal to replace Medicare with a voucher system, but only for those reaching retirement age in a decade.

Ryan and the Republicans have sought to dilute the political toxicity of their radical plan by grandfathering in people who are currently within the Medicare system and those who are now 55 or older.

Senior citizens vote in higher percentages than other demographic groups and thus could overturn the GOP’s House majority if they felt threatened by the transformation of Medicare.

Full Story Here: Republicans Embrace ‘Greedy Geezers’.

Video: TEPCO’s President Visits An Evacuation Center

TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu visited an evacuation shelter for the first time on Friday. Tens of thousands of Japanese living within 19 miles of his nuclear plant have been required to evacuate and are now living in cardboard cubicles. It’s not known when they can return.

Masataka Shimizu is about as popular as Tony Hayward on the Gulf Coast.

People shouted out: “Why don’t you try living here!” “Tell us when we can go home!” according to Yomiuri.

One man told him: “Think about what you would do if this was happening to your family. Think about this when you are trying to resolve the problem. Please.”

Full Story Here: Video: TEPCO’s President Visits An Evacuation Center.

The Scam Behind The Rise In Oil, Food Prices

Speculation on the futures market, rather than supply and demand, is driving up costs, analysts say.

The global economy and its recovery, and the living standards of millions of plain folks, are now at risk from the sudden rise in oil and commodity prices.

Gas at the pump is up, and going higher. Food prices are following.

The consequences are catastrophic for the global poor as their costs go up while their income doesn’t. It’s menacing American workers too, who in large part have not seen a meaningful raise since the days of Reagan (keeping it this way is clearly behind the current flurry of attacks on unions).

Already, unrest in the Middle East and many African countries is being blamed for these dramatic increases. It seems as if this threat to global stability is being largely ignored in our media, one that treats the oil business as just another mystical world of free market trading.

Full Story Here: ZCommunications | The Scam Behind The Rise In Oil, Food Prices by Danny Schechter | ZSpace.

Bernanke Strikes Again!

Fed’s Handout to Banks Sends Margin Debt Soaring to New Highs

By MIKE WHITNEY

Now that the self sustaining recovery has taken hold, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke can end his bond buying program and allow the markets to return to normal.

Not exactly.

As it happens, Bernanke is now signaling that he’ll keep the QE2 feeding-tubes in place so that any unnexpected unpleasantness in the market–like another full-blown crash–can be averted. Here’s the story from Bloomberg:

“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may keep reinvesting maturing debt into Treasuries to maintain record stimulus even after making good on a pledge to complete $600 billion in bond purchases by the end of June.

Full Story Here: Mike Whitney: Bernanke Strikes Again!.

Measuring Radiation

From Becquerels to Sieverts, From Birth to Death

By RUSSELL D. HOFFMAN

What are Curies, Becquerels, Rems, Rads, Grays, Sieverts, Roentgens, Q, RBE etc.?

Here are some answers (quotes are taken from my book, The Code Killers (URL for free download: www.acehoffman.org ).

Let’s start with a Curie: “An amount of radioactivity defined as 3.7 *10^18 decays per second… about equal to the radioactivity of one gram of pure radium. Replaced by the Becquerel (Bq).”

Becquerel: “Exactly one radioactive decay per second. Abbreviated Bq.”

So those are just different measurements for the same thing: Radioactive decays per unit of time, regardless of strength or type of radioactive emission.

A Curie is a lot of radiation. A single Becquerel… not so much.

One Bq is equal to 27 picocuries, which makes sense because a picocurie (a millionth of a millionth of a Curie) is 0.037 disintegrations per second, and mathematically 0.037 times 27 equals (approximately) one. Radioactive disintegrations, of course, don’t actually happen in fractional amounts. They either happen or they don’t. WHEN they are likely to happen can be guessed at by the isotope’s half-life, but it’s only a guess.

Full Story Here: Russell D. Hoffman: Measuring Radiation.

Stripmining American Jobs

Is This Patriotic?

By RALPH NADER

It is time to apply the standard of patriotism to the U.S. multinational corporations and demand that they pledge allegiance to the United States and “the Republic for which is stands…. with liberty and justice for all.” This July 4, 2011 would be good day for Americans to demand such a corporate commitment.

Born and chartered in the U.S.A., these corporations rose to their giant size on the backs of American workers and vast taxpayer-subsidized research and development handouts. When they got into trouble, whether through mismanagement or corruption, these companies rushed to Washington, D.C. for bailouts from American taxpayers. When some were challenged in foreign lands, the U.S. marines came to their rescue, as depicted decades ago by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Marine General Smedley Butler.

So what is their message to America and its workers now? It is not gratitude or loyalty. It is “we’re outta here, with your jobs and industries” to dictatorial or oligarchic regimes abroad, such as China, that know how to keep their impoverished, and abused workers under control.

Note that these company bosses have no compunction replacing U.S. workers with serf-labor, but they never replace themselves with bi-lingual executives from China, India and elsewhere who are willing to work for one-tenth or less of the huge pay packages executives get from their rubber-stamp boards of directors in the U.S.

Full Story Here: Ralph Nader: Stripmining American Jobs.

Food Safety Accountability Act Passes Senate

Last week, the senate passed a piece of legislation that would strengthen the nation’s food safety laws by imposing harsher punishments for companies or individuals that knowingly put tainted food products on the market.

With unanimous consent, members of the upper chamber approved the Food Safety Accountability Act of 2011.

The measure will make it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for any person or company that “knowingly endangers American lives by contaminating the food supply.” The crime is currently just a misdemeanor. Most of those who have been found to be in violation of food safety standards under the current law often do not face any jail time.

“Current statutes do not provide sufficient criminal sanctions for those who knowingly violate our food safety laws. Knowingly distributing adulterated food is already illegal, but it is merely a misdemeanor right now, and the Sentencing Commission has found that it generally does not result in jail time,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said on the senate floor.

Full Story Here: Food Safety Accountability Act Passes Senate | Economy In Crisis.

Are McJobs the Only Kind Left in America?

McDonald’s received hundreds of thousands of applications for its National Hiring Day held last Tuesday, a potentially depressing harbinger on the state of employment in America because of failed trade policy.

“These are the types of jobs we need,” John Challenger said, a supposed employment expert at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm in Chicago. “This is especially good news for people who bore the brunt of the recession.”

This is the exact line of thinking that has produced only problems for this nation. While it is a welcome sign to see a business hiring, these are not the kind of jobs Americans envisioned for themselves and their families when they were deceived into supporting deals such as NAFTA. McDonald’s expects to add 50,000 more ‘McJobs’ this year thanks to this hiring push.

Full Story Here: Are McJobs the Only Kind Left in America? | Economy In Crisis.

Trade Affects All Aspects of Our Lives

Why don’t individuals give up on outdated ideas about “free” trade, which multiple decades of evidence has proven is a disastrous failure? Why don’t more people oppose this horrendous idea and realize its impact on their life?

It is a proven scientific fact that when confronted with new ideas or challenges to one’s beliefs and values, individuals will do their best to resist and refute anything that threatens their preconceived notions and core identity. Despite the most logical argument in the world, and all the statistics found on this website about how our trade policy (or lack thereof) is destroying the nation, without framing the argument appropriately, the human mind will reject it.

However, the problems with the way we conduct international trade in this nation are so vast and expansive, there are multiple avenues of attack for anyone professing to be a “free” trader. First of all, the reason why the word “free” is always in quotation marks is because it really isn’t “free”. Our current system is actually leaving ourselves defenseless while our rivals use currency manipulation, subsidies and other dirty tricks to take advantage of us.

Full Story Here: Trade Affects All Aspects of Our Lives | Economy In Crisis.

Could Our Elected Legislators be Our Enemies In Disguise?

If an enemy infiltrated our government and wanted to destroy us, this is the type of agreement they would want approved – the new Korean Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).

We know that NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement – was instrumental in completely destroying our ability to manufacture competitively in the U.S. by outsourcing our manufacturing to Mexico, China and other countries with labor rates as low as $2 an hour. They then ship the products back here duty and tariff free – totally destroying our ability to manufacture competitively, unless we want to change our wage rates to $2 per hour.

The KORUS FTA will not only further deplete our manufacturing base, it will also take international trade, banking and finance out of our control.

Full Story Here: Could Our Elected Legislators be Our Enemies In Disguise? | Economy In Crisis.

OPS: “Free Trade” has been destroying this country since Reagan

Air Force Relies on China for Screws

The military branch cited a lack of American products available for things ranging from ceiling fans and shower rods to towel racks and toilet-paper holders.

Earlier this year, the Air Force, while building stimulus-backed housing units in Alaska, received a waiver from the “buy American” clause in order to purchase a slew of simple products from China, including screws and fixtures.

The military branch cited a lack of American products available for things ranging from ceiling fans and shower rods to towel racks and toilet-paper holders.

The Air Force “determined that the above items of manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality. The domestic non-availability determination for these products is based on extensive market research and thorough investigation of the domestic manufacturing landscape. This research identified that these products are manufactured almost exclusively in China,” according to the waiver request.

Full Story Here: Air Force Relies on China for Screws | Economy In Crisis.

Surprise, Surprise! Iraq War Was About Oil

Ray McGovern: :

Afghanistan may be the graveyard of empires, but Iraq is home to a graveyard sense of humor. Iraqis wonder aloud whether the U.S. and Britain would have invaded Iraq if its main export had been cabbages instead of oil.

However obvious the answer, a remarkable array of American pundits and pseudo-savants have resisted giving the oil factor any pride of place among the motives behind the U.S./U.K. decision to invade Iraq in 2003. To this day, the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) continue to play the accustomed role as government accomplice suppressing unwelcome news.

So, if you don’t tune in to Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now or read the British press, you will have missed the latest documentary evidence showing that Great Britain’s Lords and Ladies lied about how big oil companies, like BP, lusted after Iraqi oil in the months leading up to the attack on Iraq.

Full Story Here: Surprise, Surprise! Iraq War Was About Oil | Common Dreams.

Still No Escape from Killer Chernobyl

The accident could have served as a wake-up call to the whole of humanity. Twenty-five years ago, on Apr. 26 1986, disaster struck at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear complex in the Ukrainian state of the former Soviet Union.

The accident actually started taking shape in the preceding night, when workers undertook a turbine test that had incompletely been carried out before the nuclear plant became operational. When the test was being carried out, the automatic emergency system was shut down, undermining reactor safety.

During the test also, fuel elements burst, setting off a chain of events which in no time resulted in two powerful explosions. Soon the reactor’s meltdown was a fact, and a huge radioactive cloud spread its contaminating effects over a vast area of the Soviet Union and beyond.

Full Story Here: Still No Escape from Killer Chernobyl | Common Dreams.

Political spending: Much corporate political spending stays hidden

A Times review finds only a few of America’s major energy, healthcare and financial companies fully disclose their political spending.

Despite mounting calls for greater transparency, only a few of the country’s 75 leading energy, healthcare and financial services corporations fully disclose political spending, according to a review of company records and state and federal campaign finance reports.

While complying with legal requirements to report direct donations to candidates, the vast majority of these companies — many of which are seeking legislative favors from the new Congress — do not reveal information even to their shareholders about support for politically active trade associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Groups such as the chamber, some of which spend millions of dollars on elections, are not required to reveal their financial supporters. And companies are not required to report their donations to those groups.

Full Story Here: Political spending: Much corporate political spending stays hidden – latimes.com.

Documents show Florida Gov. Rick Scott behind a push to kill Citizens Insurance

Gov. Rick Scott has secretly pushed to kill Citizens Property Insurance before his first term ends, a goal that alarmed even representatives of private insurance companies seeking to remove Citizens as a competitor, the Herald-Tribune has learned.

In a February meeting with the industry lobbyists writing bills for the upcoming legislative session, documents show that Governor Scott’s top staff sought to force the 1.3 million property owners who now have a policy from the state-run carrier back into the private market, “phasing out Citizens completely.”

The industry lobbyists protested that Florida carriers could not absorb all of Citizens’ business, records show.

The gap would force many Florida property owners to turn to the unregulated surplus lines market, where rates are unchecked and policies are not backed by a state guarantee fund.

Full Story Here: Documents show Florida Gov. Rick Scott behind a push to kill Citizens Insurance | HeraldTribune.com.

GOP Ignores Ronald Reagan’s Trickle-Down Economics Failures

A breakdown of all of the BS the American public has hearing for the last 35+ years from the supply side of the trickle down theory. I am tired of hearing the benefits of giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while our national debt has made the country virtual slaves to foreign countries.

What makes matters worse is that the Republicans/Tea Party wants to give even more.

One Year After Deepwater Horizon – Greg Palast Interview

Investigative journalist Greg Palast joins us to discuss the state of the Gulf of Mexico one year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Welcome to Banktopia

The Real Losers in Bernanke’s Shell Game

By MIKE WHITNEY

Let’s talk turkey. The dollar is getting hammered by the day. And the dollar is getting hammered by design, because the Fed wants a weaker currency to boost exports and lower the real burden of debt on the banks. (Yes, Martha, the banks are still insolvent) So, down goes the greenback, lower and lower, pushing up gas and food prices while the buying power of the average US worker vanishes down the plughole. And this process will continue for the foreseeable future because–as Obama stated earlier in the year–Washington is committed to “doubling exports in the next 5 years.” Think about that: “the next 5 years”. That’s the same as saying that the American worker will be reduced to third-world poverty in a half decade or so. It’s a death sentence.

And none of this has anything to do with lowering unemployment or raising GDP. In fact, the revisions of first quarter GDP reveal the lies behind the policy. The first announcement from the Commerce Department put GDP at 3.2%. Remember that? Now we’ve slipped to 1.4% and some predict the final revision could actually show negative growth. This is from the New York Times:

“Earlier this week we wrote that several prominent economic forecasters had lowered their estimates of gross domestic product growth in the first quarter of this year. Today saw even further declines. Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, lowered its estimate to just 1.4 percent annualized, when just a few months ago they had pegged the number at 4.1 percent.

Full Story Here: Mike Whitney: Welcome to Banktopia.

A Debate on the Future of Nuclear Energy

The crisis in Japan has refueled the global debate about the viability of nuclear power. Democracy Now! hosts a debate today about the future of nuclear energy between British journalist George Monbiot and Dr. Helen Caldicott. Nuclear energy remains a controversial topic in climate change discourse, as environmental activists argue how to best reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere—often the debate pits one non-renewable energy against another as renewable energy technology and research remains underfunded.

Monbiot has written extensively about the environmental and health dangers caused by burning coal for energy, and despite the Fukushima catastrophe, stands behind nuclear power. Caldicott is a world-renowned anti-nuclear advocate who has spent decades warning of the medical hazards posed by nuclear technologies, and while agreeing about the dangers of burning coal, insists the best option is to ban nuclear power.

For the video/audio podcast, transcript, to sign up for the daily news digest, and for Democracy Now!’s vast news archive on reporting on climate change, visit http://www.DemocracyNow.org.

Part2

Natural Gas Drilling Is at a Crucial Turning Point

ProPublica has been covering gas drilling since 2008. When The Guardian asked us to participate in a series it is running about hydraulic fracturing and natural gas, we wrote this analysis of how Europe might learn from the problems we’ve uncovered in the United States.

First, a wave of new natural gas drilling swept across the United States. Mountain and pastoral landscapes were transformed into landscape-scale factories that optimistically promised a century’s worth of clean-burning fuel and a risk-free solution to dependence on imported oil. In 2008, it seemed the ultimate win-win in an era of hard choices.

Later, more sobering facts began to complicate things. The drilling relies on an invasive process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” that uses brute force and dangerous chemicals to crack open the Earth and extract the gas from previously unreachable deep deposits.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Natural Gas Drilling Is at a Crucial Turning Point.

CEOs Collect Raises, Workers Collect Pink Slips, Union PayWatch Finds

While millions of Americans struggled to get back on their feet after the worst economic downturn in decades, chief executive officers of the nation’s largest companies got average pay of $11.4 million in 2010–a 23 percent increase in one year, according to Executive PayWatch, released this week by the AFL-CIO labor organization.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says that the release of the searchable online database is part of a broad campaign to strengthen Wall Street reform, close corporate tax loopholes and “ensure that poor and middle class Americans are no longer required to pay for the greed of corporate CEOs.”

Corporate executive compensation has been a simmering issue nationally in recent years, prompting national outrage in 2009 when big Wall Street firms like American Internatinal Group paid eye-popping bonuses after being rescued by taxpayer-funded bailouts. The nation’s unemployment rate soared to nearly double digits while these bonuses were being paid. Meanwhile, many who are employed find wages stagnating.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: CEOs Collect Raises, Workers Collect Pink Slips, Union PayWatch Finds.

Republicans facing tough questions over Medicare overhaul in budget plan

Anxiety is rising among some Republicans over the party’s embrace of a plan to overhaul Medicare, with GOP lawmakers already starting to face tough questions on the issue at town hall meetings back in their districts.

House leaders have scheduled a Tuesday conference call in which members are expected in part to discuss strategies for defending the vote they took this month on a budget that would transform the popular entitlement program as part of a plan to cut trillions in federal spending.

Full Story Here: Republicans facing tough questions over Medicare overhaul in budget plan – The Washington Post.

Japan’s nuke workers reaching their limit, warns doctor

Workers battling the crisis at Japan’s stricken nuclear plant suffer from insomnia, show signs of dehydration and high blood pressure and are at risk of developing depression or heart trouble, according to a doctor who met with them.

The crews have been fighting to get the radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.

“The conditions at the plant remain harsh,” epidemiologist Takeshi Tanigawa told The Associated Press. “I am afraid that if this continues we will see a growing risk of health problems.”

Full Story Here: Japan’s nuke workers reaching their limit, warns doctor – Japan disaster – NZ Herald News.

Warnings of nuclear disaster not heeded, claims former governor

The former governor of Fukushima province has spoken of his frustration at the failure of the Japanese authorities to heed his warnings over the safety of the power plant that was stricken by the country’s recent earthquake.

The story of Japan’s epic disaster comes with a generous cast of Cassandra figures, the seismologists, conservationists and whistle-blowers ignored by the national nuclear planners. But 71-year-old Eisako Sato may be pre-eminent among them.

As governor of Fukushima Prefecture from 1988-2006 – “roughly half the life of the plant”, he told journalists at Tokyo’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club earlier this week – he was initially an enthusiastic supporter of nuclear power, swayed like his predecessors after the government and utility giant Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) brought his prefecture jobs, subsidies and a chance to contribute to the national good.

Full Story Here: Warnings of nuclear disaster not heeded, claims former governor – Asia, World – The Independent.

America’s so-called “job creators” have fired 2.9 million workers since 2001 – then hired more than 2.4 million workers overseas

| Thom Hartmann :-:

Who’s screwed? The American worker. Our economy is infected with joblessness – yet America’s so-called “job creators” – some of the biggest corporations in the country – aren’t putting Americans back to work. Instead, they’re putting Chinese and Mexicans to work. According to a new report by the Wall Street Journal – corporate giants: General Electric – Caterpillar – Microsoft – Wal-Mart – Chevron – Cisco – Intel – Stanley Works – Merck – United Technologies – and Oracle…all American corporations – have fired 2.9 million American workers since 2001 – then hired more than 2.4 million workers overseas.

Full Story Here: America’s so-called “job creators” have fired 2.9 million workers since 2001 – then hired more than 2.4 million workers overseas | Thom Hartmann – News & info from the #1 progressive radio show.

Capitalsim, The Illusion Of Freedom

George Carlin. Video

YouTube – Capitalsim, The Illusion Of Freedom.

Conservative Strategists Warn GOP About Economic Risks Of Pushing Debt Ceiling Debate Too Far

Conservative strategists are warning that the GOP should not push the debt ceiling debate too close to the breaking point.

“If there is a vote on raising the debt ceiling and it fails, there will be a significant market reaction,” said Tony Fratto, a former Treasury and White House official in the Bush administration. “Investors already believe that Congress doesn’t understand the financial markets. A failure to raise the debt ceiling will confirm this to them.”

If the markets get spooked, U.S. treasury bond yields will spike, driving up interest rates and increasing the price of borrowing money for everyone from the federal government to municipalities to consumers, Fratto warned. The cascading effects on the economy would be severe and long-lasting.

Full Story Here: Conservative Strategists Warn GOP About Economic Risks Of Pushing Debt Ceiling Debate Too Far.

The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand

Video:

A film adaptation of the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, opened this past Friday. The release of the film has coincided with a resurgence of popularity for Rand on the American Right. The trailer for Atlas Shrugged had its world premier at this year’s CPAC conference, the Tea Party group FreedomWorks has rolled out a massive campaign to promote the film, and the story’s opening line — “Who is John Galt?” — has appeared on numerous signs at Tea Party rallies.

At the same time, some of the right’s leading political and media lights have heaped praise upon Rand. The author of the Republicans’ new budget plan to gut Medicare and Medicaid, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), has said Rand is the reason he entered politics, and requires his staff to read her work. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) have both declared themselves devotees of her writing. Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has his law clerks watch the film adaptation of Rand’s book The Fountainhead. She’s also received accolades from right-wing pundits Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, John Stossel, and Andrew Napolitano.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » [UPDATED] VIDEO: The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand.