Archive for April, 2011
Dr. Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist: Fukishima Daiichi Nuclear Facility is a “Ticking Time Bomb”
What is the matter with Barack Obama? Rather than leave the retired and disgraced Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the dustbin of military history after an indiscreet magazine interview, the president has resurrected him to oversee the administration’s new initiative to help military families.
What a slap in the face to the nation’s highest-profile military family—that of Army Ranger Pat Tillman—on whom McChrystal heaped misery and disrespect by assisting in the fabrication of the circumstances surrounding Tillman’s death.
On Tuesday, after the president announced the Joining Forces initiative, led by first lady Michelle Obama and the vice president’s wife, Jill Biden, ABC correspondent Jake Tapper asked White House spokesman Jay Carney the obvious question:
Budget Bill Helps 9/11 Responders
The new budget passed by Congress Thursday fixes a legislative gaffe that could have killed a new program that helps ailing 9/11 responders.
The problem was that the new James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act — passed in a bitter fight last December — included no way to pay for administration of the compensation fund, a cost likely to run to tens of millions of dollars.
That’s because the measure was modeled on the old 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund law that helped people in the years right after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Full Story Here: Budget Bill Helps 9/11 Responders.
Scott Walker Admits Union-Busting Provision ‘Doesn’t Save Any’ Money For The State Of Wisconsin
Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called Govs. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Peter Shumlin (D-VT) to testify in a hearing titled “State and Municipal Debt: Tough Choices Ahead.” Much of the hearing was spent probing Wisconsin’s spate of anti-union restrictions it recently passed.
At one point, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) confronted Walker about his crackdown on public employee unions. The congressman referenced a provision Walker signed into law that would require union members to vote every year to continue their membership. Kucinich asked the governor how much money the state would save from the provision. Walker repeatedly dodged the question and eventually admitted that it actually wouldn’t save anything at all.
Kucinich then asked Walker how much money would be saved by barring union dues from being drawn from employee paychecks, another provision of Walker’s legislation. Walker claimed that it would save workers money, but was unable to explain how it would save the state any money. Kucinich then produced a document from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state’s equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office, that concluded that Walker’s measures were “nonfiscal” — meaning they had no impact on the state’s finances. Kucinich asked that the letter be included in the public record, but Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) refused:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Scott Walker Admits Union-Busting Provision ‘Doesn’t Save Any’ Money For The State Of Wisconsin.
As Revenues Plunge To 60-Year Low, GOP Congressman Claims ‘We Have Too Much Revenue’
Appearing on MSNBC’s Jansing and Co. this morning, Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) ran into some problems defending a GOP talking point when he claimed that the federal government has “too much” tax revenue coming in:
ROKITA: Washington does not have a revenue shortage problem, it has a spending problem. [...]
JANSING: I know that’s a talking point, I’ve heard it from every Republcian. The whole revenue/spending thing. But when I read indepdent economist’s analyses, they say you need to do both.
ROKITA: I don’t think so. … Again, we don’t have — we have too much revenue as it is. We spend to much.
Watch it
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » As Revenues Plunge To 60-Year Low, GOP Congressman Claims ‘We Have Too Much Revenue’.
9 Things The Rich Don’t Want You To Know About Taxes
For three decades we have conducted a massive economic experiment, testing a theory known as supply-side economics. The theory goes like this: Lower tax rates will encourage more investment, which in turn will mean more jobs and greater prosperity—so much so that tax revenues will go up, despite lower rates. The late Milton Friedman, the libertarian economist who wanted to shut down public parks because he considered them socialism, promoted this strategy. Ronald Reagan embraced Friedman’s ideas and made them into policy when he was elected president in 1980.
For the past decade, we have doubled down on this theory of supply-side economics with the tax cuts sponsored by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, which President Obama has agreed to continue for two years.
You would think that whether this grand experiment worked would be settled after three decades. You would think the practitioners of the dismal science of economics would look at their demand curves and the data on incomes and taxes and pronounce a verdict, the way Galileo and Copernicus did when they showed that geocentrism was a fantasy because Earth revolves around the sun (known as heliocentrism). But economics is not like that. It is not like physics with its laws and arithmetic with its absolute values.
Full Story Here: 9 Things The Rich Don’t Want You To Know About Taxes.
What Stanley McChrystal Did to Pat Tillman’s Family
What is the matter with Barack Obama? Rather than leave the retired and disgraced Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the dustbin of military history after an indiscreet magazine interview, the president has resurrected him to oversee the administration’s new initiative to help military families.
What a slap in the face to the nation’s highest-profile military family—that of Army Ranger Pat Tillman—on whom McChrystal heaped misery and disrespect by assisting in the fabrication of the circumstances surrounding Tillman’s death.
On Tuesday, after the president announced the Joining Forces initiative, led by first lady Michelle Obama and the vice president’s wife, Jill Biden, ABC correspondent Jake Tapper asked White House spokesman Jay Carney the obvious question:
Full Story Here: What Stanley McChrystal Did to Pat Tillman’s Family – Truthdig.
Balanced-budget plan: How Congress could cut the deficit to zero in eight years by literally doing nothing.
How Congress can balance the budget in eight years by literally doing nothing. This is not a joke.
The Simpson-Bowles blue-ribbon deficit commission longs to slash Social Security and defense spending. The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Alice Rivlin and Peter Domenici yearn for a value-added tax. Rep. Paul Ryan’s politically deft, economically daft plan conspires to shift the burden of health care spending, cut taxes for the rich, and make up the difference with fantastical supply-side growth assumptions. And President Obama is likely to embrace the Simpson-Bowles recommendations when he announces his long-term budget plan on Wednesday.
One might think that we need all of these big plans, these grand bargains, because of the enormity of the fiscal challenge the country faces. The United States is swimming in a sea of red ink, with trillion-dollar annual deficits and an unfathomably gigantic cumulative debt.
But the truth is we don’t need any of these plans. Every one of them is entirely unnecessary for balancing the budget and eventually reducing the debt. They may even be counterproductive. Thus, Slate proposes the Do-Nothing Plan for Deficit Reduction, a meek, cowardly effort to wrest the country back into the black. The overarching principle of the Do-Nothing Plan is this: Leave everything as is. Current law stands, and spending and revenue levels continue according to the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline projections. Everyone walks away. Paul Ryan goes fishing. Sen. Harry Reid kicks back with a ginger ale. The rest of Congress gets back to bickering about mammograms. Miraculously, the budget just balances itself, in about a decade.
Full Story Here: Balanced-budget plan: How Congress could cut the deficit to zero in eight years by literally doing nothing. – By Annie Lowrey – Slate Magazine.
Revealed: Confidential Document Shows Oil Company’s Strategy to Con Landowners into Giving up Drilling Rights
Want to see a page (or 5) right out of the oil industry’s playbook?
AlterNet recently received a document through a tip that appears to be right out of the playbook of an oil company. The document lays out the strategy for their field agents to convince landowners to give up drilling rights — despite how risky this may be for the landowners. We’re working on verifying its authenticity, but wanted to give our readers a chance to take a look and make your own assessment. (You can read the whole document here.) We’re not sure yet if this did indeed come from a gas company, nor which one, but if so, the information sure is damning.
Called, “Talking Points for Selling Oil and Gas Lease Rights,” the document begins by saying it is designed for Field Agents to outline what to say to commonly asked questions, and more importantly, how to avoid answering the hard ones. And it cautions, “Remember, if at all possible try not to deliberately mislead the landowner, that only makes our position harder to defend at a later date.” Right — that gets a little less believable as you read on.
Full Story Here: Revealed: Confidential Document Shows Oil Company’s Strategy to Con Landowners into Giving up Drilling Rights | Environment | AlterNet.
Evangelical Liberty University received half a billion dollars in federal aid money
One conservative college got more government cash than NPR last year
Liberty University, the evangelical private Christian school founded by dead apartheid-supporting bigot Jerry Falwell, received $445 million in federal financial aid last year. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the way, received $420 million from the federal government.
That massive sum was thanks to the growth of Liberty’s online program, which enrolled 52,000 students last year. The school is the No. 1 recipient of Pell grant money in the state of Virginia. While it may seem like the federal government is basically subsidizing this formerly financially challenged ultra-conservative religious private school, LU’s executive director of financial aid sees it differently:
For Ritz — a financial aid veteran who got his start at a small Bible college — Liberty’s use of federal financial aid does not run counter to the university’s conservative values. Liberty does not receive the federal money directly, Ritz said, but through students, who use it to pay for tuition, room and board and other expenses.
“These funds are authorized by Congress and Congress is elected by voters. . . I’ve always been in the position where I believe I’m a steward of those federal funds. I’m a steward of tax-payer money.”
Full Story Here: Evangelical Liberty University received half a billion dollars in federal aid money – War Room – Salon.com.
The Real Housewives of Wall Street
Matt Taibbi
Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?
America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about. According to popular legend, we’re broke and in so much debt that 40 years from now our granddaughters will still be hooking on weekends to pay the medical bills of this year’s retirees from the IRS, the SEC and the Department of Energy.
Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?
Most Americans know about that budget. What they don’t know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the “official” budget in size — a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology.
Full Story Here: The Real Housewives of Wall Street | Rolling Stone Politics.
GE to Build Solar Panel Production Facility
The head of president’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Jeffrey Immelt, who is also CEO of General Electric, announced plans to build a major solar panel production facility in the U.S.
After catching bad press last week about its tax situation, this announcement marks a welcome turn from GE’s usual policy of offshoring manufacturing and tax revenues. Due to convoluted financial math, despite making a $5 billion profit in 2010, GE paid no taxes because of capital and stock losses.
While a specific site has not been selected yet, it is confirmed that the plant will be in America, and that it will develop a 400 MW thin film solar panel production facility. GE estimates the solar cells will power 80,000 homes a year.
Full Story Here: GE to Build Solar Panel Production Facility | Economy In Crisis.
Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst: Level 7
The Japanese government’s nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision on Monday. It says the damaged facilities have been releasing a massive amount of radioactive substances, which are posing a threat to human health and the environment over a wide area.
The agency used the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, or INES, to gauge the level. The scale was designed by an international group of experts to indicate the significance of nuclear events with ratings of 0 to 7.
On March 18th, one week after the massive quake, the agency declared the Fukushima trouble a level 5 incident, the same as the accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979.
Full Story Here: NHK WORLD English.
IRS Funding Cut Days Before Report Shows $330 Billion In Uncollected Taxes
As part of the budget deal hashed out on Friday evening, lawmakers agreed that no additional federal funds would be used to hire new IRS agents.
Then on Monday, the Government Accountability Office publicly released a study showing that, as of the end of fiscal year 2010, roughly $330 billion in federal taxes had never been paid — an amount that, if collected, would represent nearly nine times the amount of savings as the budget itself.
The dual developments aren’t shocking. Despite evidence that a single dollar spent on enforcing the tax code could result in up to ten dollars in revenue, politicians, naturally, are reluctant to align themselves with tax collectors. And yet, the sacrificing of funds for IRS agents in the continuing resolution deal underscores a particular problem that seems bound to confront fiscally conscious lawmakers.
Full Story Here: IRS Funding Cut Days Before Report Shows $330 Billion In Uncollected Taxes.
REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001
A new report released today by SIPRI, a Swedish-based think tank, reveals that U.S. military spending has almost doubled since 2001. The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade.
U.S. spending on the military last year far exceeded any other country. We spent six times more than China — the second largest spender. Overall, the world expended $1.6 trillion on the military, with the United States accounting for the lion’s share:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001.
Ohio Lawmakers To Introduce Bill To Recall GOP Gov. John Kasich
Last month, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s (R) approval ratings plummeted to 30 percent after just two months in office. Kasich has repeatedly balked at transparency, reneged on his own promises to vulnerable constituents, insulted law enforcement and minorities, and muscled through a highly unpopular anti-union bill that dramatically restricts 350,000 workers’ rights.
In response to Kasich’s disastrous reign, Democratic state Reps. Mike Foley and Bob Hagan will introduce legislation this week to make Ohio the 20th state to allow voters to remove and replace state officials, including the governor and legislators. The legislation requires a petition signed by 15 percent of the votes cast for that office in the last election. In Kasich’s case, they would need more than 577,870 signatures. While acknowledging that the bill is unlikely to pass in a GOP-led legislature, Hagan said Ohioans deserved a chance to recall a governor who is “hurting the people in this state”:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Ohio Lawmakers To Introduce Bill To Recall GOP Gov. John Kasich.
Major CEO Donor To Walker Charged With Two Felony Counts Of Illegal Campaign Contributions
A top donor to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) gubernatorial campaign has been charged with multiple violations of campaign finance law, reports the Associated Press. Prosecutors today have charged William Gardner, the CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Company, with one count of excessive political donations and another related to unlawful political contributions. Prosecutors claim Gardner used his employees and family members to funnel $44,000 to Walker during the GOP primary. He is accused of then illegally reimbursing the donors with company money. Walker has returned the contributions. Notably, prosecutors charged Gardner because the law prohibits direct donations from corporations to candidate committees. However, the Citizens United decision allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts in support of a candidate for office. If Gardner had funneled the company donations through a group like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or another front group, or if his company had taken out ads in support of Walker, his actions would not have attracted legal scrutiny.
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Major CEO Donor To Walker Charged With Two Felony Counts Of Illegal Campaign Contributions.
Owned By The World’s Largest ‘Charity’ Organization To Dodge Taxes, IKEA Thwarts Union Organizing
Three years after an IKEA factory moved to the small blue collar town of Danville, VA, the international furniture giant has become the center of a union battle, racial discrimination complaints, and high turnover from disgruntled employees.
Workers at the Danville IKEA plant say they are forced to work at a frantic pace, participate in mandatory overtime — possibly facing disciplinary action for not showing up — and raises have been eliminated. Six African American employees have filed discrimination complaints, claiming that they were assigned to the least-wanted third shift and forced to work in the lowest-paying departments. Moreover, while making a profit of $2.2 billion in 2009 and a 7 percent sales increase in 2010, the hourly wage in the Virginia IKEA packing department was slashed from $9.75 to $8.00. Attempts at forming a union have also been thwarted by IKEA, as some of the 335 IKEA workers in Virginia signed cards expressing interest in forming a union with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. But, in response, IKEA hired the law firm Jackson Lewis — known for keeping unions out of companies — and workers were required to attend meetings where the management highly discouraged union membership.
A colossal difference exists between IKEA laborers in Sweden and Virginia:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Owned By The World’s Largest ‘Charity’ Organization To Dodge Taxes, IKEA Thwarts Union Organizing.
The president who cried wolf on taxes
Obama says it’s time to roll back Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. And we should believe him this time because …?
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” senior White House advisor David Plouffe declared that, as part of the president’s new deficit reduction plan, to be unveiled later this week, Obama plans to call for ending the Bush tax cuts on Americans who earn more than $250,000 a year.
[The president] has said he believes taxes on the higher income, people over $250,000, should eventually go up. … I think the president’s goal, and he’s been clear about this, is to protect the middle class as we move forward here. So people like him, as he’ll say, who’ve been very fortunate in life, have the ability to pay a little bit more. Now, under the Republican Congressional plan, people over $250,000 get over a trillion in tax relief. So this is the important thing, you’re making a choice. You’re asking seniors and the middle class to pay more. You wouldn’t be having to do that if you weren’t giving the very, very wealthiest in this country just enormous tax relief.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. “Rolling back” the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy was an oft-repeated line in Obama’s 2008 campaign stump speech. And as recently as September 2010, Obama gave a speech in Cleveland in which he savaged Republican support for the cuts.
Full Story Here: The president who cried wolf on taxes – How the World Works – Salon.com.
Japan nuclear crisis may be on par with Chernobyl
Japan is considering raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on a par with the Chernobyl accident 25 years ago, the worst atomic power disaster in history, Kyodo news agency reported today (NZ time).
The report came as the government expanded an evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant because of the high levels of accumulated radiation since a 15-metre tsunami ripped through the complex a month ago, causing massive damage to its reactors which engineers are still struggling to control.
The Kyodo report said that the high levels of radiation that have been released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant meant it could raise the severity level from 5 to the highest 7, the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
Full Story Here: Japan nuclear crisis may be on par with Chernobyl | Stuff.co.nz.
The Link Between War and Big Finance
Veterans For Peace has joined in endorsing “Sounds of Resistance,” a concert and protest against Wall Street banks that draws the connections between militarism, Wall Street, the wealth divide and the downward spiral of the wealth of most Americans. The event, on April 15 at 11:00 a.m. in New York City’s Union Square Park, is part of a democratic awakening that more and more Americans are joining.
Americans are recognizing the link between the military-industrial complex and the Wall Street oligarchs—a connection that goes back to the beginning of the modern U.S. empire. Banks have always profited from war because the debt created by banks results in ongoing war profit for big finance; and because wars have been used to open countries to U.S. corporate and banking interests. Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan wrote: “the large banking interests were deeply interested in the world war because of the wide opportunities for large profits.”
Full Story Here: The Link Between War and Big Finance | Truthout.
OPS: One to file under: no shit sherlock
Obama embraces Republican assault on social programs for workers and the poor
The Mask just came off.
The budget agreement reached between the White House and congressional Republicans late Friday night puts the Obama administration’s stamp of approval on a reactionary program of cutting spending on vital social services for working people, the elderly and the poor, four months after a similar bipartisan agreement to cut taxes for the wealthy. The result is a vast redistribution of wealth upwards, from working people to the millionaires and billionaires.
Obama’s remarks Friday night after the budget agreement was reached, and then again Saturday in his weekly Internet/radio address, fully embraced the argument of the ultra-right that the principal task of the federal government is to cut spending. “Deficit reduction,” as defined by the spokesmen for big business, means forcing the working class to pay for the bailout of Wall Street, tax cuts for the rich and three imperialist wars, through reductions in jobs, living standards and public services.
In his weekly address, Obama justified the cave-in to the Republicans under threat of a partial shutdown of the federal government, calling the agreement to cut spending “good news for the American people.” Obama boasted, “This is an agreement to invest in our country’s future while making the largest annual spending cut in our history.”
Full Story Here: Obama embraces Republican assault on social programs for workers and the poor.
Obama Is Missing
Paul Krugman :-:
What have they done with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his supporters thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular?
I realize that with hostile Republicans controlling the House, there’s not much Mr. Obama can get done in the way of concrete policy. Arguably, all he has left is the bully pulpit. But he isn’t even using that — or, rather, he’s using it to reinforce his enemies’ narrative.
His remarks after last week’s budget deal were a case in point.
Maybe that terrible deal, in which Republicans ended up getting more than their opening bid, was the best he could achieve — although it looks from here as if the president’s idea of how to bargain is to start by negotiating with himself, making pre-emptive concessions, then pursue a second round of negotiation with the G.O.P., leading to further concessions.
Full Story Here: Obama Is Missing – NYTimes.com.
400 super rich Americans control more wealth in the country than 150 million other Americans
Thom Hartmann :-:
Even though a government shutdown was averted – working class people will still be screwed over in America. A new report by Wealth for the Common Good shows that the 400 richest people in America – our nation’s oligarchs – have never had it so good and are paying the lowest taxes ever in their lifetimes.
Those 400 super rich Americans control more wealth in the country than 150 million other Americans, and yet are effectively taxed at a rate of just over 16% while the rest of spay up to 35% plus higher levels of sales, property, and other taxes. To put that in perspective These 400 rich oligarchs effective tax rate has dropped by more than 2/3 since Dwight Eisenhower’s administration – while the rate for working people has nearly doubled. Rich people get a 2/3 tax cut over the last 50 years – working people get screwed with a 100% tax hike.
Full Story Here: 400 super rich Americans control more wealth in the country than 150 million other Americans | Thom Hartmann – News & info from the #1 progressive radio show.
Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System
Chris Hedges :-:
A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.
Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers—those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential—and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point. The No Child Left Behind program, modeled on the “Texas Miracle,” is a fraud. It worked no better than our deregulated financial system. But when you shut out debate these dead ideas are self-perpetuating.
Full Story Here: Chris Hedges: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.
Radiation Does Not Spread in Circles
That’s a quote from Greenpeace
Japan has expanded the evacuation zone around its crippled nuclear plant due to high levels of radiation, as a strong aftershock hit the area exactly a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
A magnitude 6.6 tremor shook buildings in Tokyo and a wide swathe of eastern Japan today, knocking out power to 220,000 households and causing a halt to water pumping to cool three damaged reactors at Fukushima.
The epicentre of the latest quake was 88km east of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and stopped power supply for pumping water to cool three of its reactors. The aftershock also forced engineers to postpone plans to remove highly contaminated water from a trench at a fourth reactor.
Full Story Here: Radiation Does Not Spread in Circles | Kmareka.com.
Truly EPIC EPIC EPIC Democratic Fail
Letting the mantel of fiscal responsibility be grabbed by the Tea Party and Republican Conservatives.
Even calling that an epic fails to capture the magnitude of that failure. Each and every Republican who opens their mouth to decry the growing deficit should immediately be laughed off the stage if they voted for or advocate continued increased tax cuts for the rich. They pound their chests and fight to cut 80 billion dollars in expenses one day while brazenly calling for cutting 5 trillion dollars from revenue the next day. Then they blame Democrats for not caring about balancing the budget. And they still get taken seriously and treated as sincere advocates for government living within its means, even by the President.
That in nonsense, that is lunacy. That is as blatant a con job as stores that hike prices 100% and then hold 50% off sales, and EVERY American knows enough about balancing a check book to know that Republicans are blowing smoke when they claim the key to fiscal solvency is simply tightening the belt on spending. Americans know about having fixed expenses. They know what it feels like when the knife hits the bone, and before they let that happen they scramble to generate more income; even if it means the sacrifice of having to work extra days each week.
And even if no additional work can be found there is one thing NO American family will resort to after they already eliminated lunches and still can’t make their mortgage. They won’t ask their employer to please reduce their hours at work and voluntarily cut their income further.
Full Story Here: Tom Rinaldo’s Journal – Truly EPIC EPIC EPIC Democratic Fail.
The Budgets and the Unemployed
When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.
— Attributed to Calvin Coolidge
The unemployed in many states have been given what they, at least, hope is a once in a lifetime opportunity to help the states and federal government solve their budgetary problems, an opportunity that hunger and homelessness may keep them from fully appreciating.
Michigan led the way when on March 29th Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill that says beginning January 2012 the number of weeks the unemployed will receive benefits will drop from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. It is estimated this will save the state $300 million each year. Since Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at more than 10%, a significant number of its citizens will be given the opportunity beginning next year to participate in bringing government spending under control. They will also be benefitting those who might employ them, according to supporters of the legislation, since reducing the unemployment benefits will reduce the unemployment taxes paid by employers. It is a win-win situation although the employers will appreciate it somewhat more than the unemployed. Michigan is not the only state addressing the issue.
Florida boasts an unemployment rate of 11.5% and its House of Representative proposes to not only reduce the number of weeks for which unemployment benefits will be paid from 26 to 20 weeks but to provide that if the unemployment rate falls the number of weeks that benefits are paid also falls. If the rate drops to below 5% members of the below 5% group will only be able to collect unemployment benefits for 12 weeks. It is not clear why those who remain unemployed when the rate drops should pay a price for the good fortune of the 6.5% who are no longer a member of their club. Supporters of the House version say by reducing the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, businesses will do more hiring. The unemployed will eagerly await that outcome. (This proposal is not yet law. The Florida Senate has passed a less restrictive version of reform that neither shortens the number of weeks of payments nor penalizes recipients of unemployment as the rate of unemployment falls. Negotiations between the two chambers will determine how it will end up.) Meanwhile in the mid-West there’s the “Show Me” state-Missouri.
Full Story Here: The Budgets and the Unemployed | Common Dreams.
Count Every Vote
Wisconsin Common Cause:-:
Many voters went to sleep in Wisconsin and thought they woke up in Florida on Friday after a “Republican activist” county clerk announced that she discovered an extra 14,315 votes in a hotly contested Supreme Court race. Not surprisingly, the votes went to the conservative candidate giving incumbent justice David Prosser a 7,500 vote lead over challenger Joanne Kloppenburg. Oddly, 7500 was the exact number of votes Prosser needed to avoid a statewide recount.
The Supreme Court race has garnered national attention as a proxy vote on Governor Scott Walker’s radical proposal to end collective bargaining in the state and cut a billion dollars from public schools.
Long Time Republican Apparatchik
The county clerk in question is long-time Republican apparatchik Kathy Nickolaus. Nickolaus got her start in GOP politics in 1995, when the Republican Speaker of the Assembly was — that’s right — David Prosser. She worked for Prosser’s Republican Assembly Caucus, one of four GOP and Democratic legislative groups that were shut down following a criminal investigation for illegal campaign activity on state time.
Full Story Here: Wisconsin Common Cause: Count Every Vote | Center for Media and Democracy.
As One-Month Tsunami Anniversary Approaches, Japan’s Nuclear Fears Far From Over
In the Japanese city of Minamisoma, just 18 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the Tsunakawa family has returned to retrieve pets and other belongings from their home.
The family was forced to flee after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant, causing radiation leaks and rendering their town and others nearby part of a nuclear evacuation area.
Minamisoma looks like a dead zone, with police in protective suits continuing to search for bodies of people killed in the disaster. The Tsunakawas are one of the few families to risk a trip back to their homes.
Sadamu Tsunakawa, who is 62, has been living with his wife in an evacuation center north of the evacuation zone. But he says he is hopeful he can soon return to his home for good.
Full Story Here: As One-Month Tsunami Anniversary Approaches, Japan’s Nuclear Fears Far From Over | Common Dreams.
Lawsuit: Credit score sites mislead consumers
Confused about your credit score and where to get it? That’s intentional, according to a new lawsuit filed in a California federal court.
Many consumers who think they are buying a peek at their credit scores are being defrauded, according to a lawsuit against credit bureau giant Experian. The case, which seeks class action status, claims that Experian is intentionally confusing customers, engaging in false advertising and not giving consumers what they pay for when they sign up for services at the firm’s popular FreeCreditReport.com and FreeCreditScore.com Web sites.
“It’s a classic consumer fraud case,” said David Woodward, one of the lawyers who filed the case. “The law is designed to prohibit exactly this kind of egregious advertising practice. … The defendant is profiting from deception.”
Full Story Here: Lawsuit: Credit score sites mislead consumers – The Red Tape Chronicles – msnbc.com.
Fukushima Radioactive Dumping Continues
Japan fails to stop radioactive discharge into ocean
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese nuclear power plant operator TEPCO expects to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean on Monday, days later than planned, a step that would help ease international concern about the spread of radiation from a smashed nuclear plant.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s Democratic Party was likely to be punished at Sunday’s local polls for his handling of the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, killing 13,000 and triggering the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Full Story Here: Fukushima Radioactive Dumping Continues | Kmareka.com.
Why Progressives Keep On Losing and the Right Keeps On Winning
Congratulations! The “grand compromise” will cut nearly thirty nine billion dollars in needed government spending, which proves how “serious” everyone is about reducing the deficit. The grand compromisers could have cancelled the next ten years of tax subsidies for oil companies and cut the deficit by forty billion, but apparently that’s not how serious people do things.
If the Republican Party were singing to its base today, the song would be the theme from Friends, “I’ll Be There For You.” And the Democrats would be singing “You Always Hurt the One You Love.” We’re being told we should celebrate a “compromise” in which Democrats gave up $38.5 billion in spending cuts, when the original Republican demand was for $32 billion. That means the Democrats only gave the Republicans 20% more (20.2135%, to be precise) than they originally demanded.
Okay, guys. You get an extra 20% — and not a penny more!
Full Story Here: Richard (RJ) Eskow: Why Progressives Keep On Losing and the Right Keeps On Winning.
Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold The Nation Hostage Again and Again
Robert Reich :-:
When I was a small boy I was bullied more than most, mainly because I was a foot shorter than than everyone else. They demanded the cupcake my mother had packed in my lunchbox, or, they said, they’d beat me up. After a close call in the boy’s room, I paid up. Weeks later, they demanded half my sandwich as well. I gave in to that one, too. But I could see what was coming next. They’d demand everything else. Somewhere along the line I decided I’d have a take a stand. The fight wasn’t pleasant. But the bullies stopped their bullying.
I hope the President decides he has to take a stand, and the sooner the better. Last December he caved in to Republican demands that the Bush tax cut be extended to wealthier Americans for two more years, at a cost of more than $60 billion. That was only the beginning — the equivalent of my cupcake.
Last night he gave away more than half the sandwich — $39 billion less than was budgeted for 2010, $79 billion less than he originally requested. Non-defense discretionary spending — basically, everything from roads and bridges to schools and innumerable programs for the poor — has been slashed.
Full Story Here: Robert Reich (Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold The Nation Hostage Again and Again).
Judge Blocks Deal To Lift Wolves’ Endangered Species Protections In 2 States
A federal judge has denied a proposed settlement agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 10 conservation groups that would have lifted endangered species protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula on Saturday rejected the agreement that could have led to public hunting of some 1,300 wolves in the two states.
In the 24-page decision, Molloy cited the court’s lack of authority to put part of an endangered species population under state management and expose that population to hunting, noting “Congress has clearly determined that animals on the ESA must be protected as such,” and the court couldn’t “exercise its discretion to allow what Congress forbids.”
Full Story Here: Judge Donald Molloy Blocks Deal To Lift Wolves’ Endangered Species Protections In 2 States.
Foods That Might Be Causing Bad Breath
Many of us love some spice in our meals. Spicy food, curry, spices, hot sauce and other hot food can really add some pizazz to a meal (and your taste buds), but afterwards you may end up with a case of halitosis, heartburn and indigestion. Does that mean lay off the spicy foods all together? No! In fact, according to a recent article, there are dozens of spicy food challenges all over the United States.
This year at the Fiery Food Challenge Awards in Irving, Texas, a Tampa native took first place for her chipotle sauce (reports Tampa Bay Online). Her other entries that were awarded prizes include her Chai Chipotle Cocktail, Chai Chipotle Chup, Chai Curry Chup and Garlic Goodness hot sauce. How do spicy foods lead to bad breath? The immediate effect is that they leave a film of spices on the tongue whose odors are exhaled with every breath. An after-effect could be caused by capsaicin in peppers. Capsaicin is the chemical compound that gives spicy food its “hot” taste and feel.
Full Story Here: Dr. Harold Katz: Foods That Might Be Causing Bad Breath.
Wisconsin Election Bombshell: How Plausible?
Perhaps the most convincing evidence so far that human error explains the initial omission of Brookfield’s results comes from our colleagues at the Brookfield Patch. On election night, they reported a vote total for Brookfield that exactly matches the vote total Kathy Nickolaus did not include in the County level count until Thursday. As Joe Petrie and Lisa Sink of the Brookfield Patch reported on Thursday (via Mickey Kaus):
On election night, the City of Brookfield reported that Prosser received 10,859 votes from city residents, or 76 percent of the vote, compared to the 3,456 votes cast for challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. The Brookfield Patch reported those numbers in a story with chart posted about 12:30 a.m. election night.
[Brookfield City Clerk Kristine] Schmidt said her office also posted the results on the city’s web site before going home on election night.
WASHINGTON — Faith in America’s electoral-tabulation processes took a hit late this week when a Wisconsin county clerk who announced a bombshell correction: nearly 15,000 missed votes, which dramatically upended the state’s supreme court race.
Full Story Here: Wisconsin Election Bombshell: How Plausible?.
Iceland Again Rejects Debt Deal To Repay UK, Dutch
Voters in Iceland have rejected a government-approved deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands $5 billion for their citizens’ deposits in the failed online bank Icesave, referendum results showed Sunday.
With about 90 percent of the votes counted, the “no” side had 59.1 percent of the votes and the “yes” side 40.9 percent.
The result reflects Icelanders’ anger at having to pay for the excesses of their bankers, and complicates the country’s recovery from its 2008 economic collapse.
Full Story Here: Iceland Again Rejects Debt Deal To Repay UK, Dutch.
Is There Really a Genius in All of Us?
Books and articles that emphasize the “non-cognitive” determinants of genius and elite performance are all the rage these days. (I put “non-cognitive” in quotes, because the line between “cognitive” and “non-cognitive” traits is much more blurred than popular journalists make out. I’ll write more on that in later posts.)
A recent book on the topic (which has just been released in paperback) is David Shenk’s book “The Genius in All of Us: New Insights Into Genetics, Talent, and IQ.” To be fair, the book hits the mark in so many ways. Shenk does a great job reviewing some of the cutting-edge research on epigenetics, and he does a service emphasizing the importance of nature/nurture interactions. Like Jonah Lehrer (see his latest Wall Street Journal article “Measurements that Mislead”) and other journalists writing on this topic, Shenk discusses the important role of deliberate practice, grit and character. I also love the idea that because we don’t know at any point in time the full range of a person’s potential, we should help everyone maximize their potential. This is all great stuff, and it’s backed by solid data. There is no doubt: a person’s environment matters quite a lot, and skills and dispositions other than those those that standardized tests measure contribute to greatness.
Full Story Here: Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D.: Is There Really a Genius in All of Us?.
Pentagon Having Second Thoughts On Iraq Withdrawal
Eight months shy of its deadline for pulling the last American soldier from Iraq and closing the door on an 8-year war, the Pentagon is having second thoughts.
Reluctant to say it publicly, officials fear a final pullout in December could create a security vacuum, offering an opportunity for power grabs by antagonists in an unresolved and simmering Arab-Kurd dispute, a weakened but still active al-Qaida or even an adventurous neighbor such as Iran.
The U.S. wants to keep perhaps several thousand troops in Iraq, not to engage in combat but to guard against an unraveling of a still-fragile peace. This was made clear during Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ visit Thursday and Friday in which he and the top U.S. commander in Iraq talked up the prospect of an extended U.S. stay.
Full Story Here: Pentagon Having Second Thoughts On Iraq Withdrawal.
Bill Maher: America Needs “A Class War”
“This is bullshit, and I want my money back.“
Bill Maher was his usual understated self on Real Time tonight, urging everyday Americans to begin “a class war” on Wall Street. And he illustrated the need for such a fight by drawing a comparison to the backlash received by one Charlie Sheen after his disastrous show in Detroit. And as much as we groaned initially about having to hear Sheen’s name again, we’ll admit Maher got in some good lines.
Here was the common ground Maher found between what Sheen’s Detroit audience said, and what America as a whole should say: “This is bullshit, and I want my money back.” And after a mini-digression into the idiocy of paying to go see Sheen, Maher circled back around to the class topic:
video at link
Full Story Here: Bill Maher | Ch
arlie Sheen | Class War | Mediaite.
Jon Stewart’s epic Glenn Beck parody will ‘f*ck your ears with the truth’
Jon Stewart, long a hair-clutching foil to Glenn Beck’s hysterics, delivered an epic final blow to the conservative pundit Thursday night. In response to the revelation that Beck would be “transitioning out of his show” later this year, Stewart adopted Beck’s format instead of The Daily Show’s usual cold open, to great effect.
Stewart spent four segments (embedded below) “telling the truth while wearing glasses” and “f*cking your ears with the truth” while theorizing on reasons for Beck’s departure (the world is ending, Jesus is coming, etc.).
Sit back and Stewart’s genius eulogy for Beck’s hysteria. This footage originally aired on Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart on April 7, 2011.
>video at link<
Full Story Here: Jon Stewart’s epic Glenn Beck parody will ‘f*ck your ears with the truth’ | Raw Replay.
Evidence against 9/11 plotters revealed
US prosecutors compiled lots of evidence against the five men accused of having organized the September 11 attacks on the United States, but not until this week have details been fully revealed.
The indictment charging self-professed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others was unsealed when US Attorney General Eric Holder referred the case to the Defense Department for military trials instead of trials at a US federal court in New York.
Holder said Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi could have been prosecuted in federal court and blamed Congress for imposing measures blocking civilian trials of Guantanamo Bay inmates.
They will be tried in military courts in the US naval base in southeastern Cuba.
Full Story Here: Evidence against 9/11 plotters revealed | The Raw Story.
OPS: Hmmm… and what about the hundreds of other little issues like:
- Who shorted those particular airlines on the market that day and how much did they make on their advanced knowledge?
- Building 7?
- What really happened at the Pentagon and why can’t we see any of the dozens of surveillance videos that captured what happened.
Kyl Walks Back Planned Parenthood Claim: It ‘Was Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement’
As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) defended Republicans’ willingness to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood by falsely claiming that abortion is “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.” In reality, just three percent of its work is related to abortion. This afternoon, CNN brought on Planned Parenthood’s Judy Tabar to discuss his comment. During the interview, CNN anchor TJ Holmes relayed a statement from Kyl’s office walking back the comment, claiming the statement was not meant to be “factual”:
HOLMES: We did call his office trying to ask what he was talking about there. And I just want to give it you verbatim here. It says, ‘his remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, a organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, does subsidize abortions.’
Watch it: video at link
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Kyl Walks Back Planned Parenthood Claim: It ‘Was Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement’.
OPS: So by inference (at least), it was intended to be a LIE?
Deal To Avert Government Shutdown Saves $38 Billion — Bush Tax Cut Deal Spent $150 Billion
Late last night, just minutes from an impending government shutdown, congressional negotiators and President Obama reached a deal to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, cutting $38.5 billion under current funding levels, per Republican demands. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other Republicans hailed the deal as an important step to reining in the deficit. In a speech addressing the deal, Obama compared the compromise to the one he helped broker late last year on extending the Bush tax cuts for two years.
But a look at those two deals suggests Republicans are not as interested in cutting the deficit as they claim. In both cases, Democrats made big concessions on key Republican agenda items — tax and spending cuts — in the face of intransigent opposition from the GOP. But while the appropriations deal from last night cuts $38.5 billion in spending over the next six months (through the end of the fiscal year in September), the tax cut deal deprives th
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Deal To Avert Government Shutdown Saves $38 Billion — Bush Tax Cut Deal Spent $150 Billion.
As Services For Main Street Are Gutted, Richest Pay Lowest Taxes In A Generation
…there is one group of Americans that seems to be getting away without having any sacrifices demanded of them: the very richest.
Last night President Obama and congressional negotiators cut a deal to keep the government running, cutting “$38.5 billion under current funding levels, per Republican demands,” and $78 billion below what Obama called for in his initial 2011 budget.
Yet as Republicans and Democrats continue to battle over the deficit within a political framing that includes taking aim at Pell Grants for low-income students — which Obama preemptively proposed to cut, calling summer grants “too expensive,” while Republicans want far deeper cuts than that — Head Start funding, and other programs from Main Street Americans, there is one group of Americans that seems to be getting away without having any sacrifices demanded of them: the very richest.
As this chart from from Wealth for the Common Good shows, the top 400 taxpayers — who have more wealth than half of all Americans combined — are paying lower taxes than they have in a generation, as their tax responsibilities have slowly collapsed since the New Deal era as working families have been asked to pay more and more:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » CHART: As Services For Main Street Are Gutted, Richest Pay Lowest Taxes In A Generation.
The American Dream As We Know It Is Obsolete
Why progressives need to think beyond the mantra of creating a “middle class America.”
In an era of insecurity, we all want security.
We want a decent home to call our own, healthcare to heal us when we are sick or old, education to improve our minds and job prospects, healthy food and clean water to nourish us, income to provide for all our needs and even some affordable luxuries, a career to give us social status and a sense of self-worth, and a pension for our golden years.
These seemingly universal desires define the post-WWII American Dream, and are still the reference point for both left and right. The “Golden Age of American Capitalism” from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s is commonly seen as the triumph of the middle class, a time when the fruits of a robust capitalist economy extended to tens of millions.
But today we are trapped in the fault lines of a violent global economy, and these dreams seem as archaic as waking up at dawn with the grandparents, children and cousins to milk cows, bake pies and plow fields.
Full Story Here: The American Dream As We Know It Is Obsolete | Economy | AlterNet.
Egyptian soldiers attack Tahrir Square protesters
At least two people killed in pre-dawn raid on protesters calling for trial of Mubarak and removal of army chief
Egypt‘s deepening political crisis following the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak has taken a dangerous new turn after soldiers armed with clubs and rifles stormed protesters occupying Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a pre-dawn raid, killing at least two.
The demonstrators, angry at the slow progress of reform since the country’s 18-day revolution earlier this year, had been demanding the trial of Mubarak, his son Gamal and close associates, and an immediate transition from military to civilian rule.
The rally revealed the increasing impatience and mistrust that many Egyptians feel towards the military, which took over when Mubarak was forced out of office on 11 February. Some protesters accuse the top brass of protecting the former leader.
Full Story Here: Egyptian soldiers attack Tahrir Square protesters | World news | guardian.co.uk.
Progressives Must Stand up to the President
These budget negotiations were a giant win for the Republican Party. President Obama initially cut $40 billion from his own budget proposal — and he got absolutely no credit for that. It was a very typical preemptive concession by the president. It was so typical, you wonder if he recognizes what an indisputably terrible strategy it is or if he has a different agenda.
So, after getting no credit for his original $40 billion concession, then the negotiations began at square one. The Republicans claimed in February that they wanted $32 billion in cuts from that point on. About a week ago, the president came out and announced that they had given the Republicans another $33 billion in cuts — a billion more than they originally asked for. And still the Republicans wanted more.
Why not? They’re dealing with the world’s worst negotiator, why not ask for more? After February they came up with a brilliant good cop-bad cop strategy with the Tea Party, where they had the Tea Party force them to go to $61 billion in demands. Which pushed the spectrum out further to the right. They know President Obama will go to the middle of any spectrum, no matter how radical. And then once they had baited Obama out to the $33 billion number, which was past their original goal, they baited him out even further. Finally, they got him to $38.5 billion in cuts an hour before the deadline.
Full Story Here: OpEdNews – Article: Progressives Must Stand up to the President.
The Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t
I SPENT 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row. I’ve been free since 2003, exonerated after evidence covered up by prosecutors surfaced just weeks before my execution date. Those prosecutors were never punished. Last month, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 to overturn a case I’d won against them and the district attorney who oversaw my case, ruling that they were not liable for the failure to turn over that evidence — which included proof that blood at the robbery scene wasn’t mine.
Because of that, prosecutors are free to do the same thing to someone else today.
I was arrested in January 1985 in New Orleans. I remember the police coming to my grandmother’s house — we all knew it was the cops because of how hard they banged on the door before kicking it in. My grandmother and my mom were there, along with my little brother and sister, my two sons — John Jr., 4, and Dedric, 6 — my girlfriend and me. The officers had guns drawn and were yelling. I guess they thought they were coming for a murderer. All the children were scared and crying. I was 22.
Full Story Here: The Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t – NYTimes.com.
Fox: The Liars’ Network
Eric Alterman | The Nation :-:
In July 1999 Vice President Al Gore paddled down the Connecticut River in New Hampshire to spread what then–Rolling Stone reporter Eric Boehlert termed “his green theme of protecting the environment” while posing for the obvious photo-op. His hopes for making this message heard, however, went over the side when Bill Sammon, a reporter for the then-Moonie-owned Washington Times, wrote that local authorities had granted Gore a special favor when they released nearly 4 billion gallons of water from a nearby dam, at a cost of $7 million, in order to (literally) float Gore’s boat. As Boehlert noted in his masterful forensic audit of the story, Sammon’s point was clear: “In a clumsy abuse of power, Al Gore, a supposed friend of the environment, gladly wasted precious natural resources to stage-manage a political event.”
The rest of the press corps swallowed and regurgitated Sammon’s item, all but unmasticated. Newsweek dubbed it the “photo op from hell,” and CNN covered the “wave of criticism after floodgates are opened on a New Hampshire river to keep Al Gore afloat.” The New York Times report mocked the “mishap,” and the Washington Post chuckled with its readers about “Gore’s Four Billion Gallons for a Photo Op.”
Alas, it was almost all fiction. Nobody connected to the Gore campaign ever requested the release of the water. (The Secret Service did.) The correct figure for the amount of water released was 500 million gallons, or one-eighth of the amount roundly reported. The local utility company that operates the dam was already dumping millions of gallons into the parched Connecticut River every day, but for Gore’s trip this routine exercise was moved up a few hours. The alleged $7 million cost was also made up. The water in question made its way through hydroelectric turbines that generated power to be sold by the utility companies.
When Boehlert contacted Sammon, he waved off the question of accuracy entirely, because, he said, the story successfully made “a point about Gore’s political reflexes, [which are] to spin furiously and resort to deception.”
Full Story Here: Fox: The Liars’ Network | The Nation.
Conservatives, What the Heck is Wrong With You?
Once upon a time, a day with earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, government shutdowns, and wars sprouting like deadly nightshade would’ve been unthinkable. Today, it’s just another hum-drum, dog-bites-man day. That’s a whole lot of chaos and change going on and many of us react more profoundly to it.
Researchers at the College of London say conservatives and liberals have physically different brain structures and it’s not the first study to reach similar conclusions. Perhaps this is the reason – in a government designed around healthy debate – the two sides can’t agree on whether that smoke they see is from a damaged nuclear facility, greenhouse gasses, or fat CEO bonuses. Moderates just scream, “DO SOMETHING!” on commercial breaks during Dancing with the Stars – couch potato government by TV remote at its best.
Despite my usual rabidly left-wing screeds, my responses are generally calmer and more conciliatory in comments. I hunger for a day when I can express my opinion without being called a communist traitor, even though the traitor label is now worn like a Tea Bagger lapel pin among the conservative set. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but on the whole everyone gets dumped on.
Full Story Here: Conservatives, What the Heck is Wrong With You? |.
Fraud and death in Indonesia
FOR a week now, Jakarta’s rich and connected have been appalled by twin scandals at Citibank’s Indonesia operations. A relationship manager at the bank’s wealth management division appears to have stolen Rp. 17 billion ($2m) from clients. In what must be a terrible coincidence, Citibank debt collectors also seem to have killed a customer—a local politician, it turns out—who disputed his credit card bill.
The Financial Times piece linked above focuses on the $2m fraud, presumably because embezzlement tends to have higher material impact to earnings, but the recent murder at Citi’s premises is arguably more damaging to the bank’s reputation. According to Irzen Okta, his bill was Rp. 48 million (around $5,500) but Citi claims the actual figure was Rp. 100 million. Mr Okta went to contest the bill at Citi’s premises but, after a seemingly grisly interrogation—the press has fixated on blood-stained curtains—he did not return.
Thuggish debt collection has been a fact of life in Indonesia since at least the 9th century, when Javanese creditors enslaved defaulters, but the central bank came off as sublimely callous last week when it washed its hands of such abuses. Budi Rochadi, a deputy governor at Bank Indonesia, said that current laws prevent the central bank from regulating debt collectors but that it had always urged banks to be ethical. This is weak, weak tea. Banks have incentives to hire the toughest debt collectors, who, in turn, are judged by how much money they can recover. Unless the central bank penalises those who break the rules, abuses continue.
Full Story Here: Financial markets: Fraud and death in Indonesia | The Economist.
Banksters Raped A Blindfolded America
All societies have social and moral deviants, but in healthy ones they are not in control of the government and large financial banks as they are in America, Canada, England, and other Western countries. Healthy societies depend on sane and moral political leaders who tell the people the truth and respect their collective will. In America, and much of the Western world, government leaders listen to global oligarchs, private banks, and financial parasites, not the people.
Nothing would be different if Bernie Madoff ran the U.S. government. In February, Madoff told New York Magazine that the federal government is a giant Ponzi scheme, but the media barely noticed. Madoff is the quintessential parasite and moral deviant, but he is only a product of an immoral and destructive financial system. The entire global private banking system is parasitic and acting against humanity in the most treasonous fashion. Until private central banks are abolished and replaced with a better system, Western nations will slide into further economic ruin and social destruction. Eventually there will be anarchy, despotism, and slavery if the economic situation is not reversed. And there won’t be any economic recovery until the guilty parties are brought to justice.
Budget deficits, wars, economic depressions can all be resolved and ended. The bigger problem facing America and other Western countries is a lack of democracy. Democracy depends on the public being informed about world events and having accurate information about the reasoning behind major decisions made by their governments such as going to war, or giving out hundreds of billions of dollars to a private group of financiers.
Full Story Here: OpEdNews – Diary: Banksters Raped A Blindfolded America.
Wording in U.S. law could cut BP fines by billions
Since the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) has braced for federal fines of as much as $18 billion. But the company’s lawyers are looking at language in the Clean Water Act that may reduce the British oil giant’s fines for the worst U.S. offshore spill to a few million dollars.
Prosecutors in a federal court in New Orleans want to make BP pay as much as $4,300 for each of the more than 4 million barrels of oil its runaway well spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, as outlined in the Clean Water Act.
Yet BP’s lawyers noted in a recent filing that the rules also allow the fine to be calculated based on the number of days the company was in violation of the law.
Full Story Here: Wording in U.S. law could cut BP fines by billions – MarketWatch.
10 Everyday Acts of Resistance That Changed the World
Václav Havel called it “the power of the powerless.” How regular people, from Denmark to Liberia, have stood up to power—and won.
The Arab spring of 2011 has already changed the region and the world. Ordinary people have lost their fear and shattered the perception that their rulers are invincible. Whatever happens next, the changes across the region in the first few months of 2011 will prove historic.
n Tunisia, the now famous “jasmine revolution” began with protests in December, triggered by the self-immolation of a 26-year-old vegetable seller, Mohammed Bouazizi. Bouazizi, remembered by his younger sister Basma as “funny and generous,” could finally take no more of the official harassment and humiliation meted out to him.
Four weeks of protests, fueled by Facebook and other social media networks, concluded with the unthinkable: Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, president for the past 23 years, fled the country.
Full Story Here: 10 Everyday Acts of Resistance That Changed the World by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson — YES! Magazine.
No Shutdown, but a Lot of Sellouts
John Nichols :-:
If you had asked Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman or John Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson or Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton what Democrats would defend in a fight over the future of government, there’s no real question that funding for housing, public transportation, community development programs and safe air travel would be high on the list.
Yet, in order to achieve the Friday night deal that averted a government shutdown—for a week and, potentially, longer if an anticipated agreement is cobbled together and agreed to—all of those programs took serious hits.
The arrangement worked out Friday night averted the threatened shutdown with a two-step process. First, the House and Senate passed a one-week spending bill that addressed the immediate threat. That should give Congress and the White House time to finalize a fiscal 2011 spending deal—on which they have agreed in principle—before an April 15 deadline.
So who won the standoff? President Obama says the deal is good for the future, and that might make some Democrats think that he and the Democrats prevailed.
They didn’t.
Full Story Here: No Shutdown, but a Lot of Sellouts | The Nation.
Right-winger + hard time = compassion?
Some of the most eloquent advocates for prison reform are conservatives who find themselves behind bars
Last week, disgraced former congressman Duke Cunningham wrote a letter to several media outlets from the federal penitentiary where he has resided since 2006. In it, Cunningham, a conservative Republican who pleaded guilty in a public corruption case in 2005, waxed eloquent about an unlikely topic: prison reform.
“The United States has more more men & women in prison than any other nation including Russia and China,” he wrote. “The largest growing number of prisoners, women — 1-34 Americans are either on probation or in prison. The 95% conviction rate reached by threats of long sentences, intimidation, lies and prosecutorial abuse has got to be reckoned with now, not later.” Cunningham also promised he would dedicate his life to prison reform.
We’ve seen transformations like this before. Cunningham is the latest in a string of conservative political figures to see the light on prison reform following a stint behind bars.
Full Story Here: Right-winger + hard time = compassion? – War Room – Salon.com.
Citizens Go to Jail to Protest Budget Cuts
Following a remarkable display of civil disobedience, seventeen protesters were arrested Thursday outside Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire’s office. In the footage below, you can see the troopers physically carry one of the activists out of the gallery.
About 400 citizens were in the building, and the overall protest was reportedly orderly and civil, but these arrests highlight the growing desperation in the anti-cut movements, and in the population at large.
As Glenda Faatoafe, a home care provider protesting healthcare cuts puts it, austerity measures are truly a matter of life and death. “They are killing our clients,” says Faatoafe, “I have a client that has to be turned every hour. He’s going to die. Do you want that on your conscience? Apparently, [lawmakers] do.”
House lawmakers will vote this week on Washington’s version of austerity, a $4.4 billion slashing frenzy for the 2011–13 budget cycle.
Full Story Here: Citizens Go to Jail to Protest Budget Cuts | The Nation.
Economists Shocked, Shocked: We Really Are Losing Jobs to China
Ian Fletcher
There’s a nice new academic paper just out by an MIT economist and his friends that gives some hard data to back up everyone’s suspicion that the U.S. is losing jobs to China. It’s entitled “The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States,” by David Autor, and you can download it here if you’re curious.
The bottom line here probably won’t be all that surprising to most ordinary Americans, though it will annoy the living daylights out of most academic economists and our political establishment. In the authors’ own words,
Our study suggests that the rapid increase in U.S. imports of Chinese goods during the past two decades has had a substantial impact on employment and household incomes, benefits program enrollments, and transfer payments in local labor markets exposed to increased import competition. These effects extend far outside the manufacturing sector, and they imply substantial changes in worker and household welfare.
In ordinary language, we’re getting scr*wed, folks. “Welfare,” in this context, doesn’t mean welfare checks; it is the economists’ term for, roughly, “economic well-being.” And the “substantial changes” mentioned are not for the better.
One key discovery of this study is hard data to back up the idea, which I have personally argued for years, that free trade is not a small-government policy. In reality, free trade tends to expand government, by increasing the demand for social services and transfer payments (unemployment, welfare etc.) needed to mitigate its social costs. As the authors put it:
Growing import exposure spurs a substantial increase in transfer payments to individuals and households in the form of unemployment insurance benefits, disability benefits, income support payments, and in-kind medical benefits.
Quite. But don’t think the butcher’s bill is paid for by all this welfare-state generosity. The authors conclude that all this government assistance doesn’t cover the harm done by free trade:
Nevertheless, transfers fall far short of offsetting the large decline in average household incomes found in local labor markets that are most heavily exposed to China trade.
Now here’s the real kicker: the authors calculate that the economic efficiency lost due to increased transfer payments is quite likely big enough to cancel out all the supposed gains in economic efficiency due to trade with China!
Our estimates imply that the losses in economic efficiency from trade-induced increases in the usage of public benefits are, in the medium run, of the same order of magnitude as U.S. consumer gains from trade with China.
In other words, the blithe assumption of conventional economics that “Sure, free trade has its costs, but the benefits are infinitely larger” doesn’t hold up. We’re either not winning out, or winning only peanuts.
Finally, for any readers who have been smugly assuming that because they don’t personally work in manufacturing, none of this affects them, bad news. The authors report that,
Our analysis finds that exposure to Chinese import competition affects local labor markets along numerous margins beyond its impact on manufacturing employment. In particular, while growing exposure to Chinese imports reduces manufacturing employment in a local labor market, it also triggers a decline in wages that is primarily observed outside of the manufacturing sector. Reductions in both employment and wage levels lead to a steep drop in the average earnings of households. (Emphasis added.)
So don’t think there’s anywhere to hide from the China threat.
Make no mistake, people: the case for free trade is inexorably crumbling.
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.
U.S. can conduct offsite searches of computers seized at borders, court rules
Appeals Court judge reaffirms government’s authority to conduct warrantless searches of digital devices along U.S. borders
Laptop computers and other digital devices carried into the U.S. may be seized from travelers without a warrant and sent to a secondary site for forensic inspection, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled last week.
The ruling is the second in less than a year that allows the U.S. government to conduct warrantless, offsite searches of digital devices seized at the country’s borders.
A federal court in Michigan last May issued a similar ruling in a case challenging the constitutionality of the warrantless seizure of a computer at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The defendant in a child pornography case also contended that a subsequent search of the device at a secondary computer forensic facility violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution
Full Story Here: U.S. can conduct offsite searches of computers seized at borders, court rules – Computerworld.
Why Commercial Solar Hot Water Lags Behind It’s Potential
We have been carrying out a Performance Research Project on Commercial Solar Hot Water for approximately four months. In that time, we have noticed some very interesting facts. Though not the direct goal of our research, we have noticed some very interesting bits of information, which from a ‘business standpoint’, we believe are the reasons why commercial solar hot water has lagged so far behind it’s huge potential.
Paramount in those bits of information has been the fact that most small-to-medium-sized commercial solar hot water system designers and installers, have NOT included monitoring and data-logging capabilities in their systems.
We find this curious at the least, and dangerous at the worst. Let me draw a parallel or two: “Would you build a house and stop short of putting the doors on it?” “Would you purchase a pre-owned car if the odometer read, 000000.0?” Would you believe the sales person if he told you it was a great car purchase because he/she said so? I think not.
Full Story Here: Why Commercial Solar Hot Water Lags Behind It’s Potential | Northern States Solar Services LLC.
Corn prices hit record highs in Chicago
Corn prices surged to record peaks in the United States Thursday amid tight supply and fierce demand driven in part by rapid expansion of biofuels production.
With demand outpacing supply despite a massive runup, and high oil prices adding to the pressure, analysts saw little respite in sight for buyers.
On the Chicago Board of Trade, a bushel (about 25 kilograms) of corn for delivery in May rose to an all-time high $7.72.
Full Story Here: Corn prices hit record highs in Chicago | The Raw Story.
Idaho Rejects Rape Exception In Abortion Bill Because ‘The Hand Of The Almighty’ Was At Work
Marching in step with the GOP’s nationwide war on a woman’s right to choose, the Idaho legislature gave final approval to a bill that would outlaw abortions after 20 weeks. Modeled after Nebraska’s first-in-the-nation measure, the bill — like the one passed in Kansas last week — is based on highly disputed medical research alleging that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. Idaho’s bill, however, also fails to include exceptions for rape, incest, severe fetal abnormality or the mental or psychological health of the mother. “Only when the pregnancy threatens the mother’s life or physical health could a post-20-week abortion be performed.”
In 1990, Idaho’s anti-abortion Gov. Cecil Andrus (D) vetoed a similar bill expressly because it failed to provide a rape or incest exception. “The bill is drawn so narrowly that it would punitively and without compassion further harm an Idaho woman who may find herself in the horrible, unthinkable position of confronting a pregnancy that resulted from rape or incest,” he said.
But this year during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, state Republican lawmakers found plenty of reasons to advocate for it. State Rep. Shannon McMillan (R) argued that women who were impregnated under “violent circumstances” should have no choice because it’s not the fetus’s fault. State Rep. Brent Crane, the bill’s sponsor, took it a step further. Believing that “tragic, horrific” acts of rape or incest are the “hand of the Almighty,” Crane said women should trust God to turn the consequences of their sexual assault into “wonderful examples”:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Idaho Rejects Rape Exception In Abortion Bill Because ‘The Hand Of The Almighty’ Was At Work.
11 Ways The Tea Party-Inspired Shutdown Will Hurt The Economy
The White House made yet another effort to broker a deal to prevent a government shutdown last night, with President Obama saying that a shutdown would be “inexcusable.” Even though Democrats have agreed to the initial House Republican position of roughly $30 billion in cuts from 2010′s funding level, House Republicans are still holding out for deeper spending cuts and various policy riders demanded by the Tea Party, such as cuts to funding for Planned Parenthood.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said today that “the two sides have essentially agreed on the amount of money set to be cut from the long-term budget but that Republicans have drawn a line in the sand over ‘ideology.’” As Steve Benen noted, “what we’re talking about here is Republicans shutting down the government over access to contraception and family planning services.”
If the government shuts down on Friday night, all government functions deemed “non-essential” will be stopped in their tracks. But “non-essential” describes a wide variety of important government functions, which, if they stop, threaten to harm the nation’s fragile economy. Here are some of the economic consequences that will occur under a Tea-party inspired government shutdown:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » 11 Ways The Tea Party-Inspired Shutdown Will Hurt The Economy.
Fox News Misreports Poll Numbers To Claim That Most Americans Don’t Want GOP To Compromise On Budget
The federal government is on the verge of shutting down as Republican and Democratic Party negotiators have failed to reach a compromise on a bill to continue to fund the government. Progressives are resisting deeper cuts to programs Main Street Americans rely on, like Pell Grants and Head Start, yet Tea Party Republicans continue to demand more cuts.
This morning, Fox News hosted Rep. Allen West (R-FL) to talk about the cuts that the Tea Party wants. In order to frame the discussion as supporting West’s position, which is anti-compromise, the right-wing network cited a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that it claimed showed that most Americans do not want the Republicans to compromise. Host Martha MacCallum claimed the poll showed that “56 percent of Americans say that [Republicans] should stick to their positions.” Watch it:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Fox News Misreports Poll Numbers To Claim That Most Americans Don’t Want GOP To Compromise On Budget.
Wisconsin Progressives Collect 9,000 More Signatures Than Needed To Oust Philandering Republican Senator
Democrats and labor activists are ready to file another recall petition in Wisconsin, as they are expected to submit nearly 24,000 signatures against state Sen. Randy Hopper (R). Only about 15,000 signatures are needed to successfully trigger a recall. It will mark the second time in less than a week that a recall petition has been successfully filed against a Wisconsin Senate Republican, after organizers submitted about 22,000 signatures against Sen. Dan Kapanke (R) last Friday.
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Wisconsin Progressives Collect 9,000 More Signatures Than Needed To Oust Philandering Republican Senator.
While Slamming Obama For Opposition To ‘Troop Funding Bill,’ House GOP Votes Down Troop Funding — Twice
Today, House Republicans pushed through their stopgap measure in a 247-181 vote. The bill, H.R. 1363, quickly came under fire for demanding a series of non-budget related policy riders, including an anti-abortion policy restriction banning D.C. from using its own local funds for abortions and anti-environmental restrictions to limit the EPA from regulating green house gas emissions, on top of an extra $12 billion in cuts. “With an eye to protecting themselves politically” from blame, the GOP quickly redefined H.R. 1363 today as the “troop funding bill.”
Slate’s Dave Weigel noted that five minutes after the White House declared H.R. 1363 unacceptable, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) slammed President Obama for threatening to veto a bill to “ensure that our troops are paid.” Minutes later, Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) ripped Democrats for “girding to oppose a ‘troop-funding bill.’” Republican lawmakers quickly picked up the rallying cry. Reps. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Harold Rodgers (R-KY) called it “astonishing” and “inexplicable” that Obama would, as GOP shutdown architect Newt Gingrich put it, use the troops as “bargaining chips for budget negotiations.”
There’s only one problem with this talking point — it’s the opposite of true. Today, the House Democrats tried three times to pass a measure that would ensure the troops received pay. The Republicans overwhelmingly opposed every single “troop-funding” opportunity:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » While Slamming Obama For Opposition To ‘Troop Funding Bill,’ House GOP Votes Down Troop Funding — Twice.
As Exxon Pays Zero Taxes, Fox Host Defends Big Oil Subsides By Claiming It Pays The Most Taxes
Right now, the federal government is on the verge of being shutdown due to an impasse in funding negotiations. Conservatives want deep cuts to programs for Main Street Americans like the Pell Grant and Head Start, claiming that they are necessary to rein in the budget deficit. Yet at the same time, House Republicans voted unanimously to protect taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil, even with major oil companies like Exxon paying absolutely nothing in federal corporate income taxes in 2009.
Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) appeared on Fox Business Network yesterday and criticized the industry’s subsidies, asking why we they need billions of dollars a year from taxpayers. Host Eric Bolling attacked Garamendi for his criticism, saying that oil companies are paying the most taxes in the world and that their profit margins aren’t very high:
GARAMENDI: The wealthiest industry in the entire world, the oil industry … They’re going to see extraordinary profits yet about 12 billion dollars a year is used to subsidize the oil industry.
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » As Exxon Pays Zero Taxes, Fox Host Defends Big Oil Subsides By Claiming It Pays The Most Taxes.
Extreme Warming Forces Climate Scientists To Add Hot Pink To Temperature Map
As global warming from unlimited fossil fuel burning accelerates, the Arctic is being radically transformed. This winter saw large regions of Canada and Greenland about 10°C (about 15-20°F) above the historical average. Temperatures in eastern Canada in the dead of winter were a staggering 21°C (37.8°F) above average. The extreme Arctic warming is wreaking havoc with the polar ecosystems and is linked to the catastrophic snowstorms that pummeled the United States. In a summary of how global climate change is becoming observable to people in their daily lives, NASA scientist James Hansen was forced to redraw his global map with hot pink:
The temperature anomaly in the Arctic — the amount that current temperatures differ from historical norms — is now so severe that NASA’s James Hansen had to add a new color to his charts in order to accurately depict it: Hot pink.
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Extreme Warming Forces Climate Scientists To Add Hot Pink To Temperature Map.
Theory of Comparative Advantage
The Famous (and Almost Never Understood)
Ian Fletcher
You can read about the free trade controversy for months and never hear about it. But in the minds of real economists, it’s there all the time, and it’s big. I’m talking about the so-called theory of comparative advantage, the theoretical lynchpin—in the view of free traders and protectionists alike—of the case for free trade. It has an unfortunate reputation for being too technically tricky for non-economists to understand, but I think this is a shame, because this myth tends to shut ordinary concerned citizens out of the debate. Therefore, I’d like to take a shot at explaining this theory.
The theory is ultimately wrong, for reasons I spent half a book discussing. And in a future article, I’ll explain why. But for now, let’s just get clear on what it says. That’s the price of admission for engaging in serious debate on the issue.
To understand comparative advantage, it is best to start with its simpler cousin: absolute advantage. The concept of absolute advantage simply says that if some foreign nation is a more efficient producer of some product than we are, then free trade will cause us to import that product from them, to the benefit of both nations. It benefits us because we get the product for less than it would have cost us to make it ourselves. It benefits the foreign nation because it gets a market for its goods. And it benefits the world economy as a whole because it causes production to come from the most efficient producer, maximizing world output.
Sounds good. Indeed, absolute advantage is a set of fairly obvious ideas. It is, in fact, the theory of international trade most people instinctively hold, without recourse to formal economics, and thus it explains a large part of public opinion on the subject. It sounds like a reassuringly direct application of basic capitalist principles. It is the theory of trade the great Adam Smith himself, founder of modern economics, believed in.
It is also false. Under free trade, America observably imports products of which we are the most efficient producer—which makes no sense by the standard of absolute advantage. This causes complaints like conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan’s below:
Ricardo’s theory…demands that more efficient producers in advanced countries give up industries to less efficient producers in less advanced nations…Are Chinese factories more efficient than U.S. factories? Of course not. (The Great Betrayal, p. 67.)
Buchanan is correct: this is precisely what Ricardo’s theory demands. It not only predicts that less efficient producers will sometimes win (observably true) but argues that this is good for us (the controversy). This is why we must analyze trade in terms of not absolute but comparative advantage. If we don’t, we will never obtain a theory that accurately describes what does happen in international trade, which is a prerequisite for our arguing about what should happen—or how to make it happen.
At bottom, the theory of comparative advantage simply says this:
Nations trade for the same reasons people do.
And the whole theory can be cracked open with one simple question:
Why don’t pro football players mow their own lawns?
Why should this even be a question? Because the average footballer can almost certainly mow his lawn more efficiently than the average professional lawn mower. The average footballer is, after all, presumably stronger and more agile than the presumably mediocre workforce attracted to a badly paid job like mowing lawns. (If we wanted to quantify his efficiency, we could measure it in acres per hour.)
Efficiency (also known as productivity) is always a matter of how much output we get from a given quantity of inputs, be these inputs hours of labor, pounds of flour, kilowatts of electricity, or whatever. Because our footballer is more efficient, in economic language he has absolute advantage at mowing lawns. Yet nobody finds it strange that he would “import” lawn-mowing services from a less efficient “producer.” Why? Obviously, because he has better things to do with his time.
This is the key to the whole thing. The theory of comparative advantage says that it is advantageous for America to import some goods simply in order to free up our workforce to produce more-valuable goods instead. We, as a nation, have “better things to do with our time” than produce these less valuable goods. And, just as with the football player and the lawn mower, it doesn’t matter whether we are more efficient at producing them, or the country we import them from is. As a result, it is sometimes advantageous for us to import goods from less efficient nations.
This logic doesn’t only apply to our time, that is our man-hours of labor, either. It also applies to our land, capital, technology, and every other resource used to produce goods. So the theory of comparative advantage says that if we could produce something more valuable with the resources we currently use to produce some product, then we should import that product, free up those resources, and produce that more valuable thing instead.
Economists call the resources we use to produce products “factors of production.” They call whatever we give up producing, in order to produce something else, our “opportunity cost.” The opposite of opportunity cost is “direct” cost, so while the direct cost of mowing a lawn is the hours of labor it takes, plus the gasoline, wear-and-tear on the machine, et cetera, the opportunity cost is the value of whatever else these things could have been producing instead.
Direct cost is a simple matter of efficiency, and is the same regardless of whatever else is going on in the world. Opportunity cost is a lot more complicated, because it depends on what other opportunities exist for using factors of production.
Other things being equal, direct cost and opportunity cost go up and down together, because if the time required to mow a lawn doubles, then twice as much time cannot then be spent doing something else. As a result, high efficiency tends to generate both low direct cost and low opportunity cost. If someone is such a skilled mower that they can mow the whole lawn in 15 minutes, then their opportunity cost of doing so will be low because there’s not much else they can do in 15 minutes.
The opportunity cost of producing something is always the next most valuable thing we could have produced instead. If either bread or rolls can be made from dough, and we choose to make bread, then rolls are our opportunity cost. If we choose to make rolls, then bread is. And if rolls are worth more than bread, then we incur a larger opportunity cost by making bread. It follows that the smaller the opportunity cost we incur, the less opportunity we are wasting, so the better we are exploiting the opportunities we have.
Therefore our best move is always to minimize our opportunity cost. This is where trade comes in.
Trade enables us to “import” bread (buy it in a store) so we can stop baking our own and bake rolls instead. In fact, trade enables us to do this for all the things we would otherwise have to make for ourselves. So if we have complete freedom to trade, we can systematically shrug off all our least valuable tasks and reallocate our time to our most valuable ones
Similarly, nations can systematically shrink their least valuable industries and expand their most valuable ones. This benefits these nations and under global free trade, with every nation doing this, it benefits the entire world. The world economy, and every nation in it, become as productive as they can possibly be.
Or so goes the theory…
Here’s a real-world example: if America devoted hundreds of thousands of workers to making cheap plastic toys (we don’t; China does) then these workers could not produce anything else. In America, we (hopefully) have more-productive jobs for them to do, even if American industry could hypothetically grind out more plastic toys per man-hour of labor and ton of plastic than the Chinese. So we’re better off leaving this work to China and having our own workers do that more-productive work instead.
This all implies that under free trade, production of every product will automatically migrate to the nation that can produce it at the lowest opportunity cost—the nation that wastes the least opportunity by being in that line of business.
The theory of comparative advantage thus sees international trade as a vast interlocking system of tradeoffs, in which nations use the ability to import and export to shed opportunity costs and reshuffle their factors of production to their most valuable uses.
This all (supposedly!) happens automatically, because if the owners of some factor of production find a more valuable use for it, they will find it profitable to move it to that use. The natural drive for profit will steer all factors of production to their most valuable uses, and opportunities will never be wasted.
It follows that any policy other than free trade (supposedly!) just traps economies producing less-valuable output than they could have produced. It saddles them with higher opportunity costs—more opportunities thrown away—than they would otherwise incur.
In fact, when imports drive a nation out of an industry, this must (supposedly!) be good for that nation, as it means the nation must be allocating its factors of production to producing something more valuable instead. If it weren’t doing this, the logic of profit would never have driven its factors out of their former uses. In the language of the theory, the nation’s “revealed comparative advantage” must lie elsewhere, and it will now be better off producing according to its newly revealed comparative advantage.
Or so goes the theory, and it’s easy to see where it leads. Next time, I’ll tell you why it isn’t true.
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.
Japan eyes new radiation standards that could widen evacuation zone
apan may set standards for long-term radiation exposure that would effectively extend the evacuation zone around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a top government official said Thursday, as a strong new aftershock rattled the area
Government readings show that people beyond the current restricted zone may be exposed to dangerous long-term doses of radiation even though the readings fall below levels that now require an evacuation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
“It is the time for the government to consider setting another category for accumulated exposure,” Edano, the government’s point man on the crisis, told reporters Thursday evening. “The safety of the people is the first priority, and social needs come after that.”
Full Story Here: Japan eyes new radiation standards that could widen evacuation zone – CNN.com.
Franken introduces Pay for War Resolution
Sen. Al Franken introduced legislation on Wednesday that would require Congress to pay for future wars and ensure that they do not add to the federal budget deficit. The Pay for War Resolution gives Congress the option to finance war through budget cuts, creating new revenue or a combination of both budgetary means. Franken said the bill is meant to avoid a repeat of the $1.25 trillion that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have added to the national debt.
“We have to ensure that Iraq and Afghanistan remain anomalies in American history,” Franken said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “And that’s what my resolution seeks to do. It will ensure that future wars don’t make our deficit and debt problem worse. It will ensure that Congress and American citizens must face the financial sacrifice of going to war. And it will force us to decide whether a war is worth that sacrifice.”
“In the last ten years our wars have been paid for by borrowing,” Franken said. “The Iraq War was accompanied by a massive tax cut. That failed fiscal experiment created the impression that war requires no financial sacrifice. We know that is just not true. The question is who will bear the financial sacrifice, the generation that has decided to go to war or its children and grandchildren?”
Full Story Here: Franken introduces Pay for War Resolution | The Washington Independent.
You won’t believe what just happened in Wisconsin
A huge clerical error decisively swings the race in favor of the Republican candidate for the state Supreme Court
An extraordinary development in the Wisconsin state Supreme Court election: The county clerk for conservative Waukesha County has reported that she neglected to include 14,000 votes from the town of Brookfield in the totals she sent to the Associated Press Tuesday night. The new numbers reportedly give conservative incumbent David Prosser a net gain of 7,582 additional votes, decisively swinging the race in his favor. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, the Waukesha county clerk, a Republican, reported that the votes for Brookfield had not been “saved in the computer.”
Further complicating the story, the clerk in question, Kathy Nickolaus, a former computer specialist, received flak last summer for her idiosyncratic approach to collecting and maintaining election data. And in 2002, during a criminal investigation into illegal campaigning on state time,” while running for the office of Waukesha county clerk, Nickolaus was granted immunity from prosecution, for reasons that are unclear at this writing.
Full Story Here: You won’t believe what just happened in Wisconsin – Wisconsin – Salon.com.
Wisconsin Recall Campaigns Bag Record Number of Signatures | Mother Jones
On the heels of liberal JoAnne Kloppenburg’s stunning upset victory in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election on Tuesday (though a recount is forthcoming), the campaigns to recall Republicans in the Badger State are cruising, with enough signatures already gathered to trigger a recall of two Republican senators in the Badger State.
As Greg Sargent reports today, Wisconsin Democrats collected nearly 22,561 signatures in their effort to recall Sen. Dan Kapanke. That’s nearly 7,000 more than they needed to launch a recall, and insurance against efforts by Kapanke’s lawyers to challenge and potentially throw out some of the collected signatures. In a sign of buyer’s remorse among Wisconsin voters, the time it took gather enough signatures to recall Kapanke was the fastest in Wisconsin history.
The next Wisconsin senator to face a recall effort is Republican Randy Hopper. In the Hopper recall effort, Sargent writes, progressives have collected almost 24,000 signatures—150 percent of the necessary 15,629 signatures, a staggering feat that comes scarcely a month after the Wisconsin Senate first passed Republican Governor Scott Walker’s controversial anti-union bill.
Full Story Here: Wisconsin Recall Campaigns Bag Record Number of Signatures | Mother Jones.
The Washington Current: GOP Plan to Limit Patient Rights Won’t Lower Health Care Costs, Says Consumer Group
House Republican legislation to limit patients’ legal rights would not limit healthcare costs as supporters argue, according an organization opposed to the bill.
The House Energy and Commerce held a hearing Wednesday on the matter of medical liability, and its reform. Particularly at issue is pending legislation, H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011.
The bill, as supporters readily acknowledge, is modeled after California’s state Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) enacted in 1975. MICRA included caps on damages and other limits on what could be collected through lawsuits brought because of injuries sustained due to medical negligence
Full Story Here: The Washington Current: GOP Plan to Limit Patient Rights Won’t Lower Health Care Costs, Says Consumer Group.
Dirty Energy’s Dirty Deeds
When it comes to energy there are no easy answers. This was painfully evident last week when President Barack Obama gave a speech on “America’s Energy Security” at Georgetown University.
“We’ve known about the dangers of our oil dependence for decades,” Obama told the audience, explaining that every president since Richard Nixon has talked about “freeing ourselves from dependence on foreign oil,” without delivering anything of the sort. Already a member of that club, he doubled down, telling the crowd that in ten years: “[W]e can cut our oil dependence by a third.”
The speech was destined to be a loser and the caveats came on fast and furious. America needed to cut its reliance on foreign oil, Obama told the crowd of politicos and college students, and drilling at home was one avenue toward that goal. He proudly announced, “we’ve approved 39 new shallow-water permits; we’ve approved seven deepwater permits in recent weeks. When it comes to drilling offshore, my administration approved more than two permits last year for every new well that the industry started to drill.” While embracing a “drill, baby, drill” ethos, the president was forced to admit it was not a long-term solution. He not only acknowledged that there isn’t nearly enough domestic oil to meet the country’s needs, but the specter of disaster loomed so large that he had to address it as well. “I don’t think anybody here has forgotten what happened last year, where we had to deal with the largest oil spill in [our] history,” he said, according to the White House’s official transcript.
Full Story Here: Tomgram: Ellen Cantarow, Dirty Energy’s Dirty Deeds | TomDispatch.
Researchers: Hawaii may get hit with trash from Japan’s tsunami
The Hawaiian islands may get a new and unwelcome addition in coming months — a giant new island of debris floating in from Japan.
Researchers in Hawaii have created a simulation showing exactly how the houses, tires, chemicals and trees washed to sea by the March 11 tsunami will float across the Pacific and eventually hit the U.S. coast.
The team, led by Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner at the International Pacific Research Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa have spent years preparing computer models by following real world observations of floating buoys, according to a statement.
Full Story Here: Researchers: Hawaii may get hit with trash from Japan’s tsunami – CNN.com.
Exclusive: Obama has taken a ‘profoundly troubling’ position on assassinations, ACLU tells Raw
Disclosure of government secrets often has little to do with the public’s right to know and has everything to do an official’s need to tell, according to ACLU deputy director Jameel Jaffer.
And that’s especially true when it comes to assassinations, which have not traditionally been an openly admitted component of U.S. foreign policy — but the American Civil Liberities Union is cautioning that the Obama administration is changing all of that.
In an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Jaffer, a key attorney with the rights group, even warned that the Democrat in office has taken a position on unilateral murder so extreme as to be “profoundly troubling” in its legal reach and potential for future use.
Full Story Here: Exclusive: Obama has taken a ‘profoundly troubling’ position on assassinations, ACLU tells Raw | The Raw Story.
Hunt Is On For Remains Of Possible Mona Lisa Model
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Italian researchers said Tuesday they will dig up bones in a Florence convent to try to identify the remains of a Renaissance woman long believed to be the model for the “Mona Lisa.”
If successful, the research might help ascertain the identity of the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece – a mystery that has puzzled scholars and art lovers for centuries and generated countless theories.
The project launched Tuesday aims to locate the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo.
Tradition has long linked Gherardini to the painting, which is known in Italian as “La Gioconda” and in French as “La Joconde.” Giorgio Vasari, a 16th-century artist and biographer of Leonardo, wrote that da Vinci painted a portrait of del Giocondo’s wife.
Full Story Here: Hunt Is On For Remains Of Possible Mona Lisa Model.
GOP EPA Ban Rejected By Senate Democrats
Senate Democrats have defeated a Republican effort to ban the Environmental Protection Agency from controlling the gases blamed for global warming.
In a 50-50 vote, the Senate rejected a measure by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma. It would have repealed a 2009 finding by federal scientists that climate change caused by greenhouse gases endangers human health and prevented the agency from using existing law to regulate them. The amendment – to a small business bill – needed 60 votes to pass.
Full Story Here: GOP EPA Ban Rejected By Senate Democrats.
‘Unprecedented’ level of violence in Mexico: FBI
Using unusually blunt language, FBI Director Robert Mueller told US legislators on Capitol Hill Wednesday that there is an “unprecedented” level of violence in Mexico linked to the country’s drug wars.
“I would not call it a full-scale war,” Mueller told members of the House of Representatives as he discussed his agency’s 2012 budget.
“I would say there are full-scale warring factions that utilize homicide as a mechanism of retaliation, staking out one’s turf, retribution, that have contributed substantially to the number of deaths in Mexico,” Mueller said.
There have been some 35,000 homicides in the past four years, Mueller said.
Full Story Here: ‘Unprecedented’ level of violence in Mexico: FBI | The Raw Story.
Fermi lab may have found new force of nature
Data from a major US atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature, one of the physicists involved in the discovery told AFP on Wednesday.
The physics world was abuzz with excitement over the findings, which could offer clues to the persistent riddle of mass and how objects obtain it — one of the most sought-after answers in all of physics.
But experts cautioned that more analysis was needed over the next several months to uncover the true nature of the discovery, which comes as part of an ongoing experiment with proton and antiproton collisions to understand the workings of the universe.
Full Story Here: Fermi lab may have found new force of nature | The Raw Story.
Gov. Scott Walker Chose Top Donor’s 26-Year-Old Dropout Son Over PhD And Engineer
On Monday, ThinkProgress noted that Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) was using state funds to pay more than $81,500 a year to Brian Deschane, a 26-year-old son of a major campaign donor with no college degree and two drunken-driving convictions. The job involved overseeing state environmental and regulatory issues and managing dozens of Commerce Department employees.
Yesterday, after the media reported on the hiring, Walker abruptly reversed course and removed Deschane from his position. Despite calling Deschane a “natural fit” just last week, Walker spokesman Cullen Werwise said Tuesday that the Governor decided “to move in another direction” after learning of the details of the appointment.
Yet, Deschane will still serve in the Administration, returning to his previous job where he made $64,000 a year. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D) says he continues to be “concerned about whether [Deschane] was hired properly under the civil service system.”
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Gov. Scott Walker Chose Top Donor’s 26-Year-Old Dropout Son Over PhD And Engineer.
GOP Vote Against Fighting Climate Change Latest Move In History Of Environmental Extremism
In an attempt to gut the Clean Air Act, all but one of the Republican senators voted today to end EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. Despite defections by four Democratic senators, the measure narrowly failed to pass.
Republicans weren’t just opposed by Democrats; they’re opposed by the public at large. Almost seven out of ten voters “believe that EPA scientists, rather than Congress, should set pollution standards.” More specifically, a clear majority of voters—including forty-three percent of Republicans—have said they would oppose even temporary limitations on the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.
This break with public opinion is nothing new. The GOP has a history of putting itself well outside the mainstream on environmental issues. In fact, the GOP leadership has made a habit of appointing the biggest environmental opponents to sit on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Consider just a sampling of their beliefs:
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GOP Vote Against Fighting Climate Change Latest Move In History Of Environmental Extremism.
REPORT: Seven States Where Republicans Are Ruining The Environment
As the budget standoff between the Republican controlled House of Representatives and the Democrats reaches a fever pitch, much of the media attention — and frustration — has been focused on reaching a solution to avert a government shutdown. But, under the radar, newly-elected Republicans across the country are proposing disastrous environmental legislation to achieve radical-right aims, such as opening state parks for fracking and exposing their citizens to industrial waste.
OHIO: At the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, an exemption was inserted into a 2005 energy bill — dubbed the “Haliburton loophole” — which stripped the EPA of its power to regulate a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. This method, named fracking, entails drilling a L-shaped well deep into shale and pumping millions of gallons of water laced with industrial chemicals — chemicals which the energy companies are not legally bound to disclose. The poisonous fluid fractures the shale and releases natural gas deposits for collection. But the public health risk associated with fracking doesn’t seem to bother Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and state Republicans. The Ohio House introduced a bill early last month that would create a panel to open any state-owned land for oil and gas exploration to the highest bidder. Subsequently, in Kasich’s budget proposal, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would be given authority to lease 200,000 acres of state park land for oil and gas exploration. Faced with a litany of problems related to fracking — even including a house exploding in Ohio — Kasich has fully endorsed drilling in Ohio state parks, saying, “Ohio is not going to walk away from a potential industry.” State Rep. John Adams (R), the House bill’s sponsor, said drilling in state parks can help erase a projected $8 billion budget deficit, and “keep our parks and our lakes up to the standards that the citizens of Ohio want.”
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » REPORT: Seven States Where Republicans Are Ruining The Environment.
VIDEO: Tea Partiers Clamor For A Government Shutdown; Will Boehner Cater To Their Demands?
As a government shutdown looms, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), and House Speaker John Boehner (R) are locked in ongoing discussions over an appropriations bill that would keep the government running. However, even as Obama has offered three-quarters of what Republicans are demanding, Boehner has thus far refused to budge.
The reason for Boehner’s intransigence is increasingly clear: as Republicans and Democratic lawmakers negotiate, Boehner is giving the Tea Party veto-power. Sen. Chuck Schumer detailed this point while discussing the ongoing negotiations on Good Morning America this week, noting that “The tea party just continues to pull Speaker Boehner further back and back and back. They’re the people who say they don’t want compromise. They’re the people who say they relish a shutdown.” Still, Boehner and other Republican leaders have asserted that Democrats are the only ones who want to see a government shutdown. (A ThinkProgress compilation video shows otherwise.)
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » VIDEO: Tea Partiers Clamor For A Government Shutdown; Will Boehner Cater To Their Demands?.
Why Beck Is Out At Fox: Poor Ratings And Paranoid Rants
After weeks of rumors about poor ratings and increasing concern at Fox News headquarters over Beck’s apocalyptic ranting, it’s finally official — Glenn Beck is ending his daily show on Fox. An announcement posted on his website today, but then taken down without explanation, said:
Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck’s production company, are proud to announce that they will work together to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties. Glenn intends to transition off of his daily program, the third highest rated in all of cable news, later this year. [...]
Glenn Beck said: “I truly believe that America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News. I cannot repay Roger for the lessons I’ve learned and will continue to learn from him and I look forward to starting this new phase of our partnership.”
The statement did not indicate an end date for the show.
Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Why Beck Is Out At Fox: Poor Ratings And Paranoid Rants.
The real reason for the decline in teen births – Teenagers – Salon.com
What you’re not hearing about the dip in pregnant youngsters
The good news of the day is that the U.S. teen birth rate has fallen to a record low — but most of the mainstream reporting on the Centers for Disease Control study avoids the question of why, and a cursory glance at the coverage can easily give the wrong impression.
Full Story Here: The real reason for the decline in teen births – Teenagers – Salon.com.
The F Word: Bonuses for Bosses at Killer Corporations?
Eleven workers dead, untold volumes of sea-life poisoned and more than 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea. If that’s what an historically good year for safety looks like at TransOcean, I’d hate to see a bad year.
Most people know the name TransOcean only because of the explosion on the company’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the spill that followed — the largest offshore oil spill in US history. A presidential commission investigating that disaster declared that lax standards caused the deadly mess. Despite that, TransOcean executives are receiving safety bonuses.
In a filing Friday, Transocean said, “Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record.” In fact, the company says it was the best year in safety performance in the company’s history —which has to make you wonder about other years.
Full Story Here: GRITtv » Blog Archive » The F Word: Bonuses for Bosses at Killer Corporations?.
Radiation From Japan’s Damaged Nuclear Plant Off the Charts
Workers at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are being exposed to levels of radiation so high that monitoring devices are useless, a worker measuring radiation at the plant told NHK television today.
No one can enter the Unit 1, 2, and 3 reactor buildings at the power plant because radiation levels are so high, he said, adding that pools and streams of water contaminated by high-level radiation are being found throughout the plant, crippled by a killer earthquake and tsunami March 11.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says 7.5 million times the legal limit of radioactive iodine 131 has been detected from samples of seawater near the plant in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of Honshu island.
While iodine 131 has a short half life of eight days and will decay away in 16 days, Monday’s sample also contained 1.1 million times the legal limit of cesium 137, which has a half life of 30
Full Story Here: Radiation From Japan’s Damaged Nuclear Plant Off the Charts.
Arkansas NPR transmitter fire investigated as arson
Federal officials are investigating a fire as a possible arson at the transmitter site of Little Rock’s National Public Radio affiliate, the station manager said on Tuesday.
Ben Fry, the manager of the station, KUAR, said that the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told him they suspect arson.
“They might ultimately decide that that is not arson, but facts in the case point to that right now,” Fry said in an interview.
An official with the Little Rock office of the federal bureau, who declined to give his name, said he could not comment because the fire is part of an ongoing investigation.
NPR, which gets a significant share of its funding from the U.S. government, has come under scrutiny in Washington this year as lawmakers search for ways to cut spending.
Full Story Here: Arkansas NPR transmitter fire investigated as arson | Reuters.
Congress Holds Unprecedented Hearing into USPS-Union Agreement
Today, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, held a hearing on the tentative collective bargaining agreement reached last month between the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the United States Postal Service. The move pushes Congress into uncharted territory.
“I have never heard of a congressional hearing being called into a collective bargaining agreement,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey. “This hearing is unprecedented and there has never been a hearing before into the collective bargaining agreements between our union and the postal service.”
The tentative agreement, which would cover the next four and a half years, still needs to be ratified by APWU members. It would freeze salaries for two years and require about 202,000 union workers to pay more for their healthcare. The deal will also allow the USPS to relocate workers more easily and hire more part-time workers.
Full Story Here: Congress Holds Unprecedented Hearing into USPS-Union Agreement – Working In These Times.
10 of the Biggest Corporate Tax Cheats In America | AlterNet
If you or I were running a small business and we kept one set of books showing how much money we were making and a second set for the IRS that painted a picture of an enterprise on the brink of bankruptcy, we’d end up behind bars.
But that’s standard operating procedure for corporate America. In fact, public corporations have to do it — the law requires that they keep one set of books for their shareholders, and another for the IRS. As tax journalist David Cay Johnston explained, “Many corporations routinely tell investors they incur millions in corporate income taxes, while the financial records they give the IRS show they owe nothing or are due refunds.”
In the records kept by the IRS, corporations cook the books “by using tax shelters, offsetting income with losses from years ago, and employing countless other devices that make them look like paupers to the IRS but money machines to investors.”We got a peek into this process last week, when the New York Times revealed that multinational giant GE is not only avoiding corporate income taxes this year, but is taking a “tax benefit” of $3 billion. According to the Times, the company’s “extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore
Full Story Here: 10 of the Biggest Corporate Tax Cheats In America | AlterNet.
Kloppenburg Declares Victory Over Prosser in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
Unknown sixth months ago, unviable six weeks ago, first-time candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory Wednesday in her challenge to a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice closely aligned with Governor Scott Walker.
It was a narrow but stunning upset win for Kloppenburg—204 votes out of almost1.5 million cast—that is all but certain to lead to a recount fight.
But the final unofficial count in a race watched closely not just in Wisconsin but nationally has already opened a remarkable new chapter in the story of the political uprising that began when Republican Governor Scott Walker launched his assault on public employee unions, public schools and local democracy in Wisconsin.
Kloppenburg began her campaign for the state Supreme Court as an all-but-certain loser, a political neophyte challenging entrenched Justice David Prosser.
Full Story Here: Kloppenburg Declares Victory Over Prosser in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election | The Nation.
Why Public Support for Free Trade Will Collapse Soon
Ian Fletcher
For once, some good news: public support for free trade will almost certainly collapse over the next few years. On this issue, the public is way ahead of the political class in the quality of its thinking., and the average hardware store owner in Nebraska understands the real economics involved better than the average U.S. Senator.
Public opinion certainly continues to turn against free trade: an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll in September 2010 found 53% of Americans believing free trade agreements hurt the U.S., with only 17% believing them beneficial. (The split had been 30% vs. 39% in the dot-com boom year of 1999.) 86% named outsourcing to low-wage nations the key cause of America’s failure to emerge fully from recession and create jobs, significantly outranking choices like the federal deficit. The turn against free trade was sharpest among the affluent and cut across boundaries of class, region, and political affiliation.
As of early 2011, there are four missing prerequisites for free trade to explode as an issue and collapse as a policy:
1. Everyone is still preoccupied with the financial crisis, its aftermath, and recovery from recession, especially job recovery.
2. There remains a residual sense in the minds of the public and the lawmakers that somehow free trade, despite all its problems, is still sound economics, and that perhaps we should just keep on eating our spinach because it will be good for us in the end.
3. There is no obvious alternative policy on the table. There is instead a grab bag of issues, ranging from Chinese currency manipulation to the proposed Korea, Colombia, and Panama free trade agreements. This paucity of credible alternatives feeds the defeatist attitude that nothing fundamental can be done, which feeds apathy.
4. A specific crisis has not happened to force the system out of its old way of doing things as the debacle in subprime mortgages upended our financial system in 2008 and made continuation of prior policy impossible whether anyone wanted it or not.
For the first prerequisite above to be supplied, all it will take is time, as recessions, even double-dip recessions (?), always eventually end, and the financial crisis of 2008 was successfully patched (albeit at astronomical cost and without fixing its underlying causes, risking a repeat)
For the second prerequisite to be supplied, all it will take is sufficient public debate, between persons perceived as credible, for free trade to become established in the public mind as an issue with two legitimate sides to it. As the reader has hopefully gathered from my column by now, once one seriously scrutinizes the underlying economics of free trade, even if one is not disabused of the policy outright it becomes hard to deny that it is a legitimately controversial issue. The pure “100 percent free trade with 100 percent of the world 100 percent of the time” position is simply not intellectually serious. (Free traders will, of course, respond that none of them actually believe in literal 100% free trade. The reader may judge whether the various kinds of 99% free trade they believe in are significantly different.)
So when public debate finally cracks open, free trade will lose its innocence very fast.
Once protectionism is perceived as a legitimate choice, it will become the actual choice of large numbers of people whose protectionist instincts have been held back by the belief that it is somehow an ignorant position to take. They will not need to master the details of why it is legitimate; they will only need to know that it is legitimate.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), one of the leading opponents of free trade in the Senate, reports that ever since he came to Congress in 1993, every free trade vote has been accompanied by predictions by the White House of economic disaster if it was not passed. Trade wars, stock market decline, and recession were predicted every time. The power of this rhetoric to intimidate is going to end. “Protectionist” will cease to be a canard and become just another policy option.
The third prerequisite above (no obvious alternative) can emerge overnight if some major political figure launches a tariff proposal that captures the public’s imagination. Or the myriad individual issues that currently comprise the opposition to free trade could force the soldering together of an omnibus proposal on the floor of Congress.
The fourth prerequisite (a sudden crisis) is difficult to predict as to time, but we can rely securely upon the fact that unsustainable trends are always, in the end, not sustained. At some point, America’s giant overdraft against the rest of the world must come to an end. Although our government is trying to postpone the day of reckoning as long as possible, this day will come. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flying to China to beg its government to keep buying our bonds (as she did in February 2009) won’t make much difference in the end.
Once protectionism is conceded to be a valid political position, it will eventually win the public debate, if free trade’s unpopularity continues to mount at the pace it has been mounting over the last 10 years. And this pace is, if anything, likely to accelerate.
When this happens, the status quo will be sustained only by the tacit bargain of the American political duopoly, in which the two parties agree not to make trade a serious issue, whatever tactical feints they may deploy. This corrupt bargain will hold as long as the benefits of keeping it, which mainly consist in keeping the corporate backers of both parties happy, exceed the benefits of defecting from it, which consist in winning votes.
Once one party defects, protectionism will, if rationally designed and competently implemented, almost certainly be sufficiently successful in practice (and therefore popular) that the other party will have no choice but to follow. The alternative, if one party insists on handicapping itself by clinging to an unpopular position on such a major issue, is an era of one-party political dominance like 1860-1932 or 1932-80.
Make no mistake: we are heading for a big economic paradigm shift here.
[Minor note: the 2011 edition of my book just came out.]
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.
Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich
Robert Reich: :
It’s tax time. It’s also a time when right-wing Republicans are setting the agenda for massive spending cuts that will hurt most Americans.
Here’s the truth: The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich.
Even if we got rid of corporate welfare subsidies for big oil, big agriculture, and big Pharma – even if we cut back on our bloated defense budget – it wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Full Story Here: Robert Reich (Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich).
Beyond a Shutdown: GOP Budget is Blueprint for Destruction
Robert Reich:
I was in Washington in 1995 when the government closed because of a budget stalemate. I had to tell most of the Labor Department’s 15,600 employees to go home and not return the next day. I also had to tell them I didn’t know when they’d next get a paycheck.
There were two shutdowns, actually, rolling across the government in close succession, like thunder storms.
It’s not the way to do the public’s business.
Newt Gingrich got blamed largely because his ego was (and is) so big he couldn’t stop blabbing that Clinton should be blamed. (Gingrich’s complaint of a bad seat on Air Force One didn’t help.)
Full Story Here: Paul Ryan’s Plan, the Coming Shutdown, and What’s Really at Stake | Common Dreams.
Report: Koch Brothers Buy Politicians
MSNBC host Cenk Uygur speaks with Tony Carrk (Center For American Progress), author of a new report on the billionaire Koch Brothers and how they’re spending millions to push a right wing, corporate agenda.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
