Notes 74
This should be reason for free marketers to be ashamed
World's Billionaires 2011
by Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
BRIC countries surge; Carlos Slim widens lead atop list.
This 25th year of tracking global wealth was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This horde surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer billionaires this year. BRICs led the way: Brazil, Russia, India and China produced 108 of the 214 new names. These four nations are home to one in four members, up from one in 10 five years ago. Before this year only the U.S. had ever produced more than 100 billionaires. China now has 115 and Russia 101.
_________________________________________________________
Learning how a dictatorship exercises power.
Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 5 mins ago
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.
"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."
Miller said in an interview with The Associated Press there is nothing Democrats can do now to stop the bill: "It's a done deal."
"The gig is now up," Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."
__________________________________________________________
Does anybody besides the media really care about Charlie?
William Rivers Pitt | Sorry, Charlie
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "The 'mainstream' news media is so mouth-frothingly desperate to gin up a distraction - any distraction - to avoid reporting real news that the entire industry has latched on to the downward spiral of a half-assed actor like it is the end of the world. Charlie Sheen is gutting his life for all to see, the ultimate bread and circus, and the 'news' is all too happy to follow the plunging arc of his career for the same reason they show car chases and house fires. Meanwhile, Governor Walker of Wisconsin is preparing to fire state workers out of spite, because he has thus far been thwarted in his attempt to gut collective bargaining rights in his state."
____________________________________________________
Two years after the BIG banks were given free access to the treasury and they promised to assist homeowners, Geithner’s Treasury is finally getting around to helping the people. If he’d started with lending homeowners’ the money, the banks still would have gotten theirs and millions of people would not be out of their homes. That’s the difference between top down and bottom up.
GOP challenges proposed gov't deal on foreclosures
By Alan Fram, Associated Press – Wed Mar 9, 6:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators and attorneys general of the 50 states offered the terms to the large banks last week, following extended talks over revelations that the lenders had cut corners and used flawed documents to foreclose on many home borrowers.
Leading House Republicans challenged the deal Wednesday.
The lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that the proposal raised "significant concerns about its effect on the financial system, as well as concerns that the administration and state agencies are attempting to legislate through litigation."
They posed more than dozen questions to Geithner about the proposal, including what the legal justification is for the federal and state governments to try imposing such sweeping changes.
___________________________________________________
More deceit from those attacking the people’s hard-earned benefits. Since President Johnson consolidated government budgets, Social Security payments have been floating government excesses, not adding to government deficits.
A fresh focus on Social Security in budget debate
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press – Wed Mar 9
WASHINGTON – In the midst of the budget crisis, an old debate has broken out with new force: Should Social Security be seen as part of the deficit that Washington needs to rein in?
The White House is balking at calls to tackle Social Security's financial problems now, before baby boomers swamp the system. But the massive retirement program, like the rest of the government, is running a deficit and has become part of the argument on Capitol Hill.
______________________________________________________
The problem these days is the schizophrenia of public figures. What they say is totally inconsistent with what they believe
Jim Hightower | The Corporate/GOP Attack on America's Middle Class
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "The most revealing comments by politicians are rarely revealed. This is because they're made in unrecorded conversations, when politicos let their guard down. However, in a recent sting, blogger Ian Murphy recorded a revealing phone call he made to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Murphy pretended to be David Koch, the far-right-wing billionaire who pumped more than a million dollars into Walker's election last year. The governor is very busy, but he spent 20 minutes regaling the fake David Koch with details of his effort to kill the collective bargaining rights of state workers."
_______________________________________________________
If you missed Senator McCarthy, you’re going to get a second chance. This is where everybody with an axe to grind and anxious for their 15 minutes of fame is taking us back to.
'Islamic radicalization' hearing stirs hornets' nest
Inquiry by congressional committee looks like inquisition to many Muslims
By Kari Huus Reporter
msnbc.com msnbc.com updated 3/9/2011
The goal of the hearings, the first of which is being held Thursday, is "to establish and show the American people that there is a real threat of al-Qaida recruiting and of homegrown terrorists being self-radicalized within the Muslim community," according to Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
He also charges that Muslim Americans are not doing enough to discourage extremists in their midst.
Opponents say King is stoking anti-Islam hysteria at a time when the Muslim American community is already besieged by attacks on mosques, hate crimes and overzealous surveillance by law enforcement.
Many have compared these proceedings to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, which fed on fears of Communist subversion.
New York Rep. Peter King says his past support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA)--long listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department--doesn't pose a double-standard for the hearings he will gavel to order in the House tomorrow on the threat of Islamic radicalism.
"...an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society - cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian." -Howard Zinn,
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Budget fixes, not for publication on NPR, Coaching fixes, Afghanitan and Israeli fixes
Notes 73
Wall Streeter tells us how to fix U.S. budget problems. Cut entitlements. The problem started with Reagan cutting taxes.
"No Way Out" of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall
Posted Mar 08, 2011 09:00am EST by Stacy Curtin
Debt, debt and more mounting debt is plaguing countries around the globe.
In this U.S., states across the country face a collective $125 billion shortfall for fiscal 2012, while Congress is facing a budget gap nearly 10 times that size.
PIMCO founder Bill Gross -- one of the world's largest mutual funds managers, who focuses mostly on bonds -- has previously said that if the United States were a corporation, no one in their right mind would lend us money. For the last decade, we’ve been “relying on the kindness of strangers” to help cover our debts, he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.
By “strangers” he is referring to our foreign counterparts, like China for example. Basically, for years Americans have spent their hard-earned dollars on less-expensive Chinese made goods. With great gratitude, China turned around and used all those dollars to buy up U.S. Treasuries and other dollar-denominated assets.
But now after years of reckless spending, America’s debt level is nearing a breaking point and can no longer rely on foreign capital as a last resort.
The budget crisis situation unfolding - at the state and federal government level - does not bode well for working men and women in this country. There are really only two choices, says Gross. And, neither favors your pocketbook:
Option #1 – Keep spending and do nothing
Option #2 – Balance our budgets by cutting entitlements
WHAT ABOUT RAISING TAXES
______________________________________________________
The things you can day off mic that you can’t say on
NPR ‘appalled’ by former exec’s comments
By Michael Calderone
Former NPR executive Ron Schiller slams Republicans and the tea party movement and suggests that NPR would be better off without any federal funding in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.
In the video, Schiller said that the current Republican Party has been "hijacked" by a group that's "not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic" and suggests the tea party movement is comprised of some "seriously racist, racist people."
"We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for," said NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm in a statement. "Mr. Schiller announced last week that he is leaving NPR for another job."
______________________________________________________
Ethical values and value of football not an issue or even a question of embarrassment at major institutions of higher learning
Ohio State suspends Tressel two games
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)
Ohio State suspended football coach Jim Tressel for two games and fined him $250,000 on Tuesday for violating NCAA rules by failing to notify the school about information he received involving two players and questionable activities involving the sale of memorabilia.
Tressel also will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology. The NCAA is investigating and could reject the self-imposed penalties and impose additional sanctions.
''Wherever we end up, Jim Tressel is our football coach,'' Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. ''He is our coach, and we trust him implicitly.''
__________________________________________________
The truth is we are like every other would be conqueror of Afghanistan. And the sooner we cut our losses and come home, the better for everybody. But pride goeth before the fall as President Johnson learned.
AP Interview: Petraeus says tough summer ahead
AP –
KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says fighting this summer may be worse than last year but some reduction in American forces is still possible in July.
Gen. David Petraeus tells The Associated Press that he plans to present President Barack Obama with varying levels of troop reductions that accommodate the president's July target for beginning troop withdrawals. He says the extra forces poured in by Obama have secured "modest momentum" in Afghanistan but continues to describe those gains as fragile.
______________________________________________
Israel finally shows its cards
Israeli PM: Military must remain in West Bank
By Daniel Estrin, Associated Press –
SARTABA, West Bank – Israel's prime minister declared Tuesday that his country must retain a strategic section of the West Bank under any future peace deal — a position unlikely to win Palestinians over to his reported plan to offer them a temporary state.
In a rare visit to the occupied territory, Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel's security depends on maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley — a strip of West Bank land along the border with Jordan. Without troops there, Israel fears militants could smuggle weapons into the West Bank.
"The Jordan Valley is Israel's line of defense," Netanyahu said. "There is no alternative. It will remain that way in any future situation and any future deal. The military must remain here along the Jordan border."
Wall Streeter tells us how to fix U.S. budget problems. Cut entitlements. The problem started with Reagan cutting taxes.
"No Way Out" of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall
Posted Mar 08, 2011 09:00am EST by Stacy Curtin
Debt, debt and more mounting debt is plaguing countries around the globe.
In this U.S., states across the country face a collective $125 billion shortfall for fiscal 2012, while Congress is facing a budget gap nearly 10 times that size.
PIMCO founder Bill Gross -- one of the world's largest mutual funds managers, who focuses mostly on bonds -- has previously said that if the United States were a corporation, no one in their right mind would lend us money. For the last decade, we’ve been “relying on the kindness of strangers” to help cover our debts, he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.
By “strangers” he is referring to our foreign counterparts, like China for example. Basically, for years Americans have spent their hard-earned dollars on less-expensive Chinese made goods. With great gratitude, China turned around and used all those dollars to buy up U.S. Treasuries and other dollar-denominated assets.
But now after years of reckless spending, America’s debt level is nearing a breaking point and can no longer rely on foreign capital as a last resort.
The budget crisis situation unfolding - at the state and federal government level - does not bode well for working men and women in this country. There are really only two choices, says Gross. And, neither favors your pocketbook:
Option #1 – Keep spending and do nothing
Option #2 – Balance our budgets by cutting entitlements
WHAT ABOUT RAISING TAXES
______________________________________________________
The things you can day off mic that you can’t say on
NPR ‘appalled’ by former exec’s comments
By Michael Calderone
Former NPR executive Ron Schiller slams Republicans and the tea party movement and suggests that NPR would be better off without any federal funding in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.
In the video, Schiller said that the current Republican Party has been "hijacked" by a group that's "not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic" and suggests the tea party movement is comprised of some "seriously racist, racist people."
"We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for," said NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm in a statement. "Mr. Schiller announced last week that he is leaving NPR for another job."
______________________________________________________
Ethical values and value of football not an issue or even a question of embarrassment at major institutions of higher learning
Ohio State suspends Tressel two games
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)
Ohio State suspended football coach Jim Tressel for two games and fined him $250,000 on Tuesday for violating NCAA rules by failing to notify the school about information he received involving two players and questionable activities involving the sale of memorabilia.
Tressel also will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology. The NCAA is investigating and could reject the self-imposed penalties and impose additional sanctions.
''Wherever we end up, Jim Tressel is our football coach,'' Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. ''He is our coach, and we trust him implicitly.''
__________________________________________________
The truth is we are like every other would be conqueror of Afghanistan. And the sooner we cut our losses and come home, the better for everybody. But pride goeth before the fall as President Johnson learned.
AP Interview: Petraeus says tough summer ahead
AP –
KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says fighting this summer may be worse than last year but some reduction in American forces is still possible in July.
Gen. David Petraeus tells The Associated Press that he plans to present President Barack Obama with varying levels of troop reductions that accommodate the president's July target for beginning troop withdrawals. He says the extra forces poured in by Obama have secured "modest momentum" in Afghanistan but continues to describe those gains as fragile.
______________________________________________
Israel finally shows its cards
Israeli PM: Military must remain in West Bank
By Daniel Estrin, Associated Press –
SARTABA, West Bank – Israel's prime minister declared Tuesday that his country must retain a strategic section of the West Bank under any future peace deal — a position unlikely to win Palestinians over to his reported plan to offer them a temporary state.
In a rare visit to the occupied territory, Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel's security depends on maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley — a strip of West Bank land along the border with Jordan. Without troops there, Israel fears militants could smuggle weapons into the West Bank.
"The Jordan Valley is Israel's line of defense," Netanyahu said. "There is no alternative. It will remain that way in any future situation and any future deal. The military must remain here along the Jordan border."
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
What insanity looks like
Notes 72
Misplaced anger. A house divided cannot stand. In establishing the value of their work, an individual worker doesn’t stand a chance against the employer who holds all the cards. People see what happens to them without union solidarity but they get jealous instead of organized, Go figure.
Anger brews over government workers' benefits
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press – 1 hr 47 mins ago
When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.
"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.
__________________________________________________
If there were fewer rich and powerful shouting we are broke and more Michael Moores shouting we are not, maybe we could right this ship by implementing tax policies that would take us back to when there was a vibrant middle class at the tiller.
"America Is NOT Broke"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."
___________________________________________________
Obama collapses again
New Guantanamo trials could include 9/11 suspects
By Lolita C. Baldor And Erica Werner, Associated Press – 53 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's decision to resume military trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will open the door for the prosecution there of several suspected 9/11 conspirators, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Obama's order, which reverses his move two years ago to halt new trials, has reignited arguments over the legality of the military commissions, despite ongoing U.S. efforts to reform the hotly debated system.
______________________________________________________
Is it possible that the lessons taken away from our great institutions of learning--Libya’s Seif graduated from Harvard--that enable dictators to thrive are the same lessons that make the thieves of Wall Street successful in a different venue? Some kinda higher learning.
The Daily Beast
Can Buy Me Love
NEW YORK
Libya’s urbane, white-haired Foreign Minister, Musa Kusa, affects none of the silly props and pretenses—the tents and turbans and meandering rants—that have become Gaddafi’s trademarks. He got his master’s degree at Michigan State University in the 1970s, and both his children, born in the United States, are American citizens. “He ought to understand our ways,” says an American intelligence officer who dealt with him in the 1990s. And he does. It’s Kusa’s grasp of Western ways that has made him so effective in his primary role as Gaddafi’s enabler, aiding and abetting the Libyan leader’s pathological behavior. Kusa concocts excuses, fends off consequences, comes up with compromises, and thus far has managed to keep his kinsman in power no matter what crimes the Libyan leader has committed against his own people or against the world. But what’s really disturbing is the roster of world leaders he helped to enlist as his fellow enablers: men like Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi, Gordon Brown, and even George W. Bush.
__________________________________________________
Somethin fishy here. I thought our military experts decided a war could not be won with air power.
Britain and France drafting no-fly resolution
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press –
UNITED NATIONS – Britain and France are drafting a U.N. resolution that would establish a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Moammar Gadhafi's air force from bombing civilians and rebels fighting to oust him from power.
A British diplomat at the U.N. stressed Monday that the resolution is being prepared as a contingency in case it is needed, but no decision has been made to introduce it at the U.N. Security Council.
Pressure for the no-fly zone appears to be intensifying after Gadhafi's regime unleashed its air power on the poorly equipped and poorly organized rebel force trying to oust their ruler of 41 years.
The heavy use of air power on Sunday — and again on Monday — signaled the regime's concern that it needed to check the advance of the rebel force toward the city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold which lies on the main road to the capital, Tripoli.
Misplaced anger. A house divided cannot stand. In establishing the value of their work, an individual worker doesn’t stand a chance against the employer who holds all the cards. People see what happens to them without union solidarity but they get jealous instead of organized, Go figure.
Anger brews over government workers' benefits
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press – 1 hr 47 mins ago
When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.
"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.
__________________________________________________
If there were fewer rich and powerful shouting we are broke and more Michael Moores shouting we are not, maybe we could right this ship by implementing tax policies that would take us back to when there was a vibrant middle class at the tiller.
"America Is NOT Broke"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."
___________________________________________________
Obama collapses again
New Guantanamo trials could include 9/11 suspects
By Lolita C. Baldor And Erica Werner, Associated Press – 53 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's decision to resume military trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will open the door for the prosecution there of several suspected 9/11 conspirators, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Obama's order, which reverses his move two years ago to halt new trials, has reignited arguments over the legality of the military commissions, despite ongoing U.S. efforts to reform the hotly debated system.
______________________________________________________
Is it possible that the lessons taken away from our great institutions of learning--Libya’s Seif graduated from Harvard--that enable dictators to thrive are the same lessons that make the thieves of Wall Street successful in a different venue? Some kinda higher learning.
The Daily Beast
Can Buy Me Love
NEW YORK
Libya’s urbane, white-haired Foreign Minister, Musa Kusa, affects none of the silly props and pretenses—the tents and turbans and meandering rants—that have become Gaddafi’s trademarks. He got his master’s degree at Michigan State University in the 1970s, and both his children, born in the United States, are American citizens. “He ought to understand our ways,” says an American intelligence officer who dealt with him in the 1990s. And he does. It’s Kusa’s grasp of Western ways that has made him so effective in his primary role as Gaddafi’s enabler, aiding and abetting the Libyan leader’s pathological behavior. Kusa concocts excuses, fends off consequences, comes up with compromises, and thus far has managed to keep his kinsman in power no matter what crimes the Libyan leader has committed against his own people or against the world. But what’s really disturbing is the roster of world leaders he helped to enlist as his fellow enablers: men like Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi, Gordon Brown, and even George W. Bush.
__________________________________________________
Somethin fishy here. I thought our military experts decided a war could not be won with air power.
Britain and France drafting no-fly resolution
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press –
UNITED NATIONS – Britain and France are drafting a U.N. resolution that would establish a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Moammar Gadhafi's air force from bombing civilians and rebels fighting to oust him from power.
A British diplomat at the U.N. stressed Monday that the resolution is being prepared as a contingency in case it is needed, but no decision has been made to introduce it at the U.N. Security Council.
Pressure for the no-fly zone appears to be intensifying after Gadhafi's regime unleashed its air power on the poorly equipped and poorly organized rebel force trying to oust their ruler of 41 years.
The heavy use of air power on Sunday — and again on Monday — signaled the regime's concern that it needed to check the advance of the rebel force toward the city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold which lies on the main road to the capital, Tripoli.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Maybe the Bible got it right. We're just evil
Notes 70
If there were fewer rich and powerful shouting we are broke and more Michael Moores shouting we are not, maybe we could right this ship by implementing tax policies that would take us back to when there was a vibrant middle class at the tiller.
Michael Moore: "America Is NOT Broke"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."
______________________________________________________
The French justice system works, why doesn’t ours
Former French President Chirac to stand trial…
By Jamey Keaten, Associated Press – Sun Mar 6
PARIS – After years of claiming presidential immunity to avoid legal proceedings, Jacques Chirac is finally facing a court.
The former president, a bugaboo for George W. Bush during his rush to war in Iraq, on Monday becomes France's first former head of state to go on trial since its Nazi-era leader was exiled
That is, if the whole case isn't derailed by a last-minute protest by another defendant.
If the trial goes ahead as planned, Chirac, 78, faces a month in court on charges that he masterminded a scheme to have Paris City Hall pay for work that benefited his political party when he was mayor — before he became president in 1995.
_______________________________________________________
Spoken like a true believer
Ensign: 'I couldn't put my family through this'
Carrie Dann writes
John Ensign said during a press conference announcing his retirement from the Senate
"There are consequences to sin and when you’re in a leadership role, those consequences can affect a lot of other people,"
Ensign, whose fast-rising political career was derailed after he admitted to an affair with a campaign aide whose husband served as his deputy chief of staff, said that a pending Senate ethics investigation into his conduct had “zero effect” on the decision not to run for a third term.
______________________________________________________
During a debate on government getting in the way, New York Times columnist David Brookes said the Democratic Party was controlled by workers--actually he said unions.
Since most people are workers, that would be wonderful if it were true.
Wis. gov. rebuffs Democrats' request for meeting
Scott Bauer, Associated Press – MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Democrats who fled the state nearly three weeks ago asked Monday for a meeting with Gov. Scott Walker to talk about changes to his plan to eliminate most public workers' union rights, a request the governor dismissed as "ridiculous."
Walker said he and his administration have been in communication with at least a couple of the AWOL Senate Democrats about a deal that could bring them back, but the lawmaker who asked for the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, "is firmly standing in the way."
That accusation led to a flurry of angry responses from Democrats who said Walker was misrepresenting the talks. The sometimes-angry exchange suggested that any resolution to the stalemate was farther away than ever.
_________________________________________________
It’s a sad state of affairs when somebody whose main qualification for being considered presidential material is the ability to be a carney barker in charge of a sideshow.
Tea Party 2012: Will Michele Bachmann steal Sarah Palin’s thunder?
…
National Journal – Mon Mar 7,
By Lindsey Boerma
It's looking increasingly likely that Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., will dive into the 2012 presidential waters.
Among the evidence was a packed schedule for this past weekend, including two stump-like stops in Florida on Friday and a Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press.
Most notable was Bachmann's involvement in the conservative Club for Growth's annual winter meeting on Friday, where her name shared a guest list with those of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts—all rumored White House contenders.
___________________________________________________
The problem with Free Enterprise is it is not very good at policing itself .but, what the hell, let’s cut the budgets on all the oversight and law enforcement anyway . If we think we can’ trust government, we definitely can’t tust corporations.
21 airlines fined for fixing passenger, cargo fees
By Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press – Sat Mar 5
WASHINGTON – When the airline industry took a nose dive a decade ago, executives at global carriers scrambled to find a quick fix to avoid financial ruin.
What they came up with, according to federal prosecutors, was a massive price-fixing scheme among airlines that artificially inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits.
The airlines' crimes cost U.S. consumers and businesses — mostly international passengers and cargo shippers — hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors say.
___________________________________________________
There needs to be another way
Obama: Military action against Libya possible
If there were fewer rich and powerful shouting we are broke and more Michael Moores shouting we are not, maybe we could right this ship by implementing tax policies that would take us back to when there was a vibrant middle class at the tiller.
Michael Moore: "America Is NOT Broke"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."
______________________________________________________
The French justice system works, why doesn’t ours
Former French President Chirac to stand trial…
By Jamey Keaten, Associated Press – Sun Mar 6
PARIS – After years of claiming presidential immunity to avoid legal proceedings, Jacques Chirac is finally facing a court.
The former president, a bugaboo for George W. Bush during his rush to war in Iraq, on Monday becomes France's first former head of state to go on trial since its Nazi-era leader was exiled
That is, if the whole case isn't derailed by a last-minute protest by another defendant.
If the trial goes ahead as planned, Chirac, 78, faces a month in court on charges that he masterminded a scheme to have Paris City Hall pay for work that benefited his political party when he was mayor — before he became president in 1995.
_______________________________________________________
Spoken like a true believer
Ensign: 'I couldn't put my family through this'
Carrie Dann writes
John Ensign said during a press conference announcing his retirement from the Senate
"There are consequences to sin and when you’re in a leadership role, those consequences can affect a lot of other people,"
Ensign, whose fast-rising political career was derailed after he admitted to an affair with a campaign aide whose husband served as his deputy chief of staff, said that a pending Senate ethics investigation into his conduct had “zero effect” on the decision not to run for a third term.
______________________________________________________
During a debate on government getting in the way, New York Times columnist David Brookes said the Democratic Party was controlled by workers--actually he said unions.
Since most people are workers, that would be wonderful if it were true.
Wis. gov. rebuffs Democrats' request for meeting
Scott Bauer, Associated Press – MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Democrats who fled the state nearly three weeks ago asked Monday for a meeting with Gov. Scott Walker to talk about changes to his plan to eliminate most public workers' union rights, a request the governor dismissed as "ridiculous."
Walker said he and his administration have been in communication with at least a couple of the AWOL Senate Democrats about a deal that could bring them back, but the lawmaker who asked for the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, "is firmly standing in the way."
That accusation led to a flurry of angry responses from Democrats who said Walker was misrepresenting the talks. The sometimes-angry exchange suggested that any resolution to the stalemate was farther away than ever.
_________________________________________________
It’s a sad state of affairs when somebody whose main qualification for being considered presidential material is the ability to be a carney barker in charge of a sideshow.
Tea Party 2012: Will Michele Bachmann steal Sarah Palin’s thunder?
…
National Journal – Mon Mar 7,
By Lindsey Boerma
It's looking increasingly likely that Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., will dive into the 2012 presidential waters.
Among the evidence was a packed schedule for this past weekend, including two stump-like stops in Florida on Friday and a Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press.
Most notable was Bachmann's involvement in the conservative Club for Growth's annual winter meeting on Friday, where her name shared a guest list with those of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts—all rumored White House contenders.
___________________________________________________
The problem with Free Enterprise is it is not very good at policing itself .but, what the hell, let’s cut the budgets on all the oversight and law enforcement anyway . If we think we can’ trust government, we definitely can’t tust corporations.
21 airlines fined for fixing passenger, cargo fees
By Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press – Sat Mar 5
WASHINGTON – When the airline industry took a nose dive a decade ago, executives at global carriers scrambled to find a quick fix to avoid financial ruin.
What they came up with, according to federal prosecutors, was a massive price-fixing scheme among airlines that artificially inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits.
The airlines' crimes cost U.S. consumers and businesses — mostly international passengers and cargo shippers — hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors say.
___________________________________________________
There needs to be another way
Obama: Military action against Libya possible
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Afghanistan support, Huckabee gaffe, Gorbachev peer award, Israeli arrogance
Notes 69
Buy the poppy crop and burn it, bring the troops home, eliminate the dope problem domestically, close the for-pay prison system which is a classic free market incentive for the justice system to fill them up.
Ex-Pentagon adviser says US should cut Afghan aid
By Bradley Klapper, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – By pumping more than $100 million into a hydropower plant, the United States sought to improve the lives of Afghans and win the hearts and minds of tribesmen and farmers who might otherwise turn to the Taliban insurgency. Instead, a prominent outside Pentagon adviser argues, the bungled boondoggle ended up funding the insurgents while doing little to help the United States end the war and bring troops home
He argues that grand gestures such as the dam have flopped, largely because development spending does little to increase popular support during an insurgency. Half the electricity from the project in the volatile Helmand province goes to Taliban territory, enabling America's enemies to issue power bills and grow the poppies that finance their insurgency, he says.
It is written by a well-regarded counterinsurgency theorist who asserts that money and good will — the currency of counterinsurgency — can turn out to be counterproductive. In some ways, it surprisingly echoes Afghan President Hamid Karzai's sentiment that the volume of U.S. contract cash and development money fuels corruption and delivers as much harm as good when directed to a place where wealth is so scarce without it.
____________________________________________________
Huckabee’s gaffe a reflection of America’s flawed view of how the world works and what we need to do to change it. Exactly at the heart of the attack on unions, health care, education, the social safety net. One false assumption can lead you over a cliff.
FACT CHECK: Huckabee claims Obama grew up in Kenya
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press – Tue Mar 1
WASHINGTON – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested in a radio interview that President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his worldview — even though Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.
The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR on Monday that Obama's youth led him to resent the West, which he said explains why, in Huckabee's view, Obama's foreign policy differs so greatly from that of his predecessors/
“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather . he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”
______________________________________________________
When history is out from the umbrella of the Reagan mystique, Gorbachev will be the real hero in ending the folly of the Cold War started by the white paper written by the man called X in the Truman State Department in 1946.
Gorbachev, at 80, gets Russia's highest honor
By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press – 51 mins ago
MOSCOW – Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded Russia's highest medal on his 80th birthday Wednesday, a belated tribute from the homeland where many blame him for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Gorbachev during a meeting that he would be awarded the Order of St. Andrew for his service as the last Soviet leader. Medvedev said leading the Soviet Union during a "very complex, dramatic period" was a tough job.
"It can be assessed differently, but it was a heavy load," Medvedev said, adding that he will invite Gorbachev to the Kremlin to give him the award
_______________________________________________
Workers will rue the day they have to fight for their rights on their own rather than as a collective group and the people in power, whether government or corporation, will rule again. That will take us back alright, to the day before the middle class raised all boats.
Think “Divide and destroy.”
AFL-CIO President: Wisconsin 'The Fight of Our Lives'
NEW YORK – If Gov. Walker defeats the public union, AFL-CIO president Richard L. Trumka predicts disastrous results for American workers. Trumka talks to Eve Conant about the price of union-busting.
Richard L. Trumka has seen his share of strikes and protests, but now as president of the AFL-CIO, his fight for Wisconsin has the scent of a final battle, a last stand for America’s organized labor movement.
for labor leaders like Trumka, those rights could spell disaster, both for workers and for the politicians trying to defend public workers. “This is about all Americans having the basic right to use the strength of their numbers to pursue the American dream. This is a crystallizing political moment—we’re already seen from Wisconsin polling that voters think Walker has gone too far,” Trumka tells The Daily Beast.
_____________________________________________________
Like dancing on the grave of a dead man. Israel will soon be learning moderation is prudent.
Housing for Jews approved in east Jerusalem
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Amy Teibel, Associated Press – Wed Mar 2, 5:54 am ET
JERUSALEM – Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood.
The approval further complicates efforts to restart deadlocked negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
______________________________________________________
Reminiscent of Israel, the governors want all the chips, States’ Rights AND Federal money to support them.
GOP governors and Obama at impasse over Medicaid
By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – Strained state budgets and a new crew of Republican governors have combined to reopen the debate over Medicaid, the health care program for the poorest and sickest Americans.
GOP governors want control of the purse strings and leeway to rewrite coverage and payment rules. So far President Barack Obama has turned them down.
___________________________________________________
No honor among thieves
Rajat Gupta and Goldman's Insider Trading Bombshell
Allan Dodds Frank Allan Dodds Frank – Wed Mar 2
NEW YORK – Rajat Gupta was trusted by some of the world’s top companies. But the SEC says he shared insider secrets so a hedge fund could make millions improperly in the market. Allan Dodds Frank reports.
The reputation of McKinsey, the world’s most important consulting firm, is built on the perception that its high-priced consultants are the brightest and most trustworthy group available anywhere. Now Rajat Gupta, who served as McKinsey’s global managing director for nearly a decade, is enmeshed in Wall Street’s biggest insider trading scandal ever.
The ultimate kings of capitalism—Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the boards of directors of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble—are the latest alleged victims of a vast insider-trading ring that penetrated Wall Street during the last decade.
Buy the poppy crop and burn it, bring the troops home, eliminate the dope problem domestically, close the for-pay prison system which is a classic free market incentive for the justice system to fill them up.
Ex-Pentagon adviser says US should cut Afghan aid
By Bradley Klapper, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – By pumping more than $100 million into a hydropower plant, the United States sought to improve the lives of Afghans and win the hearts and minds of tribesmen and farmers who might otherwise turn to the Taliban insurgency. Instead, a prominent outside Pentagon adviser argues, the bungled boondoggle ended up funding the insurgents while doing little to help the United States end the war and bring troops home
He argues that grand gestures such as the dam have flopped, largely because development spending does little to increase popular support during an insurgency. Half the electricity from the project in the volatile Helmand province goes to Taliban territory, enabling America's enemies to issue power bills and grow the poppies that finance their insurgency, he says.
It is written by a well-regarded counterinsurgency theorist who asserts that money and good will — the currency of counterinsurgency — can turn out to be counterproductive. In some ways, it surprisingly echoes Afghan President Hamid Karzai's sentiment that the volume of U.S. contract cash and development money fuels corruption and delivers as much harm as good when directed to a place where wealth is so scarce without it.
____________________________________________________
Huckabee’s gaffe a reflection of America’s flawed view of how the world works and what we need to do to change it. Exactly at the heart of the attack on unions, health care, education, the social safety net. One false assumption can lead you over a cliff.
FACT CHECK: Huckabee claims Obama grew up in Kenya
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press – Tue Mar 1
WASHINGTON – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested in a radio interview that President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his worldview — even though Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.
The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR on Monday that Obama's youth led him to resent the West, which he said explains why, in Huckabee's view, Obama's foreign policy differs so greatly from that of his predecessors/
“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather . he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”
______________________________________________________
When history is out from the umbrella of the Reagan mystique, Gorbachev will be the real hero in ending the folly of the Cold War started by the white paper written by the man called X in the Truman State Department in 1946.
Gorbachev, at 80, gets Russia's highest honor
By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press – 51 mins ago
MOSCOW – Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded Russia's highest medal on his 80th birthday Wednesday, a belated tribute from the homeland where many blame him for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Gorbachev during a meeting that he would be awarded the Order of St. Andrew for his service as the last Soviet leader. Medvedev said leading the Soviet Union during a "very complex, dramatic period" was a tough job.
"It can be assessed differently, but it was a heavy load," Medvedev said, adding that he will invite Gorbachev to the Kremlin to give him the award
_______________________________________________
Workers will rue the day they have to fight for their rights on their own rather than as a collective group and the people in power, whether government or corporation, will rule again. That will take us back alright, to the day before the middle class raised all boats.
Think “Divide and destroy.”
AFL-CIO President: Wisconsin 'The Fight of Our Lives'
NEW YORK – If Gov. Walker defeats the public union, AFL-CIO president Richard L. Trumka predicts disastrous results for American workers. Trumka talks to Eve Conant about the price of union-busting.
Richard L. Trumka has seen his share of strikes and protests, but now as president of the AFL-CIO, his fight for Wisconsin has the scent of a final battle, a last stand for America’s organized labor movement.
for labor leaders like Trumka, those rights could spell disaster, both for workers and for the politicians trying to defend public workers. “This is about all Americans having the basic right to use the strength of their numbers to pursue the American dream. This is a crystallizing political moment—we’re already seen from Wisconsin polling that voters think Walker has gone too far,” Trumka tells The Daily Beast.
_____________________________________________________
Like dancing on the grave of a dead man. Israel will soon be learning moderation is prudent.
Housing for Jews approved in east Jerusalem
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Amy Teibel, Associated Press – Wed Mar 2, 5:54 am ET
JERUSALEM – Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood.
The approval further complicates efforts to restart deadlocked negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
______________________________________________________
Reminiscent of Israel, the governors want all the chips, States’ Rights AND Federal money to support them.
GOP governors and Obama at impasse over Medicaid
By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – Strained state budgets and a new crew of Republican governors have combined to reopen the debate over Medicaid, the health care program for the poorest and sickest Americans.
GOP governors want control of the purse strings and leeway to rewrite coverage and payment rules. So far President Barack Obama has turned them down.
___________________________________________________
No honor among thieves
Rajat Gupta and Goldman's Insider Trading Bombshell
Allan Dodds Frank Allan Dodds Frank – Wed Mar 2
NEW YORK – Rajat Gupta was trusted by some of the world’s top companies. But the SEC says he shared insider secrets so a hedge fund could make millions improperly in the market. Allan Dodds Frank reports.
The reputation of McKinsey, the world’s most important consulting firm, is built on the perception that its high-priced consultants are the brightest and most trustworthy group available anywhere. Now Rajat Gupta, who served as McKinsey’s global managing director for nearly a decade, is enmeshed in Wall Street’s biggest insider trading scandal ever.
The ultimate kings of capitalism—Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the boards of directors of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble—are the latest alleged victims of a vast insider-trading ring that penetrated Wall Street during the last decade.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
CIA, dogsleds, Republican revolution, tobacco, Libya, another military boondoggle
Notes 66
Just like the Blackwater assassinations in Baghdad, government contractors killing at will and we protect then from the reaches of local law. And we think the locals will love us?
James Jones would love us tp death.
Arrested US official is actually CIA contractor
By Associated Press Adam Goldman And Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22
WASHINGTON – An American jailed in Pakistan for the fatal shooting of two armed men was secretly working for the CIA and scouting a neighborhood when he was arrested, a disclosure likely to further frustrate U.S. government efforts to free the man and one that's expected to strain relations between two countries partnered in a fragile alliance in the war on terror.
The revelation that Davis was an employee of the CIA comes amid a tumultuous dispute over whether he is immune from criminal prosecution under international rules enacted to protect diplomats overseas. New protests in Pakistan erupted after The Guardian newspaper in London decided to publish details about Davis' relationship with the CIA.
__________________________________________________
When are we going to stop eating meat from domestic animals raised in feed lots or eggs from chickens primed to produce 24/7 or…?
Activists target dog sled rides after dog deaths
By Sue Manning, Associated Press – Tue Feb 8
LOS ANGELES – The slaughter of 100 sled dogs in Canada has re-energized efforts by some animal activists to ban or boycott dog sled rides, a popular activity among tourists in many winter vacation spots, from New England to Minnesota to Alaska.
"I don't think society is willing to accept that animals, particularly dogs, should be killed just because they are surplus or don't suit the purpose they were born for," said Debra Probert, executive director of the Vancouver Humane Society, which has called for a provincial ban on tour businesses.
___________________________________________________
Instead of worrying about dogs, let’s worry about Republican programs bent on disposing of excess people who have become surplus to wealth producing products from corporations.
Census estimates show 1 in 4 US counties are dying
By Associated Press Hope Yen And John Raby– Tue Feb 22,
WELCH, W.Va. – Nestled within America's once-thriving coal country, 87-year-old Ed Shepard laments a prosperous era gone by, when shoppers lined the streets and government lent a helping hand. Now, here as in one-fourth of all U.S. counties, West Virginia's graying residents are slowly dying off.
Hit by an aging population and a poor economy, a near-record number of U.S. counties are experiencing more deaths than births in their communities, a phenomenon demographers call "natural decrease."
______________________________________________________
One way of eliminating the tobacco industry. We should be thinking of others and not subsidizing the tobacco growers. And after that ban smokestack pollution--equallydeadly
Honduras seeks to stop smoking — even at home
By Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Lighting up a cigarette at home could bring a visit from Honduran police if a family member or even a visitor complains about secondhand smoke.
A new law that took effect Monday banning smoking in most public and private spaces doesn't actually outlaw cigarettes inside homes, but it does have a provision allowing people to file complaints about secondhand smoke in homes.
________________________________________________________
Saif Gadhafi says Libya, Syria, Iran won’t go down because they won’t tolerate a democratic revolution. Their armies WILL shoot their own people to protect the ruler.
What some people will pay to be free. It’s not about money.
Witnesses report bodies in the streets in Libya
By Maggie Michael, Associated Press –
CAIRO – The bodies of protesters shot to death by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were left on the streets of a restive district in the Libyan capital Tuesday, an opposition activist and a resident said, while the longtime leader defiantly went on state TV to show he was still in charge.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."
_________________________________________________
Israel gets onto U.S. military/industrial gravy train, Just wheat we need is another boondoggle like the empty silos in the Dakotas against an attack that never came. Reminds me of the over-the-shoulder salt joke. Salt thrown over the shoulder on a car ride across the Mojave keeps the elephants away.
Israel, US successfully test Arrow missile
By Press Matti Friedman, Associated Press – 1 hr 43 mins ago
JERUSALEM – Israel and the U.S. carried out a successful test of the Arrow anti-missile system off the coast of California, Israel's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Israel's Defense Ministry said the Arrow detected, intercepted and destroyed a target missile launched from an offshore platform inside a U.S. Navy firing range in a test carried out late Monday.
Just like the Blackwater assassinations in Baghdad, government contractors killing at will and we protect then from the reaches of local law. And we think the locals will love us?
James Jones would love us tp death.
Arrested US official is actually CIA contractor
By Associated Press Adam Goldman And Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22
WASHINGTON – An American jailed in Pakistan for the fatal shooting of two armed men was secretly working for the CIA and scouting a neighborhood when he was arrested, a disclosure likely to further frustrate U.S. government efforts to free the man and one that's expected to strain relations between two countries partnered in a fragile alliance in the war on terror.
The revelation that Davis was an employee of the CIA comes amid a tumultuous dispute over whether he is immune from criminal prosecution under international rules enacted to protect diplomats overseas. New protests in Pakistan erupted after The Guardian newspaper in London decided to publish details about Davis' relationship with the CIA.
__________________________________________________
When are we going to stop eating meat from domestic animals raised in feed lots or eggs from chickens primed to produce 24/7 or…?
Activists target dog sled rides after dog deaths
By Sue Manning, Associated Press – Tue Feb 8
LOS ANGELES – The slaughter of 100 sled dogs in Canada has re-energized efforts by some animal activists to ban or boycott dog sled rides, a popular activity among tourists in many winter vacation spots, from New England to Minnesota to Alaska.
"I don't think society is willing to accept that animals, particularly dogs, should be killed just because they are surplus or don't suit the purpose they were born for," said Debra Probert, executive director of the Vancouver Humane Society, which has called for a provincial ban on tour businesses.
___________________________________________________
Instead of worrying about dogs, let’s worry about Republican programs bent on disposing of excess people who have become surplus to wealth producing products from corporations.
Census estimates show 1 in 4 US counties are dying
By Associated Press Hope Yen And John Raby– Tue Feb 22,
WELCH, W.Va. – Nestled within America's once-thriving coal country, 87-year-old Ed Shepard laments a prosperous era gone by, when shoppers lined the streets and government lent a helping hand. Now, here as in one-fourth of all U.S. counties, West Virginia's graying residents are slowly dying off.
Hit by an aging population and a poor economy, a near-record number of U.S. counties are experiencing more deaths than births in their communities, a phenomenon demographers call "natural decrease."
______________________________________________________
One way of eliminating the tobacco industry. We should be thinking of others and not subsidizing the tobacco growers. And after that ban smokestack pollution--equallydeadly
Honduras seeks to stop smoking — even at home
By Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Lighting up a cigarette at home could bring a visit from Honduran police if a family member or even a visitor complains about secondhand smoke.
A new law that took effect Monday banning smoking in most public and private spaces doesn't actually outlaw cigarettes inside homes, but it does have a provision allowing people to file complaints about secondhand smoke in homes.
________________________________________________________
Saif Gadhafi says Libya, Syria, Iran won’t go down because they won’t tolerate a democratic revolution. Their armies WILL shoot their own people to protect the ruler.
What some people will pay to be free. It’s not about money.
Witnesses report bodies in the streets in Libya
By Maggie Michael, Associated Press –
CAIRO – The bodies of protesters shot to death by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were left on the streets of a restive district in the Libyan capital Tuesday, an opposition activist and a resident said, while the longtime leader defiantly went on state TV to show he was still in charge.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."
_________________________________________________
Israel gets onto U.S. military/industrial gravy train, Just wheat we need is another boondoggle like the empty silos in the Dakotas against an attack that never came. Reminds me of the over-the-shoulder salt joke. Salt thrown over the shoulder on a car ride across the Mojave keeps the elephants away.
Israel, US successfully test Arrow missile
By Press Matti Friedman, Associated Press – 1 hr 43 mins ago
JERUSALEM – Israel and the U.S. carried out a successful test of the Arrow anti-missile system off the coast of California, Israel's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Israel's Defense Ministry said the Arrow detected, intercepted and destroyed a target missile launched from an offshore platform inside a U.S. Navy firing range in a test carried out late Monday.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The end of empires and the continuing political struggle over the soul of the nation
Notes 65
Finally somebody with a platform to announce the truth
Op-Ed Columnist, NEW YORK TIMES
Empire at the End of Decadence
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: February 18, 2011
It’s time for us to stop lying to ourselves about this country.
Charles M. Blow
Go to Columnist Page »
Multimedia
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (306) »
America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.
________________________________________________
What’s hard to figure is why one small segment of the population has to bite the bullet so everybody else can get their serices for nothing and live well. It’s union busting. Walker got the concessions and now wants his poud of flesh.
Wis. gov. says he won't accept union compromise
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press – MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker again rejected a proposed compromise Monday to end a political stalemate over collective bargaining rights that led to 14 Senate Democrats skipping town and motivated tens of thousands of people to march on the Capitol in protest for more than a week.
Walker said Monday afternoon he wasn't interested in compromises that have been floated by public employee unions and even a Republican state senator. He spoke inside his heavily guarded conference room in the Capitol as thousands of people screamed and stomped outside his office to "Recall Walker!"
__________________________________________________
Wisconsin corporations are getting a 67 million dollar tax break while working people are being asked to give back some of their wages and benefits. Ya gotta love it
Corporations to Government: Give Us More, Tax Us Less
Richard D. Wolff, The Guardian: "Nothing better shows corporate control over the government than Washington's basic response to the current economic crisis. First we had 'the rescue' and then 'the recovery.' Trillions in public money flowed to the biggest US banks, insurance companies, etc. That "bailed" them out (suggestion of criminality?) while we waited for benefits to 'trickle down' to the rest of us. As usual, the 'trickle down' part has not happened. Large corporations and their investors kept the government's money for themselves; their profits and stock market 'recovered' nicely. We get unemployment, home-foreclosures, job benefit cuts and growing job insecurity. As the crisis hits states and cities, politicians avoid raising corporate taxes in favor of cutting government services and jobs."
______________________________________________________
.
One of the liabilities of the wealth generated by smoke and mirrors and corruption and the profits from war has been the rise of a middle class that got fat and satisfied. Now they are blaming all their problems on the unions with the assist of demagogues exploiting their new pain. When will they ever learn?
The Betrayal of Public Workers
Robert Pollin and Jeffrey Thompson, The Nation: "The Great Recession and its aftermath are entering a new phase in the United States, which could bring even more severe assaults on the living standards and basic rights of ordinary people than we have experienced thus far. This is because a wide swath of the country's policy- and opinion-making elite have singled out public sector workers - including schoolteachers, healthcare workers, police officers and firefighters - as well as their unions and even their pensions as deadweight burdens sapping the economy's vitality."
______________________________________________________
The Egyptians get it. Maybe it’s time we do.
Leader Of Egyptian Unions To Wisconsin Protesters: "We Stand With You As You Stood With Us"
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "One of the most underreported stories about the pro-democracy movement in Egypt was the role of labor unions in the demonstrations, many of which were protesting against neoliberal right-wing economic policies just as much as they were protesting against the Mubarak dictatorship. During the uprising in that country, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka praised the role of organized labor, saying, 'The people's movement for democracy in Egypt and the role unions are playing for freedom and worker rights inspires us and will not be forgotten.'"
______________________________________________________
Remarkable, we complain sbout China blocking access to internet and we block access to al Jazeera TV. Go figure. Are we schizophrenic or what?
Absence of Al Jazeera English in US Is Troubling
Ronnie Lovler, The San Francisco Chronicle: "The uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and now Iran should prompt a call for change here in the United States - against the absurd blackout of Al Jazeera television. You can watch Al Jazeera on TV almost anywhere in the world - except in the United States. How is this possible in our nation where freedom of the press is a basic constitutional tenet? Just what do cable and satellite carriers fear?"
______________________________________________________
Now the innocent gunner was a C.I.A agent. We’ve been violating international law by attacking inside Pakistan. That was grounds almost for impeachment for Nixon when he turned the dogs loose in Cambodia. And now Pakistan is supposed to worry about the sanctity of Embassy privileges. Get real.
US: Pakistan must free detained CIA worker
By Matthew Lee, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration insisted Monday that an American working for the CIA who has been detained in Pakistan for killing two Pakistanis has diplomatic immunity and must be freed.
In a hastily arranged conference call with reporters shortly after details of Raymond Davis' employment were reported, senior State Department officials repeated the administration's stance that he is an accredited member of the technical and administrative staff of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
Finally somebody with a platform to announce the truth
Op-Ed Columnist, NEW YORK TIMES
Empire at the End of Decadence
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: February 18, 2011
It’s time for us to stop lying to ourselves about this country.
Charles M. Blow
Go to Columnist Page »
Multimedia
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (306) »
America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.
________________________________________________
What’s hard to figure is why one small segment of the population has to bite the bullet so everybody else can get their serices for nothing and live well. It’s union busting. Walker got the concessions and now wants his poud of flesh.
Wis. gov. says he won't accept union compromise
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press – MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker again rejected a proposed compromise Monday to end a political stalemate over collective bargaining rights that led to 14 Senate Democrats skipping town and motivated tens of thousands of people to march on the Capitol in protest for more than a week.
Walker said Monday afternoon he wasn't interested in compromises that have been floated by public employee unions and even a Republican state senator. He spoke inside his heavily guarded conference room in the Capitol as thousands of people screamed and stomped outside his office to "Recall Walker!"
__________________________________________________
Wisconsin corporations are getting a 67 million dollar tax break while working people are being asked to give back some of their wages and benefits. Ya gotta love it
Corporations to Government: Give Us More, Tax Us Less
Richard D. Wolff, The Guardian: "Nothing better shows corporate control over the government than Washington's basic response to the current economic crisis. First we had 'the rescue' and then 'the recovery.' Trillions in public money flowed to the biggest US banks, insurance companies, etc. That "bailed" them out (suggestion of criminality?) while we waited for benefits to 'trickle down' to the rest of us. As usual, the 'trickle down' part has not happened. Large corporations and their investors kept the government's money for themselves; their profits and stock market 'recovered' nicely. We get unemployment, home-foreclosures, job benefit cuts and growing job insecurity. As the crisis hits states and cities, politicians avoid raising corporate taxes in favor of cutting government services and jobs."
______________________________________________________
.
One of the liabilities of the wealth generated by smoke and mirrors and corruption and the profits from war has been the rise of a middle class that got fat and satisfied. Now they are blaming all their problems on the unions with the assist of demagogues exploiting their new pain. When will they ever learn?
The Betrayal of Public Workers
Robert Pollin and Jeffrey Thompson, The Nation: "The Great Recession and its aftermath are entering a new phase in the United States, which could bring even more severe assaults on the living standards and basic rights of ordinary people than we have experienced thus far. This is because a wide swath of the country's policy- and opinion-making elite have singled out public sector workers - including schoolteachers, healthcare workers, police officers and firefighters - as well as their unions and even their pensions as deadweight burdens sapping the economy's vitality."
______________________________________________________
The Egyptians get it. Maybe it’s time we do.
Leader Of Egyptian Unions To Wisconsin Protesters: "We Stand With You As You Stood With Us"
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "One of the most underreported stories about the pro-democracy movement in Egypt was the role of labor unions in the demonstrations, many of which were protesting against neoliberal right-wing economic policies just as much as they were protesting against the Mubarak dictatorship. During the uprising in that country, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka praised the role of organized labor, saying, 'The people's movement for democracy in Egypt and the role unions are playing for freedom and worker rights inspires us and will not be forgotten.'"
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Remarkable, we complain sbout China blocking access to internet and we block access to al Jazeera TV. Go figure. Are we schizophrenic or what?
Absence of Al Jazeera English in US Is Troubling
Ronnie Lovler, The San Francisco Chronicle: "The uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and now Iran should prompt a call for change here in the United States - against the absurd blackout of Al Jazeera television. You can watch Al Jazeera on TV almost anywhere in the world - except in the United States. How is this possible in our nation where freedom of the press is a basic constitutional tenet? Just what do cable and satellite carriers fear?"
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Now the innocent gunner was a C.I.A agent. We’ve been violating international law by attacking inside Pakistan. That was grounds almost for impeachment for Nixon when he turned the dogs loose in Cambodia. And now Pakistan is supposed to worry about the sanctity of Embassy privileges. Get real.
US: Pakistan must free detained CIA worker
By Matthew Lee, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration insisted Monday that an American working for the CIA who has been detained in Pakistan for killing two Pakistanis has diplomatic immunity and must be freed.
In a hastily arranged conference call with reporters shortly after details of Raymond Davis' employment were reported, senior State Department officials repeated the administration's stance that he is an accredited member of the technical and administrative staff of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
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