Notes 25
Illinois on the track to Eisenhower days and the end of the debt crisis. That’s all it will take to stop country's collapse. The bill has got to be paid, people. No more Reagan free lunches.
52.38% top marginal tax rate: Eisenhower, King of the Socialists
by mbzoltan
Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 10:54:53 AM PST
Only in 1988 and 1989 (Ronald Reagan's final 13 months in office) was the TOP MARGINAL rate down to 28%. It was 69.13% when he went into office, and went from 69.13%-50% from 1981-1986, then 38.5%, then 28%.
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When will the public stop cutting its throat? Why is it services and people’s jobs that have to pay the bill for our profligate excesses
Camden, NJ braces for deep police, fire cuts
Camden, NJ, poor and crime-ridden, braces for deep cuts, slashing of police, fire staffs
Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press, On Sunday January 16, 2011
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- Yet another crisis is upon this burdened city, among the most impoverished and crime-ridden in the country.
Deep layoffs of city workers go into effect on Tuesday -- cutting up to 383 jobs, or one-fourth of the city's employees.
The exact number depends on whether public workers' unions make last-minute concessions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another billion dollar bad idea badly managed with bad result and great profits for corporation
U.S. ends "virtual fence" project on Mexican border
By Jeremy Pelofsky – Fri Jan 14, WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
President Barack Obama's administration on Friday canceled the troubled "virtual fence" project meant to better guard stretches of the vast U.S. border with Mexico and will replace it with other security measures.
The project, begun in 2006 and run by Boeing Co, has cost about $1 billion and was designed to pull together video cameras, radar, sensors and other technologies to catch illegal immigrants and smugglers trying to cross the porous border.
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Pollution is like global warming, unbelievable
Missed deadlines in clearing haze over parks
SEATTLE – More than 30 years after Congress set a goal of clearing the pollution-caused haze that obscures scenic vistas at some of America's wildest and most famous natural places, progress is still slow in coming
Saturday marks the deadline for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve most state plans aimed at curbing pollution from coal-fired power plants and industrial sources to improve visibility at 156 national parks and wilderness areas such as Shenandoah, Mount Rainier and the Grand Canyon.
But as of Thursday, the agency hadn't approved any state plans — or come up with its own, as required.
______________________________________________
The story of America captured in the tradeoff for jobs and money in North Florida
From a reader
I have worked in Paper Mills..Mills with Pulping operations like Digesters, evaporators / precipitators and Black Liquor Boilers along with Causticizing..produce really toxic runoffs in large quantities. If the environmental people come down too hard..they will just close the Mill and put a whole community out of work. Cantonment will become hard hit. There is really no way to get rid of these toxic by-product chemicals short of trucking it off and pumping it into a deep depleted oil reservoir.
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How much evidence is required to prove cigarettes are deadly before manufacturers will be arrested, for you know, murder?
Smoking causes gene damage in minutes
– Sat Jan 15, 9:17 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Those first few puffs on a cigarette can within minutes cause genetic damage linked to cancer, US scientists said in a study released.
In fact, researchers said the "effect is so fast that it's equivalent to injecting the substance directly into the bloodstream," in findings described as a "stark warning" to those who smoke.
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Laws against suicide apparently do not apply to global warming
Press Release 11-006
Earth's Hot Past: Prologue to Future Climate?
Study of Earth's deep past leads to look into the future
View a video interview with Jeff Kiehl of UCAR.
The magnitude of climate change during Earth's deep past suggests that future temperatures may eventually rise far more than projected if society continues its pace of emitting greenhouse gases, a new analysis concludes.
The study, by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Jeffrey Kiehl, will appear as a "Perspectives" article in this week's issue of the journal Science.
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The politics and the egos and the amount of money involved is staggering
Cancer survivor aims to raze barriers with app
Cancer survivor aims to raze treatment, research barriers with an app to enable collaboration
Marcus Wohlsen, Associated Press, On Sunday January 16, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In the late 1990s, Marty Tenenbaum was a hotshot e-commerce entrepreneur riding high on the dot-com boom when he noticed a lump on his body.
His doctor told him it was nothing, but when he finally had it removed, he learned he had melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Now 67, Tenenbaum still believes he would not have made it if he hadn't had personal connections at the National Cancer Institute who guided him toward cutting-edge experimental treatments that saved his life.
On Tuesday, he plans to launch a Web application to bring together patients, physicians and scientists regardless of where they work, live or went to college in hopes that the so-called wisdom of the crowd can lead to the best therapies.
"...an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society - cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian." -Howard Zinn,
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Creating vibrant economy, Iraq mistake, life's value, Chinese ambitions, Holbrooke Hawk, Miami immigrants, social security myth, Iceland prosecutes bank thieves,Quantas not person,
What drives jobs and investment? Purchases, stupid, not phony ponzi schemes by bankers trading SDRs and SDOs with each other to boost paper profit.
Net rises on server chip sales
Jordan Robertson, AP Technology Writer, On Friday January 14, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Intel Corp.'s 48 percent jump in fourth-quarter net income, driven by strong corporate spending, comes at a turning point in the personal computer industry's 30-plus year history.
Some 350 million PCs were shipped in 2010, according to data released this week, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini says that more than 1 million PCs are now being sold every day.
___________________________________________________
Bad investment of time and money and ambition from the get go. Finally somebody who doesn’t want us running their politics for half a century like Europeans or Asians
BAGHDAD – Iraqi politicians face the contentious question this year of whether to ask U.S. troops to stay beyond an end-of-2011 deadline for their departure
"We heard a pledge from the government that it will expel the occupier, and we are waiting for it to honor its word," al Sadr said during a speech.
________________________________________________
Putting life and death in perspective
From a correspondent--Ryan 2
Two soldiers from my home state where killed in Afganistan the same day Giffords was shot. I wonder why she gets all this media attention and speeches from Obogo? These men died because they where sent over there under the lie that they where fighting for American freedom by politicians.
_________________________________________________
I’m trying to find where Chinese Military is on attack anywhere--in or outside of China.
No Luck
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S.-China relations are at a critical juncture and a summit between their leaders next week must produce "real action, on real issues" such as trade, climate change and North Korean nuclear proliferation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
"It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues," she said in a major China policy address in Washington
__________________________________________________
I thought Holbrooke cut his spurs on Viet Nam and was an imperialist and a Hawk. Shows how much I know.
Obama eulogizes Holbrooke as clear-eyed diplomat
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was an extraordinary diplomat with a clear-eyed vision of America's place in the world who "served his country until his final moments."
At the Johnson White House, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, an internal government study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that was completed in 1967.
The study, leaked in 1971 by a former Defense Department aide, had many damaging revelations, including a memo that stated the reason for fighting in Vietnam was based far more on preserving U.S. prestige than preventing communism or helping the Vietnamese.
As many commentators have pointed out, the Pentagon Papers included damning revelations of malfeasance at the highest levels of the U.S. government, such as evidence showing that President Lyndon Johnson had lied to the American public about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and that his successor, Richard Nixon, had expanded bombing campaigns to Cambodia and Laos.
___________________________________________________
Finally a small group of Cuban boat people in Miami has lost control over American foreign policy and failed efforts to embargo Castro to death
By Jeff Mason and Pascal Fletcher Jeff Mason And Pascal Fletcher – 1 hr 48 mins ago
WASHINGTON/MIAMI (Reuters) – President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Friday loosening more restrictions on U.S. travel and money remittances to Cuba, a further step in his efforts to reach out to the people of the communist-ruled country.
____________________________________________________
The myth and the reality of Social Security and Medicare
What's the 'Return' on Your Social Security Taxes
by Eric Schurenberg
Friday, January 14, 2011
Whether you believe it or not, Social Security is going to be a part of your future, and when the time comes, you'll be glad you've got it. Yes, our national pension system has some well-known fiscal problems, but Uncle Sam can solve them by any number of bearable cost-cutting and/or tax-raising solutions before the money runs out. The question remains, though: Is it worth it? Will the benefits you'd receive under current law compensate you for the career's worth of taxes you'll have paid into the system? The latest answer, generated by a new Urban Institute Social Security study, is: yes. (Surprised?) As far as it's possible to project, Social Security and Medicare give you a positive return on your tax "investment" even after inflation
________________________________________________
Why does little Iceleand prosecute banker theft and U.S. fines them? Why isn’t Richard Fuld in jail?
2 ex-Landsbanki executives arrested in Iceland in connection with bank's spectacular collapse
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Two former senior executives with Iceland's failed Landsbanki bank have been arrested over allegations of market manipulation, the special prosecutor's office said Friday.
Prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said he had asked that ex-Landsbanki chief executive Sigurjon Arnson and former head of corporate finance Ivar Gudjonsson be detained in connection with investigation into the collapse of the institution. It's one of several Icelandic banks that failed in 2008 under the weight of enormous debts racked up during the tiny North Atlantic nation's boom.
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Supreme Court says corporations are real persons but hard to arrest Quantas
Qantas to pay settlement in US price-fixing suit
Qantas to pay $26.5 million to settle US class action over price-fixing on cargo services
On Friday January 14, 2011, 2:35 am EST
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- Qantas will pay $26.5 million in a settlement of a freight price-fixing lawsuit in the United States.
Australia's national carrier said Friday that the settlement, subject to court approval, would resolve its liability in the case. Qantas must also cooperate with the plaintiffs in the case.
"In exchange, Qantas is released from claims made by all class members who were direct purchasers of air cargo services to or from the U.S. from January 2000 to 11 September 2006," the airline said.
__________________________________________________
Not hard to make a profit by borrowing from government for nothing and lending at a markup.
(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a 47 percent increase in quarterly earnings.
Profit and revenue was stronger than analysts had expected, and the bank made more loans.
Net rises on server chip sales
Jordan Robertson, AP Technology Writer, On Friday January 14, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Intel Corp.'s 48 percent jump in fourth-quarter net income, driven by strong corporate spending, comes at a turning point in the personal computer industry's 30-plus year history.
Some 350 million PCs were shipped in 2010, according to data released this week, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini says that more than 1 million PCs are now being sold every day.
___________________________________________________
Bad investment of time and money and ambition from the get go. Finally somebody who doesn’t want us running their politics for half a century like Europeans or Asians
BAGHDAD – Iraqi politicians face the contentious question this year of whether to ask U.S. troops to stay beyond an end-of-2011 deadline for their departure
"We heard a pledge from the government that it will expel the occupier, and we are waiting for it to honor its word," al Sadr said during a speech.
________________________________________________
Putting life and death in perspective
From a correspondent--Ryan 2
Two soldiers from my home state where killed in Afganistan the same day Giffords was shot. I wonder why she gets all this media attention and speeches from Obogo? These men died because they where sent over there under the lie that they where fighting for American freedom by politicians.
_________________________________________________
I’m trying to find where Chinese Military is on attack anywhere--in or outside of China.
No Luck
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S.-China relations are at a critical juncture and a summit between their leaders next week must produce "real action, on real issues" such as trade, climate change and North Korean nuclear proliferation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
"It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues," she said in a major China policy address in Washington
__________________________________________________
I thought Holbrooke cut his spurs on Viet Nam and was an imperialist and a Hawk. Shows how much I know.
Obama eulogizes Holbrooke as clear-eyed diplomat
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was an extraordinary diplomat with a clear-eyed vision of America's place in the world who "served his country until his final moments."
At the Johnson White House, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, an internal government study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that was completed in 1967.
The study, leaked in 1971 by a former Defense Department aide, had many damaging revelations, including a memo that stated the reason for fighting in Vietnam was based far more on preserving U.S. prestige than preventing communism or helping the Vietnamese.
As many commentators have pointed out, the Pentagon Papers included damning revelations of malfeasance at the highest levels of the U.S. government, such as evidence showing that President Lyndon Johnson had lied to the American public about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and that his successor, Richard Nixon, had expanded bombing campaigns to Cambodia and Laos.
___________________________________________________
Finally a small group of Cuban boat people in Miami has lost control over American foreign policy and failed efforts to embargo Castro to death
By Jeff Mason and Pascal Fletcher Jeff Mason And Pascal Fletcher – 1 hr 48 mins ago
WASHINGTON/MIAMI (Reuters) – President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Friday loosening more restrictions on U.S. travel and money remittances to Cuba, a further step in his efforts to reach out to the people of the communist-ruled country.
____________________________________________________
The myth and the reality of Social Security and Medicare
What's the 'Return' on Your Social Security Taxes
by Eric Schurenberg
Friday, January 14, 2011
Whether you believe it or not, Social Security is going to be a part of your future, and when the time comes, you'll be glad you've got it. Yes, our national pension system has some well-known fiscal problems, but Uncle Sam can solve them by any number of bearable cost-cutting and/or tax-raising solutions before the money runs out. The question remains, though: Is it worth it? Will the benefits you'd receive under current law compensate you for the career's worth of taxes you'll have paid into the system? The latest answer, generated by a new Urban Institute Social Security study, is: yes. (Surprised?) As far as it's possible to project, Social Security and Medicare give you a positive return on your tax "investment" even after inflation
________________________________________________
Why does little Iceleand prosecute banker theft and U.S. fines them? Why isn’t Richard Fuld in jail?
2 ex-Landsbanki executives arrested in Iceland in connection with bank's spectacular collapse
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Two former senior executives with Iceland's failed Landsbanki bank have been arrested over allegations of market manipulation, the special prosecutor's office said Friday.
Prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said he had asked that ex-Landsbanki chief executive Sigurjon Arnson and former head of corporate finance Ivar Gudjonsson be detained in connection with investigation into the collapse of the institution. It's one of several Icelandic banks that failed in 2008 under the weight of enormous debts racked up during the tiny North Atlantic nation's boom.
_________________________________________________
Supreme Court says corporations are real persons but hard to arrest Quantas
Qantas to pay settlement in US price-fixing suit
Qantas to pay $26.5 million to settle US class action over price-fixing on cargo services
On Friday January 14, 2011, 2:35 am EST
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- Qantas will pay $26.5 million in a settlement of a freight price-fixing lawsuit in the United States.
Australia's national carrier said Friday that the settlement, subject to court approval, would resolve its liability in the case. Qantas must also cooperate with the plaintiffs in the case.
"In exchange, Qantas is released from claims made by all class members who were direct purchasers of air cargo services to or from the U.S. from January 2000 to 11 September 2006," the airline said.
__________________________________________________
Not hard to make a profit by borrowing from government for nothing and lending at a markup.
(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a 47 percent increase in quarterly earnings.
Profit and revenue was stronger than analysts had expected, and the bank made more loans.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Everybody's got a hand in Assange whodunnit
Assange
John Pilger's Investigation Into the War on WikiLeaks and His Interview With Julian Assange
Friday 14 January 2011
by: John Pilger,| Interview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbeMsa9NmQw
The great American playwright Arthur Miller wrote: "The thought that the state ... is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied."
My favorite secret document - leaked by WikiLeaks, of course - is from the Ministry of Defense in London. It describes journalists who serve the public without fear or favor as "subversive" and "threats." Such a badge of honor.
Assange said, “The release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, with their evidence of the killing of civilians, hasn't caused this - it's the exposure and embarrassment of the political class: the truth of what governments say in secret, how they lie in public; how wars are started. They don't want the public to know these things and scapegoats must be found."
What WikiLeaks has given us is truth, including rare and precious insight into how and why so many innocent people have suffered in reigns of terror disguised as wars and executed in our name; and how the United States has secretly and wantonly intervened in democratic governments from Latin America to its most loyal ally in Britain.
As the US Justice Department, in its hunt for Assange, subpoenas the Twitter and email accounts, banking and credit card records of people around the world - as if we are all subjects of the United States - much of the "free" media on both sides of the Atlantic direct their indignation at the hunted.
In December 2001, with the "war on terror" under way, the Swedish government abruptly revoked the political refugee status of two Egyptians, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed al-Zari. They were handed to a CIA kidnap squad at Stockholm airport and "rendered" to Egypt, where they were tortured. When the Swedish ombudsman for justice investigated and found that their human rights had been "seriously violated," it was too late.
The implications for the Assange case are clear. Both men were removed without due process of law and before their lawyers could file appeals to the European Human Rights Court and in response to a US threat to impose a trade embargo on Sweden. Last year, Assange applied for residency in Sweden, hoping to base WikiLeaks there. It is widely believed that Washington warned Sweden through mutual intelligence contacts of the potential consequences. In December, prosecutor Marianne Ny, who reactivated the Assange case, discussed the possibility of Assange's extradition to the US on her web site.
the statement by the original prosecutor, Eva Finne, that "Julian Assange is not suspected of rape."
The original prosecutor, Eva Finne, said that "Julian Assange is not suspected of rape."
Vice President Joe Biden declared Assange a "high tech terrorist"
At 23, Private Manning is the world's pre-eminent prisoner of conscience, having remained true to the Nuremberg principle that every soldier has the right to "a moral choice." His suffering mocks the notion of the land of the free.
"Government whistleblowers," said Barack Obama, running for president in 2008, "are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal." Obama has since pursued and prosecuted more whistleblowers than any other president in American history.
John Pilger's Investigation Into the War on WikiLeaks and His Interview With Julian Assange
Friday 14 January 2011
by: John Pilger,| Interview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbeMsa9NmQw
The great American playwright Arthur Miller wrote: "The thought that the state ... is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied."
My favorite secret document - leaked by WikiLeaks, of course - is from the Ministry of Defense in London. It describes journalists who serve the public without fear or favor as "subversive" and "threats." Such a badge of honor.
Assange said, “The release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, with their evidence of the killing of civilians, hasn't caused this - it's the exposure and embarrassment of the political class: the truth of what governments say in secret, how they lie in public; how wars are started. They don't want the public to know these things and scapegoats must be found."
What WikiLeaks has given us is truth, including rare and precious insight into how and why so many innocent people have suffered in reigns of terror disguised as wars and executed in our name; and how the United States has secretly and wantonly intervened in democratic governments from Latin America to its most loyal ally in Britain.
As the US Justice Department, in its hunt for Assange, subpoenas the Twitter and email accounts, banking and credit card records of people around the world - as if we are all subjects of the United States - much of the "free" media on both sides of the Atlantic direct their indignation at the hunted.
In December 2001, with the "war on terror" under way, the Swedish government abruptly revoked the political refugee status of two Egyptians, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed al-Zari. They were handed to a CIA kidnap squad at Stockholm airport and "rendered" to Egypt, where they were tortured. When the Swedish ombudsman for justice investigated and found that their human rights had been "seriously violated," it was too late.
The implications for the Assange case are clear. Both men were removed without due process of law and before their lawyers could file appeals to the European Human Rights Court and in response to a US threat to impose a trade embargo on Sweden. Last year, Assange applied for residency in Sweden, hoping to base WikiLeaks there. It is widely believed that Washington warned Sweden through mutual intelligence contacts of the potential consequences. In December, prosecutor Marianne Ny, who reactivated the Assange case, discussed the possibility of Assange's extradition to the US on her web site.
the statement by the original prosecutor, Eva Finne, that "Julian Assange is not suspected of rape."
The original prosecutor, Eva Finne, said that "Julian Assange is not suspected of rape."
Vice President Joe Biden declared Assange a "high tech terrorist"
At 23, Private Manning is the world's pre-eminent prisoner of conscience, having remained true to the Nuremberg principle that every soldier has the right to "a moral choice." His suffering mocks the notion of the land of the free.
"Government whistleblowers," said Barack Obama, running for president in 2008, "are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal." Obama has since pursued and prosecuted more whistleblowers than any other president in American history.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Banks, Schell, Gates, jobs, businesses, work force, AWOL,Koch, stocks, Palin
Banks and corporations prosper based on government money loaned at zero percent
By: Abby Schultz
Special to CNBC.com
Banks rose ahead of major earnings releases, beginning with JPMorgan's on Friday.
The positive tone comes as investors realize corporations are well positioned to take advantage of a strengthening economy, said Marc Pado, market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
In the fourth quarter, corporations kept costs low and inventories down as sales rose, Pado said
____________________________________________________
No trickle down here. Where are the free loans for homeowners like the ones banks get from government.
msnbc.com news services
Banks repossessed a record million homes in 2010 and this year is set to be even worse with 5 million borrowers at least two months behind on mortgage payments.
More homeowners are expected to start missing payments as they struggle with job losses and loans worth more than their home's value, industry analysts forecast.
"2011 is going to be the peak," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc.
___________________________________________________
In Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell asked if we had the right to destroy the world with nuclear weapons
Wynne Parry
LiveScience Senior Writer
Thu Jan 13, 9:00 am ET
Even if humans stop producing excess carbon dioxide in 2100, the lingering effects of global warming could span the next millennia. The results? By the year 3000, global warming would be more than a hot topic - the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse, and global sea levels would rise by about 13 feet (4 meters), according to a new study.
Using a computer model, researchers looked at two scenarios - an end to humans' industrial carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 and by 2100 - stretched out to the year 3000.
____________________________________________
Gates is getting it
by Mathieu Rabechault Mathieu Rabechault – Thu Jan 13, 10:35 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP)
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned the cost overruns cannot continue. "The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of restraint," he said recently.
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More educated people than jobs. More businesses than business. Replace fiction with balance
by Catey Hill
Friday, January 14, 2011
When Joyce Kalivas-Griffin, 57, saw a job opening at a private school nearby, she immediately sent in her resume. She was hopeful — the description matched her skills almost perfectly — but heard nothing. Then, she noticed that the job had been posted again, so she tweaked her resume to obscure her age and resubmitted it. This time, the school called her in for an interview. Kalivas-Griffin says she nailed it, but she didn't get the job: She believes that when the interviewer met her and realized she's no 30-something, her age tipped the scales against her.
Kalivas-Griffin will never know for sure, but as the workforce gets grayer, age bias is likely to increase, experts say. Roughly 25% of employers said they were reluctant to hire older workers, according to a 2006 survey by the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College
_______________________________________________
Keeping the restive workforce in line--not sharing shared success. That sentiment captures the coming problems
BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY, January 13, 2011
DETROIT — The sweeping overhaul and surprising recovery of the American auto industry is about to pay off handsomely for the blue-collar workers at Ford and General Motors.
While the payouts — expected to top $5,000 at Ford — underscore the turnaround being celebrated at the Detroit auto show this week, they also foreshadow the enormous challenge awaiting the rebounding companies: how to maintain and build on their financial health while keeping their historically restive work force in line.
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War comes first
Public Pressure Delays Deployment of Wounded Soldier
As reported by Sarah Lazare and Ryan Harvey
Jeff Hanks, a soldier out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was deployed to Afghanistan early last year and returned in September 2010 in need of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Hanks was denied treatment by two separate military bases for his traumatic injuries and was forced to go Absent Without Official Leave in order to get medical attention from civilian professionals. After surrendering himself at Fort Campbell, he was set to redeploy to Afghanistan yesterday, despite concerns for his fitness for combat. However, a joint campaign called Operation Recovery, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, mobilized volunteers in support of Hanks and, as of yesterday, Hanks was not deployed on his scheduled date. Hanks still faces deployment or a dishonorable discharge, but details of his current status are unknown.
________________________________________________
Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Denies Climate Change, Shrugs Off His Carbon Pollution
Lee Fang, ThinkProgress: "This week, ThinkProgress conducted an impromptu interview with David Koch - one of the richest men in America, co-owner of the conglomerate Koch Industries, and a top financier of right-wing front groups - after we found him leaving the swearing-in ceremony for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). In the first part of the interview, Koch said that he 'admire[s]' the Tea Party movement, and that 'the rank and file are just normal people like us.'
Asked why Koch’s Americans for Prosperity focuses so much on denying climate change, Koch said it was because “regulating CO2 excessively … really damage[s] the economy.” _______________________________________________
Attacks against people’s employment rights unabated. What’s wrong with this picture?
Understanding the Attacks on Public Employees
Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "You can barely open a newspaper or turn on a radio without hearing about states and local governments bankrupted by high-paid public employees, their pensions and their unions. How much of what you are hearing is really true, and how much is just one more Wall Street-funded campaign to turn people against each other and our government?"
Stocks are soaring, corporate profits are way up, Wall Street gets trillions in bailouts and pays millions upon millions in bonuses. But regular people are having a hard time making ends meet and unemployment is still through the roof.
_________________________________________________
Palin sticks her foot in it again
Jewish groups respond to Palin’s use of ‘blood libel’
By Zachary
We wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase 'blood-libel' in reference to the actions of journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shooting in Tucson on others. While the term 'blood-libel' has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history."
The National Jewish Democratic Council, a group of Jewish Democrats, said:
"Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a 'blood libel' against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today. [...]
____________________________________________________
Where is the oversight on corporations?
Is Lockheed Martin Shadowing You?
William D. Hartung, TomDispatch: "Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation, is shadowing you? No? Then you haven't been paying much attention. Let me put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it. True, Lockheed Martin doesn't actually run the U.S. government, but sometimes it seems as if it might as well.
It’s involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.
___________________________________________________
Cutting off employment opportunities for generals
Solution: Fixing General Disgust
Dina Rasor, Truthout: "I suggest that the Congress pass a law that allows generals to work for any corporation that they want when they retire, but they must wait ten years before they are allowed to work or consult for any company that interacts with the DoD or gives financial advise on buying defense contractor stock. After ten years, most of the contacts in DoD will be gone so that they can no longer pressure their former colleagues and they will be giving advice based on their military knowledge, not the influence they had in the Pentagon while they were there."
____________________________________________________
Life sometimes the luck of the draw--as in Timothy McVeigh Loughner
TUCSON, Ariz. – A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect in the assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less than three hours before the deadly attack, authorities said Wednesday as they pieced together more details of a frenzied morning.
By: Abby Schultz
Special to CNBC.com
Banks rose ahead of major earnings releases, beginning with JPMorgan's on Friday.
The positive tone comes as investors realize corporations are well positioned to take advantage of a strengthening economy, said Marc Pado, market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
In the fourth quarter, corporations kept costs low and inventories down as sales rose, Pado said
____________________________________________________
No trickle down here. Where are the free loans for homeowners like the ones banks get from government.
msnbc.com news services
Banks repossessed a record million homes in 2010 and this year is set to be even worse with 5 million borrowers at least two months behind on mortgage payments.
More homeowners are expected to start missing payments as they struggle with job losses and loans worth more than their home's value, industry analysts forecast.
"2011 is going to be the peak," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc.
___________________________________________________
In Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell asked if we had the right to destroy the world with nuclear weapons
Wynne Parry
LiveScience Senior Writer
Thu Jan 13, 9:00 am ET
Even if humans stop producing excess carbon dioxide in 2100, the lingering effects of global warming could span the next millennia. The results? By the year 3000, global warming would be more than a hot topic - the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse, and global sea levels would rise by about 13 feet (4 meters), according to a new study.
Using a computer model, researchers looked at two scenarios - an end to humans' industrial carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 and by 2100 - stretched out to the year 3000.
____________________________________________
Gates is getting it
by Mathieu Rabechault Mathieu Rabechault – Thu Jan 13, 10:35 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP)
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned the cost overruns cannot continue. "The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of restraint," he said recently.
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More educated people than jobs. More businesses than business. Replace fiction with balance
by Catey Hill
Friday, January 14, 2011
When Joyce Kalivas-Griffin, 57, saw a job opening at a private school nearby, she immediately sent in her resume. She was hopeful — the description matched her skills almost perfectly — but heard nothing. Then, she noticed that the job had been posted again, so she tweaked her resume to obscure her age and resubmitted it. This time, the school called her in for an interview. Kalivas-Griffin says she nailed it, but she didn't get the job: She believes that when the interviewer met her and realized she's no 30-something, her age tipped the scales against her.
Kalivas-Griffin will never know for sure, but as the workforce gets grayer, age bias is likely to increase, experts say. Roughly 25% of employers said they were reluctant to hire older workers, according to a 2006 survey by the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College
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Keeping the restive workforce in line--not sharing shared success. That sentiment captures the coming problems
BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY, January 13, 2011
DETROIT — The sweeping overhaul and surprising recovery of the American auto industry is about to pay off handsomely for the blue-collar workers at Ford and General Motors.
While the payouts — expected to top $5,000 at Ford — underscore the turnaround being celebrated at the Detroit auto show this week, they also foreshadow the enormous challenge awaiting the rebounding companies: how to maintain and build on their financial health while keeping their historically restive work force in line.
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War comes first
Public Pressure Delays Deployment of Wounded Soldier
As reported by Sarah Lazare and Ryan Harvey
Jeff Hanks, a soldier out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was deployed to Afghanistan early last year and returned in September 2010 in need of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Hanks was denied treatment by two separate military bases for his traumatic injuries and was forced to go Absent Without Official Leave in order to get medical attention from civilian professionals. After surrendering himself at Fort Campbell, he was set to redeploy to Afghanistan yesterday, despite concerns for his fitness for combat. However, a joint campaign called Operation Recovery, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, mobilized volunteers in support of Hanks and, as of yesterday, Hanks was not deployed on his scheduled date. Hanks still faces deployment or a dishonorable discharge, but details of his current status are unknown.
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Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Denies Climate Change, Shrugs Off His Carbon Pollution
Lee Fang, ThinkProgress: "This week, ThinkProgress conducted an impromptu interview with David Koch - one of the richest men in America, co-owner of the conglomerate Koch Industries, and a top financier of right-wing front groups - after we found him leaving the swearing-in ceremony for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). In the first part of the interview, Koch said that he 'admire[s]' the Tea Party movement, and that 'the rank and file are just normal people like us.'
Asked why Koch’s Americans for Prosperity focuses so much on denying climate change, Koch said it was because “regulating CO2 excessively … really damage[s] the economy.” _______________________________________________
Attacks against people’s employment rights unabated. What’s wrong with this picture?
Understanding the Attacks on Public Employees
Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "You can barely open a newspaper or turn on a radio without hearing about states and local governments bankrupted by high-paid public employees, their pensions and their unions. How much of what you are hearing is really true, and how much is just one more Wall Street-funded campaign to turn people against each other and our government?"
Stocks are soaring, corporate profits are way up, Wall Street gets trillions in bailouts and pays millions upon millions in bonuses. But regular people are having a hard time making ends meet and unemployment is still through the roof.
_________________________________________________
Palin sticks her foot in it again
Jewish groups respond to Palin’s use of ‘blood libel’
By Zachary
We wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase 'blood-libel' in reference to the actions of journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shooting in Tucson on others. While the term 'blood-libel' has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history."
The National Jewish Democratic Council, a group of Jewish Democrats, said:
"Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a 'blood libel' against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today. [...]
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Where is the oversight on corporations?
Is Lockheed Martin Shadowing You?
William D. Hartung, TomDispatch: "Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation, is shadowing you? No? Then you haven't been paying much attention. Let me put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it. True, Lockheed Martin doesn't actually run the U.S. government, but sometimes it seems as if it might as well.
It’s involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.
___________________________________________________
Cutting off employment opportunities for generals
Solution: Fixing General Disgust
Dina Rasor, Truthout: "I suggest that the Congress pass a law that allows generals to work for any corporation that they want when they retire, but they must wait ten years before they are allowed to work or consult for any company that interacts with the DoD or gives financial advise on buying defense contractor stock. After ten years, most of the contacts in DoD will be gone so that they can no longer pressure their former colleagues and they will be giving advice based on their military knowledge, not the influence they had in the Pentagon while they were there."
____________________________________________________
Life sometimes the luck of the draw--as in Timothy McVeigh Loughner
TUCSON, Ariz. – A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect in the assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less than three hours before the deadly attack, authorities said Wednesday as they pieced together more details of a frenzied morning.
Record heat; reasons for COPD; banks home free; paying for High; democracy on decline; public opposed to debt limit increase; Doublethink Congress
I suppose the doubting Thomases will love this. The world has only equaled an old record
Randolph E. Schmid, Ap Science Writer – Wed Jan 12, 12:26 pm ET
WASHINGTON – It's a tie: Last year equaled 2005 as the warmest year on record, government climate experts reported Wednesday.
The average worldwide temperature was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 degree Celsius) above normal last year. That's the same as six years ago, the National Climatic Data Center announced.
_____________________________________________________
Another cost of corporations’ uninhibited right to poison our air
Health Tip: Help Prevent COPD
Fri Jan 7, 5:02 pm ET
(HealthDay News) .
The American Lung Association suggests these steps to help protect you from COPD:.
Avoid exposure to lung-damaging chemicals.
Take steps to help promote clean air in your community
Don't smoke, and quit if you currently smoke.
Stay away from secondhand smoke, and don't allow other people to smoke in your home
_____________________________________________
Banks get free borrowing for their outrageous rebound to obscene profits. Where’s the free borrowing for homeowners? Deck is stacked in favor of the powerful. Why they are vested interests.
Housing prices to hit bottom this spring: economist
Reuters – An auction sign for a property in Miami Gardens, Florida, September 15, 2009.
By Barbara Liston Barbara Liston – Wed Jan 12, 5:07 pm ET
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – U.S. housing prices overall are expected to hit bottom by spring 2011 and begin a gradual rise in 2012, Frank Nothaft, chief economist and vice president of housing lender Freddie Mac said on Wednesday.
"I do think we'll see these housing prices bottom out, maybe by the spring," Nothaft said.
______________________________________________________
Another war we are financing. Wars all around us so we can live high
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Mark Stevenson, Associated Press – 36 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico in the four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an offensive against drug cartels, officials said Wednesday.
_______________________________________________
While we are measuring the other 25, what about the illegal wars, the Patriot Act, the endemic government corruption, the rigged system of earmarks to help incumbents keep their seats?
Watchdog group: Freedom slipped worldwide in 2010
Barry Schweid, Ap Diplomatic Writer – Thu Jan 13, 12:01 am ET
WASHINGTON – Twenty-five countries showed significant declines in democracy in 2010 with little serious resistance from the democratic world, the watchdog group Freedom House reported Thursday.
The 25 countries listed as declining in their levels of freedom were Afghanistan, Bahrain, Burundi, Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Hungary, Iran, Kuwait, Latvia, Madagascar, Mexico, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zambia.
_________________________________________________
Public strongly opposes debt level increase: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Let’s shut the government down. A witless public easily manipulated and dangerous to democracy. Why Jefferson and Hamilton struck a deal to insulate government from stupidity
By Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
A man dressed as a destitute Uncle Sam begging for $12 trillion demonstrates in New York January 19, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
By Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes raising the country's debt limit even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase.
_______________________________________________
The shame is that Giffords’ strip mall visit had only roused less than a handful of interested citizens, most of them victims of the shooter
TUCSON, Ariz. – Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way wounds."
Obama spoke to a crowd of more than 14,000 in an arena and thousands more listened on from an overflow area in the football stadium. About a mile away, at University Medical Center, Giffords lay fighting for her life. Other victims also remained there hospitalized
_______________________________________________________
If they can break the AMA monopoly, I bet they’ll do it better, cheaper, faster than our industry protected by our government to sell at outrageous profits
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – British entrepreneurs touting new technologies for concerns such as keeping tabs on addled elderly or trouble getting pregnant were courting Silicon Valley connections on Wednesday.
"We brought the best and the brightest companies that we think are on the bottom of the growth hockey stick to the San Francisco Bay Area," said the board's Zahid Latif.
"Where else would you bring them but one of the most innovative areas on the planet?"
________________________________________________
Shades of 1984 Double Think
House Republicans Remove "Civil Rights" and "Labor" From Committee Names
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "House Republicans have renamed several Congressional committees by changing or removing certain hot-button words such as 'civil rights' and 'labor' from their titles. The Education and Labor Committee became the Education and Workforce Committee, while the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties is set to be renamed the Constitution Subcommittee
[ED’S NOTE, excerpt from novel 1984: But since in reality BIG BROTHER is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The key-word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known as doublethink.
The official ideology abounds with contradictions even when there is no reason for them. Simultaneously, true to the principles of doublethink, the Party rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it does this in the name of socialism. It systematically undermines the solidarity of the family all the while appealing to the sentiment of family. Even the names of the four Ministries by which Oceania is governed are a deliberate reversal of facts:
The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with War;
the Ministry of Truth with Lies;
the Ministry of Love with Torture;
and the Ministry of Plenty with Starvation.
These contradictions are not accidental. They are a deliberate exercise of doublethink. If the High are to keep their places permanently - then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.]
Randolph E. Schmid, Ap Science Writer – Wed Jan 12, 12:26 pm ET
WASHINGTON – It's a tie: Last year equaled 2005 as the warmest year on record, government climate experts reported Wednesday.
The average worldwide temperature was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 degree Celsius) above normal last year. That's the same as six years ago, the National Climatic Data Center announced.
_____________________________________________________
Another cost of corporations’ uninhibited right to poison our air
Health Tip: Help Prevent COPD
Fri Jan 7, 5:02 pm ET
(HealthDay News) .
The American Lung Association suggests these steps to help protect you from COPD:.
Avoid exposure to lung-damaging chemicals.
Take steps to help promote clean air in your community
Don't smoke, and quit if you currently smoke.
Stay away from secondhand smoke, and don't allow other people to smoke in your home
_____________________________________________
Banks get free borrowing for their outrageous rebound to obscene profits. Where’s the free borrowing for homeowners? Deck is stacked in favor of the powerful. Why they are vested interests.
Housing prices to hit bottom this spring: economist
Reuters – An auction sign for a property in Miami Gardens, Florida, September 15, 2009.
By Barbara Liston Barbara Liston – Wed Jan 12, 5:07 pm ET
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – U.S. housing prices overall are expected to hit bottom by spring 2011 and begin a gradual rise in 2012, Frank Nothaft, chief economist and vice president of housing lender Freddie Mac said on Wednesday.
"I do think we'll see these housing prices bottom out, maybe by the spring," Nothaft said.
______________________________________________________
Another war we are financing. Wars all around us so we can live high
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Mark Stevenson, Associated Press – 36 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico in the four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an offensive against drug cartels, officials said Wednesday.
_______________________________________________
While we are measuring the other 25, what about the illegal wars, the Patriot Act, the endemic government corruption, the rigged system of earmarks to help incumbents keep their seats?
Watchdog group: Freedom slipped worldwide in 2010
Barry Schweid, Ap Diplomatic Writer – Thu Jan 13, 12:01 am ET
WASHINGTON – Twenty-five countries showed significant declines in democracy in 2010 with little serious resistance from the democratic world, the watchdog group Freedom House reported Thursday.
The 25 countries listed as declining in their levels of freedom were Afghanistan, Bahrain, Burundi, Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Hungary, Iran, Kuwait, Latvia, Madagascar, Mexico, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zambia.
_________________________________________________
Public strongly opposes debt level increase: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Let’s shut the government down. A witless public easily manipulated and dangerous to democracy. Why Jefferson and Hamilton struck a deal to insulate government from stupidity
By Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
A man dressed as a destitute Uncle Sam begging for $12 trillion demonstrates in New York January 19, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
By Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes raising the country's debt limit even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase.
_______________________________________________
The shame is that Giffords’ strip mall visit had only roused less than a handful of interested citizens, most of them victims of the shooter
TUCSON, Ariz. – Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way wounds."
Obama spoke to a crowd of more than 14,000 in an arena and thousands more listened on from an overflow area in the football stadium. About a mile away, at University Medical Center, Giffords lay fighting for her life. Other victims also remained there hospitalized
_______________________________________________________
If they can break the AMA monopoly, I bet they’ll do it better, cheaper, faster than our industry protected by our government to sell at outrageous profits
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – British entrepreneurs touting new technologies for concerns such as keeping tabs on addled elderly or trouble getting pregnant were courting Silicon Valley connections on Wednesday.
"We brought the best and the brightest companies that we think are on the bottom of the growth hockey stick to the San Francisco Bay Area," said the board's Zahid Latif.
"Where else would you bring them but one of the most innovative areas on the planet?"
________________________________________________
Shades of 1984 Double Think
House Republicans Remove "Civil Rights" and "Labor" From Committee Names
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "House Republicans have renamed several Congressional committees by changing or removing certain hot-button words such as 'civil rights' and 'labor' from their titles. The Education and Labor Committee became the Education and Workforce Committee, while the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties is set to be renamed the Constitution Subcommittee
[ED’S NOTE, excerpt from novel 1984: But since in reality BIG BROTHER is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The key-word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known as doublethink.
The official ideology abounds with contradictions even when there is no reason for them. Simultaneously, true to the principles of doublethink, the Party rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it does this in the name of socialism. It systematically undermines the solidarity of the family all the while appealing to the sentiment of family. Even the names of the four Ministries by which Oceania is governed are a deliberate reversal of facts:
The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with War;
the Ministry of Truth with Lies;
the Ministry of Love with Torture;
and the Ministry of Plenty with Starvation.
These contradictions are not accidental. They are a deliberate exercise of doublethink. If the High are to keep their places permanently - then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.]
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The end of Empire, Social Security, raising taxes, Second Amendment abuses, Japan to the rescue, U.S losing power of intimidation
Social Security payments have been plundered since he Johnson Administration to pay for the General Budget. Now Congress wants to erase the debt owed by the US, Government. Not reducing entitlements but robbing the public who pai into their retirement accounts.
by Irwin Kellner
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Any use of Social Security tax revenues other than paying benefits to those people who are eligible to receive them is not only morally wrong — it is also against the law.
Lately, most discussions about ways of reducing Washington's budget deficit have inevitably turned to cutting entitlements. So much so that the New York Times in a recent editorial was upset that many elected officials have pledged to "shield seniors from spending cuts, apparently to please recipients of entitlements like ... Social Security."
Breaking this particular promise would break the law — which, I would hope, the New York Times respects. The law that I am referring to is the FICA Act of 1935, which specifically stated that revenues raised under that act can be used only to pay Social Security benefits.
To add insult to injury the pols — aided and abetted by some in the media — now want to grab even more money from seniors in order to reduce Washington's humongous budget deficit.
___________________________________________________________
The way to pay the bills. Finally somebody in the provinces figures it out. When will Washington?
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A major Illinois tax increase has jumped its first legislative hurdle, setting the stage for a vote by the entire Illinois House.
__________________________________________________
When are we going to come to our senses and cut all the Second Amendment abuse?
The Daily Beast The Daily Beast – Tue Jan 11, 1:13 am ET
NEW YORK – You're five times more likely to die from a gun in Arizona than Hawaii.
Advocates for gun laws argue that restrictions prevent suicides, gun trafficking and domestic violence. A study commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns last year concluded that the states with the most lenient gun laws are responsible for the guns used in crimes across state lines at much higher rate than states with strict laws, concluding that "certain gun laws are an important component in reducing criminal access to firearms."
___________________________________________________
You can always count on the Feds in a ponch
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
The Associated Press 
2011-01-11
The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that it has nothing to do with drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a scarce type of anesthetic so the states could continue putting inmates to death.
The shortage of sodium thiopental has disrupted executions around the country. But newly released documents show the FDA helped import it from Britain
________________________________________________
All the news in the U.S. about Japan’s economy is negative. Wonder how Japan can bail out Europe and maintain its own social services?
On Tuesday January 11, 2011, 7:17 am EST
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks firmed on Tuesday on hopes for a solid earnings season, while the euro steadied above four-month lows after Japan offered to buy euro zone bonds.
Japan said it was considering buying about 20 percent of the bonds to be jointly issued later this month to raise funds to support Ireland, but investors remained cautious ahead of a make-or-break debt auction in struggling Portugal on Wednesday
_________________________________________________________
U.S losing its intimidation factor in world affairs
China Flexes Its Muscles with Stealth Fighter Flight Test
By AUSTIN RAMZY, Time
For a stealth fighter it was a remarkably obvious flight, but perhaps that was the point. On a day when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Beijing meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, China's new stealth fighter took what is believed to be its maiden test flight, according to a defense analyst.
Gates maintains that the U.S. will keep its edge in stealth aircraft development for some time. "In 2020 or 2025 ... there would still be a vast disparity in the number of deployed fifth-generation aircraft that the United States had compared to anybody else in the world."
____________________________________________________________
U.S may have to forget hopes for regime change in North Korea. What’s this world coming to when North Korea can defend its government from being hijacked ala Iraq, Afghanistan?
BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the United States and could develop an inter-continental ballistic missile within five years, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Tuesday.
"I think that North Korea will have developed an inter-continental ballistic missile within that time -- not that they will have huge numbers or anything like that," Gates said. "But they will have, I believe they will have a very limited capability."
North Korea has more than 800 ballistic missiles and more than 1,000 missiles of various ranges.
______________________________________________________
Collapse of Empire not a bad thing. The Brits survived without being crushed by a war. So have the Russians. Now the American Empire dying by our own hand from the Reagan treatment? Break the bank
Nick Turse, TomDispatch: "Like all empires, the US military's empire of bases will someday crumble. These bases, however, are not apt to fall like so many dominos in some silver-screen last-stand sequence. They won't, that is, go out with the 'bang' of futuristic Alamos, but with the 'whimper' of insolvency. Last year, rumbling began even among Washington lawmakers about this increasingly likely prospect. 'I do not think we should be spending money to have troops in Germany 65 years after World War II. We have a terrible deficit and we have to cut back,' said Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank."
_____________________________________________
Figuring out who’s nutty
Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies
Steve Rendall, FAIR: "Bill O'Reilly's recent 'joke' about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against those deemed enemies of the station, its personalities or their worldview. During the cable channel's 2008 election coverage, in what she later called an attempt at humor, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta linked Osama bin Laden to Barack Obama as people who both should be assassinated: 'And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could.'"
by Irwin Kellner
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Any use of Social Security tax revenues other than paying benefits to those people who are eligible to receive them is not only morally wrong — it is also against the law.
Lately, most discussions about ways of reducing Washington's budget deficit have inevitably turned to cutting entitlements. So much so that the New York Times in a recent editorial was upset that many elected officials have pledged to "shield seniors from spending cuts, apparently to please recipients of entitlements like ... Social Security."
Breaking this particular promise would break the law — which, I would hope, the New York Times respects. The law that I am referring to is the FICA Act of 1935, which specifically stated that revenues raised under that act can be used only to pay Social Security benefits.
To add insult to injury the pols — aided and abetted by some in the media — now want to grab even more money from seniors in order to reduce Washington's humongous budget deficit.
___________________________________________________________
The way to pay the bills. Finally somebody in the provinces figures it out. When will Washington?
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A major Illinois tax increase has jumped its first legislative hurdle, setting the stage for a vote by the entire Illinois House.
__________________________________________________
When are we going to come to our senses and cut all the Second Amendment abuse?
The Daily Beast The Daily Beast – Tue Jan 11, 1:13 am ET
NEW YORK – You're five times more likely to die from a gun in Arizona than Hawaii.
Advocates for gun laws argue that restrictions prevent suicides, gun trafficking and domestic violence. A study commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns last year concluded that the states with the most lenient gun laws are responsible for the guns used in crimes across state lines at much higher rate than states with strict laws, concluding that "certain gun laws are an important component in reducing criminal access to firearms."
___________________________________________________
You can always count on the Feds in a ponch
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
The Associated Press 
2011-01-11
The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that it has nothing to do with drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a scarce type of anesthetic so the states could continue putting inmates to death.
The shortage of sodium thiopental has disrupted executions around the country. But newly released documents show the FDA helped import it from Britain
________________________________________________
All the news in the U.S. about Japan’s economy is negative. Wonder how Japan can bail out Europe and maintain its own social services?
On Tuesday January 11, 2011, 7:17 am EST
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks firmed on Tuesday on hopes for a solid earnings season, while the euro steadied above four-month lows after Japan offered to buy euro zone bonds.
Japan said it was considering buying about 20 percent of the bonds to be jointly issued later this month to raise funds to support Ireland, but investors remained cautious ahead of a make-or-break debt auction in struggling Portugal on Wednesday
_________________________________________________________
U.S losing its intimidation factor in world affairs
China Flexes Its Muscles with Stealth Fighter Flight Test
By AUSTIN RAMZY, Time
For a stealth fighter it was a remarkably obvious flight, but perhaps that was the point. On a day when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Beijing meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, China's new stealth fighter took what is believed to be its maiden test flight, according to a defense analyst.
Gates maintains that the U.S. will keep its edge in stealth aircraft development for some time. "In 2020 or 2025 ... there would still be a vast disparity in the number of deployed fifth-generation aircraft that the United States had compared to anybody else in the world."
____________________________________________________________
U.S may have to forget hopes for regime change in North Korea. What’s this world coming to when North Korea can defend its government from being hijacked ala Iraq, Afghanistan?
BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the United States and could develop an inter-continental ballistic missile within five years, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Tuesday.
"I think that North Korea will have developed an inter-continental ballistic missile within that time -- not that they will have huge numbers or anything like that," Gates said. "But they will have, I believe they will have a very limited capability."
North Korea has more than 800 ballistic missiles and more than 1,000 missiles of various ranges.
______________________________________________________
Collapse of Empire not a bad thing. The Brits survived without being crushed by a war. So have the Russians. Now the American Empire dying by our own hand from the Reagan treatment? Break the bank
Nick Turse, TomDispatch: "Like all empires, the US military's empire of bases will someday crumble. These bases, however, are not apt to fall like so many dominos in some silver-screen last-stand sequence. They won't, that is, go out with the 'bang' of futuristic Alamos, but with the 'whimper' of insolvency. Last year, rumbling began even among Washington lawmakers about this increasingly likely prospect. 'I do not think we should be spending money to have troops in Germany 65 years after World War II. We have a terrible deficit and we have to cut back,' said Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank."
_____________________________________________
Figuring out who’s nutty
Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies
Steve Rendall, FAIR: "Bill O'Reilly's recent 'joke' about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against those deemed enemies of the station, its personalities or their worldview. During the cable channel's 2008 election coverage, in what she later called an attempt at humor, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta linked Osama bin Laden to Barack Obama as people who both should be assassinated: 'And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could.'"
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Focus: Hope; Auburn wins BCS; Kardashian void; Palin on petard; power behind the throne; fees to enter Gaza; Republican base runs agenda; religious tolerance finds new ally
Message of prophets still lives in some places
From Wikipedia
Focus: HOPE is a Detroit-based, non-denominational, non-profit organization whose aim is to overcome racism and poverty by providing education and training for underrepresented minorities and others.
Focus: HOPE was established in Detroit, Michigan in March, 1968 by co-founders Father William T. Cunningham, Father Jerome Fraser and Eleanor Josaitis. At the time the social environment in northern Detroit was one of severe racial tension as a result of the 12th Street Riot of the previous summer. The co-founders’ objective was to create a harmonious community where diverse people live and work together. Starting out in the basement of the Catholic Church of Madonna, where Father Cunningham was pastor, Focus: HOPE eventually grew to encompass a 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus along
Oakman Boulevard in Detroit. Despite its origins, however, Focus: HOPE has no affiliation with the Catholic Church.
______________________________________________________
Auburn wins BCS. Sports keeps teaching the same lesson. Don’t give up till your problems got you on your knees.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 11, 2011
"My knee wasn't down," Dyer said. "I didn't hear a whistle, not yet, so I was kind of like, looking, like, what's going on?'"
Three plays later, Dyer ran 16 yards to push the ball to the 1 and set up Wes Byrum's 19-yard field goal with no time left. It capped off a perfect 14-0 season.
_________________________________________________________
Some of our current stalwart T.V heroines. A tribute to our emptiness?
FRESNO, Calif. - The Kardashian sisters have been sued by a California company that created a prepaid debit card endorsed the reality show starlets.
___________________________________________
Palin hoisted on her own petard--and we aren’t any better
Jonathan Martin Jonathan Martin – Mon Jan 10, 4:54 am ET
With a long list of enemies, a taste for incendiary rhetoric and responsibility for a campaign website graphic that placed gunsight logos on a map of targeted congressional districts, it didn’t take long for Sarah Palin to get pulled into the orbit of Saturday’s massacre in Tucson.
Still, once the Tucson tragedy begins to fade from view, the same incentives for bombast and scorched-earth rhetoric are likely to return.
“The fact is that politicians say these things because they work,” said Republican consultant Todd Harris. “The public, or at least segments of the public on the right and the left, respond to it. It raises money and builds organization.”
___________________________________________
Democratic window dressing. The control of power is behind the throne
A Union Activist's Call for Change
Nick Egnatz, Online Journal: "Kim Scipes’ new book 'AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing Country Workers' (Lexington Books, 2010) documents the history of AFL-CIO leadership in supporting the U.S. government policy of Empire in the developing world. AFL-CIO leadership, in secret and completely without the consent and support of their rank and file membership, has worked to thwart popular bottom-up organic democracy in the developing world and instead supported elite top-down democracy, friendly to U.S. corporate interests."
____________________________________________
Israeli corruption adds insult to injury
OSLO (AFP)--U.S. firms complained in 2006 of corruption by Israeli officials at the Karni crossing into Gaza, then the Palestinian territory's main commercial transit point, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable showed Thursday, Norwegian daily Aftenposten reports.
According to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem, U.S. firms complained to embassy officials of a "lack of a clear and predictable truck registration system" which enabled "widespread corruption at Karni crossing."
The companies included Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble, Caterpillar, Philip Morris, Westinghouse, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Aramex and Dell.
At the end of May 2006, "Thirty four shipments of American goods, amounting to nearly $1.9 million [had) been waiting three to four months to cross into Gaza," it added.
Israel shut the Karni crossing when the radical Hamas movement took control of Gaza in June 2007. Only a minimum of goods are now let through, using a conveyor belt
________________________________________________
Republicans have to write off assassination attempt to nut case because addressing hate at the heart of their base is suicide
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun: "Why does what Hillary Clinton once quite accurately described as 'the vast right-wing conspiracy' get a free pass when its rhetoric can easily be seen to contribute to the climate of hate from which the actions of this "lone gunman" can be easily understood to have emerged? Isn't it time for us to demand that our government investigate the violence-generating discourse of the racist and the haters? Why, when the House of Representatives was in the hands of Democrats, did they not have any committee or subcommittee at work holding pubic hearings to explore what kind of legislation might help protect us citizens and our liberal and progressive representatives from the kind of violence that exploded in Arizona earlier today?"
_____________________________________________
Influencing political dialog when corporate control is systemic
Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "The truism has it right. If you're not depressed or angry about the state of the world, you're not paying attention. A quick glance at the daily headlines is enough to have many of us wringing our hands in despair. Countless wars seem like they'll never end; social welfare programs are being slashed; the Tea Party is on the rise; ultraconservatives have picked up the mantle of feminism; and schoolyard bullies have pushed an escalating number of LGBTQ youth to commit suicide, to name just a few of the atrocities presently hitting home.... Enter Celebrate People's History, a stunning look at street art - usually in the form of two-color posters - that recognizes the countless men and women who, since time immemorial, have participated in political actions to challenge the status quo."
_______________________________________________________
Religious freedom finds unexpected defenders
Thousands of Egyptian Muslims Show Up as "Human Shields" to Defend Coptic Christians From Terorism
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "As Egyptian Copts attended mass at churches across the country, 'thousands' of Muslims, including 'the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak,' joined them, acting as “human shields” to protect from terrorist attacks by extremists. The Muslims organized under the slogan 'We either live together, or we die together,' inspired by Mohamed El-Sawy, an Egyptian artist."
From Wikipedia
Focus: HOPE is a Detroit-based, non-denominational, non-profit organization whose aim is to overcome racism and poverty by providing education and training for underrepresented minorities and others.
Focus: HOPE was established in Detroit, Michigan in March, 1968 by co-founders Father William T. Cunningham, Father Jerome Fraser and Eleanor Josaitis. At the time the social environment in northern Detroit was one of severe racial tension as a result of the 12th Street Riot of the previous summer. The co-founders’ objective was to create a harmonious community where diverse people live and work together. Starting out in the basement of the Catholic Church of Madonna, where Father Cunningham was pastor, Focus: HOPE eventually grew to encompass a 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus along
Oakman Boulevard in Detroit. Despite its origins, however, Focus: HOPE has no affiliation with the Catholic Church.
______________________________________________________
Auburn wins BCS. Sports keeps teaching the same lesson. Don’t give up till your problems got you on your knees.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 11, 2011
"My knee wasn't down," Dyer said. "I didn't hear a whistle, not yet, so I was kind of like, looking, like, what's going on?'"
Three plays later, Dyer ran 16 yards to push the ball to the 1 and set up Wes Byrum's 19-yard field goal with no time left. It capped off a perfect 14-0 season.
_________________________________________________________
Some of our current stalwart T.V heroines. A tribute to our emptiness?
FRESNO, Calif. - The Kardashian sisters have been sued by a California company that created a prepaid debit card endorsed the reality show starlets.
___________________________________________
Palin hoisted on her own petard--and we aren’t any better
Jonathan Martin Jonathan Martin – Mon Jan 10, 4:54 am ET
With a long list of enemies, a taste for incendiary rhetoric and responsibility for a campaign website graphic that placed gunsight logos on a map of targeted congressional districts, it didn’t take long for Sarah Palin to get pulled into the orbit of Saturday’s massacre in Tucson.
Still, once the Tucson tragedy begins to fade from view, the same incentives for bombast and scorched-earth rhetoric are likely to return.
“The fact is that politicians say these things because they work,” said Republican consultant Todd Harris. “The public, or at least segments of the public on the right and the left, respond to it. It raises money and builds organization.”
___________________________________________
Democratic window dressing. The control of power is behind the throne
A Union Activist's Call for Change
Nick Egnatz, Online Journal: "Kim Scipes’ new book 'AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing Country Workers' (Lexington Books, 2010) documents the history of AFL-CIO leadership in supporting the U.S. government policy of Empire in the developing world. AFL-CIO leadership, in secret and completely without the consent and support of their rank and file membership, has worked to thwart popular bottom-up organic democracy in the developing world and instead supported elite top-down democracy, friendly to U.S. corporate interests."
____________________________________________
Israeli corruption adds insult to injury
OSLO (AFP)--U.S. firms complained in 2006 of corruption by Israeli officials at the Karni crossing into Gaza, then the Palestinian territory's main commercial transit point, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable showed Thursday, Norwegian daily Aftenposten reports.
According to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem, U.S. firms complained to embassy officials of a "lack of a clear and predictable truck registration system" which enabled "widespread corruption at Karni crossing."
The companies included Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble, Caterpillar, Philip Morris, Westinghouse, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Aramex and Dell.
At the end of May 2006, "Thirty four shipments of American goods, amounting to nearly $1.9 million [had) been waiting three to four months to cross into Gaza," it added.
Israel shut the Karni crossing when the radical Hamas movement took control of Gaza in June 2007. Only a minimum of goods are now let through, using a conveyor belt
________________________________________________
Republicans have to write off assassination attempt to nut case because addressing hate at the heart of their base is suicide
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun: "Why does what Hillary Clinton once quite accurately described as 'the vast right-wing conspiracy' get a free pass when its rhetoric can easily be seen to contribute to the climate of hate from which the actions of this "lone gunman" can be easily understood to have emerged? Isn't it time for us to demand that our government investigate the violence-generating discourse of the racist and the haters? Why, when the House of Representatives was in the hands of Democrats, did they not have any committee or subcommittee at work holding pubic hearings to explore what kind of legislation might help protect us citizens and our liberal and progressive representatives from the kind of violence that exploded in Arizona earlier today?"
_____________________________________________
Influencing political dialog when corporate control is systemic
Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "The truism has it right. If you're not depressed or angry about the state of the world, you're not paying attention. A quick glance at the daily headlines is enough to have many of us wringing our hands in despair. Countless wars seem like they'll never end; social welfare programs are being slashed; the Tea Party is on the rise; ultraconservatives have picked up the mantle of feminism; and schoolyard bullies have pushed an escalating number of LGBTQ youth to commit suicide, to name just a few of the atrocities presently hitting home.... Enter Celebrate People's History, a stunning look at street art - usually in the form of two-color posters - that recognizes the countless men and women who, since time immemorial, have participated in political actions to challenge the status quo."
_______________________________________________________
Religious freedom finds unexpected defenders
Thousands of Egyptian Muslims Show Up as "Human Shields" to Defend Coptic Christians From Terorism
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "As Egyptian Copts attended mass at churches across the country, 'thousands' of Muslims, including 'the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak,' joined them, acting as “human shields” to protect from terrorist attacks by extremists. The Muslims organized under the slogan 'We either live together, or we die together,' inspired by Mohamed El-Sawy, an Egyptian artist."
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