open

May your days be filled with joy.

Former Miss Argentina Dies After Plastic Surgery

Solange Magnano, the 1994 Miss Argentina winner, died on Sunday after complications from a gluteoplasty cosmetic-surgery procedure she got in Buenos Aires last week. A friend said the 38-year-old got injections for a rounder butt because she thought it was "no big deal," but the liquid went into her lungs and brain, and she ultimately died from a pulmonary embolism (when blood supply to the main artery of the lung is blocked). She is survived by her husband and her 8-year-old twins. That's scary stuff. [Sky News]

Read more: Former Miss Argentina Dies After Plastic Surgery -- The Cut http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/12/former_miss_argentina_dies_aft.ht...

Fact is...the better your ass feels, the better you feel all around.

Treat that ass with the respect it deserves.

,

Still here...till next week, at least....

MB is futsing with it now.

toniD's Ya Think?

MB is futsing with it now.

toniD's Ya Think?

The alternate Blue Roots Radio TALK show Ya Think is starting now. (I had to use the alternate player.) Talk, usually music. (Sederistas, where are you?)

(I don't have skype yet -- does skype do well with Macs?? -- so I'm "just" listening.)

Peace hugs from NYC!

The alternate Blue Roots Radio TALK show Ya Think is starting now. (I had to use the alternate player.) Talk, usually music. (Sederistas, where are you?)

(I don't have skype yet -- does skype do well with Macs?? -- so I'm "just" listening.)

Peace hugs from NYC!

It kept loading and I had a sneaking suspicion and voila -- duplications!!

These guys are having fun Ya-Thinking...

MORE peace hugs!

HELP, Michele!

I did my test message. How do I connect?

You have to send a skype message to Blue Roots Radio so Chris will see it

toniD's Ya Think?

So Far

.
.
.
_ _ _
YT

Wow. Not just the pay-out for longevity.

Ow. That chastity jock strap. Might it interfere with the champion swing?

[Disclaimer: Just kidding, of course.]

going up against Sunday night Football.. :(

All politics & no play makes Jack a cranky bastid..

Thank goodness for pods..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

Palin's Father: She Left Hawaii Because Asians Made Her Uncomfortable

Posted: 12- 6-09 01:22 PM

Did Sarah Palin leave Hawaii because there were too many Asians? In the New Yorker review of "Going Rogue," Sam Tanenhaus writes that Palin's father suggested as much to the reporters who wrote "Sarah From Alaska." The account contradicts the former Alaska governor's own description of her reasons for leaving college in Hawaii after only one semester.

Palin, though notoriously ill-traveled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. "Hawaii was a little too perfect," Palin writes. "Perpetual sunshine isn't necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls." Perhaps not. But Palin's father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: "They were a minority type thing and it wasn't glamorous, so she came home." In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, "because it was much like Alaska yet still 'Outside.' "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/palins-father-she-left-ha_n_381...

NOTE: The passage was first flagged by Issac Chotiner at The New Republic, who wondered why it hadn't gotten any media attention.

very nice

not too short this time, not too long, just right

Nancy Grace Interview Contributed To Melinda Duckett Suicide, Professor Says

| 12/ 6/09 02:23 PM | AP

OCALA, Fla. — A Harvard professor says CNN Headline News host Nancy Grace's relentless questioning of a Florida mother three years ago contributed to her suicide, according to a filing in the family's wrongful death case.

Grace launched aggressive nightly coverage of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett's case shortly after he disappeared in 2006, usually with a collection of analysts. When the boy's mother, Melinda Duckett, appeared by telephone two weeks into the case, speculation was beginning to narrow on her possible involvement.

Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn, a clinical professor of psychiatry, wrote in a filing this week. that Grace "struck a highly accusatory tone."

The professor saw "a distraught young woman who is subject to repeated and increasingly sharp questioning by a hostile interviewer who displays increasing suspicion and anger towards Ms. Duckett."

The next day, the 21-year-old Duckett shot herself in the head.

"Her apparently unanticipated public humiliation on the nationally televised program in question was a substantial contributing cause of her suicide," Bursztajn wrote.

The family claims Grace's questioning, along with the network's decision to air the pre-taped interview the day Duckett committed suicide, inflicted severe emotional distress.

Grace and the network have denied any involvement in the suicide, and a CNN spokeswoman declined comment on the filing.

Trenton has still not been found, and Duckett is the only suspect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/nancy-grace-interview-con_n_381...
__

Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com

Why the FCC Should Stop Comcast from Buying NBC

Comcast's proposed $30 billion purchase of NBC Universal is a bad deal for consumers, as well as for net neutrality.

If approved, the purchase will create yet another instance where a company that delivers digital content will have a profit motive to discriminate against other content providers.

The FCC should stop this deal, partially because it furthers media consolidation into too few hands, but also because it flies against the prevailing wind of net neutrality, as envisioned by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. (What is "net neutrality?" Here's an explainer).

Taken to an extreme, why should Comcast/NBC carry any non-NBC programming on its cable systems that doesn't have to?

That wouldn't hurt broadcasters, whose channels cable companies are obliged to carry, but cable-only networks lack such protection and could find themselves off Comcast's systems on a competitive whim.

Competitive forces prevent extreme behavior such as this, at least until the day AT&T buys CBS or ABC, and decides to dump MSNBC, Bravo, and CNBC from its network because they are owned by rival Comcast (once the deal completes).

Yes, I know this is extreme and I am not predicting it will happen. Still, owning NBC Universal will give Comcast every reason everything possible to prop up the failing TV network, perhaps at the expense of other broadcasters and content providers.

There are all kinds of ways for Comcast to do this, if it chooses, some obvious to consumers and others hidden.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/183640/why_the_fcc_should_...

toniD's Ya Think?

Bin Laden's location
unknown for 'years:' US
The United States does not know where Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is and has lacked reliable information on his whereabouts for years, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091206/pl_afp/usattacksqaedabinladengates

toniD's Ya Think?

And of course I have to work and it's my long night. Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin will get the worst.

There's another front coming from the south that will bring us mixed precipitation so I am hoping it's not icy. Winter has come! Yech!!!

toniD's Ya Think?

Venezuela refashions seized banks into public entity

Venezuela's government will create a new state-run financial institution out of four private banks that were shut down this week for alleged accounting irregularities, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.

"We will create another large bank... as a result of a merger" between the closed institutions, Chavez announced on his weekly television and radio program "Alo Presidente."

The new bank, to be called Banco Bicentenario -- in honor of Venezuela's 200th anniversary of independence next year -- will be created from the remains of Confederado, Central, Bolivar and Banco Real, all shuttered to investigate the alleged irregularities.

State bank Banfoandes will also be involved in the merger, he added.

Along with those institutions, the Chavez administration also closed down Banco Canarias and BanPro.
Story continues below...

Thursday, in announcing Confederado and Bolivar's closure, Chavez pledged the banks "will become part of the public financial system."

Since taking office in 2007, Chavez has moved to control firms in the electricity production, cement, steel, oil services and banking industries.

More than 70 percent of the Venezuelan banking sector is privately owned, but the state has become the main financial actor, having nationalized in May Banco de Venezuela, the country's third-largest bank and previously under the ownership of Spanish group Santander.

The leftist Chavez has indicated he may target more private banks, which he accused of having forsaken their lending "mission" in order to specialize in "financial speculation."

http://rawstory.com/2009/12/venezuela-refashions-seized-banks-single-sta...

toniD's Ya Think?

Kuwait sells Citigroup stake for $4.1 billion
Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund sells Citigroup stake, banks $1.1 billion in profit

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund said Sunday it booked a profit of $1.1 billion by selling the stake it took in Citigroup Inc. less than two years ago when the banking giant was strapped for cash.

The Kuwait Investment Authority said in a statement it sold the preferred shares after converting them to common stock for $4.1 billion. That works out to a gain of nearly 37 percent on its $3 billion investment.

Calls to the Kuwait fund for further details went unanswered. A Citi spokesman declined to comment.

Gulf Arab nations' sovereign wealth funds have been heavy investors in U.S. and European companies, using their oil wealth to buy large stakes in companies ranging from Citi to Germany's Volkswagen AG and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG.

The KIA joined other big investors -- including the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and longtime shareholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia -- in pumping some $12.5 billion into New York-based Citi in January 2008. At the time, the bank was reeling from a huge drop in the value of its mortgage holdings.

At the same time it made its Citi investment, the fund took a $2 billion stake in Merrill Lynch, which also needed cash as a result of the credit crisis.

Merrill was later bought by Bank of America Corp., which last week surprised investors by paying back $45 billion in federal bailout money.

Analysts say that move puts pressure on Citi and other banks that tapped U.S. government aid to follow suit, even though they still could face further losses as consumers struggle to pay their bills.

The Kuwait fund's move came as a surprise. In September, it said it had no intention of selling its holdings in either Citi or Bank of America in the short term because its investment policies are based "on a long-term vision."

Kuwait took its stake in Citi last year after another Gulf fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, paid $7.5 billion for a 4.9 percent stake in the company. ADIA's holdings, known as "equity units," will begin to convert into ordinary shares starting in March next year.

A spokesman for the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, declined to comment on plans for its Citi stake.

Kuwait's fund is not the first major Gulf investor to cash in on the sharp rebound of Western banks' shares this year.
more...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Kuwait-sells-Citigroup-stake-apf-402713267...

toniD's Ya Think?

Stewart Resnick, a big donor to Diane Feinstein, wants the State of California to take river and creek water away from natural fish populations in both the waterways and coastal waters and the taps of Northern Californians. Mr. Resnick wants to use that water to Artificially Irrigate the Desert where he has his orchard empire. Feinstein took the money and is championing his cause. Mr. Resnick says environmentalists are 'radicals' so I guess Mr. Resnick is saying they should be ignored.

Federal money is tight, but Feinstein still convinced the feds to reopen and revisit the Environmental Impact questions which had already been decided on, including the need for less diversions of river water so that rivers could sustain fishlife. The EIR concluded fish were dying without additional flows. Reopening the environmental review will cost in excess of $700,000. But who cares? It's taxpayers' money!

But from his estate in Southern California, called "Little Versailles", Mr. Resnick won't tolerate that his empire comes second to sustaining Life on the Planet. One of his other businesses is importing bottled water from Fiji; now that sounds environmentally unsound, to say the least. He also figured out a way to get 48% ownership of a 'water bank' underground reservoir containing a year's supply of water. That whole project was developed by California taxpayer money and the brainpower of the environmentalists he denounces.

It appears Resnick got a great return on the $29,000 he DIRECTLY donated to Feinstein. And then there was the $246,000 Resnick gave to Dem committees specifically in years Feinstein was seeking reelection, as well as $10,000 to just one of her numerous PACs. Resnick also hosted a cocktail fundraiser for Feinstein.

This was a front page story in Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle, but I don't see it anywhere on their website (am I missing it?) so I can't give you a link.

I'd say it looks like Senator Feinstein is influence peddling when she does stuff like this.

Foreign observers have praised the election for its transparency and fairness.

...promised to expand state control over the economy and redistribute profits from the gas industry if re-elected, among other pledges to boost the Gross Domestic Product and the social welfare.

Political analysts have suggested that the landslide victory will solidify Morales' dominance in Bolivian politics and weaken the split conservative opposition tied to the business elite.

On his final campaign rally, Morales told a cheering crowd: "There are two roads: continue with change or return to the past".

Earlier surveys had predicted He would also likely gain control of Congress in one of South America's most troubled and poorest countries.

+

Hey, maybe that Senator Baucus indiscretion is only rising to public scandal proportions because the Corporate Machine doesn't need him anymore. His babe on the side was not 'newsworthy' character assassination material while he was pimping the details of their pro-corporate insurance and pro-BigPharma bail-out; but now that he's completed the task, he can be thrown to the mob.

Baucus did all they wanted in the healthcare bill and now they have no further need for him. Just one less Dem in their eyes, perhaps?

Written by Linn Washington Jr.
Saturday, 05 December 2009
A clear case of open-and-shut guilt is how Philadelphia police and prosecutors describe the first-degree murder conviction that sent journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal to death row over a quarter century ago.

In this July 12, 1995, file photo, convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal leaves Philadelphia's City Hall after a hearing. Death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his bid for a new trial in the killing of a city police officer after the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday, April 6, that it would not take up the case. — AP PHOTO/CHRIS GARDNER, FILE
However, just a quick peek underneath the surface of this case reveals a litany of errors and wrongdoing by police, prosecutors and judges that implode all claims of Abu-Jamal’s absolute guilt.

The case against the world’s most famous death-row denizen arguably contains compelling aspects of apparent guilt, albeit circumstantial and lacking the conclusive forensic evidence normally expected in such a high-profile prosecution.

Yes, police did find Abu-Jamal at the crime scene, critically wounded by a bullet fired from the slain policeman’s gun.

Yes, eyewitnesses testified that Abu-Jamal shot Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Yes, two policemen claimed hearing Abu-Jamal confess to the crime.

And, yes, courts from Philadelphia’s Common Pleas up to the U.S. Supreme Court have upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction.

Yet, arguably compelling aspects cannot quell serious questions arising from the mound of documented misconduct by authorities in Abu-Jamal’s case that make a mockery of America’s constitutionally enshrined rights to a fair trial.

While fair trial rights require an impartial judge, the judge presiding at Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial declared on the eve of that proceeding that he would help prosecutors “fry the n----r” — a declaration graphically displaying unfair bias.
http://www.phillytrib.com/tribune/index.php/newsheadlines/8292

Hopefully,one day soon she will retire or end up in jail..

She's trying to cut Social Security & Medicare now..

There's a Petition at the top of the Open Mic's if anyone missed it..

It was put out by CREDO & CommonCause.Org..

Tell Dianne Feinstein: Hands off Social Security and Medicare ! * Action * Important..

http://samsedershow.com/node/5527

**

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

in Oimyakon, Siberia...

http://www.earthweek.com/2009/ew091204/ew091204z.html

So many questions still unanswered. Where did this story go? Is there any investigation yet?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14423

[excerpt]

The Washington Post however, revealed July 16 that the assassination plan was sanctioned by President Bush. Unnamed "intelligence officials" told the newspaper that "a secret document known as a 'presidential finding' was signed by President George W. Bush that same month, granting the agency broad authority to use deadly force against bin Laden as well as other senior members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups."

According to Post reporter Joby Warrick, Bush's finding "imposed no geographical limitations on the agency's actions" and that the CIA was "not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive." This implies that targets could be hit anywhere, including on the soil of a NATO ally or inside the United States itself.

According to the Los Angeles Times the program "was kept secret from lawmakers for nearly eight years at the direction of former Vice President Dick Cheney."

Despite these reports and hand-wringing amongst congressional Democrats, there's something fishy here. After all, isn't the whole point of America's "global war on terror" to "capture or kill" al-Qaeda suspects? What's so secretive or controversial about that?

The descriptions of the operation that have so far emerged however, bear a striking resemblance to charges laid earlier this year when investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said that the Bush administration stood-up an "executive assassination ring."

During a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota in March the veteran journalist told the audience: "After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen."

The program was allegedly shut down by Panetta on June 23, a day after leaning of the agency's clandestine initiative. What make these revelations all the more significant is that the CIA Director only learned of the program fully four months after assuming office.

"The implications," socialist analyst Bill Van Auken writes, "are clear. The CIA maintained the secrecy ordered by Cheney even after the latter had left office, and continued to conceal the existence and nature of the covert operation not only from Congress, but from the Obama administration itself."

But was the program shut down? The Washington Post further revealed that the plan, allegedly "on the agency's back burner for much of the past eight years, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight because of proposals to initiate what one intelligence official called a 'somewhat more operational phase'."

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a former top aide to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell hints that the program was in a "somewhat more operational phase" years earlier, despite repeated denials by CIA officials and congressional staffers.

Wilkerson told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show July 14, "What I suspect has happened is what began to happen while I was still in the government, and that was we're killing the wrong people. And we're killing the wrong people in the wrong countries. And the countries are finding out about it, or at least there was a suspicion that the countries might find out about it, and so it was shut down. That's my strong suspicion."

According to Wilkerson, the teams may have been dispatched under deep cover, using Joint Special Operations Command as a cut-out, a confirmation of charges made by Seymour Hersh in March. When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was queried by the State Department, "after some hemming and hawing, which was Rumsfeld's forte, he finally admitted that he had dispatched some of these teams," Wilkerson explained.

Powell's former aide told Maddow, "It's laughable that the CIA has never lied to Congress. "They lie to Congress on a routine basis." Much the same can be said of General Powell who lied to the entire world "on a routine basis" during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

It must also be said there is precedence for the CIA's alleged death squad activities during the Bush era. In Vietnam for example, the CIA and U.S. Special Forces jointly ran a secret assassination program that targeted Vietnamese dissidents. As author Douglas Valentine revealed in his definitive study, The Phoenix Program, Operation Phoenix "was a computer-driven program aimed at 'neutralizing', through assassination, kidnapping, and systematic torture, the civilian infrastructure that supported the insurgency in South Vietnam."

Those programs never died and have since morphed into above top secret "Special Access Programs" used with deadly effect in Central- and South America during the 1980s and across the Middle East today.

[end excerpt]

Which scientists' findings do we hear?

This author takes a hard look at a disturbing pattern:

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/seeing-the-pattern-before-co...

[excerpt]

Seeing the Pattern Before Copenhagen: Scientists Threatened in Four Essential Areas of Study
November 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment

By T. Jefferson

Scientists (and thus science) are threatened in four central areas of human existence – agriculture, health, environment and peace. The threat comes from multinational corporations seeking absolute control over world resources and political power through national laws and international treaties based on false or incomplete science.

Industry’s dilemma is that their products are harmful and yet they need them sold. Originally, industry attempted to solve this by promoting their products as beneficial to mankind and safe. But scientific research has shown both are untrue. Efforts to silence that research proved insufficient since people were increasingly aware of the dangers and began seeing the consequences.

At this point, industries shifted to using fear of catastrophe to sell their products perhaps expecting that urgency would override the proven negative effects on mankind (such as suicides of farmers in India) and safety issues. So, for instance, “climate ready” seeds (patented GMO seeds) are now being pushed as an urgent solution to climate change.

Scientific research not only continued exposing the dangers of corporate manmade products but caused a second problem. By contrasting the natural world’s to industry’s products, scientists inadvertently created reassurance about nature’s health, abundance, and resilience (to say nothing of a growing commitment to it). That reassurance undercut industry’s necessary element of fear.

Industry has been forced to move into more totalitarian measures in collusion with government, which now simply writes laws which give it power to destroy its competitors and that mandate industry’s openly unwanted products. Meanwhile, it continues to do all it can to silence scientists who undermine industry lies and desired fear. The truth about industry’s toxic products and its competition, nature, is directly threatening to industry’s continued existence.

Below is a list of major areas of science in which scientists are being threatened, the fear being used to promote products or actions, what the corporations have to gain, and what is at stake.”

1. Agriculture and food safety
Fear: Starvation worldwide and death from contaminated food.

What is potentially gained through that fear?

Introduction of GMOs despite rejection by farmers, elimination of threat from local farming and local food supplies, control over food worldwide, ownership of nature at the level of DNA, mandated products and processes, permanent control over prices and profit, political control (the Kissinger plan: control food/control people).

Genetic engineering, including its companion product, pesticides, gives insight into what scientists have faced for telling the truth. Arpad Pusztai was released from the Rowett Institute after 35 years and silenced with threats of a lawsuit. His research team was disbanded “after reporting the dangers from GMOs though his work is valued by other scientists. Ignacio Chapela was threatened and denied tenure for exposing the crossover of genes from GMO corn to normal corn. ‘I am living proof of what happens when biotech buys a university. … Corporate biotechnology is killing this university.’”

Meanwhile corporations have been judged guilty in courts for false claims about product safety. “

...

at Truthdig:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporate_farmer_calls_upon_sen_fein...

The Insurance Industry's Lethal Bottom Line -- and Sen. Al Franken's Solution
Wendell Potter

CMD's Senior Fellow on Health Care

There was a time, in the early 1990s, when health insurance companies devoted more than 95
cents out of every premium dollar to paying doctors and hospitals for taking care of their members. No more. Since President Bill Clinton's health reform plan died 15 years ago, the health insurance industry has come to be dominated by a handful of insurance companies that answer to Wall Street investors, and they have changed that basic math. Today, insurers only pay about 81 cents of each premium dollar on actual medical care. The rest is consumed by rising profits, grotesque executive salaries, huge administrative expenses, the cost of weeding out people with pre-existing conditions and claims review designed to wear out patients with denials and disapprovals of the care they need the most.

This equation is known as the medical loss ratio (MLR), an aptly named figure that is widely seen by investors as the most important gauge of an insurance company's current and future profitability. In a private health insurance industry that collected $817 billion this year, a 14 percentage point difference in the MLR represents $112 billion a year! Over 10 years, that would be more than enough to pay for health reform.

Thanks to the efforts of several senators who pushed for a minimum MLR to be included in reform legislation, the current Senate bill requires insurers to provide an annual rebate to each enrollee if non-claims costs exceed 20% in the group market and 25% in the individual market.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is now leading a group including Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) to introduce an amendment that would go further by requiring that 90 percent of the money consumers spend on health insurance premiums go directly to health care costs.

The senators are proposing a reform that strikes at the heart of a health insurance system that puts profits first, and it would have a profound effect. When MLRs increase, that eats into profits, and Wall Street becomes very unhappy. A case in point is Aetna, the nation's third largest publicly-traded health insurance plan. Three years ago, the company reported that its quarterly MLR had inched up from 77.9 percent to 79.4 percent in 12 months. On the day this was disclosed, Aetna's share price plunged 20 percent as investors sold off their shares, reducing the company's market value by billions of dollars.

Wall Street investors expect insurers to pay as little as possible for medical claims. As a result, the nation's health insurance industry has evolved into a cartel of huge for-profit companies that together reap billions of dollars a year at the expense of their policyholders. The seven largest firms -- UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana, CIGNA, Health Net, and Coventry Health Care -- enroll nearly one in three Americans in their health insurance plans. This year the industry will take about $25 billion in profits for getting between American
patients and their doctors, according to the industry's trade group.

And they do this by finding every excuse in the book not to pay a claim, even if it means
canceling individual policies when people get sick or ridding their rolls of unprofitable small business group policies if an employee or family member falls seriously ill. They issue confusing benefit statements to members so only highly motivated and persistent challengers of their denials stand a chance of reversing an unfair decision. And in the final analysis, when an insurance company has decided it no longer can make enough profit on a particular person or employer-sponsored group, it drives them away in a process known as "purging." In this unconscionable profit-protection maneuver, an insurer will hike premiums so high that the policyholder has no choice but to pay outlandish rates for what may be a reduced benefit package, find another insurer, or simply go without coverage. The consequences of such decisions can be deadly -- but Wall Street always has the last word when profits are the main
consideration.
more....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/the-insurance-industrys-l_b...

toniD's Ya Think?

Hundreds of Somalis have taken to the streets of Mogadishu to protest against al-Shabab, the group held responsible for a deadly suicide attack last week.

Protesters burned the group's flag in what analysts say is an unprecedented show of anger at the militants, who control large parts of the country.

Although al-Shabab has been widely blamed for the atrocity, the group has issued a statement denying involvement.

Three government ministers were among some 22 people killed in the attack.

A suicide bomber disguised as a woman in a veil blew himself up at a graduation ceremony in the capital last Thursday.

“ We cannot endure such indiscriminate killing ”
Muhubo Adan Kheyre Protester
Most of those killed were medical students. More than 60 people were injured.

Protesters marching through Mogadishu on Monday chanted slogans including "down with al-Shabab" and "we don't need violence".

The marchers made a stop at Benadir University, where the students killed in the attack had graduated from.

Analysts say the march is the first such public protest against al-Shabab in Mogadishu, where the group controls a large amount of territory and tolerates no dissent.

"We cannot endure such indiscriminate killing, everybody must say no to violence from now on," one of the protesters, Muhubo Adan Kheyre, told the AFP news agency.

Another protester, Yusuf Sahal, said the suicide attack had "sent a clear message to the whole country".

"It showed that these violent people will spare nobody, so we have to start confronting them," he said.

AFP reported that many of the demonstrators were relatives and friends of those who were killed.

Al-Shabab is locked in a battle for control of the country with other militant groups and the forces from the transitional government.

While militants control most of the country, the UN-backed government holds sway in only parts of Mogadishu.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8399506.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/front_page/newsid_10000000/newsid_1000...

Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Rome, demanding the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The No B (Berlusconi) Day march was organised by grassroots groups via the internet and social networking sites.

Mr Berlusconi faces separate tax fraud and bribery trials after he lost his immunity from prosecution in October.

He denies the charges against him, insisting he is the victim of magistrates with a political agenda.

One message

Protesters chanted "I have a dream - Berlusconi in jail" during the march in the Italian capital.

"This is a day of democracy, a day that shows that the country can come together to build an alternative and most of all to tell Berlusconi to go," Antonio di Pietro, former anti-corruption judge and now an opposition leader, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"There are people from all over the country here, and even from abroad with one message: Berusconi has to go!" he added.

Organisers claimed that at least 350,000 people took part in the march, although police put the number at about 90,000.

Actors and writers were among those taking part, including Nobel literature laureate Dario Fo, Reuters reported.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8397381.stm

The not-a-public-option compromise, and beyond

There's a lot left to be decided in health-care reform, or at least there should be. The subsidies could use some help, and the Medicare Commission should be strengthened. The House and Senate need to figure out their revenue measures, and Ken Thorpe is right that more could be done on the delivery side. But whatever issues are left to resolve in the policy, the politics have come down to hammering out a compromise on the public option.

Last week, Harry Reid convened a working group to develop a compromise. Five liberals and five conservatives would attend. Chuck Schumer, Jay Rockefeller, Tom Harkin, Sherrod Brown and Russ Feingold would represent the left. Mark Pryor, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman would speak for the moderates. But Lieberman didn't show up.

Twice.

With Lieberman's message received (though his staff still attending the meetings), Tom Carper stepped into the process. Lieberman, meanwhile, began attending talks with another group of moderates. This group included Mark Warner, Kay Hagan, Mark Udall, Jeanne Shaheen, Ron Wyden and, over the weekend, Olympia Snowe. Some of these folks support a public option, some don't. The importance was really Snowe and Lieberman in a room together. The bill will need at least one of them in order to pass, and both have stated their firm opposition to a public option of any sort. So the compromise being developed by Reid's group is not a public option.

Currently, insurance plans are regulated by the states, which means they're different in every state. That makes it hard for them to achieve certain efficiencies of scale or maximize their leverage against providers. But back in September, I noticed a promising provision in Max Baucus's draft that would allow for national insurance plans, so long as they met a minimum level of federal regulation. That seemed like a potentially huge change, but I never heard another word about it, so I let it go.

The compromise being discussed is built atop that provision. The idea is that the Office of Personnel Management would choose nonprofit plans that met national standards and offer them on every state exchange (unless states opted out). These plans would be private, but the OPM would act as an aggressive purchaser, ensuring that they met high standards and conducted themselves properly. It's a private option with a public filter, essentially. But more importantly, it's a menu of national, nonprofit plans, which would be much more interesting from a competitive standpoint than state-based, pubic plans.

But the fact remains that private plans are not public options, no matter how much extra scrutiny they're subjected to. Though the liberals in the room are listening to this compromise, sources close to the discussion tell me that the conversation is opening up beyond the insurance offerings. In other words, the compromise on the public option might end up being more than a compromised public option. This is, in my view, an extremely promising development, and I'll say a bit more on that later today.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/the_public_option_co...

toniD's Ya Think?

Traders Fear A Strengthening Economy: Low Rates And Weak Dollar Have Helped Fuel Rally

NEW YORK — Be careful what you wish for.

Investors have been hoping for signs that the economy is strong enough to justify continuing Wall Street's nine-month rally. They got the surest evidence yet Friday when the government said employers cut fewer jobs in November than at any time since the recession began in late 2007.

But the good news is making many investors uneasy. Traders are asking whether the strengthening economy will lead the Federal Reserve to start raising rates or scale back its stimulus measures, and whether the dollar, responding to higher rates, will reverse its long slide.

Low rates and a weak dollar have helped feed stocks' comeback. So, what happens now depends on where traders think they can make the most money: in stocks as companies make more profits in a stronger economy, or in other investments like the dollar whose returns will improve as rates rise.

"The Fed was forcing people to take risks," buying stocks and commodities to boost their returns, said Justin Golden, a strategist at Macro Risk Advisors.

On Friday, investors were betting that the Fed will raise rates by June. They weren't happy about that prospect – an initial surge in stock prices that followed the report soon dwindled.

The numbers were pretty stunning. The Labor Department said the economy cut 11,000 jobs last month, much smaller than the 130,000 predicted by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. And the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent from a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October.

Beyond the report's headline numbers, Keith Walter, co-portfolio manager at Artio Global Management, said improvement in the average weekly hours worked and the growing number of temporary employees showed the job market is recovering. That gives the Fed more room to act.
Story continues below

But even if the Fed doesn't raise rates soon, it might cut back on some programs it put in place during the credit crisis to stimulate the economy, including the low-cost loans it has offered big banks. Analysts say that's the likely first step before any rate increase.

"The Fed easing cycle might end sooner than thought even just days ago," said Maury Fertig, chief investment officer at Relative Value Partners.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/traders-fear-a-stregtheni_n_382...

toniD's Ya Think?

India in nuclear deal with Russia

Russia and India have signed an agreement to increase their civilian nuclear energy co-operation.

The announcement came after talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow.

Russia will build a number of nuclear reactors in energy-hungry India as well as increase atomic fuel exports to it.

Russian reports suggested progress had also been made on India's purchase of a refurbished former aircraft carrier.

The sale of the Soviet-era Admiral Gorshkov was agreed years ago but delivery has been long delayed.

Kremlin sources gave no timing for when the vessel might be handed over to India's military.

'Great potential'

Mr Singh called the nuclear deal "a major step forward".

"Today we have signed an agreement which broadens the reach of our co-operation beyond the supply of nuclear reactors to areas of research and development and a whole range of areas of nuclear energy," Mr Singh told a Kremlin news conference.

Mr Medvedev spoke of "great potential" in the two countries' relations.

The head of Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, estimated the value of the deal at "several dozens of billion of dollars".

He said the agreement could involve Russia building more than 12 nuclear reactors in India. Mr Singh put the number at four.

Russia is among a number of countries seeking to expand their activities in India following its landmark nuclear deal with the US in 2005.

That accord ended India's nuclear isolation after it tested an atom bomb in 1974.

Mr Singh was due to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later on Monday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8399647.stm

toniD's Ya Think?

hope everyone slept well. We have snow snow snow here!

Toni, you might like this. It converts all those articles to a very readable format that you choose and takes out all the hoopla on the web page that the article contains. I installed it on my safari toolbar and it works beautifully.

http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/saudiarabia-capital-...

New Anti-Lieberman Ad Gets Personal About Public Option
Sam Stein

A new ad campaign targeting Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) for opposing a public health insurance plan gets personal. Its main message: "It's not about you. It's all about Joe."

It even has a new website: AllAboutJoe.org.

The ad is narrated by John Mertens, a Trinity College professor, longshot candidate for Lieberman's seat, and chair of the now-facetiously named Connecticut for Lieberman Party. (Motto: "Not the other way around.")

The spot was put together by the liberal action group, Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Like earlier PCCC ads targeting wavering Democrats, this one plays off the support a government-run insurance plan has within that senator's home state. But this one is unusually personal, accusing Lieberman of operating out of self-interest in saying he'd filibuster a public plan.

"Joe never forgets who he ran to represent: himself," says Merten. "So Joe has a message for Democrats and all the voters who want him to support the public option. It's not about you. It's all about Joe."

The Connecticut for Lieberman Party has moved far away from the point of its conception in 2006, when it was started as a way to enable Lieberman to run for senate even if he lost the Democratic primary election (which he did.) The group has since been taken over by progressives, many of whom have expressed bitterness to the Democrat turned Independent.

The ad, according to Adam Green, co-founder of PCCC, will be airing in both Connecticut and D.C. with the group putting $40,000 behind its purchase and fundraising for an additional $60,000 more.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/new-anti-lieberman-ad-get_n_382...

toniD's Ya Think?

Recommended reading!

------

by Jacob S. Hacker

Excerpts:

The problem is that the “middle-ground” ideas that are currently flying around aren't in the middle at all.

They represent abandonment of the public plan idea altogether.

One proposal that is being floated, for example, is the chartering of a national nonprofit plan, similar to the “cooperatives” that Senator Kent Conrad has advocated. But the whole point of the public plan is to create a plan that is up and running quickly and constructed on the existing infrastructure of Medicare so that it can create competitive pressure for insurers and serve as a backup for consumers on day one.

Another, even stranger idea is to offer the nonprofit plans available in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) within the exchange. Since the FEHBP is itself a form of exchange, this amounts to offering a new set of private plans within a new set of private plans. How is that going to provide real pressure on private insurers in a consolidated insurance market in which nonprofit plans already have a large presence (and often act little differently from for-profit plans)?

Those who believe in the public plan—and, more important, who believe in the principle it embodies: that no American who lacks access to good insurance should be forced to buy coverage from the private plans that got us into our present mess--should stand firm in the face of these non-compromises.

This includes President Obama. He made the public plan part of his promise of change in 2008. Now he needs to put his weight and influence behind the public plan and its essential goals, rather than allow them to be gutted. This is in our nation’s interest. It is also in his and his party’s political interest. A bill that forces people to take private insurance but doesn’t create competition or a public benchmark is a prescription for unaffordable coverage, runaway costs, and political backlash.

The “middle ground” is nowhere to stand if it’s going to crumble beneath you.

Why isn't Obama putting his influence and weight behind the public option?

-----------

Link:

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/you-call-compromise

And more to come tomorrow night. In fact they are saying mixed precipitation. Rain coming up from the gulf and snow from the west. Which means ICE.

Thanks for the readability widget. That will help.

toniD's Ya Think?

sunny and cold in nyc....

Snow! In winter!

FOX was right! Global warming is a hoax!

"this machine kills fascists"

GOP Would Require President, Cabinet, Staff To Enroll In Public Option

Senate Republicans opposed to a public health-insurance option intend to introduce an amendment Monday that would require not just members of Congress to enroll in any such plan -- but also the president, vice president, cabinet officials and all political staff.

An earlier, narrower version of the amendment just covering Congress, proposed by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and David Vitter (R-La.), led to a Capitol spectacle on Friday as some Democrats called their bluff.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) tried to join their effort, but told the Hill that he was rebuffed. A Coburn spokesman said Brown would have been welcome to join and that the office had simply yet to get back to him.

Regardless, Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Brown all went to the Senate floor to ask unanimous consent to be added to the amendment, a request that was approved.

Franken said on the Senate floor that he had discussed the situation with his wife Frannie and they had agreed to go on the public option if the bill became law. (If the amendment doesn't become law, Franken wouldn't legally be able to make that choice since he has employer-provided coverage.)

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid derided the new measure as "feel good amendment that typifies the Republican Party's utter lack of ideas when it comes to health care reform."

Coburn and Vitter will be joined in this more expansive amendment by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.). A Coburn spokesman said that Democrats were encouraged to join the GOP on this amendment.

Coburn, a medical doctor, said that his amendment isn't a gimmick, but rather a serious attempt to mitigate the harms he believes would come about through the existence of a public option. If the president and other political heavyweights are enrolled in it, his thinking goes, they'll make sure it runs well.

"While I oppose the public option, Republicans and Democrats can agree that we should live under the laws we pass. I can also think of no better way to ensure that the public option is responsive to our citizens than by having the politicians in charge of the system enrolled in the same program. If a low-income, single mom has to wait in line for a life saving treatment, so should our national leaders and their families. Enrolling national leaders in the public option may be the best way to prevent the government from rationing care," Coburn said in a statement provided to HuffPost. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/gop-would-require-preside_n_380...

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/12/libera...

Five AIG execs say may quit over pay: report

Source: Reuters

Five AIG execs say may quit over pay: report
Wall Street Journal says they're upset that pay czar cut their compensation

Five senior executives at American International Group told the bailed-out insurer last week they may quit if their compensation was cut significantly by the U.S. pay czar, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The five senior AIG executives indicated on December 1, in written notices, that they were prepared to leave by year-end, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources. Two of them changed their minds over the weekend, the paper added.

AIG, which was propped up by the government with some $180 billion in taxpayer funds, has been sparring with the Obama administration's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, over executive compensation.

Even Chief Executive Robert Benmosche reportedly threatened to quit last month, in part because he did not have discretion over pay packages for top executives.

Feinberg has cut average compensation for the 25 best-paid employees at companies that received multiple bailouts and is setting guidelines for pay for the next 75.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34309703/ns/business-us_business/?utm_source...

toniD's Ya Think?

but DK Reclist is saying this...

"Just announced on CNN just now that the Obama adminstration is going to announce tomorrow during Obama's speech on jobs creation that he is going to ask Congress to use $200 billion from TARP for a jobs bill!"

That's a lotta money! And a good start.

"this machine kills fascists"

Copenhagen climate conference opens to dire warnings Updated at 9:18 AM

Source: AFP

A landmark conference on climate change opened in Copenhagen on Monday, with grim warnings of the apocalyptic dangers for mankind if world leaders fail to agree a way to stave off global warming. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Connie Hedegaard, a Danish politician elected to chair the talks in Copenhagen Enlarge photo Connie Hedegaard, a Danish politician elected to chair the talks in Copenhagen Enlarge photo Pachauri proudly defended the IPCC's reputation as an arena for weighing evidence …More Enlarge photo VIDEO: 'World's hope' lies with climate summit: Danish PM. Enlarge photo A cyclist stops to look at a display entitled "Cool Globes" in the Kongens …More Enlarge photo Danish Prime Minister Lokke Rasmussen delivers a speech at the Bella center in Copenhagen Enlarge photo The impact on humanity of man-made drought, flood, storms and rising seas were spelt out at the start of the 12-day meeting, which will climax with more than 110 heads of state or government in attendance.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen warned that the world was looking to Copenhagen to safeguard the generations of tomorrow.

"For the next two weeks, Copenhagen will be Hopenhagen. By the end, we must be able to deliver back to the world what was granted us here today: hope for a better future," he said.

Opening ceremonies began with a short sci-fi film featuring children of the future facing an apocalypse of tempests and desert landscapes if world leaders failed to act today.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091207/twl-copenhagen-climate-conference-o...

toniD's Ya Think?

E-Mail Raises Questions in Firing

Source: Lexington Herald-Leader

An Alliance Coal executive wrote an e-mail to his colleagues Nov. 13 to announce the firing of the state director of mine permits — just minutes after the firing happened.

"Ron Mills will be asked to resign this morning and will be replaced by Allen Luttrell on an acting basis," wrote Raymond "Rusty" Ashcraft, Alliance Coal's manager of environmental affairs and permitting at the company's Lexington office.

Ashcraft sent his e-mail at 9:24 a.m. Minutes earlier, Mills said in an interview Sunday, he was pulled aside in Frankfort and fired as director of the Division of Mine Permits. Later that day, his deputy, Luttrell, was named as his acting replacement.

The e-mail raises questions about Alliance Coal's role in the firing of Mills, who opposed a controversial policy — called "the 331⁄3 rule" — that allows the company to mine without showing that it has the legal right to enter all the land in its plans. Environmentalists say the policy is illegal and they will sue to block it.

http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/1049100.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Saudi Justice /death to psychics?
new
Submitted by taozen on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 10:02am.
==============

and the few minutes listening to 'morning joe' they read an email, something like
'Jesus liked Alabama better.'

and how about those AZ Cardinals!

later - off to do a little nutcracker work.
(no rain here yet - supposed to be a weather freight train headed your way mid & easterners)

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

$10 million is smuggled out of Afghanistan daily, official says

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - An estimated $10 million a day is smuggled out of Afghanistan, most of it through Kabul's international airport, rather than through secret routes over the mountains or across the desert, the country's finance minister said Sunday.

The amount of corruption, both by public officials and officials of private companies, makes him embarrassed to acknowledge while traveling that he is an Afghan, Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal said.

"Corruption is a stronger threat than terrorism for Afghanistan," said Zakhilwal, who was appointed in February and is the top financial advisor to President Hamid Karzai. "It is a cancer, a disease. It has destroyed the reputation of Afghanistan."

The $10-million figure comes from a 19-day undercover study conducted by the U.S. that estimated $190 million left the airport undetected during that period, Zakhilwal and U.S. officials said. No similar study was done for the international airport in Kandahar.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghanistan-cash7-200...

toniD's Ya Think?

This Is Absolutely Nothing Even Kinda Like A Public Option

The newest “alternative” to the public health insurance option is neither public, health insurance, nor an alternative option to private insurance companies. From what I've been able to determine about this worthless proposal, all it does is give the director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) some vague power to try to negotiate with private non-profit insurance companies for a slightly better bargain.

There appeared to be serious consideration of a new proposal on the table: a national health plan similar to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, which provides insurance to members of Congress and federal workers. It would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal plan, and all of the insurance options would be not-for-profit.

This is not a public insurance entity competing with the existing private insurance companies. This will do nothing to inject competition into concentrated markets. This will not ensure the government provides people will at least one decent insurance plan structured to promote the public good. In the long run this will not change how the insurance market operates or help rein in our out of control health care costs. (The FEHBP has been a failure on the cost controlling front.)

From what little reporting there is about this proposal (here and here) it seems the idea is basically to create another national exchange as an alternative to the state-based exchanges or another slightly better exchange run by OPM within the basically useless state-based exchanges. I don't know what is more sickening; the fact that Democrats will try to slap the word “public option” on existing private insurance coverage and hope everyone is too stupid to notice or the fact that the current state-based exchanges are such terrible pro-insurance, anti-consumer marketplaces that some senators think an acceptable “alternative” is another exchange designed slightly better.

This “alternative” does not even vaguely resemble a public option. It is simply a marketplace where the OPM will negotiate with private non-profit insurance companies to try to get slightly better deals for people using the program. You will still be forced to buy expensive insurance from the same private insurance companies that have failed so far. It will not inject any competition into concentrated insurance markets. This is only an exchange. This is similar to how the national exchange is designed in the House bill. This is how the exchanges would have been designed in the Senate bill until Max Baucus and Olympia Snowe removed every consumer value protection.

The Democrats better start acting like they at least care about regular Americans more than the health insurance corporations. Dropping the incredibly popular public option which would bring down cost for the government and regular Americans because the private insurance companies, Republicans, and Joe Lieberman demanded it is not going to rally the base. Making the “alternative” needed to win over Snowe merely fixing a few of the problems with the exchange that she herself caused does not sound like victory. If elected Democrats insist on putting a Republican in charge, don't be shocked when the Democratic base has zero reason to turn out in 2010. After all, a vote for a Republican is a vote for Republican leadership, and a vote for a Democrat is just also a vote for Republican leader.

http://jwalkerreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/this-is-absolutely-nothing-eve...

toniD's Ya Think?

amanda knox, the american student convicted in italy - - now the americen m$m seems to be screaming the conviction was unjust and I even heard a so-called reporter on one channel say "all of Italy should be ashamed of itself." Gees, what if that were a capital crime in Italy? Italy doesn't have the death penalty (mire, check me if i'm wrong...)
The family will use the legal system to appeal, and even the family of the murdered girl (who was English), said," it's not really a cause to celebrate." Light years ahead...

More from Jon Walker...

"The idea of creating exchanges to give individuals and small businesses the same deals as large business is already in the bill.

The potential benefits of creating another exchange in addition to these exchanges (or inside these exchanges) seems dubious. The new OPM exchange sounds like it might be better regulated (like all the exchanges should have been from the get go), and the OPM does at least have experience running this type of program. With people able to buy insurance completely outside any exchange, in the state-based exchange, possibly the regional exchanges, and now the OPM exchange, I don’t see how you get enough people to choose the OPM-run program to give it the customer base it needs to demand concessions from the private insurance companies."

More will have to be added to this for it to fly as an acceptable alternative.

"this machine kills fascists"

Federal workers target government waste in contest

The Obama administration received more than 38,000 ideas from federal workers across the USA on how their agencies can save money and perform better, and Monday it announces the four finalists for the Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Award.

The winner, who will be selected by the public in online balloting, will meet with President Obama, says Kenneth Baer, associate director for communications and strategic planning at the Office of Management and Budget.

The finalists:

• Christie Dickson, 25, of the Social Security Administration in Birmingham, Ala., proposed allowing claimants to schedule or reschedule appointments online. "We set up appointments about two-thirds of the time on the phone. By having access to a schedule online that would allow us time to assist more people," she said.

• Nancy Fichtner, 55, from the Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Colorado wants to allow patients to take their unused medications home instead of throwing them away. "Currently the inpatient medications such as ointments, inhalers, eye drops, and other bulk items are being disposed of upon patient discharge," she said.

• Julie Fosbender, 48, a recreation manager for the Forest Service at the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, hopes to change how visitor fees and other funds are deposited. Fosbender said the current process involves several unnecessary steps, ending with sending a package by certified mail to a bank in San Francisco. "Why can't we just deposit our collection into a local bank?" she asked.

• Huston Prescott, 42, of Housing and Urban Development in Anchorage, proposed an end to redundant inspections on subsidized housing. Prescott said that each funding source requires its own physical inspection. He said that time can be spent in better ways.

In a video that will be posted to the White House's website today, the president asks people to vote there for the best idea.

Baer said the next step is to find out how to implement the idea.

"Like any business or organization, before you actually implement an idea, you need to start by asking how to do it, what is the best way to do it, what are the ramifications of doing this," he said.

Baer said many proposals are under consideration to be added to the fiscal year 2011 budget, which begins Oct. 1, 2010.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-06-save-awards-federal-w...

had oliver stone on this week - excellent as usual. THey talked about Afghanistan, as Oliver Stone is a combat vet of Viet Nam ers.

Obama administration will formally declare danger of carbon emissions

"The Obama administration will formally declare Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a move that lays the groundwork for an economy-wide carbon cap even if Congress fails to enact climate legislation, sources familiar with the process said.

While an EPA spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter, the agency sent out a press advisory that Jackson will make "a significant climate announcement at a press briefing" at 1:15 p.m. at EPA headquarters. Jackson will also speak at the U.N.-sponsored climate conference Wednesday; her address is titled "Taking Action at Home." Obama, who will attend the end of the U.N. talks Dec. 18, has sent a series of recent signals to the international community that the United States will curb its carbon output as part of a new global climate deal."

And, let's not forget that George W. Bush deserves all the credit!!

"this machine kills fascists"

And found my mother's stash of old newspapers and magazines.
Not many really but there are copies of the Chicago Tribune and The Post and Life magazines.

She has the paper announcing the War in 1941
JFK Assassination
RFK Assassination
The Moon Mission and Moon Walk
The Nixon Resignation
The Death of Mayor Daily
The Great Chicago Blizzard in 1967
The death of Elvis

And in that same box I found a Kodak box camera circa 1920s

I have to call an estate person to see if any of this is valuable.

Lots of history there.
toniD's Ya Think?

Checkmate: How Joe Lieberman Turned The Public Option Fight On Its Head
Brian Beutler | December 7, 2009, 9:40AM

After Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) threw down the gauntlet on the public option, political observers and liberal critics had no shortage of theories. Lieberman was rebelling against the liberal base. Lieberman harbors animosity about 2006. Lieberman is an egotist and wants the spotlight. Any or all of these theories might be true, but they obscured the more important, strategic rationale for his decision: With a 60 member caucus, and little to no Republican support, every Democrat has a pocket veto of the health care bill. Lieberman's explicit threat to use his veto was, in effect, checkmate on the public option in the Senate, and created breathing room for other public option skeptics to create the bloc that is now negotiating away the public option entirely.

"I think we all came to a similar conclusion. He came to the timing of his announcement, I think, pretty much on his own," conservative Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told me of Lieberman's threat.

So you all sort of knew where each other stood?

"Yes of course. We continued to talk about it. Each of us had a problem, to one degree or another, with the public option."

I asked, "Did you see it as helpful to your own negotiating on the public option?"

"I don't think it hurt," Nelson said.

Lieberman's move could be used as a case study on the importance of leverage in political negotiations.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), another public option opponent, said Lieberman had always opposed the public option, and that his announcement prefigured the current behind-close-doors hand wringing over the provision.

"This has been going on for a long time, and so our caucus is in the process of negotiating with ourselves, because we need all 60 of us to get this done...we knew this day would come and it has come," she told me and another reporter last week.

For his part, Lieberman himself says he wasn't specifically trying to turn the public option momentum on its head, and help his centrist colleagues. But hey! All the better.

"I didn't actually think of it that way, if it had that effect, I'm not unhappy about it," Lieberman told me. "But I mean the progression here is that I felt from the beginning...the public option, government-created, run insurance company was not a good idea."

"As we came closer to the vote on cloture on the motion to proceed, and Senator Reid called me and he said, 'can you vote for it, I'm gonna put a public option in it,' and I said, 'you know I'm against the public option. But I want to start the debate and I want to be for health care reform.'"

And then there were some, my colleagues, who said, "well why don't you negotiate with Harry, see if you can get it out now," so I said, "I don't think he wants to negotiate." I talked to him again, it was pretty clear that he didn't, so I just thought it was very important to make that clear, to explain why I wanted to--I would vote to open debate on the bill--because I want to support health care reform, but that if there was a public option in it, the only recourse I have...is to vote against cloture.

Now, according to Nelson the opt-out public option isn't even part of the ongoing discussions between progressive and conservative Democrats, who either need Lieberman, or Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), or both on board for reform to pass. Still in the fold are the trigger compromise (which has Snowe's support, but not Lieberman's) and a new proposal to allow consumers to buy non-profit insurance with premiums negotiated by the federal government.

Conservative Democrats would like this latter plan--which isn't a public option--to replace the measure in the bill, though Snowe told reporters yesterday that the two ideas aren't mutually exclusive, and that it's likely not a replacement for a trigger. On Saturday, she met with Obama to discuss triggers and other elements of the reform proposal. She described Obama's position on the triggers as "supportive."

Senators say they hope to reach a more concrete compromise early this week, perhaps as early as today.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/checkmate-how-joe-lieberman-t...

toniD's Ya Think?

# Stabenow: Nelson Amendment Unlikely To Pass
12:27PM -- An influential senator says she doesn't believe a restrictive abortion amendment to the health care bill has the votes to pass on the Senate floor.... Read More »

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/stabenow-says-nelson-abortion...

toniD's Ya Think?

Hope I'm wrong, but it seems as though ebay has decreased the value of lot of things like that because of the large market to which people now have access.

This is what I found when I looked at the price that certain collectibles were bringing there (pop culture stuff, dolls, and some newspapers too) in the spring of 08.

.

Did not notice if posted before.

Has authorized translations of Oscar Estrada's blog (which I translated one time in an open mic a month or so ago).

He was arrested on Dec 4 but apparently was let go again (not before being beaten, equipment smashed, etc.) because there are posts from after that date.

http://quotha.net

Seems also to reference this RealNews story I just watched that also talks about the phony turnout numbers given by Election Commission, Porfirio Lobo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O_0uJqoVtI&feature=quicklist&playnext=8&...

I say seems to b/c I have a lot of stuff running the background and can't wait any longer for stuff to catch up loading.

Report: Bush Climate Team Still Impacting Debate

As the next round of climate change negotiations begin in Copenhagen, a new report reveals how much influence George Bush's climate team still has in Congress.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/new_report_shows_ongoi...

toniD's Ya Think?

Frank to Endorse Sestak

According to a press release just sent out by the Sestak campaign, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) will appear with and endorse Rep. Sestak (D-PA) at a news conference in Philadelphia tomorrow morning.

--Josh Marshall

Frank to Endorse Sestak

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/barney-frank-cites-the-integr...

toniD's Ya Think?

Health Care Rubik's Cube

So now Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is saying that Sen. Ben Nelson's anti-abortion amendment to the health care bill doesn't have the votes to pass their chamber, which sets up an interesting quandary. Nelson says he can't and won't vote for the bill if his amendment or something equivalent isn't in it and would actually filibuster it. Without his vote, the Democrats don't have 60. So it presents another possible scenario under which a GOP vote is crucial.

To be clear, that's taking Stabenow and Nelson at face value, which isn't always prudent given that negotiations are ongoing and everyone's words are usually chosen to achieve a particular end. On top of that, there's no rule against saying you'll vote one way, and voting another after deals are struck, compromises reached, etc. So perhaps the safest conclusion to reach is that the abortion language is either a huge sticking point or a very big bargaining chip.

--David Kurtz

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/stabenow-says-nelson-abortion...

toniD's Ya Think?

Just Added to Public Schedule

President Obama will meet with Al Gore today on climate change in advance of their separate trips to Copenhagen.

--David Kurtz

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/obama-meeting-with-gore-today...

toniD's Ya Think?

of course not, italy does NOT have the death penalty and it's in fact the most anti-capital punishment country in the world; it was italian the proposal at the UN to make the death penalty into a human rights violation and a crime (i think it didn't pass though)

all italians feel very strongly about the fact that death penalty is murder by the state

as for amanda, what do you want me to say? just because she claims innocence doesn't mean she is; who knows? fact is americans have two weights and two measures when it comes to justice (what applies to others does not apply to them necessarily)

there have been many instances of italian citizens being capital-punished (killed by the state) here even though this is a clear violation of international law, which says, if your country does not have death penalty you cannot undergo it no matter where the crime is committed

Haven't checked Ebay yet on any of the old things I have.

I do want to get rid of some of this stuff. I need to get room here in my 2 room apartment. It's closing in on me. And the rest of my family doesn't seem to want any of it.

toniD's Ya Think?

# Biden: 'We're Not Raiding Medicare'
12:52PM -- In a new web video, Vice President Biden calls for an end to "malarkey" in the health care debate, saying opponents are trying to scare seniors with misinformation about Medicare.... Read More »

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/live/health-care/#306329

toniD's Ya Think?

might have something to do - maybe - with that "burrowing" we heard so mych about in the waning days of the bush administration

craigslist? I sold a bunch of stuff there before my garage sale, it worked very well and since it's locally based you don't have to worry about shipping

also remember that ebay lady is a republican, craigslist is very liberal and progressive

Senate Dems May Open Up Medicare To Pacify Progressives
Sam Stein

Senate Democrats are discussing the idea of expanding Medicare by lowering the age at which the elderly could enter the government-run insurance program, Democratic sources on the Hill tell the Huffington Post.

The proposal would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 55, though an age limit of 60 has also been suggested. Crucial details -- such as the timing of the implementation of such a reform -- were not provided due to the sensitivity and ongoing nature of the deliberations. A high-ranking Democratic source off the Hill confirmed that such discussions are taking place.

Lowering the floor for Medicare is one of several ideas being discussed as a way to pacify progressives upset over the potential elimination of a public option for insurance coverage, one of the sources added. Senate Democrats held discussions this past weekend about replacing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's version of a public plan with one that would be non-profit-based. The alternative proposal would be offered in state exchanges, run by private insurers but monitored by the Office of Personnel Management.

"The Office Personal Management proposal that has been out there for the past couple days is one of the leading ideas to represent the public option in a modified bill. But there are a series of things that progressives are negotiating in exchange for dropping the [public option] opt-out," said the source.

Expanding Medicare would likely prove to be a tempting olive branch to progressives in the Senate. Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, in addition to championing such a proposal during the 2004 presidential campaign, has long discussed framing the public plan as an extension of Medicare, one of the most popular government-run programs in the country.

But there are potential complications with the compromise proposal. Medicare already is on an increasingly expensive financial track, though efforts to cut some of the budgetary waste from the system have met with forceful pushback from moderates and Republicans in the Senate. In addition, the Senate weakened a proposed Medicare Commission, which would have been granted autonomy to suggest or pursue money-saving proposals.

"Moderates have made a whole campaign about how Medicare bankrupts hospitals and doctors," said one Democratic health care strategist. "So I doubt they'd go for [the lowering the Medicare age buy-in proposal]. And for progressives, well, it's not much of an olive branch. It doesn't solve the problem [of reforming the private industry]."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/senate-dems-may-open-up-m_n_382...

toniD's Ya Think?

Hey Toni! What shape is the box camera in and does it have a
model name or model number?

"this machine kills fascists"

Let Your Freak False Flag Fly!

ßißiɱiɱi
.•*"˜˜"*°•. ˜"*°•♥•°*"˜ .•°*"˜˜"*°•..•*"˜˜"*°•. ˜"*°•♥•°*"˜

I was thinking of calling in an Estate manager who will look over what I have and take it on consignment. This way I might get more and I wouldn't have to mess with putting it on line.

That's just for the things I think may be worth money. The other "stuff" I'm just going to donate.

toniD's Ya Think?

I have to get it out again. It's a bit warn but not in really bad shape. (the camera).

I'll get back to you on it.

toniD's Ya Think?

he's the only one takes pity on me and occasionally sends me updated pictures of the kids (i haven't seen them since october) because my daughter and son in law never seem to find the time

so i get this email that made me smile

"I was not able to take a lot of pictures, Louisa had cold, Chiara was not well, and I had a very bad cold.
It's sometimes difficult to get a good picture of Chiara, usually there is food on her face or her nose is snotty,
however this picture show the size relative to one another nicely."

kids growing up very fast; louisa is a mire lookalike, shaving away a few years and adding some genetic improvements; chiara we have no idea where she came from except yeah me and my ex-husband we were ying and yang total genetic opposites, so it makes sense

:)

cute

John Stossel: Peter Jennings Thought "I Was Bad For ABC," Wouldn't Look At Me »

The Daily Beast | December 7, 2009 at 08:49 AM

He enraged not only the audience over the years, but also many at the network--notably the late Peter Jennings, who believed Stossel's brand of libertarian advocacy journalism was a blot on the ABC escutcheon. Jennings refused even to look at him when they passed in the halls. "Peter felt he was upholding the objectivity of ABC and I was violating that, I was bad for ABC," Stossel tells The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-06/fitting-in-at-...

toniD's Ya Think?

"Monk" Finale Sets Cable Ratings Record: Most Watched Drama Show EVER »

Hollywood Reporter | December 7, 2009 at 08:43 AM

"Monk" ended its eight-season run with a bang, becoming the most-watched hourlong series on basic cable.

The Friday series finale of the USA Network dramedy drew about 9.4 million viewers, 3.2 million of them in the adults 18-49 demographic.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i6...

toniD's Ya Think?

louisa showing off her winter creations

Louisa is showing some creativity with her snow people. I like the "green" hair for Mrs. snowperson!

toniD's Ya Think?

if you look at some her drawings, they actually have the same style of these two little people here, they have some kind of funny expression on their faces

(did i beat toni to it?)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/senate-dems-may-open-up-m_n_382...

sam stein

Senate Democrats are discussing the idea of expanding Medicare by lowering the age at which the elderly could enter the government-run insurance program, Democratic sources on the Hill tell the Huffington Post.

The proposal would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 55, though an age limit of 60 has also been suggested. Crucial details -- such as the timing of the implementation of such a reform -- were not provided due to the sensitivity and ongoing nature of the deliberations. A high-ranking Democratic source off the Hill confirmed that such discussions are taking place.

Lowering the floor for Medicare is one of several ideas being discussed as a way to pacify progressives upset over the potential elimination of a public option for insurance coverage, one of the sources added. Senate Democrats held discussions this past weekend about replacing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's version of a public plan with one that would be non-profit-based. The alternative proposal would be offered in state exchanges, run by private insurers but monitored by the Office of Personnel Management.

"The Office Personal Management proposal that has been out there for the past couple days is one of the leading ideas to represent the public option in a modified bill. But there are a series of things that progressives are negotiating in exchange for dropping the [public option] opt-out," said the source.

Expanding Medicare would likely prove to be a tempting olive branch to progressives in the Senate. Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, in addition to championing such a proposal during the 2004 presidential campaign, has long discussed framing the public plan as an extension of Medicare, one of the most popular government-run programs in the country.

But there are potential complications with the compromise proposal. Medicare already is on an increasingly expensive financial track, though efforts to cut some of the budgetary waste from the system have met with forceful pushback from moderates and Republicans in the Senate. In addition, the Senate weakened a proposed Medicare Commission, which would have been granted autonomy to suggest or pursue money-saving proposals.

"Moderates have made a whole campaign about how Medicare bankrupts hospitals and doctors," said one Democratic health care strategist. "So I doubt they'd go for [the lowering the Medicare age buy-in proposal]. And for progressives, well, it's not much of an olive branch. It doesn't solve the problem [of reforming the private industry]."

I posted this a few days ago under the header "wingnut hero fantasies", or something like that, along with a link to a wingnut radio hosts'(Debbie Schlussel) praising of Mr. Petruna for his heroic deeds. Since then, well...you can imagine...

NASA Employee Insists Tale Of Porn-Watching Muslim Hijackers Is True, Despite Discrepancies

Of course!

I loved reading this from Schlussel's site, this morning:

Why is AirTran Lying About & Attacking Its Customers?: The Answers, Documents AirTran Won’t Provide

"Since the AJC’s report of AirTran’s lie, er . . . “claim” that Petruna wasn’t on Flight 297 on November 17th, I’ve come under attack by mostly far-left blogs, like Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, Joshua Micah Marshall and his Talking Points Memo, and the like, and many of their blind follower trolls have posted attack comments on this site. I find that extremely interesting, since this bunch is almost always anti-corporate America. They never believe a single thing an American corporation says and always see the worst in them, including cover-ups (like this one). But suddenly, when it will help lull us back into the pretense that Muslims are not a threat in America and aren’t constantly planning attacks on planes and elsewhere and testing the system, these far-lefties have put blind faith into the claims of AirTran, a corporation.

But I don’t put blind faith into it. Sooner or later, crew members who left Flight 297 and refused to fly–and who had to be replaced–will come out and tell the truth about what happened on that flight."

Lol!

I loved this, too, from Schlussel's original post!

"I begin with the caveat that I don’t know whether or not this is true. However, it certainly sounds like it is, and the guy-Tedd J. Petruna of NASA–has his e-mail address and home and work phone numbers plastered all over the internet as does his friend, A. Gene Hackemack, who sent this out. I’m glad he did. People need to know about this stuff, which the FBI, TSA, and every other fed in the alphabet soup of the 'We're Here to Help You' Souffle is trying to keep under wraps. I think it’s probably true."

(emphasis mine)

MMmmmmmmmmm.....alphabet soup souffleeeeee......

I'm sure NASA is going to proudly denounce the actions of the FBI, TSA, and any other Obalphabet Soup Nazis (NASA, of course, not being an acronymed federal agency) that aid in this shameful cover up of their hero wingnut employee Tedd Petruna!

Or maybe they'll just can his dumb ass for being a lying sack of shit!

I'm still grappling with the idea that eleven loud, rude porn-wielding Muslims in "full attire" were making a terrorist "dry run".

Muslim 1: Huh, that didn't go well.

Muslim 2: You think it was the clothes?

Muslim 1: No, see, if we wear our full attire people will think we'd have to be stupid to be terrorists.

Muslim 2: What about the yelling and rudeness?

Muslim 1: No, imbecile, people would expect us to be nervous, quiet and low profile and suspect us immediately!

Muslim 3: Sorry about the porn, that was a spur of the moment decision.

Muslim 1: No, that was genius! Nobody would expect us to have porn. The stupid Americans would just think we were Greek or something.

Muslim 2: I don't get it, then. What went wrong!?

Muslim 1: Easy, we need beards.

"this machine kills fascists"

I did post it already.

toniD's Ya Think?

for the elimination of the public option altogether

no, infact it won't

i call it bullshit

...
The imperial projects and the corporate state have not altered under Obama. The state kills as ruthlessly and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury as rapaciously to enrich the corporate elite. It, too, bows before the conservative Israel lobby, refuses to enact serious environmental or health care reform, regulate Wall Street, end our relationship with private mercenary contractors or stop handing obscene sums of money, some $1 trillion a year, to the military and arms industry.

At what point do we stop being a doormat?

At what point do we fight back?

We may lose if we step outside the mainstream, but at least we will salvage our self-esteem and integrity.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/liberals_are_useless_20091206/

obama; show some principle and stop palling around with republican swine (snowe) and dems swine-wannabes (the gang of assholes)

do you remember when he nominated jude gregg (jude gregg!) as commerce secretary? ah! the egg on his face has still to clear while he continues to consort with vermins on all issues that have come up to date

Copenhagen summit: Europe turns on US and China over weak emission targets

Source: The Times Online

The European Union today rejected the new carbon emission targets tabled by the United States and China and said they were much too weak to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The dispute between the three main players at the Copenhagen climate change summit overshadowed the first day of negotiations and dashed hopes that a deal on emissions was imminent.

The EU called on President Obama to announce a more ambitious target next week, when he arrives in Copenhagen for the last day of the conference on December 18.

But the US insisted that the provisional offer made 10 days ago by Mr Obama was “remarkable” and in line with what scientists had recommended.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6947765.ece

toniD's Ya Think?

Pentagon orders 16,000 troops to start surge

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer

The first wave of President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan surge will add about 16,000 U.S. troops who got their orders over the past few days, the Pentagon announced Monday.

About 1,500 Marines from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina will leave for Afghanistan later this month, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. He would not be precise about when those troops arrive, but military sources have said the first forces are expected on the ground by Christmas.

After the first of the year, the Marines begin sending another 6,200 from Lejeune, Whitman said, and 800 from Camp Pendleton in California.

The Army will also begin sending in the first of its forces — a training brigade from Fort Drum with about 3,400 members, N.Y. Whitman said about 4,100 support forces from various places will also deploy early next year. more...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/07/national/w07...

toniD's Ya Think?

i would think that would be
worth something. I use to
collect old cameras.

mire - those r the best snowmen
I have ever seen :)

@DavidShuster I'm told Sen dem caucus is "extremely close" to HCR deal

"this machine kills fascists"

lol sandy, one of them is snowwoman - she took great care to make sure the genders were visible :)))))))

What does it say when the two ConservaDems advancing anti-choice amendments to the HCR bill both wear toupees?

nevermind! Idowannakno!

"this machine kills fascists"

If it is pink and art deco looking it is worth around $100. One model is called the "beau".

Many black ones were made and are really not very valuable. People collect the various colors.

Treatments For Asthma And Pre-Term Labor May Increase Risk Of Autism-Spectrum Disorders In The Developing Fetus
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/173070.php
Commonly prescribed beta 2 adrenergic agonist drugs for the treatment of asthma in pregnant women as well as pre-term labor may increase the incidence of autism-spectrum disorders, psychiatric pathology, cognitive problems and poor school performance in their children, according to a new study published in the December 2009 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

what does it say? all i know, both ugly

Robert Kuttner
Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The American Prospect
Posted: December 6, 2009 10:00 PM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
A Tale of Two Obamas

It was the best of Obama, it was the worst of Obama.

I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to the White House jobs summit last Thursday, where I got to watch President Obama engage with about 130 people off the cuff. And I was reminded, first hand, what drew so many of us to the promise of this remarkable outsider -- the decency, the intellect, the idealism, and the evidently progressive impulses. I came away even more bewildered and dismayed at the reality that this president, who could have been such an insurgent at a moment demanding insurgency, has been so utterly captured by the Wall Street elite, the health insurance industry elite, and the military elite.

As a friend said, "I so wanted to be supportive of a great progressive president this time instead of being back in opposition."

At the jobs session, Obama began with a ceremonial introduction, then sent the summiteers into six working groups for about two hours. He circulated among them, and concluded with an extended on-the-record plenary session leading a discussion of the jobs challenge. He was absolutely masterful, with a fine grasp of detail, and values that one could only applaud. What a contrast with George W. Bush!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/a-tale-of-two-obamas_b_3820...

keep speaking truth mire!!!! Evivva l'Italia.

my sister used to have a Kodak box camera in the late 50s/early 60s

(This photo is amazing! and Sad)

It dawned with the warmest winter on record in the United States. And when the sun sets this New Year's Eve, the decade of the 2000s will end as the warmest ever on global temperature charts.

Warmer still, scientists say, lies ahead.

Through 10 years of global boom and bust, of breakneck change around the planet, of terrorism, war and division, all people everywhere under that warming sun faced one threat together: the buildup of greenhouse gases, the rise in temperatures, the danger of a shifting climate, of drought, weather extremes and encroaching seas, of untold damage to the world humanity has created for itself over millennia.

As the decade neared its close, the U.N. gathered presidents and premiers of almost 100 nations for a "climate summit" to take united action, to sharply cut back the burning of coal and other fossil fuels.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told them they had "a powerful opportunity to get on the right side of history" at a year-ending climate conference in Copenhagen.

Once again, however, disunity might keep the world's nations on this side of making historic decisions.

"Deep down, we know that you are not really listening," the Maldives' Mohamed Nasheed told fellow presidents at September's summit.

Nasheed's tiny homeland, a sprinkling of low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean, will be one of the earliest victims of seas rising from heat expansion and melting glaciers. On remote islets of Papua New Guinea, on Pacific atolls, on bleak Arctic shores, other coastal peoples in the 2000s were already making plans, packing up, seeking shelter.
Story continues below

The warming seas were growing more acid, too, from absorbing carbon dioxide, the biggest greenhouse gas in an overloaded atmosphere. Together, warmer waters and acidity will kill coral reefs and imperil other marine life – from plankton at the bottom of the food chain, to starfish and crabs, mussels and sea urchins.

Over the decade's first nine years, global temperatures averaged 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees F) higher than the 1951-1980 average, NASA reported. And temperatures rose faster in the far north than anyplace else on Earth.

The decade's final three summers melted Arctic sea ice more than ever before in modern times. Greenland's gargantuan ice cap was pouring 3 percent more meltwater into the sea each year. Every summer's thaw reached deeper into the Arctic permafrost, threatening to unlock vast amounts of methane, a global-warming gas.

Less ice meant less sunlight reflected, more heat absorbed by the Earth. More methane escaping the tundra meant more warming, more thawing, more methane released.

At the bottom of the world, late in the decade, International Polar Year research found that Antarctica, too, was warming. Floating ice shelves fringing its coast weakened, some breaking away, allowing the glaciers behind them to push ice faster into the rising oceans. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/decade-of-2000s-was-warme_n_382...

toniD's Ya Think?

Why is Barney Frank So Effing Mad?

The powerful Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee is doing his best to rein in Wall Street. You got a problem with that?

Barney Frank is erupting, as only Barney Frank can. "How dare you!" he says. "How dare you accuse me of lying!" I am up on Capitol Hill to talk about his efforts to fix Wall Street, and Frank is growing agitated as I ask about the influence of the banking lobby on the House Financial Services Committee, which he chairs. Frank is determined to quash any notion that he's been weak on financial reform. I inquire about his decision the day before to postpone a vote on a reform bill. His public statement had said only that some Democrats on his committee weren't ready to decide on the legislation. Was there any other reason? "Are you trying to catch me in some lie?" Frank retorts. "You think I put that off for the big banks?"

Actually, I hadn't said anything about the big banks—and I certainly hadn't accused him of lying. But this is the chairman's method of dealing with critics: go on the attack. Frank, a Harvard Law School graduate, is considered by many of his peers to be the brainiest member of the House. And he can be fierce when challenged—especially over legislation that is likely to change the face of America's financial system. Now, gazing from behind thick glasses, his mouth set in its trademark grimace, Frank fires back. "The big banks have no influence," he says. "They couldn't stop the credit-card [reform] bill. They get the full blast of the [new] Consumer Financial Protection Agency." When I press him further about the vote and how tough he's going to be on Wall Street's cash cow, derivatives trading, he's had enough. "This interview is over," Frank says, as if banging down a gavel.

It isn't surprising that Barney Frank seems a bit…defensive. For most of his long and colorful career, the 15-term Massachusetts Democrat has been a hero to the left and a bane to entrenched conservative interests. Among his -proudest achievements: protecting Legal Services, which represents the poor, against attempts to dismantle the agency; repealing a ban on gay immigrants; and championing housing reform. But now he finds himself second-guessed by his liberal supporters over what he says is the biggest challenge of his career: reining in Wall Street. A package of bills finally approved by Frank's committee last week seeks to regulate the financial industry and keep firms from growing "too big to fail." A key part of that effort is to gain control over the vast market in "over the counter" derivatives by forcing trading onto open exchanges, where regulators can monitor it. Unregulated derivatives were behind much of the havoc that nearly brought down the financial system last year, including the subprime-mortgage-backed securities that put many firms underwater and the credit default swaps sold by AIG, the giant insurance company that sucked up about $180 billion in bailout money. The $592 trillion global market in these mostly unmonitored derivatives remains among the most profitable businesses for the biggest banks—Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley—and Wall Street doesn't want Washington tampering with it. more...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/225781/page/1

toniD's Ya Think?

that Polar Bear's r
killing the cubs &
eating them. How sad
is that. I don't think
that's the norm... I
am going to research that.
I guess people go on
safari's that include
seeing Polar Bears -
& a group of people had
witnessed a male killing
then eating a cub.
Oh NO - global warming
is a hoax. Mother F_cking
shitheads. It's always the
animals & children that suffer
the stupidity & greed of human's.

Later

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.justsaygnome.net/gnome-chomsky-ii---additional-views.html

I am amazed that it took so long for someone to post that...

is a kewl tool. I predict trouble ahead from people trying to sell ads on their blogs though.

toniD - stay warm darling. :)
we love ya!

GOP Would Require President, Cabinet, Staff To Enroll In Public
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 10:36am.
GOP Would Require President, Cabinet, Staff To Enroll In Public Option

Senate Republicans opposed to a public health-insurance option intend to introduce an amendment Monday that would require not just members of Congress to enroll in any such plan -- but also the president, vice president, cabinet officials and all political staff.
http://samsedershow.com/node/5528#comment-384461

Could this be an opportunity for single-payer, medicare for all healthcare program as they widen the net to encompass US all? I am strangely supportive of GOP dense ineptitude in this regard:)

Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Monday, December 07, 2009
Bombings kill 46 people in 2 Pakistan cities

The market that was struck in Lahore, in Iqbal Town, is known as upscale-- where there are American franchises like KFC and high end retailing. So there is a class conflict element to the bombing. The Pakistani authorities are announcing that the perpetrators are from the northwest tribal regions, so this is more Taliban revenge for the campaign in South Waziristan. Rural/urban, Pashtun/Punjabi, fundamentalist/mainstream-- all the major divides in Pakistani society were at play in this horrid atrocity.

http://www.juancole.com/

.

I don't see where KateAnne put up the link to the "Rethink Afghanistan" movie. (In six parts; each takes a different topic; e.g, one is about women, etc)

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/videos.php

Here is Phyllis Bennis (can't help but smile a little at the name each time; I'm just that shallow) of whom KateAnne (?) also spoke, being interviewed for the TRNN. They had great interviews and commentaries on it all last week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRqGay8XGDc

Also at least one good guest on Farias every day last week.

Finally, I wanted to repost the link to one of the articles by one of the guests on This Is Hell!, Zoltan Grossman

http://consortiumnews.com/2009/120209c.html

("Afghanistan: Roach Motel of Empires")

I see I missed a ton of important stuff on the tail end of the last thread.

thx glory

authentic journalist Jesse Freeston did what real reporters are supposed to do: He went directly to the source, asked questions, took notes, and videotaped the evidence.

Exclusive: Honduran elections exposed
esp. the last 4 min.

==
62% is the "reported" voter turnout [nyt, miami herald, etc. google honduras voter turnout]
CNN comes up w/56%. Intimidation, arrests, military everywhere, no international observers. The coup parties found democracy after 5 months and the USA [that knows a fair election when it hears one] is right there saying whew, glad that's over, everything's OK now.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Here's first page of hits I got when I searched Google News, and that's not even what I was looking for.

http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=taser

I was looking for this, which I found via Alternet:

Taser trouble
Stun guns are taking a toll
Tribune Editorial
Updated: 12/03/2009 05:40:19 PM MST

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13920511

The autopsy results are in. But, despite the definitive findings the verdict is still out on the weapon that killed Brian Cardall.
Cardall, a promising research scientist and Utah native, died from "ventricular fibrillation following conducted energy weapon deployment ... ." In other words, death by Taser.
Here's what happened. In June, Cardall, 32, was returning to Arizona after visiting Utah when he experienced a manic episode brought on by his bipolar disorder. He pulled his car to the side of the road, got out, removed his clothes, and began flagging down vehicles on State Road 59 outside Hurricane.
Cardall's wife gave him medication, called the police, informed the dispatcher of her husband's psychotic condition and the fact that it would take a while for the medicine to take effect. But Cardall ran out of time.
Just 42 seconds after Hurricane Chief of Police Lynn Excell and officer Ken Thompson arrived at the scene, Thompson claims, a confused Cardall, who refused to get on the ground as ordered, stepped toward the officers. Thompson fired his Taser, striking a naked and unarmed Cardall in the chest over the heart. When the Flagstaff resident attempted to rise, Thompson gave him a second jolt. Within minutes, Cardall was dead, one of about 350 Americans to die after a Taser deployment since 2001.
Had the incident occurred 20 years ago, before Tasers came on the market, Cardall, who weighed just 156 pounds, would have been physically taken to the ground and handcuffed. He may have suffered bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes. The police officers would have risked same. But nobody would have died...

----
I don't think we had seen this particular man's case yet, but it's so hard to keep track. Notice the figure on fatalities since 2001.

Back to work...

Too many "Progressive Democrats" have made fools of themselves by backing down on the principles they trumpeted during the election process. I've been thinking that maybe I'll retire in the United States because I had such hopes they would keep their word.

Now I'm thinking it's safer to live with the threats of drug cartel thugs at my door.

How sad is that?

un-believable!

Google chief: only miscreants worry about net privacy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/schmidt_on_privacy/
'If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it'

By Cade Metz in San Francisco 7th December 2009 19:56 GMT
""
If you're concerned about Google retaining your personal data, then you must be doing something you shouldn't be doing. At least that's the word from Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," Schmidt tells CNBC, sparking howls of incredulity from the likes of Gawker.
...
Gawker highlights the irony of Schmidt's typically haughty proclamations. After all, this is the man who banned CNet for a year after the news site published information about him it had gleaned from, yes, Google.

But the larger point here is that Schmidt isn't even addressing the issue at hand. Per usual. When the privacy question appears, Google likes to talk about the people asking the questions. But the problem lies elsewhere: with the millions upon millions blissfully unaware of the questions.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Google chief: only miscreants worry about net privacy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/schmidt_on_privacy/
'If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it'

http://www.opensecrets.org/usearch/index.php?q=Eric+Schmidt&cx=010677907...

Look under donors. Seems Mr. Schmidt donated $10,000.00 to the Republican National Senatorial Committee last April (2009).

Rethugs' objections are just a projection of their actual intentions.

VERY VERY SAD

Ed Felten, is, of course, one of the living national treasures. He's the director (I think, or prime mover, anyway) at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, and is a must read. This ain't a left-right issue (Obama's Justice dept. is at fault this time, but of course, so were all previous administrations.) It is an issue about the desire of bureaucracies to go wild, and technology being neutral.

From Felten himself:

If you're interested at all in surveillance policy, go and read Chris Soghoian's long and impassioned post today. Chris drops several bombshells into the debate, including an audio recording of a closed-door talk by Sprint/NexTel's Electronic Surveillance Manager, bragging about how easy the company has made it for law enforcement to get customers' location data -- so easy that the company has serviced over eight million law enforcement requests for customer location data.

and.

Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers' (GPS) location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. This massive disclosure of sensitive customer information was made possible due to the roll-out by Sprint of a new, special web portal for law enforcement officers.

It is unclear if Federal law enforcement agencies' extensive collection of geolocation data should have been disclosed to Congress pursuant to a 1999 law that requires the publication of certain surveillance statistics -- since the Department of Justice simply ignores the law, and has not provided the legally mandated reports to Congress since 2004.

Here's Felten's site, http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/

his blog entry about this,

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten

and the grad student's blog.

http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveilla...

Read it and weep.

A woman after my own heart!!!

Boxer’s message to men who support abortion riders: How would you like it if we singled out Viagara?

Today, the Senate began debate on Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) amendment to prohibit federal funds from being used for abortions or for plans that include abortion services. Igor Volsky notes that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stepped up and drew a parallel to help the amendment’s male co-sponsors better understand its repercussions. Since Nelson’s measure forces women to purchase special abortion riders — which require women to plan for unplanned pregnancies — Boxer challenged “the men who have brought us this” to “single out a procedure that’s used by a man or a drug that is used by a man that involves his reproductive health care and say they have to get a special rider”:

BOXER: There’s nothing in this amendment that says if a man some days wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to have to buy a rider to buy Viagra and this will be public information that could be accessed? No, I don’t support that. I support a man’s privacy, just as I support a woman’s privacy.

Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/07/boxers-viagara/

toniD's Ya Think?

Sen. Bernie Sanders: We Need A Revolution In Primary Health Care In America!

toniD's Ya Think?

about his post on Liberals "Liberals are Useless"

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/liberals_are_useless_20091206/

They both also agree in a low key Revolution. It's what I've been asking for and the Ya Think? panel were talking about this on the impromptu morning panel yesterday.

Now Bernie Sanders is heavily suggesting a revolution.

Are we close to a revolution?

toniD's Ya Think?

I know that Chavez is left but I have this feeling he's not stable. Sorry to those that like Chavez but I am going with my feelings again. Russia is interested in Venezuela's oil and are buying it with arms. I don't like this at all....

Chavez: Venezuela acquires thousands of missiles Updated at 11:08 AM

Source: ap

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.

"They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said during a televised address, repeating a charge he has been making for months. "Preparing is one of the best ways to neutralize it."

Both Colombia and Washington deny having any plans to attack Venezuela, but Chavez argues they are plotting together a military offensive against Venezuela. Chavez says his government is acquiring more weapons as a precaution.

"Thousands of missiles are arriving," Chavez said. The former paratrooper-turned-president did not specify what type of missiles, but said Venezuela's growing arsenal includes Russian-made Igla-1S surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091208/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_colom...

toniD's Ya Think?

Man Chucks Tomatoes at Sarah Palin at MOA
The man misses and hits an officer instead

Published : Monday, 07 Dec 2009, 4:35 PM CST

*

Maggie
Habashy

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (FOX 9) - A man was arrested for throwing tomatoes at Sarah Palin during her book signing on Monday at the Mall of America.

Jeremy Olson, 33, allegedly threw two tomatoes from the second balcony, however did not come close to hitting Palin.

Bloomington Police report that Bloomington Commander Mark Stehlik was struck in the face with one of the tomatoes and may face charges for assaulting a police officer. Olson was booked at the Bloomington jail. He was arrested for suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct.

More than 1,000 people turned out at the Mall of America Rotunda on Monday for Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" book signing.

Palin started signing books at noon for those brave enough to wait in a long line that started around 5 a.m.

Those hoping to get their copy of "Going Rogue" signed on Monday must come prepared. According to MOA organizers, you must have a mall-issued wristband, which requires a copy of the book purchased from Barnes and Noble or a Barnes and Noble receipt proving your purchase. "Going Rogue" sold more than 700,000 copies in its first week, outpacing President Barack Obama's 2006 book "The Audacity of Hope," which sold fewer than 100,000 first-week copies and Hilary Clinton's 2003 book "Living History," which sold roughly 600,000 copies. Palin recently passed the 1,000,000 book mark and has sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate topped a Washington Post poll in November as the top choice among likely Republican voters if their caucus or primary were to take place today.

Following the book signing, Palin is scheduled to appear a private event at a Bloomington, Minnesota hotel hosted by The Freedom Club State PAC. Entry to the invitation-only event costs $5,000 per person or couple.

The invitation says all proceeds will go toward electing Republicans to the Minnesota House.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/Man-Chucks-Tomatoes-Sarah-Palin-...

toniD's Ya Think?

GOP erupts over Reid slavery, segregation remarks Updated at 5:52 PM

Source: Politico

Reid, speaking on the floor of the Senate today, blasted GOP leaders who have urged Democrats opt for a slower, incremental approach to reform instead of the mega-bill the majority hopes to push through the Senate by Christmas

Reid started by mimicking Republicans whom he claims have said: "'Slow down, stop everything, let's start over."

"You think you've heard these same excuses before? You're right," he continued. "In this country there were those who dug in their heels and said, 'Slow down, it's too early. Let's wait. Things aren't bad enough' -- about slavery. When women wanted to vote 'Slow down, there will be a better day to do that -- the day isn't quite right...'"

He finished with: "When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1209/Reid_compares_health_care...

toniD's Ya Think?

Tea Party movement threatened by internal rifts

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- It emerged in anger and it threatens to split in anger.

One major group in the Tea Party movement -- named after the famous Boston Tea Party -- is set to host its first convention in February, with former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as its keynote speaker.

But there are fractures in the movement that threaten its future. And if history's any guide, such movements tend to flame out.

The Tea Party movement erupted on April 15 -- tax day -- over criticism of President Obama's economic policies and what organizers called big government out of control. The movement, made up of local, state and national groups, continues to protest what it considers fiscally unsound policies.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/07/tea.party/index.html

toniD's Ya Think?

GOP erupts over Reid slavery, segregation remarks Updated at 5:52 PM

8 million views. Of where you are. By Sprint (and the cops.)
new
Submitted by Incubus on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 8:53pm.

Rockefeller Whacks Conrad For Criticizing Medicare Buy-In: 'I'm Tired Of Hearing About That From Him'
Brian Beutler | December 7, 2009, 5:11PM

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) is one of the first senators to publicly criticize a Medicare buy-in proposal offered by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), telling reporters today that he opposes plans that use Medicare levels of reimbursement, which he's long said would harm hospitals in North Dakota.

Conrad says he needs answers: "If you expand medicare, what kind of a risk pool is that going to be? How is that going to affect the Medicare risk pool? What's that going to do to rates, what's that going to do to medicare solvency?" he asked rhetorically. "We don't have answers to those questions."

Rockefeller didn't take too kindly to this.

"I'm really very tired of hearing about that from him," an exasperated Rockefeller told reporters. "And it's always about North Dakota, and it's never about any other part of the country. And I thought, you know, that's what we're trying to do--we're trying to do the best thing for the country as a whole."

Ouch! We'll try to get more clarity on how far Conrad's opposition stretches. The key question in all of this, after all, is whether the compromise that comes out of the negotiating sessions between liberal and conservative Democrats can garner 60 votes. A Medicare buy-in would allow some people under the age of 65 to purchase their insurance through Medicare, which would likely charge much lower premiums than the private market.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/rockefeller-whacks-conrad-for...

Check out the latest updates on the Senate reform debate with the TPM Health Care Wire.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/live/health-care/?ref=fpb

toniD's Ya Think?

CONFINEMENT PRODUCTION OF LIVESTOCK in the United States would be virtually impossible without antibiotics. The practice of feeding farm animals low-doses of antibiotics in food and water originated in the 1950s in order to promote growth. It has since become standard practice, enabling industrial operations to suppress disease while rearing tens of thousands of animals in crowded and unhealthy environments.

Seventy-percent of antibiotics used in the United States are fed to cattle, pigs, and chickens that have not shown disease symptoms, but rather receive the drugs prophylactically. This practice, known as nontherapeutic use (in contrast to therapeutic use of antibiotics for treating sick animals on an individual basis), has contributed significantly to the development of new strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

The diminished efficacy of these antibiotics poses an urgent public health concern for animals, humans, and for children in particular, who are especially susceptible to antibiotic resistant infections. New infections are constantly being linked to industrial farming, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a disease causing 18,000 deaths each year in the U.S.1

http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/16234/pid/217

More C Street Trouble

Fmr. Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS)

One of the ne-er-do-wells from the C Street Group House, former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) is under investigation for assaulting an opposing team's youth league soccer coach after what I suppose must have been a particularly intense game. In a nice extra touch, the unfortunate soccer coach was allegedly already wearing a neck brace when Pickering got all pro wrestling on him.

Pickering was last in the news after his wife accused him of adultery and sued him and his mistress for "alienation of affection" -- not unlike fellow C Streeters Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford.

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/ex-rep-chip-pickering-i...

toniD's Ya Think?

Floor - - - Bill in Need of Support

During shark finning the fins of a living shark are routinely cut off and the animal is thrown back into the water to endure a horrifically slow and painful death. The fins are then dried and used in preparing shark fin soup, an Asian “delicacy.” Not only is the practice overtly cruel and wasteful, but it upsets the fragile balance of the marine ecosystem by removing these top predators. A bill passed in 2000 made shark finning illegal in U.S. waters, but enforcement has been hampered by loopholes. Fortunately,, earlier this year Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (S. 850), a bill to stop finning by closing the existing loopholes and thereby provide sharks with much needed protection.

GREAT NEWS! The bill recently moved out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee by a unanimous voice vote. The House of Representatives already passed a companion bill in March. The bill now heads to the floor where it awaits consideration by the full Senate.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please contact your U.S. Senators today and ask them to cosponsor S. 850, the Shark Conservation Act of 2009, and to encourage a floor vote. For more information about the bill, to find your legislator or to send an e-mail, please visit AWI’s Compassion Index at www.CompassionIndex.org.

http://www.awionline.org/

Swine Flu Vaccination: Corporate Employers Got Scarce Flu Vaccine, USA Today Reports »

usatoday.com | December 7, 2009 at 07:39 PM

When the swine flu vaccine was most scarce, health officials gave thousands of doses to corporate clinics at Walt Disney World, Toyota, defense contractors, oil companies and cruise lines, according to a USA TODAY review of vaccine distribution data from three states.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-12-07-swine-flu-vaccine_N.htm

toniD's Ya Think?

Health Care Reform Could Skip Final Step, Roll Right Through House

The health care reform bill that passes the Senate might be the one that ends up on President Obama's desk, bypassing the usual House-Senate conference committee and avoiding another 60-vote threshold to end a filibuster.

There is increased chatter on Capitol Hill about a possible "ping-ponging" of the Senate health care bill: that chamber would pass its health care bill, send it to the House and the House would be asked to pass it with no changes and send it directly to the president.

That limits the options of congressional critics -- under the usual procedure, lawmakers dissatisfied with the bill pushed through their chamber can win changes through adroit political maneuvering in conference committee negotiations.

"It's the only scenario by which we could actually get this whole thing done before the New Year. The House has indicated they'd consider it, depending on what the final bill looks like over here after we finish with the sausage-making," said a senate Democratic aide involved in the health care fight.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is currently negotiating what's known as a "manager's amendment." That amendment includes large and small concerns that senators want worked out before voting to end a filibuster. If Democrats decide to ping-pong the bill, the manager's amendment becomes, in effect, the only place to work out differences.

"I've started hearing about it in the last week or so," said Jim Kessler, head of the group Third Way. Kessler, a former senior aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), is working closely on health care negotiations and said he's heard talk of the ping-pong plan coming from the Hill.

"You would need pre-conference negotiations. That pre-conference negotiation would be what ends up in the manager's amendment," he said. "Essentially, the manager's amendment becomes the new conference."

Kessler said that if it can be done, it should be done. "You've got to keep your eyes on the prize, and the prize is health care reform," he said. "I think it's a great idea if it means health care reform gets passed... Eventually, they're going to have a bill that passes both houses. If you can do it without the long, arduous process, why not?"
Story continues below

Spokespersons for both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to comment.

Reid and President Obama, of course, do not run the House. They would need the sign-off of Pelosi, who would need the approval of her caucus. To get such approval, the manager's amendment would need to sufficiently address House concerns. Pre-conference negotiations -- or, in this case, pre-manager's amendment -- are not currently ongoing at the staff level, said Jim Manley, senior communications adviser to Reid.

The plan risks infuriating the party's progressive base, which is much happier with the House bill than the Senate effort. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/health-care-reform-could_n_3830...

toniD's Ya Think?

Congressmen To Call For Break-Up Of Biggest Banks

Five House Democrats will call this week for a return to a Depression-era law that separated Wall Street investment banking from Main Street commercial banking.

If adopted, the measure would give banks one year to choose between being commercial banks or investment banks. The nation's biggest -- those now commonly referred to as "too big to fail" -- would be broken up. The Obama administration opposes the measure.

The amendment's five co-sponsors -- Maurice Hinchey of New York, John Conyers of Michigan, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Jay Inslee of Washington, and John Tierney of Massachusetts - want to restore the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prohibited commercial banks from underwriting stocks and bonds. The act was repealed in 1999 at the urging of, among others, Larry Summers, now President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is one of a number of financial luminaries calling for at least a partial return to Glass-Steagall. The Wall Street Journal's editorial page also endorsed the concept in a recent editorial as a way to "reduce moral hazard" and "limit certain kinds of risk-taking by institutions that hold taxpayer-insured deposits."And because their deposits are taxpayer-insured, there's a growing concern that they will feel overly confident about making risky bets through their investment arms because they know that should they suffer huge losses, taxpayers will ultimately be there to bail them out.

The five Democrats face big obstacles, including their own leadership and the Obama administration.
Story continues below

Three weeks ago on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said: "I would not support reinstating Glass-Steagall. And I don't actually believe that the end of Glass-Steagall played a significant role in the cause of this crisis."

But in an interview Monday, Hinchey said that "some of the people around our president are not giving him the appropriate advice." He added: "And contrary to that, the wrong advice is coming forward -- and being implemented."

DeFazio has called for Geithner to resign.

In a Nov. 17 opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press, Conyers wrote:

Without Glass-Steagall serving as a critical check on the power of banks, the floodgates of speculation were opened. The banks leveraged personal savings accounts to trade in exotic securities and assets. Banks, insurance companies, and investment firms merged at an astounding pace. No longer content to simply finance home mortgages, these new hybrids began creating and selling securities based off of the speculative value of shaky mortgages. The banks took on more risk because risk was profitable. No one paid much attention to what would happen when the speculation bubble burst.

Conyers also argues that the administration is taking the wrong approach.

Currently, the Obama administration is working with both houses of Congress on legislation aimed at preventing a...major calamity in the banking industry. I am concerned, however, that their preferred method seems to focus on empowering our financial regulators to manage and mitigate some level of "acceptable risk" within the present system, instead of correcting the structural flaws that make a collapse likely to recur.

Conyers and Hinchey point to Volcker, among others, as being on the right side of this debate. In response to reports that the administration is marginalizing Volcker and disregarding his recommendations, Hinchey lashed out: "He's someone we should be listening to. It's very discouraging and annoying and angering to me that someone like him is not being listened to."

But there's a reason for that, of course. As Hinchey said Monday, "I think there is excessive influence of some banks on the legislative process in this Congress."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/congressmen-to-call-for-b_n_383...

toniD's Ya Think?

Evo Morales Wins Second Term in Bolivia!

Since Evo used to be a big Coca Leaf Farmer part of his socialist health agenda is free cocaine & coca leaves for all!

Evo is the dude who gives us the buzz...

Hoyer: GOP Obstructionism Damaging The Institution Of Congress

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Mary.) offered a lengthy and searing rebuke of Republican leadership on Monday, claiming the minority party has traded an honest seat at the negotiating table for outright obstructionism.

Speaking before the Center for American Progress, the Maryland Democrat touched on many Democratic complaints about the friction inherent in the legislative process today. Further, he also expressed concern about the damage that obstructionism was causing to the institution of Congress as a whole.

"I also know, in closing, how easy it is to accuse me of being disingenuous for even making this argument," Hoyer said, according to prepared remarks. "It's easy to say that Democrats actually want extremism to be the face of the opposition--that we would be happy for the 'Party of No' to keep saying no. But that's not true. When we say no to the work of legislating, we do real harm to the institution of Congress and our nation's future."

"[T]he hard choices that are being forced on our country demand engagement from both parties," Hoyer added. "I'm thinking of challenges like reforming our massive entitlement programs, controlling the growth of health care spending, and responding to climate change -- issues that are fraught with political risk and so easy to demagogue that it is almost impossible for one party to take them on alone. Those challenges are dangerously likely to stay untouched as long as at least one party is willing to be a 'Party of No.'"

Hoyer's logic was two-fold. By removing itself from earnest negotiation, the GOP has ensured a less substantive debate or, as he put it, "empty exercises." Secondly, when Congress finds itself deadlocked, it essentially makes the body itself "less relevant every day."

Others have observed this paradigm in various legislative debates. Consumed by political infighting, Congress has lost institutional coherence and power over the last few decades. As Ezra Klein recently noted in the Washington Post:

It means power devolves from the legislature and towards unelected, unaccountable organizations like the Federal Reserve, the EPA, the super MedPAC commission, or the courts. It means that the American people become frustrated with politics because the lever they think gets things done -- the presidency -- seems continually ineffective. It means that Congress falls out of practice at generating solutions to problems, and you develop the strange situation in which it appears to serve the president's agenda, as opposed to the president waiting for congressional action (people would find it peculiar, for instance, if Congress was carrying on with a serious health-care reform effort if Barack Obama was not also engaged in the subject).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/hoyer-gop-obstructionism_n_3829...

toniD's Ya Think?

State Unemployment Commissioners Implore Congress To Reauthorize Benefits Extensions

Labor commissioners and unemployment-agency officials from several states joined a coalition of labor and advocacy groups Monday to implore Congress to reauthorize unemployment benefits extensions set to expire at the end of the year. If Congress doesn't act before its Christmas recess -- and it might not -- one million jobless workers will run out of benefits in January.

"There's a profoundly human dimension to job loss, especially in this kind of economic recession," said Pennsylvania Labor & Industry Secretary Sandi Vito at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "I have policymakers and people ask me all the time, 'Do people really need all these weeks of benefits?' The answer is yes."

The National Employment Law Project and the Center for American Progress Action Fund released a report (PDF) with a state-by-state breakdown of benefits exhaustions from January to March. In all, 3.2 million people who would otherwise be eligible for extensions will lose their benefits over a three-month period unless Congress acts. The report stressed that economists consider unemployment benefits the most stimulative part of the stimulus bill.

"You have state labor officials, commissioners, heads of departments of labor who've joined with national organizations in urging congress and the administration to act on what we think is the most pressing and compelling need right now for the country," said Wade Henderson of the Half in Ten Campaign.

"If Congress is not listening to these issues, and the administration is not listening to these issues, then clearly we have a problem. They are politically tone deaf because the entire country is urging that something be done."

There are measures pending in both chambers of Congress to extend benefits and COBRA health insurance subsidies for laid-off workers, but it's not clear that lawmakers will act before they leave town for their Christmas break on Dec. 18.

On Dec. 3, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she hoped the House could reauthorize benefits and COBRA subsidies before then. In a statement to Huff Post, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Reid is working to extend the programs but didn't say when it would happen.

"Senator Reid recognizes that it will take some time for people to get back on their feet as a result of the economic collapse," the statement said. "He understands the need to continue programs such as unemployment compensation and COBRA which provide a safety net for those who are out of work through no fault of their own. He will be working with his colleagues to find a way to extend these programs and hopes that his Republican colleagues will join him in that effort."
Story continues below

After a delay caused by Senate Republicans, Congress passed a 14-week extension (20 weeks in states with high jobless rates) on Nov. 4. But that extension was to provisions of the stimulus bill which will expire after Dec. 31.

So unless Congress makes a move in the next two weeks, come January, anyone who exhausts their unemployment insurance will be ineligible for the next tier of extended benefits.
more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/07/state-unemployment-commis_n_382...

toniD's Ya Think?

Cheney's Executive Assassination Teams
Submitted by nora on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 1:21am

Dickus Cheney/Elmer Fudd was only able to launch one assination attempt and he ended up shooting the guy in the face.

Dickus Cheney is going to be dead pretty soon and where he is going is not going to be a "cakewalk" for him.

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill

A Re-Post 4 sure

Bolivia - Gonna go right now.....

8 million views. Of where you are. By Sprint (and the cops.)
Submitted by Incubus on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 8:53pm

That is not only true of the Sprint/Virgin network but all the other ones as well.

Sometimes I can even tell where people on blogs are posting from by certain tracking programs that I use occasionally and by my connections to certain blogs.

As Google said today, there is no privacy on the internet.

However I wouldn't worry if this is the only place you are posting because this blog is pretty small and no one pays attention to what is said here besides a couple of dozen regulars & semi-regulars.

what about us semi-irregulars?

I believe the human pressure on the Earth in the form of massive deforestation (attacking the lungs of the Earth), misuse and overuse of polluting energy resources, and industrial pollution can't help but have some effect on the Earth's atmosphere and the weather and climate taking place in it.

So, I am NOT a 'denier', as the fashion is now to call anyone who doesn't like the current direction taken in the name of the Earth's biosphere.

However, this emphasis on CO2 instead of so many other aspects of Atmospheric Degradation is just bizarre. The way the whole problem is being framed in terms of carbon dioxide and carbon footprint and carbon credits is lop-sided in favor of continuing the industrial, coal/oil-based status quo. Why is there no positive change proposed like OXYGEN CREDITS where people get tax breaks for the numbers of trees they plant, etc. The current framing is Corporate Industrialist Speak and I don't care if Al Gore is the source of it. (My most vivid memory of Al Gore was in a Democratic presidential primary back in 1984 or 1988 or 1992 where he rattled on about military hardware with great enthusiasm; it evidently was before his make-over into a champion of saving the Earth from climate change by making CO2 a toxin when in reality is actually necessary for photosynthesis and life on Earth.)

So when I read this piece, I thought it makes quite a lot of sense:

http://www.naturalnews.com/027685_CO2_emissions_EPA.html

[excerpt]

I would much rather see America embrace renewable energy (and some commonsense consumption modifications) than have Big Brother wade into the fray with carbon limits and punitive fines. Government is a crude weapon for social change. It only knows how to criminalize behavior it doesn't like. It's terrible at educating consumers and businesses to change in responsible, sustainable ways. My concern with the EPA's decision today is that instead of getting a push towards a sustainable future powered with more renewable energy, we're going to get a new layer of energy tyranny that smothers the freedoms Americans are already fighting desperately to preserve.

[end excerpt]

Submitted by gloryoski on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 7:12pm.
Here's first page of hits I got when I searched Google News, and that's not even what I was looking for.

http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=taser

I was looking for this, which I found via Alternet:

Taser trouble
Stun guns are taking a toll
Tribune Editorial
Updated: 12/03/2009 05:40:19 PM MST

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13920511

The autopsy results are in. But, despite the definitive findings the verdict is still out on the weapon that killed Brian Cardall.
Cardall, a promising research scientist and Utah native, died from "ventricular fibrillation following conducted energy weapon deployment ... ." In other words, death by Taser.

...

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350 taser deaths since 2001?

Now I wonder how many of those were people who did nothing much wrong but not kowtow to a public servant, that is police officer?

http://www.krxa540.com/

I was pleased to find out, so I thought I'd pass it along...