Dog to Drive

Breaking News The Rethugs Are Bad.

As long as the Dems waste their time attacking the Rethugs, instead of using their power to enact legislation that helps working class Americans they will continue to be irrelevant in a corporate controlled world.

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Google and the NSA. It is hard to imagine a more potent—or frightening—combination when it comes to the collection and safety of Americans' private information.

But just such an alliance is underway. As reported by the Washington Post, Google—the world’s largest search engine company with access to intimate details of our lives—is negotiating an electronic surveillance deal with the National Security Agency (NSA)—the world’s largest spying network.......
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=1961&page=Use...

Sign the letter to Commanding General Phillip

Dear Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Phillip,

I’m writing to request that the charges against SPC Marc A. Hall related to his recording of a hip-hop song critical of the Army’s “stop-loss” policy be dropped, and that he be allowed to leave the Army at the end of his current enlistment.

SPC Hall is currently facing over seven years of imprisonment for expressing his opposition to the Iraq War and frustration at his inability to leave the Army at the end of his four year active duty enlistment agreement though artistic expression. The lyrics of his “Stop-loss” song are indeed angry and explicit; however, would it not make more sense to treat this as a request for help from an Iraq War veteran dealing with the aftermath of combat?

As the probably know, SPC Hall mailed a copy of his song directly to the Pentagon in July 2009. Afterward, SPC Hall recalled, “I explained to [my first sergeant] that the hardcore rap song was a free expression of how people feel about the Army and its stop-loss policy. I explained that the song was neither a physical threat nor any threat whatsoever. I told him it was just hip-hop.”.....
http://stoplossmusic.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10...

Morning ghettodefender...

Source: WGN

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit northern Illinois early Wednesday morning

Read more: http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-earthquake-illinois-february10,0,3142674...

wow

Robert Fisk: Gaza's defiant tunnellers head deeper underground

They are threatened with drowning by the Egyptians and punitively taxed by Hamas. Our correspondent meets the Palestinian smugglers bringing oranges, car batteries and bottle tops to a territory under siege

A Palestinian leads a calf through a smuggler's tunnel from Egypt into the southern Gaza Strip at the Rafah Refugee Camp

They are the real resistance. They are the lung through which Gaza breathes....
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-gazas...

ghettodefender

Sunny 35. Only 4 inches of snow in 4 weeks

"stealing votes" sloppy, lazy phrasing. should read: earning votes. candidates that go out on the stump without corporate funding or major party backing, fight like hell to get on the ballot-- or even on a podium, those candidates earn votes.

...if you're in the area.

Monday, February 15, 2010
6:00pm - 8:00pm

A Celebration of the Work and Life of Howard Zinn

Busboys and Poets celebrates the life and work of Howard Zinn with friends Marian Wright Edelman, Amy Goodman, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ralph Nader, Dave Zirin, David Swanson, and others.

There is no charge for admission and seating is on a first come first seated basis.

During the day, Busboys and Poets will continuously screen Howard Zinn's new documentary film THE PEOPLE SPEAK (www.thepeoplespeak.com) and the documentary film about Howard Zinn: YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN.

Busboys and Poets, 14th & V
2021 14th Street NW
Washington, DC

Details:
http://www.busboysandpoets.com

I ran across this story this morning, and it threw me for a loop...I'm kinda dumbstuck about it....what do you think?

Oregon civil rights group offers scholarships to white students

The Oregon League of Minority Voters is trying a new civil rights tactic: offering scholarships to white students to take classes in race relations.

What Air America Tells Us About the Difference Between Conservative and Liberal Benefactors

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 06:00 AM PST

Former Air America CEO Danny Goldberg has a must-read on the demise of the radio network and what he believes it tells us about the difference between conservative movement funders and their (supposed) progressive counterparts. Here's the key excerpt:

Conservatives believe in doing whatever it takes to promote their ideas. Richard Viguerie, viewed as one of the architects of the modern conservative movement, wrote a book in 2004 called America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media To Take Power, in which he explains how the right wing used talk radio among other tools. Viguerie stresses that conservatives understand that ideological change does not usually occur overnight; that it takes patience and long-term thinking to build a movement...
The fatal flaw in Air America's genetic code was the pretense that liberal talk radio was a great business opportunity, that progressives could have their cake and eat it too, could do well by doing good, make big salaries and get a great return on investment while also pursuing an ideological agenda. Sure, every once in a while political media like Michael Moore's movies or Rush Limbaugh's radio show will make money, but for those interested in influencing public opinion, media in all venues is vital whether it makes money or not...

Perhaps the major liberal donors are confused because they became accustomed to focus groups and polling, which are useful tools in predicting short-term public reaction to political messages. They can tell you if a particular TV spot will turn off swing voters two weeks before an election. But long-term political ideas have a more complex and uncertain creative path. Conservatives understand the need to focus on both long- and short-term political communication...

Whatever the reasons, the theory of leaving political media to the marketplace has enabled a status quo in which one-third of the American public are never exposed to progressive ideas or even to facts that are incompatible with the right-wing narrative.

Identifying, developing and marketing talent takes a lot of experimentation with a predictable amount of failures in order to establish successes. This is part of the reason it took even an ultimately successful company like Fox News years to turn a profit. Another need for investment was to market a brand-new format with lots of personalities new to radio and to give incentives for radio station owners in smaller markets to give the new format a chance.

Although the earliest and wackiest group of Air America owners overspent on a few items like studios and initial salaries, within months the primary characteristic of Air America was a lack of cash for marketing, affiliate growth and talent development. The pressure from wealthy liberals was not to create a long-term strategy as conservatives had done, but to show a business model that would turn a profit in a year or two.

To his credit, Goldberg acknowledges that he was far from a perfect manager during his tenure at Air America. But he goes on - rightly, IMHO - to point out that regardless of management, this key difference between conservative and progressive investors have inherently tilted the scales against Air America and progressive media in general.

What explains this difference? That's a good question. I think it is a mix of starfucker-ism and ideological bankruptcy on the part of major progressive individual and institutional donors.
Starfucker-ism is short for an ideology among rich political donors that says getting face time with famous politicians is far more important than getting politicians to actually pass anything in particular.

This is a much bigger problem among progressive donors than it is among conservative donors, primarily because of self-interest. Whereas the rich right-wing donor is giving to conservative media/politicians in order to legislate policies that protect rich people's wealth, the rich progressive donor is giving to progressive media/politicians not out of such self-interest. At best, they are giving out of true principle and noblesse oblige, but often, they are giving to feel important and special - and in our celebrity obsessed culture, one way to feel that is to get to hang around with famous people. Donor money spent on that, therefore, is not as devoted to any particular principle, much less progressive ones that might undermine the donors' wealth/status and alienate them from famous politicians.

That leads to the second problem - core principles. Simply put, there are many Democratic Party donors who are just not progressive. This is not shocking - many wealthy people are just not interested in policies that might change a system of economic inequality that has enriched them. They may give to the Democratic Party perhaps because they are liberal on non-economic social issues, but they aren't exactly interested in the kinds of New Deal economics that built a successful progressive movement in the past.

What you are left with, then, are progressive institutions that rely on a funding base that isn't genuinely committed to anything progressive, especially those that will take years to develop famous people who might at some point at least attract the unabashed starfuckers. Not surprisingly, many of these institutions then become either A) not all that progressive or B) not even minimally financially capitalized.

Although certainly more a victim of the second than the first, Air America was a little bit of both. At times it was far more interested in simply shilling for the Democratic Party rather than discussing a transpartisan progressive agenda, and - as Goldberg says - almost all the time it suffered from a lack of basic resources.

I'll add one other problem that I think Goldberg doesn't fully address, but that is related to this problem in progressive media. As I alluded to in an earlier post, many progressive media suffer from a simple lack of talent and talent incubation.

As many program directors and just casual media consumers will tell you, many progressive media voices don't seem to fully grasp the audience's desire for a mix between "political" and "non-political" content. Some call this an entertainment gap - the idea that progressive writers and talk show hosts just aren't "entertaining." Call it whatever you want, but I do think it is very real.

Too many progressive media voices believe the average media consumer makes a distinction between "political" content and "non-political" content, and that the way to match the right is to simply yell louder. And while volume/capacity is certainly one reason conservative media has done well, so is conservative media's attention to the mass audience's sensibilities.

Here's the truth: The "political"/"non-political" distinction that hard-core progressive activists make is not a distinction that most of the general mass audience makes. The average non-political person out there just wants compelling content - and I'm sorry to say that when you turn on your radio dial or television (as just two examples) you don't get much of that from the progressive voices out there. You certainly get important facts and information, and you are getting some more progressive voices yelling louder...but compelling, entertaining content? It's really rare - and becoming more rare.

Let me end by saying that nobody is perfect, of course. I can speak for myself in saying I'm trying my damndest to learn and implement these lessons on my radio show and in my writing but I'm certainly not perfect - not even close. What I am trying to be, at least, is cognizant - cognizant that if progressive media is going to reach a broader audience than just hard-core progressives, we must understand that audience, and not just scream more loudly at them.

And so I've tried to mix in discussions of policy with discussions of culture, movies, music and all the other forces in society that don't fit neatly into the "political" silo. Sure, I've been predictably criticized by some hard-core progressive activists for this (sidenote: the conservative claim that a portion of the hard-core progressive base is absolutely - and repulsively - humorless has some truth to it). But I think I've started to reach a broader audience.

That will ultimately be the key to success - not just for me, but for every progressive working in media. To get there, we must understand that we're probably not going to get the kind of financial support that conservatives get, because of the differences in conservative and progressive donors. But I think, despite the odds, we can get there, as long as we understand the challenges ahead.

* It is important to understand that the traits displayed by individual donors are similar to those displayed by institutional donors, because institutional donors are headed by individuals with much the same self-interest. It's not that, say, a union leader is as rich as a Democratic multimillionare Wall Street donor and wants to protect his/her own personal bank account - but it is that the union leader can, individually, be just as much of a politician starfucker and therefore just as uncommitted to genuine progressive principles as that multimillionaire.

No one on TV calls the rethugs on the carpet quite like our Rachel!

I wish she hadn't stopped naming hypocritical names and had read the entire list. Every Dem in the house and senate could have used that footage in either re-election or challenge election campaigns.

Same Odds as Lions to win next year's Superbowl--
100 to 1

Joe Wurzelbacher 100-1
#25 of the top 25
what a country

The top 10:

Barack Obama 4-5
Sarah Palin 10-1
Joe Biden 15-1
Michael Bloomberg 20-1
Mitt Romney 12-1
Bobby Jindal 20-1
Hillary Clinton 15-1
Mike Huckabee 15-1
Tim Pawlenty 20-1
Charlie Crist 25-1
http://linesmaker.com/live_odds/us_president_election_odds.htm

Conservative Activists Rebel Against Fox News: Saudi Ownership Is ‘Really Dangerous For America’

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin TalalSaudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — making him the largest shareholder outside the family of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. Alwaleed has grown close with the Murdoch enterprise, recently endorsing James Murdoch to succeed his father and creating a content-sharing agreement with Fox News for his own media conglomerate, Rotana.

Last weekend, at the right-wing Constitutional Coalition’s annual conference in St. Louis, Joseph Farah, publisher of the far right WorldNetDaily, blasted Fox News for its relationship with Alwaleed. Farah noted correctly that Alwaleed had boasted in the past about forcing Fox News to change its content relating to its coverage of riots in Paris, and warned that such foreign ownership of American media is “really dangerous.” ThinkProgress was at the speech and observed attendees of the conference murmuring and shaking their heads in disapproval:

FARAH: There’s a flaw, a real compromise in Fox that you need to understand. And if you care about national security, you especially need to be attentive to it. And that is that Fox News parent company is News Corp has a significant ownership by a Saudi prince that many of you will be familiar with because right after 9/11 this prince very famously offered Rudolph Giuliani a big multi-million dollar check to rebuild and Giuliani told him to stick the check where the sun don’t shine because this guy was basically blaming America for what happened on 9/11. Well this guy owns a very significant percentage of the News Corp and has let the world know that he can get things taken off Fox News when he finds them objectionable and has in the past. And I really believe this is really dangerous for America.

Listen here: at link

ThinkProgess spoke to right-wing author Brigitte Gabriel, another speaker at the conference, who said that Alwaleed was recently interviewed by Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. Gabriel angrily denounced the interview as a “darling high school reunion”: “All of the sudden, Neil Cavuto is interviewing him like a buddy-buddy because he is the boss.” Indeed, in the “rare” interview Alwaleed gave last month, he reaffirmed his “alliance” with the Murdoch family and told Cavuto why he has a personal stake in influencing American politics:

– On continuing America’s dependence on fossil fuels, Saudia Arabian oil: “Saudi Arabia’s strategic alliance with the United States will continue and as a derivative of that, the link with the oil between oil and dollars is there. The bulk of our GDP, the bulk of budget comes from oil and oil is still a dollar based commodity.” As Media Matters has documented, Fox News is a reliable source of misinformation on clean energy, and has aggressively attacked efforts to move America away from a fossil fuel dependent economy.

– On opposing financial reforms, bank responsibility fee: “In a way I’m conflicted because I’m invested in Citigroup but at the more global picture, I’m a big supporter of the United States. I believe taxing the banks right now is not the right thing at all. It’s like you have a patient coming out of an ICU.” Alwaleed owns a $4.3 billion dollars stake in Citigroup, a massive bank that spent millions lobbying against financial reform last year.

With the Citizens United Supreme Court decision essentially freeing corporations to spend unlimited amounts in campaigns, theoretically Alwaleed can pressure the American corporations he owns stock in to spend millions — or even billions — of dollars attacking candidates he opposes. In addition to his powerful Fox News outlet, Alwaleed and other foreign investors have potentially unprecedented power to impact American elections.
...

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/10/right-rebels-foxnews/

toniD's Ya Think?

Afraid Of Tea Partiers, Armey Withholds Support From McCain In Race Against ‘Undistinguished’ J.D. Hayworth

Dick Armey John McCain is locked in a tough battle to retain Republican support for his U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, facing a challenge from far-right former congressman J.D. Hayworth. Conservative talk show host Mark Levin, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and numerous conservative websites have backed Hayworth over McCain, who has generally been rejected by the Tea Party movement.

But on Monday, the New York Times broke the news that FreedomWorks Chairman and Tea Party profiteer Dick Armey has bucked his beloved movement and endorsed McCain. Buried near the bottom of the New York Times’ story:

Even within the fractured Tea Party movement, Mr. McCain is not without support. He is endorsed by Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, the populist movement’s darling, and Sarah Palin, his running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign. And Dick Armey, whose FreedomWorks organization has become front and center in the movement, says he is throwing his support behind Mr. McCain.

Yesterday in a blog post, however, FreedomWorks shot back at the New York Times, disputing the paper’s story:

The New York Times reported recently that FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey has endorsed Sen. John McCain in the GOP primary in Arizona. This is not the case, although this story has been picked up and repeated by countless media personalities and reporters around the country.

This seems to be a good case study in how false information can make its way around the internet and the airwaves before it can be corrected. But we wanted to post a quick statement for all of you who have asked us about this.

Armey’s refusal to endorse McCain seems like pandering to the Tea Party movement. After all, Armey — formerly the Republican House Majority Leader — told the Arizona Republic recently that McCain has had a distinguished career, unlike Hayworth:

“We’re a small organization with a limited budget. There’s an awful lot of places where our presence would be needed and can really make a difference. We don’t see this Arizona race as one where we need to be actively involved. It’s hard for us to believe that J.D. Hayworth could mount a credible challenge to John McCain. Obviously, we’ll watch the race. But J.D. had a fairly short, undistinguished congressional career with virtually no initiative on his part. I just don’t see any reason why we should be concerned about that race.” [...]

“There’s nobody who can match McCain’s record on fiscal responsibility,” he said.

“As I recall, J.D. was on the Ways and Means Committee and I didn’t really see him make any distinguished effort, for example, like people like (Arizona GOP Reps.) Jeff Flake and John Shadegg in terms of creative ideas and legislative initiative,” Armey said. “Certainly nothing on the cost-control front. But John McCain was the first guy to understand the need to get earmarks under control. He took a real leadership role, as did Jeff Flake.“

Armey may be trying to avoid the backlash that Palin received when she announced her support for her former running mate. Fox News host Glenn Beck said, “This Sarah Palin thing really bothers me,” and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote that Tea Party activists were “rightly outraged by Sarah Palin’s decision to campaign for McCain.” Even Paul Streitz, co-founder of the 2012 Draft Sarah Committee, lamented, “What should this be called, the Rinoization of Sarah Palin.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/10/armey-mccain/

toniD's Ya Think?

Sen. Sherrod Brown Pushes For Bolder Jobs Bill, ‘Not Some Of The Same Old, Same Old’

Health Care Town Hall MeetingSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had hoped to bring a jobs bill to the Senate floor this week, but the snowfall that is still hammering DC has led to the cancellation of all congressional action for the moment. In the meantime, Reid is wrangling to pick up some Republican votes for the legislation, which the GOP is hinging on the inclusion of tax provisions, a promise on Reid’s part to address the estate tax in a timely fashion, and the exclusion of some spending initiatives.

But now some on the Democratic side are questioning the basic contours of the jobs bill, which according to a draft version that’s been circulating, is composed mainly of tax breaks to incentivize hiring and extensions of social safety net provisions (like unemployment benefits). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is rightly questioning the efficacy of the hiring incentives, as “no one she’s consulted believes that the plan will actually lead to the creation of new jobs.” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is also questioning the bill’s “heavy emphasis on tax breaks“:

“Why not think about things like taxing bonuses and send money directly into small-business loans?” Brown said. “Things like that we need to be talking about, not some of the same old, same old.”

Brown’s criticism sounds like that of Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who last week said that the jobs proposals before congress are “not adequate to the scope of the problem.” And notably absent from the Senate bill are aid to states and new infrastructure spending. Both of these measures could help spur additional job growth.

But more importantly, the economy is still suffering from a lack of demand. According to the latest National Federation of Independent Business small business survey, “shortage of customers” is the number one problem impeding small business hiring. And until those businesses feel secure that they will have customers for their products, they aren’t going to hire, no matter the various tax breaks.

Some sort of direct job creation, or using money to help national service organizations hire and increase their services, would put funds directly into the hands of consumers, who can then spend it and increase demand. Investments in clean energy could have the same effect.

Limiting the bill to tax breaks that will sit well with Republicans may be a worthwhile effort if bipartisanship is the ultimate goal. But we need to create 350,000 jobs per month for the next two years just to recover what we have lost since the recession began. Fixing the labor market is going to take a monumental effort, so this is no time to simply tweak at the margins with tax breaks that are questionable at best in terms of boosting employment.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/02/10/brown-jobs/

toniD's Ya Think?

Why Kit Bond’s Medicare Privatization Proposal Is A Bad One

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)
In the midst of President Obama’s call for new Republican health care proposals, Matt Corley digs up this idea from retiring senator Kit Bond (R-MO). Bond is proposing “giving Medicare enrollees a voucher to buy health insurance on their own.” “You’re going to have to means-test the benefits,” he said, adding that upper income retirees wouldn’t “get much of a voucher.”

In essence, Medicare enrollees would receive a voucher to either purchase traditional coverage in Medicare or buy into a private insurance program. The idea sounds simple enough, but it’s actually fairly radical. Republicans want to transform Medicare from a fixed benefit to a fixed contribution. Beneficiaries would have to make up the difference between the value voucher and the cost of a particular health insurance plan — an amount that will only increase over time as health care costs outpace the value of a income-based voucher. The voucher will buy less coverage every year, forcing seniors to pay more for the same coverage. Essentially, they’re shifting the cost of insurance from the government to the individual.

As one analysis of a voucher proposal concluded, “this approach would undermine the basic protections offered by Medicare as a social insurance program, by relegating lower-income beneficiaries to lower-cost, and possibly lower-quality, plans.”

But that’s only the beginning. If Medicare becomes a fixed premium program, it will be much easier for Washington to control Medicare costs by simply trimming the level of the fixed contribution — undermining the health security of America’s poorest senior citizens.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/02/09/kit-bond-medicare/

toniD's Ya Think?

uh..I really don't see what the problem is...

Radio earthquake: Mancow & Cassidy out at WLS

"The latest talent shuffle was engineered by Michael Damsky, who was promoted to president and general manager of WLS on Jan. 15, and by Drew Hayes, who was hired by Damsky as operations director two weeks later. Reached for comment Wednesday, Damsky said:

At the time of his hiring at WLS, Muller was described by then-general manager Mike Fowler as “a younger version of Rush [Limbaugh], with some Roe Conn thrown in.” But Damsky and Hayes pointed to audience research that showed Muller’s edgy, hyperkinetic act did not appeal to the core audiences of Don and Roma Wade’s morning show preceding it or Limbaugh’s midday show following it. “The two hours [from 9 to 11 a.m.] has to be a very consistent bridge between those two programs, and Mancow’s show just wasn’t the bridge,” Damsky said."

"try to restore credibility to conservative talk" eh? Good luck with that!

"this machine kills fascists"

I was hoping for this...

More signs we will be seeing at "Conservative" rallies...

"Sarah and Bill O work for the Saudis"

الجزيرة فوكس. نحن التقرير ، عليك أن تقرر ، كافر.
(FOX Jazeera. We report, You decide, infidel)

This should be good....

what do you think?
Oregon civil rights group offers scholarships to white students
I don't know. The scholarship program was intended to assist minority students. Not bribe white students to learn why such assistance is necessary in the first place. On the other hand, what the hell is a two grand scholarship gunna do anyway? I guess I'm not against it-- at least for Oregon. When I fished, we delivered in all of Oregon's larger harbors. I can't remember seeing anyone who wasn't white. Seems like a pathetic fight over a tiny pie-- Hopefully, that will change now that Oregon woke up and decided to start taxing its richest residents.

Mother: Navin, it's your birthday, and it's time you knew. You're not our natural-born child.
Navin R. Johnson: I'm not? You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?

on the other hand, teaching your cat to drive is a definite problem:

Greek public sector workers strike as spectre of bailout looms

Nationwide one-day strike protests against austerity measures as it emerges EU may be close to agreeing a deal

"They had promised the rich would pay but instead they take the money from the poor," Iliopoulos said. ADEDY also accused the Greek government of planning "permanent austerity" and "the bankruptcy of employees and pensioners".

Public sector workers in Greece have clashed with police during a nationwide one-day strike in protest at the austerity measures being implemented to try to address the country's financial crisis.

Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Athens, according to local reports, after refuse collectors tried to team up with other strikers by driving their trucks through a police cordon. Hundreds more people gathered at Syntagma Square in the centre of the capital, some waving banners or beating drums, to voice their opposition to the spending cuts.

"It's a war against workers and we will answer with war, with constant struggles until this policy is overturned," Christos Katsiotis, a representative of a communist-party affiliated union, told the Associated Press.

The prime minister, George Papandreou, who is in Paris to discuss the economic crisis with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has already faced down a protest by farmers demanding higher subsidy payments who staged tractor blockades on Greek highways for nearly three weeks.

Non-urgent hospital appointments have been cancelled, and schools across Greece will remain closed. Air traffic control staff are also taking part in the dispute, meaning flights in and out of the country will be heavily disrupted. Greece's largest airline, Aegean, has suspended all its services, while British Airways has cancelled three scheduled flights from Heathrow to Athens.

Union leaders called the action in protest at Papandreou's plans for spending restraint including cuts in public sector pay and bonuses, and a freeze on hiring new employees.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/10/greek-workers-strike-eu-b...

It's 3 years away for crissakes! How about some policy talk?

shouldn't that be:

we report, we decide, infidel

(and if you disagree, off with your head)

my brain vapor locked...

you are right about Oregon...I lived outside Portland for 5 years...Whitest place I have ever seen...and the most Liberal...

I can see the logic in the strategy...and no matter how it works out, it brought attention to the issue...maximum bang for the buck...mission accomplished.

thanks for your take....

Election candidate in headscarf causes uproar in France

Feminists and politicians protest after anti-capitalist Olivier Besancenot fields Muslim woman who covers her hair

Olivier Besancenot, the postman-turned-revolutionary at the helm of France's anti-capitalist movement, has been fiercely criticised from all sides of the political spectrum for fielding a headscarf-wearing candidate in forthcoming elections.

Ilham Moussaid, a 21-year-old Muslim woman who describes herself as "feminist, secular and veiled", is running for the far-left New Anti-Capitalist party (NPA) in the south-eastern region of Avignon.

But, despite her insistence that there is no contradiction between her clothing and her political role, Moussaid's candidacy in the regional vote due in March has angered other feminists and politicians.

Moussaid's candidacy has been considered all the more surprising because she is running for a party with far-left leanings traditionally seen as hostile to religion and pro-women's rights. Socialist MP Aurélie Filippetti advised Besancenot to "reread Marx" in order to understand why the headscarf was unacceptable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/french-election-headscarf-ca...

The Fake-News Cycle
By John Koblin
February 9, 2010 | 8:48 p.m

Charting the Cycle
On Tuesday morning, the wood of the New York Post howled: “I Did Not Have Sex With That Woman.” There’s a little cutout of David Paterson’s head in the corner of the page. “The Angry Gov,” the subhead reads, “denies raunchy rumors.” It said that he would not resign.

But what woman? What raunchy rumors? Why would he have to resign? Who knows!

The Post does not know, but alludes to a not-yet-but-perhaps-soon-to-be-published story by The Times that will reveal all. (As of late Tuesday, no story had surfaced.)

The only real fact that is known, for now, is that The Times is working on a story on David Paterson. It may, in fact, contain scandalous stuff. But until they publish it, there is nothing to report except fake news about the story.

As fake news goes viral, it becomes impossible to ignore. We saw this during the 2008 campaign cycle routinely. When it was said that Hillary Clinton hadn’t tipped a waitress in Iowa, everyone followed up on it—up to the point when it emerged that her campaign staff had, in fact, tipped the waitress $100. But fake news doesn’t have to be wrong, just early. When Hillary was up for the position of secretary of state, we heard accounts of how Obama had offered her the job; how he hadn’t offered her the job; how she was going to be secretary; how she wasn’t going to be secretary; how she was asked but was undecided; and how, ultimately, she was offered and accepted the position.

News outfits have followed the Paterson fake news—culminating Tuesday with two full-front stories, from the Post and the News—with strong placement, shouting headlines.

Many media outfits seemed compelled to follow it, but what precisely are they following up on?

Everything that has been written in recent days—including what’s in the Times story, when it would publish, how the governor would resign, how the governor would not resign, how there’s a lady from Buffalo, how there might be drugs, how there might be something involving an aide—is all part of the fake-news echo chamber.

But we appear to have entered a moment where even the process of journalism—getting a story—is news in and of itself. It all began with a Page Six item last week and a lot of chatter in Albany, which led to an offhand comment in a Daily News blog post (which was followed up by an offhand tweet from yours truly—where is that untweet button?).

The wheels were in motion, and by Monday, Mr. Paterson had to address the speculation, and an AP story reported that he “would address most allegations only broadly but denied all sexual relationships and drug use that are among the accusations.”

Perhaps that’s because, as of this moment, there are no specific allegations (even if the press continues to float rumors, as the Post’s Fred Dicker did on Tuesday).

On Tuesday afternoon, CNN announced that Mr. Paterson would sit down to talk to CNN about … what? We’re not quite sure.

Above, you'll see find a chart at how the news cycle’s latest inanity came to pass. Here are other highlights:

Jan 30: Page Six reports that Paterson was involved in an "alleged encounter 10 weeks ago" with a woman in a utility closet at the governor's mansion in Albany.

Feb. 5: The Daily News' Liz Benjamin writes that there is a "possibility that a major newspaper is about to drop a bombshell story about his personal life that will be far worse than his acknowledged extramarital affair with a former state employee."

Feb 5: The Observer's John Koblin tweets "anyone hearing about NYT bombshell on Paterson? Heard big, damanging story comin. been working for weeks, but still not
published yet."

Feb. 5: TheAwl.com writes, "'Bombshell' David Paterson 'News' Forthcoming"

Feb. 5: Gawker writes, "New York Times Sitting on Paterson Swinging Bombshell?" adding, "For what it's worth, there is a rumor that the governor and his wife are swingers."

Feb. 5: New York magazine's blog notes that or two weeks, Albany "has been buzzing that the New York Times was preparing a blockbuster scandal exposé about Governor Paterson, one that could seriously affect his chances for reelection."

Feb. 5: The Albany Times Union, citing "sources who have actually been interviewed for the Times' story," says the central narrative is the "role played by members of Paterson's inner circle in his personal and political activities."

Feb. 5: The Huffington Post joins in, writing, "Paterson Sex Scandal in the Works? Media Abuzz About Possible 'Bombshell Story'"

Feb. 7: Business Insider reports, "We've now heard from a single source familiar with the goings on at the Governor's office that the story will likely drop on Monday, and that the governor's resignation will follow."

Feb. 7: Gawker publishes a denial from a Paterson spokeswoman who says, "There is absolutely zero truth to these rumors. The governor is not resigning."

Feb. 7: The AP writes a story that leads with, "Gov. David Paterson met privately with key Democratic leaders about his re-election plans as questions swirl around the state capitol about a variety of unproven accusations"

Feb. 8: Channel 11--Channel 11!--reports on its web site that, "Looming Paterson Scandal Involves Affair With NY Woman" and said that the "source of all the salacious rumors is the estranged wife of 'an aide extremely close to the governor.'"

Feb. 8: Politico's Ben Smith reports that Paterson will be interviewed by the Times on Tuesday

Feb. 8: Nymag.com reports that in the Times story "there are likely to be new details about his marital infidelities," but that it wouldn't be "the bombshell the blogs have predicted."

Feb. 8: Rick Lazio, a contender to run for Governor, says the Times has a "moral obligation to stop the drama and the psychological warfare on Governor Paterson."

Feb. 8, Gov. Paterson speaks to the AP. He denies the original Page Six report. He also denied having any affairs, or using drugs.

Feb. 9: Paterson appears on the front pages of both the News and the Post.

Feb. 9: CNN says Paterson will sit down for an interview with Larry King on Feb. 12.

jkoblin@observer.com

...the beginning of corporate FREE SPEECH?

Starbucks has become a popular gathering spot for some Second Amendment crusaders, but the company is pretending it doesn't have the power to keep them out.

So you're at your neighborhood Starbucks, maybe with your kids, and you notice a man sitting at the next table with a revolver strapped to his waist. The man next to him has a pistol. In fact, you realize as you look around, there's a table full of gun-toting customers just a few feet away, sipping coffee and doing nothing to conceal their deadly weapons. Aside from steering clear -- or else getting the hell out of there -- what can an unarmed citizen do?

If you live in California, or a state with similar "open carry" gun laws, the answer is not much. Starbucks, according to numerous media reports, has recently become a popular gathering spot for Second Amendment crusaders, who have generated a lot of local press in California over the last several weeks for going out en mass, their guns conspicuously at their sides, to assert their right to carry firearms in public.

"We're just a bunch of citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights," a large dark-clothed man named Gus Konstantaras told local news station ABC7 at a Starbucks in Antioch, CA last month. Konstantaras argues that, when it comes to Americans' Second Amendment rights, "if you don't use them, you'll probably lose them."
http://www.alternet.org/rights/145616/starbucks%27_cop-out_to_gun_nuts%3...

and that law like florida has where you can shoot first and ask questions later if your spidey sense is tingling, we are taking one giant step backwards.

Oh. My. God. Obama Clueless
by Paul Krugman

I'm with Simon Johnson here: how is it possible, at this late date, for Obama to be this clueless?

The lead story on Bloomberg right now contains excerpts from an interview with Business Week which tells us:

President Barack Obama said he doesn't "begrudge" the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.....

The point is that these bank executives are not free agents who are earning big bucks in fair competition; they run companies that are essentially wards of the state. There's good reason to feel outraged at the growing appearance that we're running a system of lemon socialism, in which losses are public but gains are private. And at the very least, you would think that Obama would understand the importance of acknowledging public anger over what's happening.

But no. If the Bloomberg story is to be believed, Obama thinks his key to electoral success is to trumpet "the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies."

We're doomed.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/10-13

and now a musical interlude from "Spring Awakening"

MELCHIOR
There’s a moment you know…you’re fucked –
Not an inch more room to self-destruct
No more moves
– oh yeah, the dead-end zone
Man, you just can’t call your soul your own

OTTO (Spoken)
But the thing that makes you really jump
Is that the weirdest shit is still to come
You can ask yourself: “Hey, what have I done?”
You’re just a fly – the little guys, they kill for fun

GEORG
Man, you’re fucked if you just freeze up
Can’t do that thing – that keeping still

HANSCHEN
But, you’re fucked if you speak your mind

GEORG, HANSECHEN & OTTO
And you know – uh huh – you will

ALL
Yeah, you’re fucked all right – and all for spite
You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye
Totally fucked – will they mess you up?
Well you know they’re gonna try

MELCHIOR (Spoken)
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

ALL (Spoken)
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

I guess.
left Califorincation in '80. I couldn't going go packin into a Oakland Denny's then. wtf?

Will look for articles on them:

US Freezes some Iranian assets

Blackwater/Xe people ordered out of Iraq

toniD's Ya Think?

Reuters photographer says reborn after freed by U.S.
10:46am EST
By Suadad al-Salhy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military freed a Reuters photographer in Iraq on Wednesday, almost a year and a half after snatching him from his home in the middle of the night and placing him in military detention without charge.

The U.S. military has never said exactly why it detained Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed -- who worked for Reuters as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer -- and locked him away for so long, saying the evidence against him was classified.

"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again," Jassam told Reuters by telephone as he was greeted emotionally by his family.

U.S. and Iraqi forces smashed in the doors of Jassam's house in Mahmudiya town, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and whisked him away, first to Camp Bucca, a desert prison on the Iraq-Kuwait border, then the smaller Camp Cropper detention center near Baghdad airport.

Jassam is one of several Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organizations who have been detained by the U.S. military, often for months at a time, since the 2003 U.S. invasion. None has ever been charged, triggering criticism from international journalism rights groups.

"I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge is finally over," Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.

"I wish the process to release a man who had no specific accusations against him had been swifter."

In Mahmudiya, friends and relatives crowded into Jassam's small family home, greeting him with hugs, tears and sweets.

"I still cannot believe my son is next to me," said his mother, Fadhila Alwan. "Thanks be to God. I cannot speak. I will keep him in my arms for days but I will not be able to get enough of him."

'SECURITY THREAT'

The U.S. military has asserted that Jassam was a "security threat" because of "activities with insurgents," it said last year, without giving details.

The term "insurgents" generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim.

The military said on Wednesday he was freed under a security pact, effective last year, which required the United States to hand over its thousands of Iraqi detainees to Iraqi authorities.

"As such, detainees that are approved for release by the government of Iraq will be released according to their threat level. It was his time to be released," the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military still has almost 6,000 detainees who must be handed to Iraqi authorities. If they face Iraqi criminal charges they will be tried, if not they will be freed.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled in 2008 that there was no case against Jassam.

A month before arresting him, U.S. forces detained Reuters cameraman Ali Mashhadani and held him for three weeks without charge, the third time he had been detained.

"This is happy news but at the same time sad news," said Ziad al-Ajili, head of The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, and Iraqi press lobby group. "Who is going to compensate Ibrahim for the 17 months he spent in prison innocent of all the accusations the American army made against him?"

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami; Writing by Jack Kimball and Michael Christie; editing by Tim Pearce)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6191PF20100210

thats the next logical step. i don't have a link but there was a story late last week that the state department had prepared a comprehensive plan on blocking iranian commerce to try and bring pressure on them to play by our rules.

Senior advisor is responsible for report on state and fate of industry in midst of change
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable
2/8/2010 2:00:00 AM

Steven Waldman, senior advisor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, believes that, theoretically speaking, there is no harm in the decline and fall of broadcast outlets and newspapers, so long as there is something immediately set to replace their useful function of delivering news and civic information.

While conceding that the world is not a theoretical construct, Waldman stands behind his point that the FCC is not out to rescue traditional media or to bury them. Instead, Waldman believes the responsibility comes with trying to figure out what, if anything, the government needs to do to preserve some of their traditional public-service functions in a world being deconstructed by new media.

Waldman is charged with coming up with a report to the commission on the state and fate of the media in the midst of radical change. But the industry should also expect to see his policy advice-gleaned with the help of part-timers, current staffers, and "kibitzers"-show up in everything from the national broadband plan to the ownership rule review.

That policy recommendation could include direct government subsidies, which he says are not incompatible with drawing a line in the sand between structural rules and meddling with content.

An open Internet is key to the future of journalism, he says, particularly the new media that will play a big role in that future.

Waldman, former president and founder of Beliefnet.com [Genachowski was on the board], combines new- and old-media backgrounds as a former print journalist in Washington with Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. As such, he says he can see beyond the slams on new media as folks in their pajamas, and old media as dinosaurs in their death throes.

He says, flatly, that the FCC is not out to take over the media-or reinstate the fairness doctrine, he adds, a disavowal that has become boilerplate over at the commission these days.
More at:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/448011-Waldman_No_FCC_Bailouts_...

If Michael Moore Would Run for President
by Robert Naiman

If Michael Moore would run for President in 2012, it could be a game-changer in American political life. For starters, it would likely shorten the war in Afghanistan by at least six months, and the American and Afghan lives that would be saved would alone justify the effort.....

...A Moore campaign for President announced today could be active in this Congressional election cycle: campaigning for progressive Democrats in the 2010 primaries, and thereby mobilizing the national progressive base in these contests, campaigning for progressive Democrats in the November election, building its national organization at the same time. A Moore campaign for President would compete for the endorsement of every organization of progressive Democrats, including Progressive Democrats of America, MoveOn, and Democracy for America. A Moore campaign would compete for the support of labor unions, which would put the Employee Free Choice Act and fair trade right back at the top of the national agenda. And a Moore campaign would work to build the base of the endorsing organizations...
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/09-3

Lets see if the knuckleheads learned anything from the stimulus package rollout and results...

White House Moves Swiftly To Stem Fallout Of Obama Interview

The White House is moving swiftly to stem the fallout from a potentially damaging interview President Obama gave on Tuesday, in which he was quoted saying that he did not "begrudge" the multibillion-dollar bonuses of Wall Street executives.

Administration aides insisted, in email exchanges with the Huffington Post, that the quote was largely overplayed. The story, they say, made it appear as if the president didn't mind massive compensation packages when he was simply stating that he didn't fault anyone for his or her personal or professional success. Moreover, they added, the president has made similar remarks many times before without getting the critical reception he received on Wednesday morning.

"The president has said countless times, as he did in the interview, that he doesn't 'begrudge' the success of Americans, but he also expressed 'shock' at the size of bonuses and made clear that there are a number of steps that need to be taken to change the culture of Wall Street," spokesperson Jen Psaki told the Huffington Post. "[That is] a sentiment he has consistently expressed since long before he took office."

On Wednesday morning, Bloomberg Business Week published the write-up of the 30-minute interview it conducted with the president the day before. The story led with Obama saying he does not "begrudge" the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Acknowledging it was "an extraordinary amount of money," Obama went on to note that "there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don't get to the World Series either, so I'm shocked by that as well."

The National Republican Congressional Committee was quick on the attack, sending the story to reporters under the title: "OBAMA SUDDENLY SCALES BACK ANTI-WALL STREET RHETORIC." On the opposite end of the ideological spectrum -- and at a slightly more elevated intellectual level -- Paul Krugman of the New York Times called the president "clueless."

"First of all, to my knowledge, irresponsible behavior by baseball players hasn't brought the world economy to the brink of collapse and cost millions of innocent Americans their jobs and/or houses," Krugman wrote. "And more specifically, not only has the financial industry has been bailed out with taxpayer commitments; it continues to rely on a taxpayer backstop for its stability."

But White House aides insist that the president is far from casual about executive compensation packages on Wall Street -- though, as reported by ABC's Jake Tapper, the rhetoric was a far cry from when the president called the bonus culture on Wall Street "obscene" and "shameful." Providing a full transcript of the interview, administration officials argued that Obama's quote was far more nuanced than Bloomberg reported.

BLOOMBERG: Let's talk bonuses for a minute: Lloyd Blankfein, $9 million; Jamie Dimon, $17 million. Now, granted, those were in stock and less than what some had expected. But are those numbers okay?
Story continues below

THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, first of all, I know both those guys. They're very savvy businessmen. And I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That's part of the free market system. I do think that the compensation packages that we've seen over the last decade at least have not matched up always to performance. I think that shareholders oftentimes have not had any significant say in the pay structures for CEOs.

BLOOMBERG: Seventeen million dollars is a lot for Main Street to stomach.

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, $17 million is an extraordinary amount of money. Of course, there are some baseball players who are making more than that who don't get to the World Series either. So I'm shocked by that as well. I guess the main principle we want to promote is a simple principle of "say on pay," that shareholders have a chance to actually scrutinize what CEOs are getting paid. And I think that serves as a restraint and helps align performance with pay. The other thing we do think is the more that pay comes in the form of stock that requires proven performance over a certain period of time as opposed to quarterly earnings is a fairer way of measuring CEOs' success and ultimately will make the performance of American businesses better.

Bloomberg, to its credit, did highlight much of Obama's plan to rein in excessive compensation packages. But it did so midway down the article, at a distance from the more inflammatory portions of the president's quote.

But what has White House aides even more bothered, however, is that fact that the president was simply using a tried and tested talking point only to have it treated like a major revelation. On that front, they're right.

In February 2009, Obama gave a speech on executive compensation in which he declared that, in American, "we don't disparage wealth. We don't begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded." In March 2009, Obama told the Business Roundtable that the job of a lawmaker is "not to disparage wealth, but to expand its reach." And in a brief statement on executive compensation in October 2009, Obama repeated the lines: "We don't disparage wealth; we don't begrudge anybody for doing well. We believe in success. But it does offend our values when executives of big financial firms -- firms that are struggling -- pay themselves huge bonuses, even as they continue to rely on taxpayer assistance to stay afloat.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/white-house-moves-swiftly_n_456...

toniD's Ya Think?

He'd be better off with The Foggybottom Boys as his braintrust than this brilliant "Team of Rivals" he has singing backup....

250 Blackwater personnel kicked out (by Iraqi gov't) Updated at 1:26 PM

Source: Voice of Iraq

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A total of 250 employees working for the U.S. security firm Blackwater have been dismissed and given seven days to leave Iraq, the Iraqi minister of interior said on Wednesday, according to the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV.

A U.S. federal judge had dropped all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.

Citing repeated government missteps, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed a case that had been steeped in international politics.

The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiments abroad. The Iraqi government wanted the guards to face trial in Iraq and officials there said they would closely watch how the U.S. judicial system handles the case.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=126792

toniD's Ya Think?

Trade Deficit in U.S. Increased to $40.2 Billion in December

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The trade deficit in the U.S. unexpectedly widened in December, reflecting a jump in petroleum imports that swamped an eighth consecutive gain in exports.

The gap widened to $40.2 billion during the month, the biggest in a year, from $36.4 billion in November, according to Commerce Department data released today in Washington. Imports increased 8.4 percent and exports climbed to the highest level since October 2008.

Faster economic growth in emerging countries and a drop in the dollar’s value that is making American goods more competitive may propel gains in sales overseas that will spur further gains in U.S. manufacturing. Efforts to rebuild inventories will probably also draw in goods from abroad, giving global trade a lift.

“We’re at a stage of the recovery where you expect both exports and imports to rise,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York, who forecast the deficit would widen. “The good news is when imports and exports are rising, it is a sign you have economic growth.”

Economists forecast the deficit would narrow to $35.8 billion from a previously estimated $36.4 billion in November, according to the median of 78 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from gaps of $31 billion to $40 billion.

http://www.bloombeg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=adXv0qR6vU1o

toniD's Ya Think?

Greg Sergent's The Plumline
What Obama Said About Those Bonuses

One of the day’s big stories is that Obama said in an interview with Bloomberg that he doesn’t “begrudge” the massive bonuses awarded to the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and Chase, pointing out that some professional athletes take home even more.

The story has been widely picked up, with critics blasting Obama for casting the bonuses as “part of the free market system.” Paul Krugman denounced Obama as “clueless.”

The White House is making a transcript of the interview available to anyone who asks, and the comments seem a bit more nuanced than the headlines suggest:

QUESTION: Let’s talk bonuses for a minute: Lloyd Blankfein, $9 million; Jamie Dimon, $17 million. Now, granted, those were in stock and less than what some had expected. But are those numbers okay?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, first of all, I know both those guys. They’re very savvy businessmen. And I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That’s part of the free market system. I do think that the compensation packages that we’ve seen over the last decade at least have not matched up always to performance. I think that shareholders oftentimes have not had any significant say in the pay structures for CEOs.

QUESTION: Seventeen million dollars is a lot for Main Street to stomach.

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, $17 million is an extraordinary amount of money. Of course, there are some baseball players who are making more than that who don’t get to the World Series either. So I’m shocked by that as well. I guess the main principle we want to promote is a simple principle of “say on pay,” that shareholders have a chance to actually scrutinize what CEOs are getting paid. And I think that serves as a restraint and helps align performance with pay.

The other thing we do think is the more that pay comes in the form of stock that requires proven performance over a certain period of time as opposed to quarterly earnings is a fairer way of measuring CEOs’ success and ultimately will make the performance of American businesses better.

It seems like there’s a bit more of an emphasis here than the initial story suggested on his support for specific measures to check the long-term trend of inflated bonuses, and the thrust of his comments seem aimed at combating the perception that such policies are anti-business.

That said, that substance was bound to be overshadowed by Obama’s praise for the businessmen as “savvy,” his general unwillingness to “begrudge” wealth, and his discussion of their outsized bonuses in the context of the “free market system,” which seems off key, given the massive taxpayer bailouts of the financial industry.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/what-obama-said-about-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Colored Revolutions: A New Form of Regime Change, Made in USA

In 1983, the strategy of overthrowing inconvenient governments and calling it "democracy promotion" was born.

Through the creation of a series of quasi-private "foundations", such as Albert Einstein Institute (AEI), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), Freedom House and later the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict (ICNC), Washington began to filter funding and strategic aid to political parties and groups abroad that promoted US agenda in nations with insubordinate governments.

Behind all these "foundations" and "institutes" is the US Agency for Inter- national Development (USAID), the financial branch of the Department of State....

.....How Does a Colored Revolution Work?

The recipe is always the same. Student and youth movements lead the way with a fresh face, attracting others to join in as though it were the fashion, the cool thing to do. There's always a logo, a color, a marketing strategy. In Serbia, the group OTPOR, which led the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, hit the streets with t-shirts, posters and flags boasting a fist in black and white, their symbol of resistance. In Ukraine, the logo remained the same, but the color changed to orange. In Georgia, it was a rose-colored fist, and in Venezuela, instead of the closed fist, the hands are open, in black and white, to add a little variety.

Colored revolutions always occur in a nation with strategic, natural resources:......
http://www.chavezcode.com/2010/02/colored-revolutions-new-form-of-regime...

'No Labor Market Recession For America's Affluent,' Low-Wage Workers Hit Hardest: STUDY

It's truly been a tale of two unemployment crises.

Though the national unemployment rate dipped slightly in January to 9.7 percent, a new study suggests that not only have low-income workers been the hardest hit by the jobs crisis -- but, shockingly, there has been "no labor market recession for America's affluent."

The study from Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada and Sheila Palma at Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies suggests that the unemployment problem is largely a problem for low-wage workers (hat tip to the Curious Capitalist).

From the study:

At the end of calendar year 2009, as the national economy was recovering from the recession of 2007-2009, workers in different segments of the income distribution clearly found themselves in radically different labor market conditions. A true labor market depression faced those in the bottom two deciles of the income distribution, a deep labor market recession prevailed among those in the middle of the distribution, and close to a full employment environment prevailed at the top. There was no labor market recession for America's affluent.

At the New York Times, Bob Herbert delved into the study and noted, "The point here is that those in the lower-income groups are in a much, much deeper hole than the general commentary on the recession would lead people to believe." Here's more from Herbert:

The highest group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, had an unemployment rate during that quarter of 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent.

Contrast those figures with the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less. The unemployment rate of that group during the fourth quarter of last year was a staggering 30.8 percent. That's more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression.

According to the study, approximately 50 percent of households in the bottom decile of American income distribution are underemployed; in the second lowest decile, 37 percent of households can't find enough work. The authors write: "These extraordinarily high rates of labor underutilization among these two income groups would have to be classified as symbolic of a True Great Depression."
Story continues below

On the other hand, the study notes that the top two income deciles (households earning over $100,000 per year) are near a "full employment environment."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/no-labor-market-recession_n_456...

READ the entire study here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25099116/Labor_Underutilization_Problems_of_...

toniD's Ya Think?

but rebuilding our own cities:

'A prescription for civil war'
By Jon Elmer in Bethlehem

"The interrogations always begin the same way," Abu Abdullah explains. "They demand to know who I voted for in the last election."

Abu Abdullah is not alone. Since Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's caretaker government took power in Ramallah in June 2007, stories like Abu Abdullah's have become commonplace in the West Bank.

The arrests are part of a wider plan being executed by Palestinian security forces - trained and funded by American and European backers - to crush opposition and consolidate the Fatah-led government's grip on power in the West Bank.

An international effort

The government of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is bolstered by thousands of newly trained police and security forces whose stated aim is to eliminate Islamist groups that may pose a threat to its power - namely Hamas and their supporters.

Under the auspices of Lieutenant-General Keith Dayton, the US security coordinator, these security forces receive hands-on training from Canadian, British and Turkish military personnel at a desert training centre in Jordan.

The programme has been carefully coordinated with Israeli security officials.

Since 2007 the Jordan International Police Training Center has trained and deployed five Palestinian National Security Force battalions in the West Bank.

By the end of Dayton's appointment in 2011, the $261mn project will see 10 new security battalions, one for each of the nine West Bank governorates and one unit in reserve.

Torture allegations

The Dawa Strategy has seen more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Palestinian Authority (PA) forces. The arrests - though concentrated on Hamas and its suspected allies - have touched a broad swathe of Palestinian society, and all political factions.

They have targeted social workers, students, teachers, journalists. There have been regular raids on mosques, university campus' and charities, and repeated allegations of torture carried out by US and European-funded security officers, including several deaths in custody.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/2009121311331278355.html

Former Rep. Charlie Wilson, portrayed by Tom Hanks in "Charlie Wilson's War," has died at age 76, a hospital said.

Maybe they will all attend his funeral and we can round them up all at once...

somewhere in pakistan there's a tall man with a dialysis machine taking a knee.

from digby

Steve Benen passes on a report that the cap and trade bill appears to be doomed in the Senate, which isn't all that shocking considering the stalemate. But I had to read this twice to believe it:

It seems mind-numbing, but Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said snowfall in D.C. has had an effect on policymakers' attitudes. "It makes it more challenging for folks not taking time to review the scientific arguments," said Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"People see the world around them and they extrapolate," he added.

On this date

1964 Bob Dylan's album "The Times They Are A-Changin"' was released.

2007 Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., kicked off his presidential campaign with a speech at the state house in Springfield, Ill.

The guy who cheapened television news to death is himself dead at 78

He Turned TV News Into Entertainment
By STEPHEN MILLER

One of television's original "news doctors," Frank Magid helped re-imagine television news as a form of entertainment. Mr. Magid, who died Friday at age 78, was a market researcher who started his career helping banks and breweries figure out how to better-serve their customers.

During the 1970s, Mr. Magid's Marion, Iowa-based consultancy was hired by hundreds of stations that subsequently introduced flashy, fast-paced local news read from teleprompters by coifed anchor teams who bantered with their fellow broadcasters. The era of the starchy solo white male newsreader with a paper script came to an abrupt end.

Critics called the revamped product "happy talk." But for station managers across the U.S., "news you can use" became a byword for increased audiences and advertising revenue. Newscasts could become profit centers rivaling even prime-time programming.

Mr. Magid "saw that the mass American public was not enamored with the concept of news," said Craig Allen, an Arizona State University journalism professor. "He developed the research regimen and established things like consumer reporting, health and other segments that were never a part of the national news." (Dumbed them down)

Frank N. Magid Associates was the largest of a handful of firms that did survey and focus-group research for local stations in the 1970s. The company's approach ignited controversy among old-school journalists, who resented being directed by consultants with a computer printout in one hand and a ratings list in the other. Walter Cronkite, speaking at a 1976 CBS-TV affiliates conference, said, "Any real newsman knows that sort of stuff is balderdash. It's cosmetics, pretty packaging—not substance."

Mr. Magid claimed he was only giving the people what they wanted. Thanks to his work, he told The Wall Street Journal in 1976, broadcasts "now incorporate consumerism, local politics, investigative reporting and features, written and edited more concisely and delivered more effectively."

(It became a business rather than information. Commercialism at it's best. But no real news and investigative reporting just about disappeared.)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870482090457505569069501340...

toniD's Ya Think?

No snow in Vancouver. No snow in northern Michigan. But now it's an Ice Age.

The senate is just that. Go along or get along. I see it as a generational thing. The way th gears are greased. Vote them out and they can retire to the north west. Vote out the clubbies and "how its done will change maybe...

Comment some days back about crying whsn you get a tattoo. Most tattoos ( sp, I'm on the tablet here) are like that to me. "My god what have I done, I've got this ugly blue thing on my arm. .. and its perement...waaaa. "

Mary Poppins opens tomorrow, that's what I've been doing last week and this. Just wanted to say hi.

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

Blue Roots Radio

US Slaps New Sanctions On Iran Revolutionary Guard

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday slapped new sanctions on several affiliates of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps amid stepped-up efforts to get U.N. penalties against Tehran because of its nuclear and missile programs.

The Treasury Department said it was targeting one person and four companies for penalties over their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction. The agency said it was freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction firm that he runs.

The sanctions made public Wednesday expand existing U.S. unilateral penalties against elements of the Guard Corps, or IRGC, which Western intelligence officials believe is spearheading Iran's nuclear program. The step is in line with statements from administration officials that they want sanctions to target Iranian elites responsible for such activity and not the Iranian people in the hope of changing the government's behavior. However, it will be difficult to gauge their effect as it is not clear what holdings the targets may have in U.S. jurisdictions.

The administration is pushing to internationalize such penalties so they will have greater impact, and the announcement came as U.S. officials lobby for similar action at the U.N. Security Council, which has already hit Iran with three sets of sanctions over Tehran's failure to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.

Qasemi commands the Guard Corps' Khatam alAnbiya Construction Headquarters, which Treasury described as its engineering arm that is involved in the construction of streets, tunnels, waterworks, agricultural projects and pipelines. Its profits "are available to support the full range of the IRGC's illicit activities, including WMD proliferation and support for terrorism," Treasury said in a statement.

Khatam alAnbiya was hit with U.S. sanctions by the Bush administration in 2007. Wednesday's penalties apply to Qasemi and Khatam al-Anbiya subsidiaries, the Fater Engineering Institute, the Imensazen Consultant Engineers Institute, the Makin Institute and the Rahab Institute.

"As the IRGC consolidates control over broad swaths of the Iranian economy, displacing ordinary Iranian businessmen in favor of a select group of insiders, it is hiding behind companies like Khatam al-Anbiya and its affiliates to maintain vital ties to the outside world," said Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

"Today's action exposing Khatam al-Anbiya subsidiaries will help firms worldwide avoid business that ultimately benefits the IRGC and its dangerous activities," he said.

Treasury's move followed a tough new warning to Iran from President Barack Obama, who said on Tuesday that the country remains on an "unacceptable" path to nuclear weapons, despite its denials, and that the U.S. and like-minded countries would soon present a set of punishing sanctions at the United Nations.
Story continues below

His comments came in response to Iran's announcement that it was rejecting a deal it provisionally accepted in October under which it would ship low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching for use in a Tehran medical research reactor. On Sunday, Iran said it would would produce its own higher-enriched uranium. On Tuesday, Iranian state television said the process began in the presence of inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.

Obama said he was sticking to a two-track approach: offering to negotiate, while threatening further pressure. He said the world would welcome an Iranian decision to accept U.N. demands that it live up to its nuclear control obligations.

"And if not, then the next step is sanctions," he said. "They have made their choice so far, although the door is still open. And what we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them how isolated they are from the international community as a whole."

Obama said that work to broaden the U.N.'s sanctions was moving quickly, but he gave no specific timeline for the presentation of a new resolution. Russia, a traditional opponent of sanctions, appears ready to support new penalties. But another of the council's five permanent, veto-wielding members, China, which has increasingly close economic ties to Iran, can block a resolution by itself. China has said the time is not yet right for fresh sanctions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/us-slaps-new-sanctions-on_n_456...

toniD's Ya Think?

Check out this must-see video if you have *any interest* in how the deeply-captured regulators and their pals at the mega banks are forcing homeowners into default so they can grab an immediate profit! Yow!

Delightful. And they're just getting going. From the excellent Zerohedge blog, note the math - and watch carefully to see who the looters are!

Along with a Pam something from the Atlas Shrugged society(Ayn Rand)

toniD's Ya Think?

Back ~

thanks incubus. even for the most starry eyed it should be clear that hope and change is just so much bullshit and that this is business as usual. we need a progressive tea party.

:):(

First I wish to say I am so glad The Saints Won for even the "Bars, Restaurants, Fortune Tellers to The Homeless" were helped with additionl 'PATRONS'. :):(

...and Thank You, YOU for showing me and I wish I had the pictures of The Horses & Beads...& I miss The Once & Future Friend ;)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#35336477

Steve Hildebrand, former Obama campaign mgr and Elliot Spitzer

toniD's Ya Think?

Virginia passes bill banning chip implants as ‘mark of the beast’

Source: RawStory.com

Concerns over privacy have aligned with apocalyptic Biblical prophecy in a proposed Virginia law that limits the use of microchip implants on humans because of a lawmaker's concern that the chips will prove to be the Antichrist's "mark of the beast."

On Wednesday, Virginia's House of Delegates passed a bill that forbids companies from forcing their employees to be implanted with tracking devices, a move likely to be applauded by civil libertarians.

But Virginia state Delegate Mark Cole's reasons for proposing the law have as much to do with the Book of Revelation as they do with concerns over privacy in the digital age. Cole says he is concerned that the implants will turn out to be the "mark of the beast" worn by Satan's minions.

"My understanding -- I'm not a theologian -- but there's a prophecy in the Bible that says you'll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times," Cole said, as quoted at the Washington Post. "Some people think these computer chips might be that mark."

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/virginia-passes-law-banning-chip-implants-ma...

toniD's Ya Think?

"a Tea Party" YEARS BEFORE STUPID RETHUGS ** I said even WTP could start certain THINK TANKS {which cost nothing in CA but Party and Groups ... we could start one in CA from the time I wrote YEARS BEFORE STUPID TEA baggers ... & it was I teasing Alice or NOW YOU or SOMEONE .. we could SOOOOOOOOO TAKE OVER THE stupid rethugs !
:D
{It was also on here - Sedervile -- :D to prove :}

UNIONS TO DEMS:
WE'RE FED-UP WITH YOU
Labor groups are furious with the Democrats they helped put in office -- and are threatening to stay home
this fall when Democratic incumbents will need their help fending off Republican challengers.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32781.html

toniD's Ya Think?

freaks...

still, it wouldn't surprise me if the progressives here were feeding that "Left Behind" meme to get that bill passed...you learn what buttons to push to get what you need from these people.

Expert: The GOP Shadow Budget Might Not Even Eliminate Deficits
Brian Beutler | February 10, 2010, 2:11PM

House GOP's top budget guy Paul Ryan (R-WI) claims that his tax-cutting, Medicare and Social Security slashing fiscal roadmap would restore the federal budget to balance over a number of decades...and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has his back. But on close inspection, it turns out that CBO took much of its analytical lead from Ryan himself, dramatically skewing the numbers.

For their analysis Ryan provided CBO with a remarkable assumption: he asked CBO actuaries to assume that the major tax cuts he calls for won't create any change in federal revenue over the next two decades--at all.

Here's how they put it, in budget-ese: "As specified by your staff, for this analysis total federal tax revenues are assumed to equal those under [current fiscal policy]," the analysis reads.

There are just a couple major problems with that. According to Jim Horney, a tax expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, it doesn't account for the tremendous loss in revenues the government would experience if, as Ryan's plan calls for, the Bush tax cuts were extended and the Alternative Minimum Tax and estate tax were repealed.

"I haven't seen them explain why they think the tax proposals he includes in the Roadmap would result in [the revenues they project] when it looks like it would be considerably less than that," Horney told me today.

In 2008, the Tax Policy Center analyzed a similar GOP plan and determined it amounted to the biggest tax cut in history.

Whether Ryan was knowingly engaging in sleight-of-hand, or whether he was using an inaccurate supply side model to correlate tax cuts with increased revenue is unclear. But what is clear is that if CBO had based its analysis on an official accounting of the ways in which his proposed policy changes would impact revenue, they would have come to a different conclusion.

Horney says, "If you have revenue lower than assumed you would have a much much bigger buildup of deficits over the next couple of decades than they're assuming, and what you don't know is if the savings you get from cutting entitlements would bring you to balance later than expected," or if they'd get you there at all.

So it's a bit of bamboozlement. For his part, Horney doesn't place the onus for this entirely on Ryan. He says that CBO ought not be granting the Ryan plan its considerable imprimatur if it's not based on a complete analysis of the proposal.

"People see the CBO letter and most people assume that CBO had estimated the effect of these policy changes," Horney told me. "It's not a good idea for CBO to put out a letter that gives an overall estimate of the effects of a plan when...CBO has not estimated those policies."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/expert-the-gop-shadow-budget-...

Bitter Experience

If people didn't like the idea of privatizing Social Security in 2005, the last time this came up, after the markets had mostly recovered from the dotcom bust, how are they going to fancy it after just going through the market crash of 2008-09?

--David Kurtz

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/02/bitter_experience.php?...

toniD's Ya Think?

Boehner: Enough Transparency Already!!

Minority Leader John Boehner has been out for months calling on President Obama to televise all meeting on health care reform. But now that President Obama has House Republicans coming to a health care summit to actually discuss the policy he seems to have soured on the whole live TV cameras idea.

He's worried that the actual discussion of the two parties health care policies might be embarrassing or be a "set-up."

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/boehner-how-dare-obama-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Start playing dirty with the GOP. Maybe the word isn't dirty.

Sly maybe. There's a better word but I can't think of one right now. I'm dealing with my anger and disappointment right now.

What else could go wrong? I'm past fed up!

toniD's Ya Think?

it's called hardball Politics...and I wish Dems everywhere would learn to play the game better.

Our current crop of political geniuses are getting their asses handed to them, ruining their perfectly good majority and WASTING ALL OUR DAMNED TIME AND HARD WORK with these stupid bipartisan pattycake games.

I am past fed up too...

Meat stylus for the iPhone

"Sales of CJ Corporation's snack sausages are on the increase in South Korea because of the cold weather; they are useful as a meat stylus for those who don't want to take off their gloves to use their iPhones."

"this machine kills fascists"

Small Business Owners Press For Strong CFPA To Defend Them From Wall Street

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its GOP allies have been busy warning that an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency will hurt small business -- but a growing number of small business owners are saying just the opposite.

When asked to speak for themselves, they say a strong CFPA is the only thing that can protect them from the predatory practices of the corporate titans represented by the Chamber.

Small business owners, after all, frequently wind up using personal credit cards to cover their expenses. Consequently, they're often victimized by the kinds of deceptive interest rates and fee structures that the CFPA could do away with or otherwise regulate. Small business owners may have created two out of three net new jobs in the past decade and a half, but they say that big businesses are strangling their finances and killing those jobs.

"The financial crisis has demonstrated the need for a new independent federal agency to promote financial product safety and establish clear, enforceable rules of the road. Business owners and consumers need full and fair disclosure of the costs and risks of financial products and services," reads part of the petition circulated by Business for Shared Prosperity, a progressive business group. "A Consumer Financial Protection Agency will expose unsafe products and services and encourage accountability and fair competition. It will help ensure we do not repeat the reckless practices we are paying dearly for today."

Some 200 small business owners and leaders of small-business advocacy organizations throughout the United States have signed the petition, which urges the Senate to include an independent consumer protection agency in its financial regulatory reform legislation. Additionally, two-thirds of the 1,200-plus business owners polled by the progressive small-business group Main Street Alliance favor the creation of the proposed CFPA. The consumer agency made it into the House regulatory reform bill that passed in November, albeit with numerous exemptions for favored industries.

Among the petition's signatories is Margot Dorfman, the CEO of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, who charged the financial sector with "extraordinary abuse of small businesses and everyday Americans" by means of toxic products and willfully misleading business practices. "It is time for our political leaders to act to support the financial protection and well-being of all Americans," Dorfman said in a statement.

The megabanks and their allies in the U.S. Chamber proper are the last people who should be speaking on behalf of small business, said Lew Prince, another petition signatory. "Politicians love to point out that most new jobs are created by small business," said Prince, who runs Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis, Mo. "They should listen to the business owners who didn't wreck the economy and want real reform to prevent a repeat."
Story continues below

A new level of transparency in small-business loans and other financial products might even help the big banks in the long term, said Tim Duncan, Chairman of American Business Leaders for Financial Reform, if they can "avoid the mindset that can't see beyond the next quarter's results." But whatever happens to Wall Street's bonuses, "honest and affordable credit is fundamental to business success and nurturing the innovation needed to keep the U.S. competitive in the world economy," said fellow petition signatory Alan Gregerman, the president of the Silver Spring, Md.-based business consulting firm Venture Works. "A lack of appropriate regulation has hurt America and American businesses. We can and must do better."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/small-business-owners-pre_n_457...

toniD's Ya Think?

Ed Schultz nailed it.

There is more MOISTURE in the AIR, you Republican morons.
I've said this for years. Just because there is more snow doesn't mean that it's COLDER.
Are these idiots REALLY that fucking stupid?

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

I should have added that there is more moisture in the air because it's WARMER WORLDWIDE.

Duuurrrrr..

"Where's Al Gore now?"

He is looking at the humidity levels, ya dolts.

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

But they are smart enough to get people to believe them! Even when it's obvious they are wrong.

Some of the people out there are the stupid ones.

toniD's Ya Think?

Her show is based on cracking on people and that includes politicians. My wife and I TiVo it every night and watch it in the morning with our coffee. Some mornings we do a lot of coffee spitting and falling on the floor because it's so goddamn funny.

Obama Is No FDR, We're No Mass Movement
Les Leopold

The rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men...

The money changers have fled their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths." --First Inaugural, Frankly D. Roosevelt, March ,4 1933

"I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system." --Barack Obama, February 9, 2010

It's open season on Obama whom so many hoped would lead us out of the neo-liberal wilderness. He once was a community organizer and ought to know how working people have suffered through a generation of tax breaks for the rich, Wall Street deregulation, and unfair competition. When the economy crashed he was in the perfect position to limit the unjustified pay levels on Wall Street and bring a crashing halt to the runaway financialization of our economy.

Instead we got a multi-trillion dollar bailout for Wall Street, no health care reform, no serious financial reforms whatsoever, record unemployment, and political gridlock that's will be with us for years to come.

Is it his fault? Or ours?

Obama has made his share of blunders. However, his statement that we "don't begrudge" the high salaries on Wall Street because that's part of the "free-market system" is about the dumbest thing he's ever said.

He was referring to Jamie Dimon's $17.4 million payday, and Lloyd Blankfein's $9 million. But surely the President knows that at this very moment Wall Street is still receiving $10.4 trillion (not billion) in subsidies from the taxpayer -- and that's after the TARP repayments. That's some free-market.

Dimon's JP Morgan Chase still has a $34.3 billion subsidy, and Blankfein at Goldman Sachs is sitting on $23.9 billion of government welfare. (Many thanks to Nomi Prins for her first rate sleuthing.. )

Dimon and Blankfein would love to re-write history so that they could be portrayed as swashbuckling entrepreneurial survivors, men who avoided the bad risks that felled so many others. But without government welfare their institutions would have gone under. They are two very lucky (and well connected) welfare recipients -- lucky not to be among the 28 million Americans that go without jobs or are forced into part-time work.

What's even more ridiculous is what I call the A-Rod Defense: baseball players make a lot of money so we shouldn't get bent out of shape when financial executives make a lot too. That's the American way.

Bad example. Baseball teams also receive taxpayer welfare. Their stadiums often are blessed with enormous tax breaks and subsidies. And the league is exempt from anti-trust provisions. Baseball is a legally authorized oligopoly -- no surprise, then, that the participants have a lot of money to play with.

But ask yourself this: How many people can play baseball like the best major leaguers? How many equally good players are lurking in the minor leagues who could do what A-Rod does with or without steroids? One? Two? None?

Then ask yourself, how many people on Wall Street could step in to replace Blankfein and Dimon? One hundred? one thousand? ten thousand? Couldn't thousands of other executives also have presided over the worst crash since the Great Depression?

And here's one more fact. Baseball players, whether they are worth it or not, don't crash our economy. They don't create vast casinos based on fantasy finance instruments that turn toxic. They don't suck up 35 percent of all corporate profits. They don't create losses that induce unemployment on millions of Americans. But our Wall Street executives did all that and more. They are in the job killing Hall of Fame.

Blankfein and Dimon salaries are a diversion from the bigger story: Wall Street has awarded itself a record bonus pool of $150 billion -- a pool that would be zero were it not for our bailouts. They rewarded themselves during the worst financial year since the Great Depression. How did we let that happen?

That's what FDR would be screaming about, not defending.

But while we're comparing Obama to FDR, we should also compare ourselves to the kind of activity that sparked the New Deal. Today we see no worker upsurge, no progressive revival, no mass movement in the streets among the unemployed and dispossessed like we witnessed in the 1930s. Obama faces no serious progressive pressure. Instead the Tea Party has emerged to grab all of the populist energy.
more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/obama-is-no-fdr-were-no-m_b_45...

We can moan all we want about Obama's shortcomings, the mistakes his Administration has made and his inability to take on Wall Street. But we haven't exactly applied a lot of heat. A million people on the mall demanding "Jobs Now" along with serious Wall Street reforms might help. A million people showing up repeatedly might actually get the job done. Why have we forgotten how to build a mass movement just as the Tea Party shows that it can be done?
...

toniD's Ya Think?

...I try to explain it to our simpler brethren by asking: "...and what exactly did you imagine happens to the water vapor from the melting polar caps?"

:Ds

We won’t sit by ...

while the bankers and militarists plunder this country
and send our loved ones to fight in a war for empire!

The outrage continues and gets worse.

When tens of thousands march in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles on March 20 – we are going to tie together the issue of endless war and skyrocketing unemployment and poverty.

If we don’t act, no one will.Consider these scandalous facts:

• Today, the Pentagon announced that tens of thousands of Marines are invading the southern provinces of Afghanistan in the next few days. General Barry McCaffrey predicts 300-500 killed and wounded each month in the next few months. The generals never bother talking about the loss of Afghan lives.
• Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Gates submitted the largest military budget in U.S. history. The $708 billion includes nearly $500 million each day for Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Hours later, the bankrupt insurance giant AIG announced that it was doling out $100 million more in bonuses. AIG exists because it received $180 billion in taxpayers’ bailout. The federal government received an 80 percent share in AIG, which means Obama’s Treasury Secretary Geithner agreed to these bonuses. AIG will give millions more bonuses in March.

  More than 25 million people are unemployed or seriously underemployed while the bankers, war contractors and other corporate crooks make record profits and record bonuses.

  Personal bankruptcies rose 32 percent in the past year as families lost their jobs, medical benefits and their homes.

Take to streets. Tell every family and friend, co-worker and fellow student that it's time to get on the bus. It’s time for the people to speak out. It’s time to raise hell!

;D

"this machine kills fascists"

Single Payer, Medicare for all would be good.!

toniD's Ya Think?

Just to let you know the forecasters were right...

...all with their own signs and pamphlets and buttons on issues ranging from LGBT rights to Education Reform...

I am going to bring my own sign on SCOTUS and Campaign Finance and Lobbying Reform...I've got to come with some clever slogans.

To tell me there will be snow in February where I live. It happens most every year that I've been alive.

What's odd is that there is no snow at Whistler's Mountain in Vancouver!

toniD's Ya Think?

otherwise you'll just end up putting somebody's eye out or something.

(This is the unofficial break.)

----
Oh Nora Nora Nora...such a sweet voice. Best bumpers I've heard on here in a long time .

(Not you nor, although you may have a lovely voice as well.)

Make that Comprehensive, Universal -- CRADLE TO GRAVE singlepayer coverage...

;)

another El Nino is commencing?

I read in a Leftcoast newspaper that the signs of another El Nino are becoming evident now (which concerns ocean temperatures, currents and how they affect western coast lines of continents).

More heat, more water vaporized, more rain (floods) and more snow (perhaps sooo much that roofs cave in [shiver]) in rapid, continuing precipitation. Lotsa snow, that's also the early stage of glaciers. Then the increased airborn water (cloud cover), reflects the sun's radiation/heat, and the ice age starts (glaciers continue to build and move)....

there's no snow at Sunny Jim's house for the winter Olympics and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/10/BA911BV2ER.D...

[excerpt]

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit in Tuesday's ruling, Mary Bull, said she had been arrested on suspicion of vandalism during a protest, refused to consent to a strip search, and then had been forcibly searched, thrown face-first onto the floor and left naked in a cold room for 12 hours. She was later released without charges.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/10/BA911BV2ER.D...

GET IN YOUR EARLY GRAVE coverage....

They should find people to run against these Dems, Primary
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 6:38pm.
UNIONS TO DEMS:
WE'RE FED-UP WITH YOU
Labor groups are furious with the Democrats they helped put in office -- and are threatening to stay home
this fall when Democratic incumbents will need their help fending off Republican challengers.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32781.html

========================

Man, WHY don't those unions run labor candidates???!!!

Sheesh.

RENO, Nev. — Venice has its Biennale. Basel, Switzerland, has its Art Basel. And Reno has the NadaDada Motel, a jubilantly unpretentious art event in which some 100 artists rent rooms at two of the city’s vintage hotels and motels and temporarily transform nicotine-infused rooms into art.

At NadaDada, one can find ceramic sea anemones on a simulated beach in one room (a comment on global warming displayed in El Cortez Hotel by Cindy Gunn) or encounter a bed in another room on which the bedspread and burgundy pillows are decorated with stencils of guns (“The Reno Gun Show,” also displayed in El Cortez, by Ann O’Lear).

The event, which is in its third year and ran from Wednesday night to Sunday, is an homage to Reno’s unsung motel heritage. It celebrates the spirit of establishments like the Ho-Hum, the Hi-Ho, the 777 and the Sandman.

“Transience is very much alive in Reno,” Jennifer Garza-Cuen, a photographer, said of the 50 or so motels that survive in downtown Reno, a city of about 210,000. “There’s a poignancy to it.” Many of the hotels have been plagued in recent years by drug dealing and other criminal activity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/22reno.html?_r=1

"Teaching your dog to drive"
Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 12:54pm.
uh..I really don't see what the problem is...

=========================

Well. It may not be too noticeable when they flip the claw, BUT when they start dog-swearing-barking, all hell breaks loose!

:(

Talk about the weather...
The worst heatwave to hit Rio de Janeiro in 50 years turned the city into a pre-Carnival furnace Wednesday, and killed 32 elderly people further south, officials said.

According to the Inmet national weather service, recorded temperatures in Rio were well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees) -- and felt more like above 50 degrees.

"The heatwave in Rio is seen as historic. February right now is the hottest month for the past 50 years," meteorologist Giovanni Dolif told the O Globo daily.

On Monday and Tuesday, the scalding conditions proved deadly for 32 elderly residents in Santos, a city close to Sao Paulo and 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Rio.

Half of them succumbed in their homes and the other half died as they sought help in clinics, a spokeswoman for the city's health service told AFP.

The heatwave made Rio the hottest place on the planet on Tuesday, save for Ada, a town in eastern Ghana, according to data from the World Meteorological Organization.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Heatwave_roasts_Rio_kills_32_in_sou_0210201...

Dragging Afghan children out of their beds and shooting them....

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/the-us-military-a-mindset-of-barbarism

[excerpt]

The US Military: A Mindset of Barbarism, Part 1
by Dahr Jamail
February 6th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t

An interview with Dr. Stjepan Mestrovic

On December 27, in the eastern Kunar region of Afghanistan, ten Afghans, eight of whom were schoolchildren, were dragged from their beds and shot by US forces during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from 11 to 17 years.

This incident is but one example of countless atrocities US military personnel have carried out in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, US military personnel torturing detainees in Abu Ghraib, Iraqi civilians suffering the violence meted out by US forces, or US forces detaining schoolchildren in Baghdad, the list of atrocities is seemingly endless.

Dr. Stjepan Mestrovic, a professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, has written three books on US misconduct in Iraq: “The Trials of Abu Ghraib: An Expert Witness Account of Shame and Honor,” “Rules of Engagement?: Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq,” and “The ‘Good Soldier’ on Trial: A Sociological Study of Misconduct by the US Military Pertaining to Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq.” He has three degrees from Harvard University, including a Master’s degree in clinical psychology, and has been an expert witness in psychology and sociology at several Article 32 hearings, courts-martial, and clemency hearings involving US soldiers accused of committing crimes of war in Iraq, including the trials of prison guards involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Dr. Mestrovic’s books meticulously document how the US Army, as an institution, has become dysfunctional, and how illegal rules of engagement (ROE) are issued by officers and politicians at the top of the Army’s hierarchy, but only low-ranking soldiers are punished for carrying out those same rules and orders. As an example, in one of the several hearings Dr. Mestrovic has attended as an expert witness, US soldiers openly admitted they had shot a 75-year-old man who had emerged unarmed from his house, but because the soldiers were following the rule to shoot all “military aged males,” neither they nor their officers were charged for that death.

Truthout recently conducted an extended two-part interview with Dr. Mestrovic.

Truthout: Can you describe the process that occurs within the US military that leads to a mindset that allows atrocities to occur? How is it that soldiers commit atrocities like murdering an unarmed 75-year-old Iraqi man?

Dr. Mestrovic: This mindset is rooted in American history and might be peculiar to it. By way of metaphor, it might be characterized by a line from a You Tube video, “Startrekking Across the Universe,” wherein the fictional Captain Kirk says: “We come in peace, shoot to kill.” In the classic work, “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville captured this seeming contradiction in American “habits of the heart” with regard to Native Americans, slaves and all those deemed as “other.” Tocqueville points out that unlike the Spaniards, English or French conquerors, the Americans went out of their way to pass laws and enact treaties to justify their mistreatment of others. So, for example, slavery was considered immoral, but was legal. Similarly, extermination of the Indians was immoral, but the government signed treaties before it broke them. So-called “witches” were executed only after they were given trials and assigned lawyers. And so on. It seems that Tocqueville captured an important aspect of American culture that continues to this day.

Fast-forwarding to World War II, the US engaged in numerous acts that some historians and lawyers believe could have been called war crimes had the US lost that war. Examples include the firebombing of German and Japanese cities, and of course, dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fast-forwarding further to the Vietnam War, the US established policies of “search and destroy” missions in “free-fire” zones. The important point is that these acts were justified by all sorts of legal jargon about “status-based” targets (which apparently means that the target is considered “hostile” simply by existing, and therefore constitutes a potential threat).

This sort of legalizing of acts that otherwise might be considered atrocities has continued in the current, long war on terror. For example, it is no secret that John Yoo and other White House lawyers went out of their way to make torture seem lawful. In this and other acts, the government continues to behave in the manner described by Tocqueville.

[end excerpt]

That's about all the fauxtrage I can muster.

I tried.

US Freezes some Iranian assets
Submitted by dan on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 2:12pm.
thats the next logical step. i don't have a link but there was a story late last week that the state department had prepared a comprehensive plan on blocking iranian commerce to try and bring pressure on them to play by our rules.

==============================

Hmmm.

Now WHY didn't the US freeze any assets after 9/11?

the Tea Party?

Same silly hat and jacket but with a mini-skirt, perhaps, tossled hair wisps, and now writing on palms....

I fainted after a CT scan back in the '90s. Now I wonder what they hit me with....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/policy/10radiation.html

[excerpt]

F.D.A. to Increase Oversight of Medical Radiation

By WALT BOGDANICH and REBECCA R. RUIZ
Published: February 9, 2010

The federal Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it would take steps to more stringently regulate three of the most potent forms of medical radiation, including increasingly popular CT scans, some of which deliver the radiation equivalent of 400 chest X-rays.

Last week, the leading radiation oncology association called for enhanced safety measures. And a Congressional committee was set to hear testimony Wednesday on the weak oversight of medical radiation, but the hearing was canceled because of bad weather.

The F.D.A. has for weeks been investigating why more than 300 patients in four hospitals were overradiated by powerful CT scans used to detect strokes. The overdoses were first discovered last year at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where patients received up to eight times as much radiation as intended.

[end excerpt]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/02/10/MNVB1BS0V...

[excerpt]

Lawyers petition court to hold Yoo accountable
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

As reports circulate that the Justice Department has softened its criticism of attorney John Yoo for memos approving the Bush administration's treatment of terrorism suspects, several prominent lawyers are urging a federal appeals court in San Francisco to hold Yoo accountable.

They have submitted arguments opposing dismissal of a prisoner's lawsuit that accuses the former Justice Department attorney of providing a legal cover for torture. The suit covers much of the same ground as the department's ethics investigation of Yoo.

Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, worked from 2001 to 2003 for the department's Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the president on legal issues. He wrote a 2002 memo that justified waterboarding and other forcible interrogation methods and said the president may have the power to authorize torture. Another memo said U.S. military forces could use "any means necessary" to seize and hold terror suspects in the United States.

The Chronicle and other newspapers reported in May 2009 that Justice Department investigators had decided Yoo violated standards of professional conduct by letting administration officials influence his conclusions. They found no grounds for criminal prosecution but recommended forwarding their findings to state bar disciplinary authorities.

But last week Newsweek and the Washington Post, quoting anonymous sources, reported that a final draft found Yoo guilty only of poor judgment and not professional misconduct.

If the reports of the still-unreleased findings are accurate, they would remove the possibility of government action against Yoo.

Yoo says he always gave good-faith legal advice and denies authorizing torture. Those claims could be tested in a San Francisco federal court, however, unless Yoo can persuade a court to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/02/10/MNVB1BS0V...

Speaking of the short bus...
Submitted by 60th Street on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 8:51pm.
[Photo of sign featuring "Homescholers for Perry."]
-----------
I'm over-thinking this.

He could have been going for scholars. Schoolers, scholars...it's one letter wrong either way.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/10/MN881BV3J9.D...

[excerpt]

...
And while "behavioral addictions" will be new to doctors' dictionaries, "Internet addiction" didn't make the cut.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/10/MN881BV3J9.D...

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Palin Trumps Obama

Never underestimate Sarah Palin. She did a better job articulating anti-banker sentiment at last week's Tea Party Convention than Obama's done. Its followers don't realize it, but the Tea Party movement is really a Trojan Horse filled with bankers and lobbyists. It's a brilliantly designed mechanism for redirecting anti-bank rage for the banks' own benefit, with Palin et al. in the forefront.

And it could work.

The game plan is to channel anti-Wall Street rage into an overall fury at "them" - big government, "liberal elites," everybody who seems to be better off than you and your family - and turn that rage toward the political party that most favors banks. It's not a new game. It's been going on since Nixon and Agnew inverted the historical understanding of the GOP as the party of big business and successfully painted the Democrats as a snobby group of elitists.

It's based on a simple bait-and-switch: Make sure that people stay angry at the bailout, which will essentially be history by the time of the next major election, and keep them from thinking about deregulation, which was the initial cause of the crisis. Emphasize the big bonuses - an artifact of the bailout - and ignore the rapacious and greedy behavior permitted by the weakening of oversight and actions like the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

That plan requires Democrats clumsy enough to let themselves be painted into a corner, despite their more middle-class-friendly proposals. Sadly, as back in Nixon's day, Democrats seem happy to oblige. The President's hapless remarks yesterday about bonuses for Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein weren't quite as bad as some have painted them, when taken in context - but the problem is what Democrats haven't yet learned: People don't take remarks like these "in context." Nuance isn't an effective response to fury or desperation.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/palin-trumps-obama---on-a_b_45778...

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100210_Scenes_from_the_snow...

while there IS some ambiguity...partly b/c El Panzón was also to a certain extent a PBA using images of indigenous people as symbols to fit his own (more altruistic) ideological agenda...partly because it may be less glaringly obvious the main thing this painting is about if you are looking at it as contiguous with other Rivera images of flower carriers...

Even still...you didn't REALLY

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5646#comment-394560

try to justify slavery and/or working conditions damn near that using the work of a FAMOUSLY COMMUNIST PAINTER did
you?! Really?!

Here's what a couple other folks said about the painting. Now granted it could be that neither one of them have Mexican mommas...

"The colourful painting displays a peasant man in white clothing with a yellow sombrero, struggling on all fours with a dramatically oversized basket of flowers that is strapped to his back with a yellow sling. A woman, most likely the peasant’s wife, stands behind him
trying to help with the support of the basket as he attempts to rise to his feet. While the flowers in the basket are strikingly beautiful to the viewer, the man does not see their beauty, but only their value as he carries them to the market for sale or exchange. The geometric
shapes offer bold and intense contrasts, with each figure, item, and foliage illustrated to reflect individualism. Some believe that the enormous basket strapped to the man’s back is representative of the encumbrances of an untrained worker in a modern, capitalistic world."

http://www.aaronartprints.org/rivera-theflowercarrier.php
_______

"The guide said, 'You have to be able to think like a communist--or at least an economist--to understand this painting.'

It's true. You have to note:

That in reality it's not the big basket of flowers that is
bone-crushingly heavy--but the burden of being an unskilled worker under modern capitalism is very heavy.
That flowers are and are a symbol of pleasant luxury--but the flower carrier never sees them: for him they are not pleasant use values, but only exchange values."

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/05/the_flower_carr.html

(Really mo such thing as an unskilled worker, Brad.)

------

If you are going to add this explicit "to be enjoyed" to "la vida es una lucha," you absolutely forfeit the right to subsume into that world view any state of being where all the struggling in the world cannot possibly get you much of anywhere because your ass absolutely belongs to somebody else. There's only one kind of struggle that can get you out of that place, and that kind would defeat the purpose of apologists for even such a level of exploitation of other human beings in the name of their own comfort.

Or are you really saying an enslaved person should make the best of their slavery? Peor es nada? Still? Seriously?

(Do you have green eyes?)

Free Democracy

Basal Paradigms of Culture

o Animism

o spiritual and material in equal balance
o individuals striving to live in balance

o Polytheism

o source of all was chaos
o strive to NOT anger gods
o spiritual perfect, physical imperfect

o Monotheism

o separation of spiritual and physical
o spiritual not part of this realm
o we are here to act out morality 'plays'
o expect divine intervention
o afterlife desireable
o follow infallible dogma threatened by challenges from
physical world itself and new knowledge about it

o Scientific Materialism

o truce between Church and Science (period between Copernicus to Darwin)
o Utopian world of science and spirit in harmony (Deist interlude during Enlightement)
o short period when Enlightenment applied 'rights', 'equality', 'freedom' from tyranny to social/political/governance change, and power from the bottom up
o random genetic accident source of origin (advent of Darwinian theory)
o material eclipses spiritual (for example, Protestant belief that material gain/success an expression of spiritual reward)
o 'fittest' dominates, law of the jungle applied (Darwinism transformed into Social Darwinism)
o challenge to results of the Enlightenment by Social Darwinists and right-by-might Materialists
o genome project discovers inadequacy of genetic evolutionary premise that DNA is sufficient for bio-creation in material world and shifts to epigenetics

Definition of Epigenetic
Epigenetic: Something that affects a cell, organ or individual without directly affecting its DNA. An epigenetic change may indirectly influence the expression of the genome. See also: Epigenetics.

From epi- meaning, in this context, after or beside + genetic.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=21819

======================

In other words, something outside the material basis of the DNA is necessary to affect the process. Some consider this outside something to be possibly non-material/metaphysical/spiritual.]

[This string of ideas is from my personal notes from the audiotape Spontaneous Evolution by Lipton and Bhaerman.]

======================

In view of all this shifting cultural paradigm stuff, the political mess in the USA may go alot deeper than just the usual political mess in the USA.

Of course, the dogmatic fundamentalist religious types are confused and desperate and, it would seem, have been for quite a while. While those more mystical types may actually be feeling hopeful.

Can you imagine how crazy, furious, desperate the Social Darwinists and Scientific Materialists must be when confronted with the prospect of something entering the equation that may be out of their control? What if it were as simple as all of the rest of us just visualizing that they change, that they become soft and retiring and donate all their (ill-gotten) wealth to orphanages and animal shelters?

Now this is a notion that will allow me to go to sleep, and snooze like a hibernator!

G'nite, all in SederHaven!

The National Pandemic Flu Service, set up to dispense drugs to patients in England without the need to see doctors, has closed down.

The closure - at 0100 GMT - came after a sharp decline in the number of cases of the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Health officials said the hotline and website could be restored in seven days should the situation change.

But parents with young children are still being advised to have them immunised against the disease.

At its peak, 40,000 people a week received antivirals through the National Pandemic Flu Service.

But the figure has now fallen to below 5,000 a week.

About five million of the 90 million doses of antiviral drugs that were made available were actually dispensed.

“ The virus may not be around at the moment but it could come back ”
Sir Liam Donaldson Chief Medical Officer for England
England was the only part of the UK to use the system, which allowed people to get Tamiflu by answering a series of tick-box questions.

Anyone who thinks they have flu can still check their symptoms online.

If they still have concerns they can contact NHS Direct (NHS24 in Scotland) or call their GP.

Chief Medical Officer for England Sir Liam Donaldson has repeated his call for parents of children aged six months to under five to have them immunised - even though cases of swine flu are very low.

He said: "The virus may not be around at the moment but it could come back".

However, Sir Liam denied the government had over-reacted.

Dr Sarah Jarvis, a GP from London, agreed vulnerable groups were still at risk.

She said: "Elderly people who have other medical conditions, young people, children under five, and pregnant women do seem to have been really disproportionately represented in the people who've had really nasty complications.

"So the question is - the risk is probably quite small now, but would you ever forgive yourself if your child didn't have the vaccination and ended up getting the infection and getting a really nasty complication?"

An announcement is expected in around 10 days regarding what the government will do with its remaining stocks of vaccine.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/8509736.stm

Published: 2010/02/11 07:01:30 GMT

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6195G920100211

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The only known aerial photographs of the World Trade Center as it collapsed on September 11, 2001, were released by ABC News on Wednesday.
The photos, taken from a helicopter by New York Police Det. Greg Semendinger, show the twin towers in flames, falling amid huge, billowing clouds of dust, debris and smoke that envelop downtown Manhattan.
The 13 photographs were among thousands of pictures that ABC News sought under the Freedom of Information Act from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which investigated the collapse of the towers, agency spokeswoman Gale Porter said.
While other photographs of the falling towers were taken on September 11, 2001 from satellites, rooftops and other aircraft, these photos are the only ones known to have been taken up close from an aircraft flying overhead in city airspace.
Nearly 3,000 people died when the twin towers were attacked by hijacked airliners.
The aerial photographs had been partially published in the past but now are publicly available to researchers.
"With these pictures, you move from a specific slice of information to much greater context," said Jan Ramirez, chief curator at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

PARIS — Ignoring United States threats of more stringent sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted on Thursday as saying Iran had produced a first batch of uranium enriched to a level of 20 percent that it was capable of achieving much higher levels of purity.

Iran was now “a nuclear state,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told a huge rally of supporters on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, The Associated Press reported.

Western experts have already said that once Iran was able to enrich uranium to 20 percent it could theoretically also move relatively quickly toward the manufacture of weapons-grade fuel, usually reckoned to require 90 percent purification.

The process at the Natanz facility south of Tehran took place in the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear oversight body. I.A.E.A. officials said Thursday they could not confirm the Iranian claim.

“Right now at Natanz we have the capability to enrich uranium to much higher levels,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told tens of thousands of supporters in Tehran’s Azadi Square, saying “it was reported that the first consignment of 20 percent enriched uranium was produced and was put at the disposal of the scientists,” Reuters reported.

“In the near future we will treble its production,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said.

In a note distributed to the agency’s member states late Wednesday, the director general of the I.A.E.A., Yukiya Amano, said that when the inspectors arrived at the Natanz on Wednesday, they were informed that Iran had already begun to feed low-enriched uranium into a cascade of centrifuges for enrichment, ostensibly for use in a medical reactor.

The inspectors were told that “within a few days” Iran would produce 20 percent pure uranium, the note said, according to diplomats who saw it. Iran had said the amount of low-enriched uranium to be processed was small, around 22 pounds. Iran is believed to currently possess only one centrifuge capable of processing to a purity level of 20 percent.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks followed Iran’s announcement only on Monday that it would begin enrichment to 20 percent. The response in the West was an increased clamor for the imposition of sanctions that would target the Revolutionary Guards Corps in particular. The United States Treasury Department imposed unilateral sanctions on Wednesday against a corps commander and four companies linked to the organization.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, rejecting accusations that it is planning to build a nuclear bomb.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/middleeast/12nuke.html

Layoffs related to outsourcing, Labor training requests show

TAMPA - Even as Florida faces near-record unemployment, some companies continue to lay off workers and move work overseas.

U.S. Department of Labor documents obtained by The Tampa Tribune show that Apria Healthcare, a company that distributes diabetic and respiratory supplies to patients, is cutting as many as 79 jobs in Tampa by next month and shifting at least some of the work overseas.

Meantime, a second Bay area company, Essilor Laboratories of America, said a year ago that it was cutting 159 positions in St. Petersburg. At the time Essilor told a local media outlet that the layoffs resulted from the loss of business. The Labor Department documents show that the layoffs related to the shifting of work to Mexico.

Always a hot-button issue, the shipping of work overseas, known as "offshore outsourcing," may be particularly sensitive today. Florida's unemployment rate hit 11.8 percent in December, just shy of its record of 11.9 percent, set in 1975. The Apria outsourcing news comes on the heels of a plan by Idearc Media, publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages, to cut about 150 jobs in St. Petersburg as it moves work to an Indian outsourcing firm.

Apria filed documents with the Labor Department seeking to win federal training assistance for several hundred workers nationwide under the Training Adjustment Assistance program. The TAA program helps people who lost work because of foreign competition.

It wasn't clear this week exactly how many local employees Apria is cutting. In the company's TAA application it says it already eliminated or will eliminate 79 patient billing and collections jobs in Tampa by March. The company is restructuring its operations and outsourcing some work overseas, although it didn't name which country.

Chris Keithly, a former employee who left Apria after the outsourcing deal was announced, said the work is being sent to India and estimated about 70 jobs in Tampa were affected.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/11/sp-layoffs-related-to-outsourcin...

toniD's Ya Think?

:(

WASHINGTON — Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security company of defrauding the government for years by filing bogus receipts, double billing for the same services and charging government agencies for strippers and prostitutes, according to court documents unsealed this week.

In a December 2008 lawsuit, the former employees said top Blackwater officials had engaged in a pattern of deception as they carried out government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The lawsuit, filed under the False Claims Act, also asserts that Blackwater officials turned a blind eye to “excessive and unjustified” force against Iraqi civilians by several Blackwater guards.

Blackwater has earned billions of dollars from government agencies in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, when the company won contracts to protect American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former employees who filed the lawsuit, a married couple named Brad and Melan Davis, said there was little financial oversight of the money.

Last year, an audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction and the State Department’s inspector general found that the State Department had overpaid Blackwater $55 million because the company had failed to adequately staff its teams assigned to protect American diplomats in Iraq.

The documents detailing the Davises’ accusations were unsealed after the Justice Department declined to join in the case against Blackwater, which last year changed its name to Xe Services. A Xe spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment about the case.

In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Davis said that she and her husband had decided to proceed with the case because “it’s the right thing to do,” and that it was time for “the truth from inside the company” to be made public. If the government is able to recover money from Blackwater as a result of the lawsuit, the Davises could claim a percentage as whistleblowers.

Mr. Davis, a former Marine, performed a number of jobs for the company, including working as a private security guard in Iraq.

Ms. Davis was fired from the company, and she is challenging the legality of her dismissal. Mr. Davis voluntarily resigned from the company.

According to the lawsuit, Ms. Davis raised concerns about the company’s bookkeeping with her bosses in March 2006, when she was handling accounts for the company’s contracts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit claims she was told to “back off,” and that she “would never win a medal for saving the government money.”

Ms. Davis also asserts that a Filipino prostitute in Afghanistan was put on the Blackwater payroll under the “Morale Welfare Recreation” category, and that the company had billed the prostitute’s plane tickets and monthly salary to the government.

She also said Blackwater management used a subsidiary company, Greystone Ltd., to double bill the government for plane tickets between the United States and Amman, Jordan, which served as a transit point for the company’s employees in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/us/11suit.html?ref=world

... a NUCLEAR Issue...YET DOING NOTHINGc - except more useless rhetoric! :):(

Indiana customers of WellPoint are joining Californians in their outrage over steep hikes in the premiums they pay for individual health-insurance coverage.
Early retiree Perry Stow, South Bend, said he was shocked to learn that as of March 1, his individual coverage through Anthem, a unit of Indianapolis-based WellPoint, would jump from $280 to $387.49 a month -- an increase of 38 percent.

"It doesn't make sense to me," said Stow, 52.
He's now looking for an alternative but fears he's stuck paying for Anthem's individual plan, one of the few choices available for self-employed workers and early retirees who can't get cheaper coverage through larger employer-sponsored group plans.
"You don't have any choice," Stow said. "If you have any breaks in coverage, you pay dearly for it."
Stow is not alone in the sticker shock.
Les Strickland, a self-employed bread distributor from Indianapolis, says he received notice that premiums for his Anthem policy will jump 33 percent as of March 1. Lou Herchenroeder, a pastor in Westfield, said he just absorbed a 31 percent increase for family coverage through a WellPoint Lumenos high-deductible plan.
The increases in Indiana came to light after WellPoint -- the nation's largest commercial insurer in terms of membership -- encountered criticism this week from President Barack Obama and California regulators for increasing premiums on individual health insurance plans by as much as 39 percent in California.
The hefty hikes also come after Obama's health-care reform legislation has stalled in Congress, deepening a rift between the administration and the insurance industry and sparking renewed calls by Obama and others for action.
The U.S. secretary of health and human services has asked WellPoint to publicly justify the increases in California.
The California Department of Insurance has said it would have an independent actuary analyze the Anthem premium increases to make sure at least 70 percent of those payments are going toward health benefits, as required by California law. Indiana has no such requirement.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100211/BUSINESS03/2110419/Hoosiers-liv...

;)

Nuclear Power - The Cleanest and Coolest Choice?

Nuclear power plants can provide the electrical energy needed to produce hydrogen and oxygen gases by the simple process of electrolysis. Hydrogen gas is an alternate fuel for cars with internal combustion engines. Hydrogen gas can replace natural gas or can be used to enrich natural gas. The technology and gas distribution system is existing for use in homes, offices, and factories. The oxygen can be used in many chemical and energy processes, including the conversion of cast iron to steel.

Hydrogen propulsion shifts from rockets to racers as BMW sets nine new speed records, marking the start of the hydrogen age for automobiles. The single-seater H2R Record Car uses a 6.0-litre 12-cylinder power unit producing in excess of 210 kW, that races to 100 km/h in just six seconds and has a top speed of 302.4 km/h. The engine is based on the V12 unit powering BMW�s flagship limousine, the BMW 760Li. The hydrogen combustion engine boasts the most advanced technologies, such as BMW's fully variable VALVETRONIC valve train control.

Now how would you like a motorcycle powered by nuclear reactors? Though it sounds a bit shocking and unbelievable at first, the whole world has been talking about electric powered vehicles and how to save energy. The cheapest way of producing electricity is definitely through nuclear energy. However, the usage of nuclear reactors in a motorcycle is a little off the track and could even prove to be dangerous. Bully 2000 definitely looks good, rather retro and strange, but definitely an interesting design. However, one can’t vouch for the safety of nuclear powered vehicles unless they have the strictest safety guidelines. How safe are these vehicles when it comes to radioactive materials is a question that needs to be answered. On a lighter note, Ahmedinejad might definitely feel envious that nuclear energy can be used easily by designers in the west, but not by the government of Iran. Talk about hypocrisy, Bully 2000 may give a hint or two about modern day nuclear powered culture of the west. One can safely say, nuclear powered vehicles may indeed be free of emission and certainly green, but the success would depend on the safety of these machines.

;):(

Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 5:30am.

Egos are brusied. Cultures want to show their superiority.Religions want equality on the world stage Nobody trusts anyone else. Who wants to be the worlds dominant culture. Who has the right to tell others how run their country. Might makes right ? Fear motivates countries to be violent. Oil companies want to remain as the world's leaders. No one ever thinks of the future of the whole planet. What culture or political system has the moral imperative if nobody acts morally? Always show your competion some respect and seek common ground. Admit mistakes from the past find common ground. Share your success with others . Dream of a better future .project a desire to live together as unique cultures. Fix your "house" before you criticize others.
Seems like a plan to me .

by who his guest is. Today it is Joe Conasen(sp), who is very liberal, talking about Obama's comments yesterday. Scar's comments this AM are more against the CEOs and the bonus culture. He is calling out his conservative brethern about all their failures and all the busts we've had in our economy since the Reps were in power. And how this doesn't happen in other countries.

toniD's Ya Think?

Global support for a tax on banks is growing, says Gordon Brown

Prime minister predicts financial deal by G20 in June

A global bank tax could soon be agreed by the world's leading economies as a response to last year's financial crisis, Gordon Brown said today.

"Support is building" for a deal to potentially tax the international financial services sector to the tune of tens of billions of pounds, the prime minister said in an interview in today's Financial Times.

Brown said he hoped a deal would be hammered out at the G20 summit in ­Canada in June, glossing over the ­possibility that he may not be in charge by then.

He insisted he was not attacking banks or their wealthy employees for ideological reasons, but to raise funds.

The prime minister said those with the "broadest shoulders" should pay more, and insisted that the tax would raise "a substantial amount of money". But he admitted that many high flyers would do their best to avoid paying, and so the amount raised would be "not as high as you would like it to be".

He defended the new 50p top rate of tax, saying the government did not want to introduce it, but that needs must. "We have no desire to have a tax rate that is higher than necessary," he said.

Quite how a global tax would work is unclear, but Brown said he thought the International Monetary Fund would propose a method that would be "somewhat different" from the tax on wholesale funding proposed by Barack Obama.

The US president disagreed with Brown earlier in the year after he proposed that the state should take a cut of bank transactions – a Tobin tax – but the IMF is thought to be considering alternatives, such as a tax on bank profits, turnover or remuneration.

Brown also said he wanted to build up Britain's universities. "There are 1,000 universities being built in India and we want to be part of this educational export. I think that education will be perhaps our biggest export in 20 years' time," he told the Financial Times.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/11/gordon-brown-bank-tax-pla...

toniD's Ya Think?

I have seen these at the Car Show for a couple of years now.I would be very happy to see the Nascar Racers get into this technology.

But what is this obsession to go fast fast fast? what's the rush anyway? I quess people aren't happy with where they are at. Rush away or stay and fix your environment. ?
Lets run away from the earth and move our sickness to other planets just in case we blow this one up. Where are the other life forms from other planets when you need them?
(staying away from the crash of the human ? cultures flexing their muscles)

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 6:28am.

Nice "find" Toni. This kind of thinking excites me.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/11/gordon-brown-bank-tax-pla...

... & Hydrogen 2. ;)

Perfect words ... runaway = Massive folks = ruin & use up this SACRED Planet then LEAVE = me = GRRR! NOT ALLOWED!

I am sure a couple of times before but I am just happy that he is speaking again over the AM airwaves in NYC.

The world is divided into two groups. The One group thinks in terms of "we The People'

The Other group( rethugs etc) thinks in terms of Me the Person."

It is simplistic but accurate.

is this a replay of yesterdays show or an early version of todays show? what station is it on?

... I watch where I ALWAYS STEP 24/7 -- BUT MOST HUMANS DON'T!

WHAT GOOD IS IT? WE, WTP, ARE STILL DESTROYING THIS PLANET {& NATURAL PLANTS}
...AND SO MUCH MORE MUST BE DONE IMMEDIATELY! ACT & REACT NOW! It makes one feel "better"! :D

Submitted by nora on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:29am
started me up again and got me "thinking again". Have I said how much I appreciate her efforts?

I better go sleep for a while before the less mystical investors in the broken paradigm get upset.

The world is divided into two groups. The One group thinks in terms of "we The People'

The Other group( rethugs etc) thinks in terms of Me the Person."

It is simplistic but accurate.

*** ***
... well said...

I am not sue from what show in the last few days he had brought that up,. I did notice him being more assertive and clearly rebellious yesterday. I can tell he is happy to be on for free in the NYC market. He certainly is an improvemnet over Montel.

ok. thats the same as the rebroadcast on xm. somehow i thought you were saying he was on right now.

WE, WTP, ARE STILL DESTROYING THIS PLANET {& NATURAL PLANTS}
...AND SO MUCH MORE MUST BE DONE IMMEDIATELY! ACT & REACT NOW! It makes one feel "better"! :D

Just watched Rachel - what a great piece of t.v.
Fucking re-thug-ick-thugs.

"

Remember this....

oh i sea the periodic "constant" cop car {eye-roll}

... ... :):(

...memories... Wolves sliding down mountain hills * on their bellies. awwww hahaha

;

Might make him start thinking. Did you ever wonder about the word addled! Well Broder is a good example.

toniD's Ya Think?

and I hope you are/he is right.
======
Meanwhile, same paper, same day:

Although Palin is a tea party favorite, her potential as a presidential hopeful takes a severe hit in the survey. Fifty-five percent of Americans have unfavorable views of her, while the percentage holding favorable views has dipped to 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling.

There is a growing sense that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey.
=============

Howsomever...there is barely disguised hyping (Broder)...and then there is "fretting"...and then there is not letting your guard down, especially when pathetic, clueless Dems (including the prez) are leaving their (and our) noses wide open.

"all disdain all the time" meme for this, and I mean no disrespect to Bo (the cute/smart one, as opposed to BO) because it's not his fault...but what is up with that fancy/ugly grooming job? It makes him look like something out of Dr. Seuss.

"Who dresses this guy" writ large if you ask me. (Or even if you don't.) ;)

Gotta go.

I liked it better when you said "fucking off now" instead of "gotta go"

not that I want you to fuck off, but it was funnier

(MOorning)

"this machine kills fascists"

;);(

Fucking off now. ;)

TY! :)

"this machine kills fascists"

EX-EMPLOYEES: BLACKWATER CHARGED U.S. TAXPAYERS FOR PROSTITUTES

WASHINGTON — Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security company of defrauding the government for years by filing bogus receipts, double billing for the same services and charging government agencies for strippers and prostitutes, according to court documents unsealed this week.

In a December 2008 lawsuit, the former employees said top Blackwater officials had engaged in a pattern of deception as they carried out government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The lawsuit, filed under the False Claims Act, also asserts that Blackwater officials turned a blind eye to “excessive and unjustified” force against Iraqi civilians by several Blackwater guards.

Blackwater has earned billions of dollars from government agencies in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, when the company won contracts to protect American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former employees who filed the lawsuit, a married couple named Brad and Melan Davis, said there was little financial oversight of the money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/us/11suit.html

State of denial: Robert Fisk searches for peace in Israel

Can peace in the Middle East be achieved while both Israelis and Palestinians refuse to give ground? Robert Fisk takes a road trip through a divided land, from Ben-Gurion's Tel Aviv villa to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the besieged Gaza Strip

Last week, in the dog-day resort of Herzliya, I attended much of the vast conference of Israel's great and good – or at least the largely right-wing variety – to find out how they now saw the country that was founded amid such danger by Ben-Gurion 62 years ago. It was the same old story.

"The Palestinians are the ones who are today the naysayers" – this from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 'security advisor', Uzi Arad......

......I was reminded of Hannah Arendt's observation that the congress of World Zionist Organisation's American section in October 1944 would "embrace the whole of Palestine, undivided and undiminished". She went on: "This is a turning point in Zionist history... This time the Arabs were simply not mentioned in the resolution, which obviously leaves them the choice between voluntary emigration or second-class citizenship."

For Arendt, the Atlantic City congress reflected "the tremendously increased importance of American Jewry and American Zionism..." The result was to forfeit any chance of Arab interlocutors, "leaving the door wide open for an outside power to take over".

And it is worth quoting Arendt once more: "...the Zionists, if they continue to ignore the Mediterranean peoples and watch out only for the big faraway powers, will appear only as their tools, the agents of foreign and hostile interests. Jews who know their own history should be aware that such a state of affairs will inevitably lead to a new wave of Jew-hatred; the anti- semitism of tomorrow will assert that Jews not only profiteered from the presence of the foreign big powers in that region but had actually plotted it and hence are guilty of the consequences."

At Herzliya, Arendt's words were as if they did not exist...

....But is there not another country in the Middle East which is receiving a "real arms transfer"? Was it not a corporate vice president of Lockheed Martin who announced last month – in Bahrain of all places – that his company hopes to sign a deal with Israel for up to 100 new F-35 jets, replacements for the F-16s that did so much damage to Gaza? Patrick Dewar, I should add, hoped to flog more of these planes to Gulf countries – which means Saudi Arabia – although we can be sure they won't have quite the state-of-the-art offensive power as the ones sold to Israel. Israel itself is building more Merkava tanks and Namer armoured personnel carriers, completing a new squadron of Heron pilotless but missile-firing 'drone' aircraft with a 26-metre wingspan – the same as a Boeing 737 – and a maximum altitude of 45,000 feet, and acquiring new C130 Hercules aircraft and an upgrading of Apache helicopters with new advanced radar and targeting capabilities.

But Herzliya was, in the end, the same old story. Israel was surrounded by enemies, a small, vulnerable nation – we shall forget, here, its own estimated 264 nuclear warheads – under attack by the world for daring to defend itself.

Up in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was toasting that old scoundrel Silvio Berlusconi, who had announced that "my greatest dream is to include Israel among the European Union countries". Italy and Israel were proud, he said, that they were part of a Judeo-Christian culture that is the basis for European culture. This was a bit much. Roman colonial rule in Judea and Samaria was a savage period in Jewish history and the fascist ruler of Italy – with whom Berlusconi sometimes shares an astonishing physical similarity – was not mentioned.

Netanyahu called the Italian Prime Minister a "courageous leader who is a great champion of freedom and a great supporter of peace." It was a bit like Herzliya: an epic of self-delusion....
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/state-of-denial-r...

Evangelicals ask Obama to help missionaries jailed in Haiti

...some prominent American Baptists in the United States, including Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, have been enraged by the handling of the case.

Land, who wrote to President Barack Obama on Saturday asking him to do ‘‘everything in your considerable power to secure the release'' of the detainees, said Wednesday he was growing increasingly frustrated with what he viewed as inaction.

"If I were the president, I'd call President Preval and say, ‘President Clinton is down there and we're going to have him swim by and pick up the missionaries and we'll adjudicate any court issues in the U.S.,' '' Land said

...After the Wednesday hearing in an air-conditioned side room at the courthouse, the missionaries filed out one-by-one under a heavy police escort.

As they filed out of the courtroom, some of the stared ahead, a few smiled, and one spoke.

"God is good, God is good," said Laura Silsby, an Idaho businesswoman who is the leader of the group. The group was then shuttled back to the Haitian police station where they have been held since they were detained earlier this month.

The issue could be politically tricky for Obama as he presses a domestic agenda that already has the opposition of many conservatices.

"Every day these people spend in a squalid Haitian prison does considerable damage to Mr. Obama's standing with evangelicals," Land said Wednesday. "The question how badly and how permanently depends on what the administration does."

Land said he's encouraging fellow Baptists to register their complaints with their member of Congress.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/84266.html

Liberal don't support kidnapping. What do you think Rahm?

Telecommunications February 11, 2010, 12:05AM EST text size: TT
FCC May Pay Broadcasters for Airwaves
To relieve the strain on mobile networks caused by smartphones, the agency is considering a plan to pay broadcasters to vacate some of their airwaves
By Olga Kharif

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a plan to pay broadcasters to vacate airwaves it could use to alleviate network strain caused by the surging use of smartphones such as the iPhone, an FCC official said.

Regulators are weighing the compensation as part of a larger effort to improve access to high-speed Internet connections, says the official, who asked not to be identified because the plan is not yet public. The National Broadband Plan is due to be delivered to Congress in March.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in October warned of a "looming spectrum crisis," saying it poses a threat to U.S. mobile communications. Genachowski's staff, in the broadband plan, will outline ways to make additional spectrum available. The plan may propose using revenue from airwave auctions to pay existing users to exit airwaves, the FCC official says.

Clogged Networks
"One of the options we are considering is compensating incumbent users to vacate, perhaps by receiving a share of the proceeds, subject to congressional approval," the official says. "We know there's a spectrum crunch; we are just trying to come up with options."

The government is looking for ways to cope as consumers step up use of mobile handsets including Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry, and devices running the Android operating system, developed by a Google (GOOG)-led group. The surging data use results in clogged networks and dropped calls for companies such as AT&T (T).

The FCC in December asked the public for comment on whether broadcasters should relinquish some airwaves. Blair Levin, the FCC official who is overseeing the drafting of the broadband plan, said in December he wanted to explore "the idea that some broadcasters might wish to sell their spectrum in a way that benefits them and the country."

Typically, the government keeps proceeds from airwave auctions. Two recent big auctions alone generated $33.5 billion. New auctions could raise "tens of billions of dollars," says Peter Cramton, an economist at the University of Maryland at College Park. In the next decade, the government may need to double the amount of spectrum available, he says.

Broadcasters May Be Reluctant
There's no guarantee that Congress will approve the FCC's recommendation or that broadcasters will accept payment in exchange for relinquishing airwaves they could use to expand in areas including mobile digital TV (DTV), says Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, a Washington-based trade group.

"The broadcasters that I talk to are excited about the future, and particularly the opportunities afforded by live and local mobile DTV," Wharton says in an e-mailed statement. "They have no interest in 'cashing out' based on a speculative promise from the FCC that we will be receiving money in exchange for spectrum."

Broadcasters could free up some of their airwaves for high-speed wireless purposes while continuing to provide over-the-air broadcasts at other frequencies, Coleman Bazelon, a Washington-based analyst at The Brattle Group, wrote in an October paper submitted to the FCC.

That scenario would free up an estimated $48 billion in spectrum and involve paying broadcasters about $6 billion, according to the research. Redeploying the spectrum would have "far-reaching economic and social benefits," Bazelon wrote. "Not doing anything is a costly option."

Kharif is a reporter for Bloomberg BusinessWeek in Portland, Ore.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2010/tc20100210_185317...

No FCC Bailouts in Store for Media
Submitted by CeeCee on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 2:19pm.
http://samsedershow.com/node/5649#comment-394656
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable
2/8/2010 2:00:00 AM
More at:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/448011-Waldman_No_FCC_Bailouts_...

...in the Washington D.C. metro area WTOP expanded last year to 2-3 dials in AM and FM and recently took over AAR 1050AM, our progressive station.

...don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system."

A decade of high unemployment is looming
‘New abnormal:’ Some think 10 years won’t be enough to replace losses

The unemployed number 15.4 million. The jobless rate is 10 percent. More than 7 million jobs have vanished. People out of work at least six months number a record 5.9 million. And household income, adjusted for inflation, has shrunk in the past decade.

Most economists say it could take at least until 2015 for the unemployment rate to drop down to a historically more normal 5.5 percent. And with the job market likely to stay weak, some also foresee another decade of wage stagnation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34601256/ns/business-us_business/

Suck it up America. Suck it up for barack.

13 Awesome Things To Do With Snow (PHOTOS)
Huffington Post-Dan Abramson First Posted: 02-11-10 08:56 AM/Updated: 02-11-10 09:10 AM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/11/awesome-things-to-do-with_n_458...

*as Blizzards 2010 were dubbed by Randi Rhodes during her show on 2-10-10.

Only 3,200 tigers are believed to exist in the wild
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/feb/10/wwf-year-of-th...

"I, like most of the American people,...
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 11:35am.
...don’t begrudge people success or wealth.

...when they actually earn it through honest hard work, dedication and social obligation; but I draw the line at success and wealth, achieved by deliberate schemes, manipulation, deceit, greed and fraud, which leave anyone destitute and unable to sustain an adequate/reasonable existence (shelter, food, employment, education, health care) in pursuit of their own-designed success or wealth.

do not care if a person has food & shelter...

Was surprised to find out that the Earned Income Tax Credit stops when you turn 65. Was expecting more back. That's going to hurt.

If you are still working past 65, most of the time it's because you need the income. I wonder why they would stop the EIC at 65? It would be better than people going to the gov't for other help. That credit could pay for energy use for the year plus a few other thing.

toniD's Ya Think?

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

MMRules

Q: What is the difference between a "public option" and a single-payer plan?

A: Single-payer is a complete government-run health insurance system under which everyone is covered, e.g., Canada’s system. The "public option" is a single federal insurance plan that would compete with private insurance companies.

Read the full question and answer

http://factcheck.org/2009/12/public-option-vs-single-payer/

To ‘cut’ the ‘entitlement mentality,’ Rep. Kingston touts privatizing Social Security and Medicare.

In the past two weeks, Republican lawmakers have revived the prospect of privatizing Social Security and Medicare, starting with a push from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), whose budget proposal radically slashes and privatizes the entitlement programs. On Tuesday night, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) went on Fox Business to lend his voice to the campaign. Kingston said to “cut…programs that are expanding the entitlement mentality,” we should privatize both Social Security and Medicare:

KINGSTON: We need to go in, and we need to cut duplicate programs, programs that are inefficient, programs that are expanding the entitlement mentality. I think we should go back to Social Security, take it off budget, dedicate the funds, put personal accounts on it. On Medicare, I think something like vouchers, where people actually have an incentive to save money.

Watch it:

If President Bush had been successful privatizing Social Security, a October 2008 retiree would have lost $26,000 in the market plunge. Indeed, as a Center for American Progress report has found, if the U.S. stock market had behaved like the Japanese market during the duration of that retiree’s work life, “a private account would have experienced sharp negative returns, losing $70,000 — an effective — 3.3 percent net annual rate of return.” And a Wonk Room analysis of the recent Medicare privatization plan by Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) found that such an arrangement would shift the cost of insurance from the government to the individual, particularly lower-income beneficiaries. Nevertheless, Republicans, along with their Wall Street allies, are pressing forward to fight again to dismember popular, effective entitlement programs.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/11/kingston-privatize-entitlements/

toniD's Ya Think?

Toyota undone by Japan's work ethic?

Japan's religious adherence to a long-hours work culture backfires, causing mistakes and hitting productivity

When I read that Toyota was recalling vehicles both in Japan and abroad, my response was a combination of mild surprise and a sense of complete inevitability...

Instead of planning their day efficiently and going home at a sensible time, employees are often obliged to work late – sometimes until the small hours – returning home to eat long after their wives and families have gone to bed. Not infrequently, this kind of work regime ends in hospitalisation or worse, and there are knock-on effects as children who rarely see their fathers fail at school and marriages between people who never see each other sour.

...There are also even graver consequences. Hardly a day goes by without the departures board at my local railway station announcing an "accident involving a human body", a euphemism for when somebody falls under a moving train, either from sheer exhaustion or by choice.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/11/toyota-japan-work-et...

Disgruntled Japanese turn to resurgent communists

While the leaders of Japan's two main political parties battle poor opinion poll ratings and accusations of sleaze, the Japanese Communist party (JCP) has seen its fortunes transformed after years of being dismissed as an irrelevant hangover from the cold war.

In the last 16 months membership has soared to more than 410,000 as the revamped party courts younger voters from the working poor. Of the 14,000 ­people to have joined since the end of 2007, about a quarter are aged under 30, the party says. That contrasts with the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), whose membership has plummeted from 5 million at its peak to about a million today....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/japanese-communist-party-res...

...compresses some of the most powerful cinematic moments of the aughts into 7 mesmerizing minutes. It has some weird choices, but it also had me rapt. Spoiler warning: If you haven't seen The Departed, then don't watch this...

http://www.good.is/post/intermission-the-greatest-cinematic-moments-of-t...

in Jollyold

[snip]

The report says a minimum income should allow people to consume a healthy diet, take exercise and have technology such as broadband, that enables them to maintain social networks.

[snip]

Sir Michael Marmot: "Children who are nurtured, flourish" :)

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=106706

FON

What's New ?

http://marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/2010/02/yes-shes-idiot.html

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

MMRules

via Andrew Sullivan.

If the same one...did you notice there aren't any chicks in there for like the first third of it?

Just guys walkin'. With a purpose. N blowin' shit up.

I guess that should have been FOA (fucking off ahorita).

The Daily show:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-february-10-2010/unusually-large-s...

The Colbert Report:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/264085/february-1...

toniD's Ya Think?

How the Obama Administration Ended Up Where Franklin Roosevelt Began
by Steve Fraser

Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, off-year elections do not always favor the minority party. Indeed, 1934 may be the best example of the opposite effect. Exactly because the New Deal showed itself ever readier to junk the ancien régime, break with economic orthodoxy, and above all say goodbye to its erstwhile corporate friends, it was rewarded handsomely at the polls. None of that apparently will be repeated in 2010, given an administration that seems to be running a New Deal in reverse.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/11-6

It was a heartbreaking tragedy. A Massachusetts man, distraught over losing his home to foreclosure and other struggles, shot his wife, her dog and their horse before setting his house on fire and turning the gun on himself.

But responders to the scene discovered a glimmer of hope: The horse, Picaro, survived the shooting, despite taking several gunshots to his face.

UAN issued a LifeLine Grant toward Picaro’s mounting veterinary bills, and we are pleased to report this survivor is on the path to recovery and a new future.
http://www.uan.org/index.cfm?navid=679

The Big Shake: Is Chicago Earthquake a Wake Up Call for Clean Coal?

Other experts openly question whether injecting carbon dioxide back into underground storage areas might actually trigger earthquakes.

According to an article in New Scientist last year, “Chemical reactions between the injected CO2, water and rock could also destabilise the rock, says Ernest Majer, a seismologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California who briefed the Senate on CCS hazards this week.
“It’s such a new technology that none of these issues have been addressed,” says Majer.”
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/02/11/the-big-shake-is-chicago-...

WellPoint Rate Hike: Insurer Blames 'Demographics' For 39% Premium Increase In California

INDIANAPOLIS — Health insurer WellPoint blames a shift in demographics and rising medical costs for its planned 39 percent rate hike for some California customers.

In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, WellPoint Inc. tells Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that because of the weak economy, healthy people are dropping coverage or buying cheaper plans. The decline in premium revenue means there's less money to cover claims from sicker customers who are keeping their coverage. That resulted in a 2009 loss for the unit. The insurer says its 2010 rates aim to cover the shortfall expected from the continuation of that trend.

"When the healthy leave and the sick stay, that is going to dramatically drive up costs," Brian Sassi, who heads WellPoint's consumer business unit, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The letter to Sebelius said insurance costs also continue to rise because medical prices are increasing faster than inflation, and people are using more health care. That use increase is driven by an aging population, new treatments and "more intensive diagnostic testing," the letter said.

WellPoint said a minority of customers will see 39 percent increases and that those customers have an option to choose plans with a lower premium but higher out-of-pocket costs.

The federal inquiry was launched earlier this week after the premium increase planned for some customers who buy individual policies from WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross subsidiary was widely publicized.

Congress also has asked for information on the increases and requested testimony from WellPoint CEO Angela Braly at a Feb. 24 hearing.

Rates for individual health insurance policies tend to rise much faster than those of employer-sponsored coverage, said Robert Laszewski, a health care consultant and former insurance executive.

The pool of customers is more stable for group health insurance. In the individual market, healthy people are more inclined to drop coverage when they see big price hikes because they don't have employer help paying for it. That leaves behind sicker customers who stay because they still need coverage.
Story continues below

Sassi said as much as one-third of their individual insurance customers leave every year. That volatility can lead to big changes in the mix of people covered and rate swings.

Administrative costs also can be higher for individual lines because the insurer has to sell each policy individually instead of to a larger group.

WellPoint is the largest publicly traded health insurer based on membership and is a dominant player in the individual insurance market in California. Based in Indianapolis, the company runs Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states and Unicare plans in several others.

Individual insurance makes up only 6 percent of WellPoint's total enrollment of 33.7 million people.

Sebelius had called the increases "extraordinary" and told the insurer in a letter she was disturbed to learn about them. She also has demanded that the insurer answer questions about how much of a profit it will make from the hike.

WellPoint as a whole made a profit of $4.75 billion in 2009, though $2 billion of that came from the sale of a business.

Sassi said in the letter to Sebelius that the Anthem Blue Cross unit at the heart of the inquiry lost millions in 2009. He declined to offer specifics in an interview.

The executive said Anthem Blue Cross set some of its prices, or premiums, too low last year for the claims it received. It set 2010 prices based on what it thinks future prices will be.

"We need to make sure that our premiums cover the cost of claims," he said.

Sassi said a minority of Anthem Blue Cross's 800,000 individual policy holders in California will see rate increases as high as 39 percent. Most premiums will rise around 24 percent when the rates take effect March 1.

Shares of WellPoint fell 15 cents to $59.86 in afternoon trading.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/11/wellpoint-rate-hike-insur_n_458...

toniD's Ya Think?

well well well -everyone seems to get the rethug obstrucitonism except the people who need to get it...dump 'em all except for 2 or 3...seriously

valley....a cow was standing with it....

Anthem Blue Cross Spending Questioned After Rates Hikes Up To 39% (VIDEO)

California's largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, is expected to raise premiums by 30 to 39 percent on an unknown number of its 800,000 members. The announcement isn't sitting well with a wide range of people -- from government officials to Anthem members.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanded that the insurer reveal how much they stand to profit from the rate hike in a to the company earlier this week.

An inquiry is also being launched by California Insurance Commissioner Steven Poizner. While the increase doesn't require state approval, he wants to ensure that it abides by state regulation and 70 percent of income from premiums will be directed to medical costs.

A video released today by Sick For Profit includes an interview with an dissatisfied Anthem member and a look at how the some of the company's money is being spent on compensation and on lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

WATCH: at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/11/anthem-blue-cross-spendin_n_458...

toniD's Ya Think?

Bipartisan Jobs Bill Would Do Little To Create Jobs »

AP | STEPHEN OHLEMACHER | February 11, 2010 at 12:06 PM

WASHINGTON — There's a problem with the bipartisan jobs bill emerging in the Senate: It won't create many jobs.

The bill includes tax cuts to please Republicans and its passage would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory. But even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation's centerpiece – a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers – would work only on the margins.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100211/us-what-jobs/

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama Shares Wall Street’s Delusions

Via Bloomberg, we learned yesterday that President Obama buys in to the Wall Street delusion that bankers actually deserve really high salaries. Speaking about JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon and Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein, he said this:

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street,

“there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/02/11/obama-shares-wall-streets...

What Obama means to me
Jimmy Rollins baseball player

I'd never done anything political before, so it was way out of my comfort realm. But I got a phone call one day, when the Philadelphia Phillies were in the midst of the play-offs, trying to win a World Series. "Hey, would you like to jump on a bus and campaign for Obama?"......

Even though he supports the White Sox, I forgive him...

....This election makes the impossible possible. At school I pretty much knew my options: work for somebody else's business or become an athlete. Now, with him becoming president, the ceiling has been raised. Kids at school see Obama and think that maybe they can be something other than an athlete or a rapper - maybe they can do something that really matters, maybe they can run their own business.

It didn't strike me as strange to campaign for the guy who'll raise my taxes. I don't know if we can justify making the amount of money we make - how can you put a value on entertainment? - but if raising my taxes a little helps America become a better place, then I'm all for it. You have to build from the bottom.

Obama's presidency will dictate whether I campaign again in 2012. But if during his first four years in office he gets America going back in the right direction, I'll be out there.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/01/us-sport-barack-obama

(Rollins was named the 2007 National League Most Valuable Player, and has been named to the National League All-Star team three times (2001, 2002, 2005). He also became the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to collect at least 200 hits, 15 triples, 25 homers, and 25 stolen bases in one season, and holds the record for most at bats in a season with 716.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Rollins

when are these dumb asses going to figure out that bipartisanship is a fricking waste of time. they would be better off teaching a pig to sing.

here's your singing pig

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/the-singing-pig/8F87363AAF5EB67BE...

toniD's Ya Think?

Pelosi Makes Her Case: A Majority Is 51 Votes
By Steven T. Dennis
Roll Call Staff
Feb. 10, 2010

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pinning the blame on Republicans for a lack of bipartisanship in Congress and plans to bypass them if they continue to oppose efforts to enact near-universal health care.

“A constitutional majority is 51 votes,” Pelosi said in an interview Tuesday with Roll Call. “If in fact the Republicans are going to say nothing can be done except by 60 percent, then maybe we all should be elected with 60 percent. It isn’t legitimate in terms of passing legislation.”

Pelosi has been wary of publicly giving advice to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or President Barack Obama, but it’s no secret that House Democrats have been increasingly frustrated at the dysfunction on the opposite side of the building.

“There is some unease when you talk about, well, what’s happening to the initiatives to help the American people?” Pelosi said. “Is there never anything that can be done without 60 votes?”

http://www.rollcall.com/news/43170-1.html

toniD's Ya Think?

DEMOCRATS HAVE NOTHING MORE TO LOSE

Nate Silver says Democrats should "go ahead and give their base something to get excited about. Seriously, the Democrats' approval rating among independents in 19 percent. What more do they have to lose?"

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/02/11/nothing_left_to_lose.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Diaz-Balart added to
GOP's retirement list
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) will become the 18th House Republican to announce he won't seek reelection to Congress, according to the Miami Herald.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/02/11/diaz-balart_added_to_the_re...

toniD's Ya Think?

Perriello Running Better Than Expected
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) running unusually well in his Republican-leaning district, tying Republican front runner Robert Hurt at 44% each.

If former Rep. Virgil Goode (R) tries to reclaim his old seat as an independent, he runs even with Perriello at 41% each with Hurt taking 19%.

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/02/virginia-5-poll.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Oppose the NBC/Comcast Merger
by Al Franken
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/10/835929/-Oppose-the-NBC-Comca...

Republicans Mail Another "Census" Form
Federal Eye reports the NRCC has sent out another mailer with the word "Census" featured prominently throughout the document. Though the tactic was deemed legal because the mailer did not use the name or seal of the U.S. Census Agency, observers argue it could confuse elderly Americans on the lookout for the government's decennial census questionnaires, which go out next month.

Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill this week that would require mailings with the word "census" to clearly indicate the sender's name and return address and an unambiguous statement that the mailing is not associated with the U.S. Census Bureau.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/02/republicans_mail_an...

toniD's Ya Think?

...the goddamn socialst!

THE HOBSON'S CHOICE OF JOBS BILLS.... The top two members of the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), unveiled the crux of a new Senate jobs bill today, which will apparently generate at last some bipartisan support.

[Baucus and Grassley] released a draft $85 billion plan that would give employers a payroll tax exemption for hiring those who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. The bill would also provide a $1,000 income tax credit for new workers retained for 52 weeks.

The measure, which is scheduled to be reviewed by Senate Democrats this afternoon, also seeks to spur capital investment by extending tax benefits, by providing a federal subsidy for bonds issued for public works projects, and by taking steps to improve highway and transit construction. Jobless benefits and health care coverage for the unemployed would also be extended in the measure.

Now, my expectations have been lowered so much, this seemed encouraging. Congress hasn't passed an important piece of legislation in so long, my first instinct is to feel delighted about progress on a "bipartisan" jobs bill that -- get this -- some Republicans are prepared to let the Senate consider with an up-or-down vote. Imagine that.

But this AP story suggests any enthusiasm about this breakthrough should be tempered by some inconvenient details.

There's a problem with the bipartisan jobs bill emerging in the Senate: It won't create many jobs.

The bill includes tax cuts to please Republicans and its passage would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory. But even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation's centerpiece -- a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers -- would work only on the margins.

Tax experts and business leaders said companies are unlikely to hire workers just to receive a tax break.

So why would the Senate move forward on a jobs bill that's underwhelming in the job-creating department? It's not a mystery -- in order for legislation to pass, it necessary has to be made worse. Democrats could write a terrific jobs bill -- which, you know, would create lots of jobs -- but Republicans won't let the Senate vote on it. Republicans will, however, let the chamber vote on a weaker bill that does less good.

Democrats are effectively given a straightforward choice: embrace a good bill that gets killed by GOP obstructionism, or embrace a weak bill that won't do much good but can pass. And here's the kicker: when Americans notice that the jobs bill didn't deliver impressive results, it's the Democratic majority that will get the blame, even though Dems wanted a better bill.

This is the nature of "bipartisan" lawmaking -- giving lawmakers a chance to vote on inadequate legislation. If the Senate could vote on bills, and pass them with majority support, the results for the country would be far better.

But the smallest Senate minority in three decades has decided to break the American policymaking process.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022360.php

toniD's Ya Think?

Dems Raising Cash Off…Palin’s Wink?

A bit of comic relief on a snow day. Check out the visual in the latest DCCC fundraising email, which just landed in the old inbox (click to enlarge):

The email, which boasts a “contribute” button, asks Dems to send a message to Sarah Palin: “We haven’t forgotten that Republicans created this mess and we won’t stand for your smears.”

The email is in keeping with the broader DCCC strategy of arguing that electing Republicans in 2010 risks a return to the policies that got us into this fix in the first place. Of course, Palin wasn’t part of the cabal that created the mess, which brings up a couple of points.

First, it’s kind of striking that this private citizen, one who’s never held Federal office, is far more of a galvanizing force and fundraising draw among rank and file Dems than perhaps any other Republican in the land. And second, national Dems have to love when David Broder chats up her presidential prospects, since it’s gotta be great for fundraising.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/house-dems/dems-raising-cash-off-sarah...

toniD's Ya Think?

YES! Bernie Sanders to GOP: Spare me the lectures on YOUR deficit
by MinistryOfTruth
Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 04:52:31 PM PST

I've got to hand it to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), he knocks it out of the park on this. Republicans with their phony deficit concerns want to put the blame of their failed Conservative policies on Democrats and President Obama...

SNIP

...First, the transcript:

Sen. Sanders (I-VT): "Let me begin by saying something to my friend Senator Gregg, through the chairman, through the chairman. I really don't like being lectured on deficits when you (Sen. Gregg) and many members of your party (Republicans) helped cause the situation we are in right now. "

"People voted, Senator Gregg, I believe you are one of them, for a war in Iraq, which some people will think will cost two or three trillion dollars, but you forgot to pay for that war. You and other people voted for tax breaks for the wealthiest 1%, costs $600 billion dollars, forgot to pay for that. You voted for a prescription drug medicare bill which will cost $400 billion dollars but doesn't negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry, forgot to ask how that was going to be paid for, you voted for the bailout and I believe you want to repeal the inheritance tax, which will cost a trillion dollars over a ten year period, benefiting the top 3/10ths of 1%. I voted against all of those things, so please, please, spare the lectures on deficit reduction."

Later in the video, Senator Sanders mentions the fact that America's top 1% of wealthiest citizens earns more income the bottom 50% COMBINED. RNC Chairman Micheal Steele says that a million dollars after tax isn't that much money, but it is, a lot more than it was before George W. Bush's and the so called Fiscal Conservatives passed tax cuts for the rich without considering how that would affect America's ability to raise the revenue needed to balance the budget. Of course, Fiscal Conservatives will claim that all one needs to do is cut spending too, unless it is for war. But if war is so necessary why isn't health care reform, or cutting back on pollution, or a number of other issues. Maybe it is because the only thing fiscally conservative about so called fiscal conservatives is the fact that they insist on calling themselves fiscal conservatives.

In the real world, taking something without paying for it is called STEALING. It's like Robin Hood in reverse, fiscal conservatives like to rob from the poor and give to the rich...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/10/835605/-YES!-Bernie-Sanders-to-GOP:-Spare-me-the-lectures-on-YOUR-deficit

toniD's Ya Think?

Democrats Unveil Plan to Boost Campaign-Finance Laws

By PATRICK YOEST

WASHINGTON—Congressional Democrats unveiled a plan Thursday to put in place new restrictions on spending for political campaigns, an effort to combat the effects of a Supreme Court ruling that made it easier for corporations and other groups to fund campaign advertisements.

The plan was presented by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) as a "framework" for future legislation. Groups that would be banned from making campaign expenditures include foreign entities, federal contractors and recipients of funds from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The plan also would require chief executives from corporations that fund political ads to disclose that they paid for the ads.

Messrs. Schumer and Van Hollen's plan is in response to a Supreme Court ruling in January that is expected to have far-reaching effects on political campaigns this year. The court struck down a part of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law that prevented independent political groups, including corporations and labor unions, from running advertisements within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870338290457505944166371507...

toniD's Ya Think?

A Greek crisis is coming to America
By Niall Ferguson

Published: February 10 2010 20:15 | Last updated: February 10 2010 20:15

It began in Athens. It is spreading to Lisbon and Madrid. But it would be a grave mistake to assume that the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding will remain confined to the weaker eurozone economies. For this is more than just a Mediterranean problem with a farmyard acronym. It is a fiscal crisis of the western world. Its ramifications are far more profound than most investors currently appreciate.

There is of course a distinctive feature to the eurozone crisis. Because of the way the European Monetary Union was designed, there is in fact no mechanism for a bail-out of the Greek government by the European Union, other member states or the European Central Bank (articles 123 and 125 of the Lisbon treaty). True, Article 122 may be invoked by the European Council to assist a member state that is “seriously threatened with severe difficulties caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control”, but at this point nobody wants to pretend that Greece’s yawning deficit was an act of God. Nor is there a way for Greece to devalue its currency, as it would have done in the pre-EMU days of the drachma. There is not even a mechanism for Greece to leave the eurozone.

That leaves just three possibilities: one of the most excruciating fiscal squeezes in modern European history – reducing the deficit from 13 per cent to 3 per cent of gross domestic product within just three years; outright default on all or part of the Greek government’s debt; or (most likely, as signalled by German officials on Wednesday) some kind of bail-out led by Berlin. Because none of these options is very appealing, and because any decision about Greece will have implications for Portugal, Spain and possibly others, it may take much horse-trading before one can be reached.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f90bca10-1679-11df-bf44-00144feab49a.html?ncli...

toniD's Ya Think?

From another blog:

Ruffian February 11th, 2010, 11:01 am

Remember, in the 80’s, when it was popular to trash teachers in favor of business men? We would say, THose who can do and those who can’t teach. Well, i went to the bank and they are so bad, i want a revision. Those who can do and those who can’t become Banksters.

One Free Market System for Wall Street, Another Free Market System for Main Street

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Washington is paralyzed by snow and partisanship. Nothing is getting done – even as the Great Recession pulls more Americans into its maw.

In the midst of this paralysis, the President was asked about the giant pay packages of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co. ($17 mullion for 2009) and Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs ($9 million). “First of all, I know both those guys,” Obama said. “They’re very savvy businessmen. And I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That’s part of the free market system.”

Free market system? As I remember it, American taxpayers forked out hundreds of billions to keep JPMorgan, Goldman, and other big Wall Street banks afloat through most of 2009. Had we not done so, Dimon, Blankfein, and most other top executives on Wall Street would not have earned a dime last year. In fact, some would be out on the street, reather than sitting pretty on the Street.

The free market system has been unleashed instead on average Americans. According to real-estate data firm First American CoreLogic, about one-fourth of American households with a mortgage are under water – owing more on their homes than their homes are worth. Mortgage-bond trader Amherst Securities estimates that 7.1 million of the 7.9 households now behind on their mortgage payments will lose their homes to foreclosure if nothing is done to modify their loans. Already cities and towns are littered with foreclosure sales, pulling down the values of all homes in the area.

Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, and most of the rest of Wall Street don’t worry about what’s happening to homes on Main Street because their savings are invested in stocks and bonds. But most middle-class Americans do worry because most (if not all) of their savings are in their homes. As home values continue to slip, average Americans’ one big asset is shrinking.

The best way to help reverse this downward slide would be to let bankruptcy judges restructure shaky home mortgages, reducing what borrowers owe. The problem is, the big banks hate this. If mortgages could be restructured this way, the banks would take big hits. They’d be forced to cut the amounts owed by borrowers. They figure they do better by squeezing as much as they can out of distressed homeowners, then collecting as much as they can on foreclosed properties.

So, not surprisingly, the big banks have been mounting a major lobbying campaign to block legislation that would allow homeowners to use bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy has been part of the “free market system” for hundreds of years, but its details are determined through politics – the same politics that arranged the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. In fact, you might say that during 2009, Wall Street went through its own kind of bankruptcy restructuring, with the generous aid of American taxpayers. JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, along with their top executives, traders, and major investors, have benefited handsomely.

Now, a quarter of American homeowners need help restructuring their loans, but Wall Street is blocking the way.

Rather than defending the outsized paychecks of Dimon, Blankfein, and the rest of Wall Street as part of the free market system, the President needs to demand that Wall Street help homeowners on Main Street. The Obama White House should have made this a condition of getting the giant bailouts in the first place. The least it can do now is to is to make the free market system work for everyone.

http://robertreich.org/post/383841199/one-free-market-system-for-wall-st...

toniD's Ya Think?

NJ is reaping what it sowed by electing Christie: Massive cuts in vital programs

TRENTON -- Calling New Jersey on "the edge of bankruptcy," Gov. Chris Christie today declared a fiscal emergency, seizing broad powers to freeze aid to more than 500 school districts and cut from higher education, hospitals and the Public Advocate.

"New Jersey has been steaming toward financial disaster for years," the Republican governor said in a speech to both houses of the Legislature. "The people elected us to end the talk and to act decisively. Today is the day for the complaining to end and for statesmanship to begin."

Along with eliminating programs "that sounded good in theory but failed in practice" across state departments, Christie is cutting $475 million in aid to school districts, $62 million in aid to colleges and $12 million to hospital charity care. He is pulling all funding from the department of Public Advocate, a longtime Republican target, and folding its functions into other parts of government. He is cutting state subsidies for NJ Transit, a move Christie said could lead to higher fares or reduced services but would force the agency to become "more efficient and effective."

Schools and colleges will be forced to spend their surpluses in place of the state aid, Christie said. His plan is an expanded version of one proposed by Corzine after he lost re-election but before he left office. Corzine said it would have required legislative approval to target only districts with an "excess surplus," but Christie said he can freeze the funds unilaterally.

The cuts -- which do not include municipal aid or unpaid furloughs of state workers -- are aimed at resolving a $2.2 billion deficit in the current budget created by falling revenue and increased costs for various programs. Corzine enacted some cuts before Christie took over. Christie says he was left with a $1.3 billion deficit.

“I take no joy in having to make these decisions. I know these judgments will affect fellow New Jerseyans and will hurt," Christie said. "This is not a happy moment. However, what choices do we have left?"

Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature immediately balked at Christie's move to unilaterally freeze school aid. They said school aid is directly tied to property taxes, and excess surplus should be returned to residents as property tax relief.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/chris_christie_declares_state.h...

toniD's Ya Think?

I wish the tax subsidy thieves were not part of this, but it looks like they are, and I don't think Thom Hartmann is looking that deep into the CarbonArgument.

The use of the CarbonArgument to promote Nuke Fission Heat Reactor Plants (aka nukular energy) and clean coal and GMO crops no-till looks more suspicious all the time.

Demonizing carbon isn’t getting us ANYWHERE but a world filled with subsidized nuke plants, more coal, GMOs and the rich getting richer by playing a shell game with carbon bargaining chips!

The CarbonArgument looks more like the distraction used by a pair of pickpockets: One guy bumps you (Look at the carbon!) while the other guy lifts your wallet (give us those taxpayer subsidies!).

If we weren't being given this CarbonArgument Public Relations Campaign, what would the logical avenues be? RENEWABLE resources, rapid, sensible CONSERVATION, reduced transportation via localized energy production, localized food production, and other cleaner choices.

But no. We get the CarbonArgument ONLY, and with it more nukes, so-called clean coal, and GMOs. Go figure. But do it quick, folks!

Does it have to be this way and this way only?

Kent Conrad is Chairman

I don't like the direction it is heading.

Conrad seems to want to tax the employee health care benefits.
It's not a benefit if you tax it and people have taken less salary to get that benefit.

I'm cringing watching this.

toniD's Ya Think?

Omar Bin Laden Says the U.S. Will Never Catch His Father

Osama bin Laden's son has a chilling warning for those who are hunting his father with drones, secret agents and missile strikes.

From Omar bin Laden's up-close look at the next generation of mujahideen and al Qaeda training camps he says the worst may lie ahead, that if his father is killed America may face a broader and more violent enemy, with nothing to keep them in check.

"From what I knew of my father and the people around him I believe he is the most kind among them, because some are much, much worse," Omar bin Laden, who was raised in the midst of his father's fighters, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "Their mentality wants to make more violence, to create more problems."

Omar has turned his back on his father's philosophy, a remarkable step for a man in an Arab culture where it is a sin to disobey his father and taboo to openly criticize him. It was doubly significant for Omar bin Laden because his father had picked him to succeed him as the leader of jihad.

...

"My father should find some letter to send to all of these people, at least to tell them they shouldn't attack the civilians," he said. Omar is a clearly conflicted peacenik, bearing some signs of a loyal son and trying to explain his father's hatred. When asked whether there is anything his father likes about the United States, Omar says "their weapons," and nothing else.

The son of Osama, however, had praise for the U.S. saying, "They don't care what is your race, what is your skin, where you come from, this is very good."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/Afghanistan/exclusive-osama-bin-lade...

toniD's Ya Think?

Stop it, my sides are hurting!
-----------------
M. Ressler, Lead Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

Feb. 11, 2010 1:30 pm ET

...As of midday, snow already reached 4 to 6 inches in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Parts of north-central Texas could approach 1-foot accumulations before the snow ends overnight...

Arizona quits Western climate endeavor

Source: Az Central

Arizona will no longer participate in a groundbreaking attempt to limit greenhouse-gas emissions across the West, a change in policy by Gov. Jan Brewer that will include a review of all the state's efforts to combat climate change.

Brewer stopped short of pulling Arizona out of the multistate coalition that plans to regulate greenhouse gases starting in 2012. But she made it clear in an executive order that Arizona will not endorse the emission-control plan or any program that could raise costs for consumers and businesses.

State officials said the policy shift was rooted in concerns that the controversial emissions plan would slow the state's economic recovery. Brewer says the state should focus less on regulations and more on renewable energy and investments by businesses that can create green jobs.

The governor also ordered the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to take another look at stricter vehicle-emissions rules set to take effect in 2012. Automakers said the rules, based on those adopted by California, would raise the cost of a new car significantly.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/02/11/20100211climate-brewer...

toniD's Ya Think?

Opposition heads attacked in Iran
Massive security presence; Mousavi's wife beaten during rally.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iran_opposition_heads_attacked_amid_0211201...

toniD's Ya Think?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!!!!

I wouldn't use the word "tumble". There are less claims but hardly enough to use the word "tumble".

New claims for jobless insurance benefits in the United States tumbled in the past week, official data showed Thursday, showing ongoing improvement in the critical labor market.

The seasonally adjusted initial claims in the week ending February 6 were down to 440,000, a decrease of 43,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 483,000.

The latest claims reading was much better than the forecast of most economists of around 465,000, as the world's largest economy emerges from its worst recession in decades with unemployment posing a key challenge.

Claims had been elevated over the last several weeks, and this latest level is more in line with the general downward trend that has persisted for the past year.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile indicator than the week-to-week figures, was 468,500, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average of 469,500.

The latest Labor Department data also showed that the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits continued to fall.

The number of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 30 was 4.538 million, a decrease of 79,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4.617 million.

A new White House economic forecast showed Thursday the US economy is set to start producing job growth this year at a rate of 95,000 per month, but that the unemployment rate will remain high.

President Barack Obama's annual economic report to Congress said the economy is on the verge of pulling out of a period of steep job losses stemming from the worst recession in decades.

But the report also said that the unemployment rate may not come down much from the current level of 9.7 percent, and may even rise because of labor market growth and the return of more discouraged workers to the labor force.

The White House forecast, most of which was previously released with budget documents, calls for growth in gross domestic product of around 3.0 percent in 2010 and an average unemployment rate of 10.0 percent.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_new_jobless_claims_tumble_02112010.html

toniD's Ya Think?

He's a little weasel that's for sure. And the name Virgil is bad enough but to put Goode after it is a real joke!

toniD's Ya Think?

per MSNBC just now. Haven't reported why yet.

toniD's Ya Think?

Thanks for casting one of 110,000 votes for the first round of the FDL Fire Dogs contest. And the winners are...

First Place: Dennis Kucinich, 24,967 votes
Second Place: Alan Grayson, 17,296 votes
Third Place: Anthony Weiner, 13,160 votes

Why did these members win?

It's simple: these members of Congress treat online supporters like others treat lobbyists. Whereas some Representatives call up their bankster donors before taking a vote, Kucinich, Grayson, and Weiner go online and make their case to activists like you.

These three Representatives get it. They treat you and I with respect, value our input, and act on our behalf That's why it should be no surprise some of the most responsive members of Congress are the first our community honored as FDL Fire Dogs. Let's show them we have their backs.

Congratulate our inaugural FDL Fire Dogs - donate $25 now to welcome these members of Congress. Click here:

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Beyond congratulating our winners, your contribution also sends a powerful message to the rest of DC. If we take anything away from the health care battle, it should be that there's nothing more important than breaking the link between lobbyist money and campaigns. Campaign finance reform alone won't be enough. Developing an alternative progressive financing apparatus is a must.

Getting members of Congress to start thinking about online communities in a different way by demonstrating that we know how to help our friends is a really important step in turning things around. In a year when even safe Democrats are facing serious challenges to their seats, the online community can provide support by virtue of our numbers that lobbyists can't.

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Congratulations to Reps. Kucinich, Grayson and Weiner. Stay tuned for the next round of voting!

Thanks for all you do,

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FDL Action PAC

Reid scraps Baucus 'jobs' bill after it's discovered Baucus put lots of non-jobs provisions in to win GOP support
by John Aravosis (DC) on 2/11/2010 04:18:00 PM

It's a jobs bill. Make it about jobs. And if the Republicans don't want to vote for jobs, let them vote it down. Thank God Harry Reid is standing up to Max Baucus and his incessant need to do everything for the Republicans and big business. From The Hill via DailyKos:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is rewriting a jobs bill after Democrats complained of too many concessions to Republicans.

Reid announced Thursday that he would cut back on the jobs bill Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced only hours earlier, essentially overruling the powerful chairman....

Baucus had stuffed the bill with many provisions that Democratic senators thought went beyond the goal of creating jobs, such as $31 billion in extensions to expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit. That and other tax cuts were included to win GOP votes....

Democrats complained the bill did not focus enough on job creation.

McJoan adds:

How novel, focusing a jobs bill on job-creating initiatives. In addition to the tax extenders, the Baucus bill had "a short-term extension of the USA PATRIOT Act, flood insurance provisions, Small Business Administration loan provisions, and a $1.5 billion package of agriculture disaster relief provisions." Good show, Reid and Senate Dems. The bill might have to be done through reconciliation, but if Dems have to bring jobs to America on their own, so be it.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/11/836228/-Reid-Scrapping-Baucu...

toniD's Ya Think?

Republican Medicare Cuts

So, Newt Gingrich and John Goodman say,

Don’t cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong.

Leave aside the mind-killing irony of Newt Gingrich — New Gingrich! — denouncing Medicare cuts. What are Republicans themselves proposing?

Well, Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future calls for the eventual elimination of Medicare as we know it, replacing it with a system of vouchers that would, eventually, account for a steadily declining share of GDP. But what about the next decade? Mr. Ryan’s release says that it

Strengthens the current program with changes such as income-relating drug benefit premiums to ensure long-term sustainability.

What does that mean? The CBO, helpfully, translates (pdf):

People who are age 65 or older in 2020 and other existing enrollees at that time would continue to be covered by the current program, although some higher income enrollees would pay higher premiums, and some program payments would be reduced.

In other words, Medicare would face cuts. And the CBO’s detailed analysis provides an estimate of those cuts. I’ve taken the table comparing projected spending with baseline as a share of GDP (xls), and scaled it up using the CBO’s projections of GDP. What I get is an estimated cut in Medicare spending over the next decade of about … $650 billion.

So, cutting Medicare by $500 billion is wrong — support Republicans, who want to cut it by $650 billion!

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/republican-medicare-cuts/

toniD's Ya Think?

Have a great afternoon!!

Later!

toniD's Ya Think?

He says that it isn't in his biological/genetic cards.

Bye toni.

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

...why hasn't the "toll" tolled YET 4 yucky bush-twit-jerk :|

I had to check in here to and see if anyone was talking Fernando through it...someone call a neighbor...9/11...cougarpartscatalog.com!!

LOL!

"this machine kills fascists"

Submitted by 60th Street on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 6:18pm.
I had to check in here to and see if anyone was talking Fernando through it...
-----------
Texas Resident Quits Job, Begins Luge Training

or ;)

re: ...Ms_Anthrope on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 6:56pm & the above Med M. pixs mwah haha ; *poof 4 now*

Reid nixes filibuster reform effort

By Paul Kane

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday dismissed an effort by some Democrats to eliminate the filibuster, saying the chamber's procedures were designed to prevent the majority party from unilaterally changing the rules.

Minutes before a pair of colleagues formally unveiled their proposal to eliminate filibusters, Reid told reporters he adhered to the long-standing Senate rule that only a two-thirds majority could change the chamber's rules. This high hurdle -- established decades ago in an effort to prevent a party with a simple majority from ruling the chamber with an iron fist -- would require eight Republicans to join the 59 members of the Democratic caucus to alter the rules, something Reid said is not going to happen.

"I'm totally familiar with his idea," Reid said of the latest filibuster-reform resolution, from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). "It takes 67 votes, and that, kind of, answers the question."

[...]

WaPo

MOSTLY HAPPENS IN CANADA! STOP NOW! DO NOT BUY OLYMPIC "memorabilia"
nor Canadian Fish NOR ANYTHING CANADIAN, ATT - NOR AMERICAN... and let ALL KNOW WHY!
:|

Bill gets Two stents

^

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST JUAN GONZALEZ TO RECEIVE 2010 JUSTICE IN ACTION AWARDS

New York, NY— On Thursday, February 11, 2010, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) will honor Larry Tu, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Dell Inc., and Juan Gonzalez, Staff Columnist at the New York Daily News and Co-Host of Democracy Now!, with the 2010 Justice in Action Awards at its Annual Lunar New Year Gala at PIER SIXTY, Chelsea Piers, in New York City.

Amy Goodman, co-host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, will present the award to Juan Gonzalez...

http://www.aaldef.org/article.php?article_id=425

http://law.cornell.edu/anncon/

http://www.videothang.com

bet he's got primo health care insurance....

whatever happened to the horse & cow.?

I'm sick of all the shit the re-thug-lick-thugs
r pulling. if life isn't hard enough - ya know?

Omar Bin Laden Says the U.S.
new
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 3:14pm.
This is weird, but yet I'm very interested.

THIS YEAR {in Canada} WINTER OLYMICS PROMOTE TO CLUB BABY SEALS
new
Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 7:22pm.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Heed the message please!

In bad news for the desert tortoise, Mexican spotted owl, Oregon spotted frog, and countless other endangered species, federal agencies have announced they won't increase the fee in 2010 for each cow and calf the livestock industry grazes on 258 million acres of western public lands. Now at a paltry $1.35 -- 12 cents more than in 1966 - the fee falls far short of market rates ($10 per animal), far short of what agencies spend to administer grazing permits, and most importantly, far short of needed revenue to correct livestock grazing's dire ecological effects. Besides wreaking havoc on habitat for species of all kinds, livestock grazing is a main factor contributing to unnaturally severe western wildfires, watershed degradation, soil loss, and the spread of invasive plants.
The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups have petitioned the federal government to increase the grazing fee to account for administrative and ecological costs. We don't intend to let the federal grazing program continue to make the public subsidize public-land destruction and species endangerment.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/grazing/index.h...

Obama administration has now proposed a cut in the budget for its endangered species protection program. ???

Anyone heard differently???

EU leaders say they are ready to act to shore up Greece's finances and ensure stability in the eurozone - but they have made no specific promise of aid.
Greece must take further measures to tackle its huge debts and cut its budget deficit by 4% this year, the EU leaders said after a Brussels summit.
The statement did not spell out what was meant by "determined and co-ordinated action, if needed".
Greece's debt crisis has put pressure on the euro, making markets nervous.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8508688.stm

toniD - what do ya think about this??

But EU leaders appear reluctant to call on the International Monetary Fund to shore up the Greek economy.

IMF is like getting hit in the head with a huge hammer
doin the same thing & expecting different results!
hello - anyone home

{since many appear they are not using REASON}...Clinton was in office, but it was WE THE PEOPLE that gave him a rethug CONGRESS. He, Clinton {amongst a false-based "stupid SCANDLE" {- if one wants further see me around 3am pst}. He basically said (since he was given NO DEM help) if Congess/&/or The People WANTS, then HE WOULD SIGN...
Try To REMEMBER...
Well I do know "some" folks that just do not remember. eye-roll.

Had to abbreviate the length of the url for the pic or it would have stretched the blog. All you had to add to yours is the red part.

<img src="http://www.biologic.....Saving1000Species_JasonHickey.jpg" width="400"/>

I no longer in snow & bows to ALL to whom works in the "flakes", especially your {smcgee43] below '0' degrees. :o

Nurse Whistle-Blower Not Guilty for Reporting Doctor
Texas Nurse Fired After Sheriff Seizes Computer and Finds Letter of Complaint
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES, STEVE OSUNAMI AND MICHAEL MURRAY
Feb. 11, 2010

A Texas jury has found veteran nurse Anne Mitchell not guilty of harassment after she wrote a confidential letter to the Texas Medical Board complaining about a doctor she believed practiced shoddy medicine.

Her lawyer, John Cook, announced the verdict today on the fourth day of the trial in Andrew, Texas.

Mitchell, 52, could have faced 10 years in prison for doing what she believed was her obligation under the law -- to report unsafe medical practices.

The verdict could have had a profound effect on whistle-blowers in Texas and nationwide. People are certainly talking. Phil Parks told ABC News, "I think that nurses must be on the side of patients. They spend more time with patients than doctors do."

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/nurse-whistleblower-acquitted-harassing-doctor-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Reid dismisses Harkin's bid to change filibuster rules
By Michael O'Brien - 02/11/10 03:50 PM ET

"I love Tom Harkin. I'm totally familiar with his idea," Reid said during a news conference on the Capitol on Thursday. "It takes 67 votes, and that, kind of, answers the question."

Harkin, along with other senators and a number of liberals in the House, have expressed frustration at the current filibuster rules, which require 60 votes to end debate on most matters before the Senate. They introduced a measure to change the rules on Thursday.

Unlike the House, though, which requires the adoption of new rules at the beginning of each term, Senate rules provide that their rules be used continuously unless changed as prescribed -- which requires a 67-vote majority.

While Senate Democrats had 60 votes for several months, they were unable together on several important issues, like healthcare and climate change legislation.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/80803-reid-dismisses-ha...

toniD's Ya Think?

you posted exact instructions, which I copied & will try, one day. :D.

You spoke "computerese" - to one, holding one's hand and talking to "as a "2 year old", thus I now understand. Thank You. {...smcgee43 does not have to try {2 me} CUZ SHE IS IN BELOW ZERO {'0'} "DEGREES". TEA Hee :0 ;)

Time for Our Tea Party, Alice. T-Cheers :D

Drug industry lobbyist Billy Tauzin to resign
Tauzin has been under fire for cutting a private deal with the White House to push the healthcare overhaul forward.

By Tom Hamburger

6:46 PM PST, February 11, 2010

Reporting from Washington

Billy Tauzin, the chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry who forged a private deal with the Obama administration to push the healthcare overhaul forward, will announce his resignation Thursday, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

A source close to Tauzin, a garrulous former Louisiana congressman who once chaired the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Tauzin left his post voluntarily after nearly 5 1/2 years in the job "because he wants to do other things with his life."

The source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the retirement, said that Tauzin was asked to stay by a majority of board members and that the decision was personal.

However, Tauzin has been under fire from the left and the right -- and from the mainstream of his fellow business lobbyists, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber and other business organizations that opposed the administration's approach to the healthcare overhaul were unhappy that Tauzin had cut a private deal with the White House, undermining a business coalition that opposed both the House and Senate versions of healthcare legislation.

In the wake of a surprise GOP victory in the Massachusetts Senate race last month, which deprived the Democrats of their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the grumbling about Tauzin has increased. His departure is another surprise development that complicates chances of the healthcare legislation passing.

The White House eagerly negotiated with Tauzin starting last January in part because officials understood that the drug companies could play such a significant role in opposing or urging passage of the overhaul.

Behind closed doors, Tauzin agreed to support the overhaul and provide $80 billion in savings to the Treasury over 10 years. In exchange, he won a promise from the White House and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that the government would not impose further penalties on the industry, including a pledge to oppose legislation that would allow the government to negotiate prices with drug companies, something now prohibited by a law Tauzin helped pass.

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-phrma12-2010feb12,0,7728580,print.stor...

toniD's Ya Think?

GOP blinks on nominations
by John Aravosis (DC) on 2/11/2010 09:15:00 PM
Excellent. See this is what bullies do when you stand up to them. You're in charge, they're not.

The Senate confirmed a huge bloc of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

At a White House meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Tuesday, Obama warned that he would make recess appointments if the logjam over nominees wasn’t broken before the Senate left for the Presidents’ Day break.

“Mitch, this is unprecedented,” the president said, gesturing forcefully on the Cabinet Room table, according to aides. “If you don’t move any, I’m going to do some [recess] appointments.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32874.html

toniD's Ya Think?

...on Malloy earlier.

'Christian' Manifesto Comparing Liberals to Nazis Gathers Signatures of Religious Right Leaders -- and Catholic Bishops
By Peter Montgomery, AlterNet
Posted on February 10, 2010, Printed on February 11, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145500/

Religious right leaders are making a concerted push to gain thousands of new signatures for their "Manhattan Declaration," a manifesto released late last year by about 150 conservative Christian leaders. The document, signed by such religious-right heavy-hitters as Focus on the Family eminence James Dobson and Prison Fellowship Ministries leader Chuck Colson, compares pro-choice advocates to eugenicists (and implicitly to Nazis) and equates same-sex marriage with polygamy and a gateway to legalized incest. Its authors promise to defy any law that does not comport with their religious beliefs. Joining the religious right's Protestant leaders as signatories to the declaration are four Roman Catholic bishops, including those presiding over the powerful archdioceses of New York and Washington, DC.

Described by New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein as "an effort to rejuvenate the political alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals that dominated the religious debate during the administration of President George W. Bush," declaration authors initially set a target for a million signatures by December 1. Although they fell well short of that goal, they claimed at press time to have gathered more than 419,000 signatures and have redoubled their efforts to add more names.

The American Family Association made the Manhattan Declaration the centerpiece of a January fundraising letter, urging members to sign the document, warning of the grave threat from "the anti-family/anti-religious radicals who control the White House and Congress." Focus on the Family posted a note on its "Action Center" on January 14. And several U.S. Catholic bishops -- Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville -- are urging their fellow bishops to preach about the declaration, get signatures from the faithful and use the document as an organizing vehicle.

If You're Not With Us, You're a Lot Like a Nazi

Supporters of legal access to abortion and supporters of physician-assisted suicide are described in the 4,700-word manifesto as "those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled." The declaration goes on to link reproductive rights and death-with-dignity advocates with the early-20th-century eugenicists whose notions fueled the murderous Nazi ideology of genetic purity. From the declaration:

Eugenic notions such as the doctrine of lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life") were first advanced in the 1920s by intellectuals in the elite salons of America and Europe. Long buried in ignominy after the horrors of the mid-20th century, they have returned from the grave. The only difference is that now the doctrines of the eugenicists are dressed up in the language of "liberty," "autonomy," and "choice."

View this entire story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/145500/

you know the biggest crime is just to throw them up.

(Sorry, "Purple Rain" syndrome.)

(Ooops, did it again.)

(Then I didn't. See how much better it is when I do?)

part of it.

"SCREW NIGHTSKIN!!!!" mWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Yesss...Rachel doesn't have to do those anymore either...now.

That was so embarrassing.

Manhattan Declaration...
Submitted by CeeCee on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 10:29pm.

http://www.dlshq.org/religions/siva.htm

If i didn't know and trust you Cee Cee I would think the Manhattan Doctrine was a bad joke.

Delays at crucial points during the development of the brain in the womb may explain why people with a condition linked to autism do not like hugs.

A study in mice with fragile X syndrome found wiring in the part of the brain that responds to touch is formed late.

The findings may help explain why people with the condition are hypersensitive to physical contact, the researchers wrote in Neuron.

It also points to key stages when treatment could be most effective.

“ It also has implications for the treatment of autism since the changes in the brains of fragile X and autistic people are thought to significantly overlap ”
Professor Peter Kind, study author
Fragile X syndrome is caused by a mutant gene in the X chromosome that interferes in the production of a protein called fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP).

Under normal circumstances, the protein directs the formation of other proteins that build synapses in the brain.

Boys are usually more severely affected with the condition - which is the leading known cause of autism - because as they have only one X chromosome.

In addition to mental impairment, hyperactivity, emotional and behavioural problems, anxiety and mood swings, people with fragile X also show what doctors call "tactile defensiveness", which means they do not make eye contact and do not like physical contact and are hypersensitive to touch and sound.

Connections

By recording electrical signals in the brains of mice, bred to mimic the condition, the researchers found that connections in the sensory cortex in the brain were late to mature.

This "mistiming" may trigger a domino effect and cause further problems with the correct wiring of the brain, they concluded.

The study also found these changes in the brain's connections occur much earlier than previously thought, midway through a baby's development in the womb.

And it suggests there are key "windows" when treatments for fragile X and autism could be most effective, they said.

Professor Peter Kind, who led the study at the University of Edinburgh, added: "We've learned these changes happen much earlier than previously thought, which gives valuable insight into when we should begin therapeutic intervention for people with these conditions.

"It also has implications for the treatment of autism since the changes in the brains of fragile X and autistic people are thought to significantly overlap."

Dr. Gina Gómez de la Cuesta, from the National Autistic Society, said research into fragile X syndrome could help understanding of certain aspects of autism.

"Autism is common in people with fragile X syndrome, however there are many other causes of autism, most of which are not yet fully understood.

"Understanding how the brain works when a person has fragile X syndrome could help put some of the pieces together about what is happening in the brain when a person has autism, but it is not the whole story.

"Animal research can tell us a lot about genetics and the brain, but it is only a small part of the picture and further research would be required before we fully understand any links to autism."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8511100.stm

NASHVILLE, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. singer John Mayer tearfully apologized to his band and fans at a Nashville concert after drawing criticism for outrageous remarks he made to Playboy.

Mayer, 32, came under fire for using the N-word in an interview with the magazine, as well as for dishing about his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, and likening the country star to crack cocaine or sexual napalm.

UsMagazine.com said Mayer broke down on stage at the Sommet Center Wednesday night while singing his song, "Gravity."

"In the quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and that love me," he told the crowd.

Admitting he entered a world of "selfishness and greediness and arrogance," Mayer said he thought if he could just be "speedy and witty and pull together as many fast words and phrases as I could, that I would be clever enough to buy myself another day without anybody pinning me down and saying, 'You're a creep.'

"I should have just given that up and played the guitar," he added. "I didn't. So I decided I would try to be as clever as possible all the time, and I did that at the expense of people that I love and that feels absolutely terrible. ... I think it's important that you know that everybody on this stage is here playing with me not because they condone what I say in any interview ... they're on this stage because they support myself as a possible future grown-up."

Mayer went on to say he has "quit the media game."

"I'm out. I'm done. I just want to play my guitar," he vowed.

"In the quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and that love me," he told the crowd.

LOL ( slow night in bloggerville)
.

&

I've noticed you around.

I find you very attractive.

Will you...

Um...

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5651

gone to bed

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=BA477547-18FE-70B2-A84F8B878...

The above is actually a copy/paste of David Sirota's commentary overlay to Goldberg's piece.

Here are links to the originals...

Goldberg: Air America Radio, RIP -- It Didn't Have to Be This Way

Sirota: What Air America Tells Us About the Difference Between Conservative and Liberal Benefactors

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Skin grafts are frequently used over large and/or difficult-to-heal wounds such as burns, pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, diabetic ulcers, and pass4sure PK0-002 traumatic wounds. They can be created and applied in various ways. The split-thickness skin graft (STSG), which involves removing the epidermis and part of the dermis from the donor site and applying it to a well vascularized wound bed, is the most pass4sure RH202 common. When the patient does not have donor tissue available, various biological and synthetic options are available.The coverage provided by the STSG is superficial while the tissue grows in to complete the graft process. In order pass4sure 642-432 for the skin graft to survive, the grafted area must be well vascularized and have a low bacterial burden because infection can cause graft failure. Mesh often is used to cover the graft and hold the graft in the correct position pass4sure 642-741 using sutures, staples, or glue. The area then may be immobilized with a firm dressing.