Death of Newspapers from a communicable disease?

horse and carriages were once real popular too.

btw, frist.

this will teach me not to rtfm.

we just had a 3 blink power outage (the type where on the 3rd blink everything dies and you know its going to be a while).

i had bought a higher end ups for my pc and the lying sack that sold it to me said it should be good for 15 minutes. turns out its good for 2 minutes. the power just came back on and 1st thing i did was to check the specs and the salesgeek didn't know what they were talking about.

(i know its not relevant to anybody else's life but i feel better)

I just left the cafeteria at work. It's very informal there and the blue collars mix with the white collars, even if for a moment.

And there it was. The spicy mustard was out and just anyone could have some. Outrageous I tell you.

it was a human resources test to see who could be trusted...

Louis Ck and Dino S. go to Iraq?

pootie tang and ....
wait, does dino have any memorable characters?

http://www.louisck.net/

ecrasez l'infame

I won't touch the stuff. I don't want to be labeled. I don't want to take on airs. I'm more than happy with the pico de gallo in the bowl next to it. Besides, hotdog mustard goes better with jalapenos.

I hope I'm not alienated too much for this.

I have a small bottle of grey poupon hidden behind wilted greens in my refrigerator at home. I'll make sure and never have it in public though. I don't want to hang from any nearby trees.

Submitted by dan on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 12:38pm.
...we just had a 3 blink power outage (the type where on the 3rd blink everything dies and you know its going to be a while)...
--------
Well described.

When I moved to an island having one source of generated electricity, I had to adopt a new (new to me) cultural attitude about weekly and sometimes daily outages. The matter-of-fact certainty that the electricity will flow flawlessly for years at a stretch died a permanent death.

When I moved back to the states, the electrical distribution grid had been upgraded with some type of self-resetting breakers, so the power blinks a lot more often than it did before I moved away.

...but when I get the dreaded two dots and a dash, I know to leave the refrigerator door closed, kick back, and put on my island face again.

tyvm

Save a tree...kill a newspaper....

Dispelling the Myths About Newsprint

http://videogum.com/archives/interviews/tim-and-eric-awesome-interview_0...

T & E on Fallon's show.

Chocolate party.

ecrasez l'infame

There's a lexicography course at school this summer. This has never happened before, that I know of. I don't know if it will happen again.

It's probably the Linguistics course that's least related to pedagogy. Therefore I cannot take it.

Sucks.

lexicography - the act of writing dictionaries

pedagogy - the art or science of being a teacher. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction.

(i had no idea what you were talking about)

Pray for me (better a day late than never).

ARUGULA!!!

"this machine kills fascists"

She probably thinks she can have spicy mustard in public places too.

She has no idea what her place is or how to remain in those boundaries. Clearly she's read books.

It won't be long before her neighbors find out.

and keep in mind, if you get locked up on a friday you will have to wait until Monday morning to be arraigned.

Charlottesville City Jail is no place to spend Mother's Day. :)

the race in South Carolina tonight and tomorrow. Oh silly me. I'm sure they have NASCAR in the holding pen in S.C. and Virginia.

And for the record - I have no arugula. My wilted greens are all iceberg, I assure you.

Not a good track for Stewart...

hopefully this is his year there...10 races in and only 39 points behind the leader too....2 2nd place in the last 3 races, not bad...he is due. :)

in the HomeDepot car? Who even wants him to win?

You might want to root for B. Labonte in the ask.com car. He, at least isn't represented by plantation owners. Sure, he's no where near the leader boards but how you play is important too.

can you ban nightbird

she's become very snippy of late and disrupting the harmony of the blog

and another thing, i left a timbleful of crumbs over by the sink and i went and answered the phone and when i got back the crumbs were gone/eaten and i look out the window and i see nightbird flying by...

now i'm not implicating her for my stolen/eaten crumbs

but it is suspicious

anyway, as i was saying...

glory is a semi-fag elitist

and anyway, i'm just saying and i, i, i have a right to say it

and, and, and i, i, i shouldn't be investigated for any crimes

that i may or may not have committed...

i, i, i, i'm innocent of all charges and i'm not even FRENCH!

(so there)

ok, i can be a little finchy at times...

BUT NOT alot!

that's all i'm saying

Stewart doesn't drive the "HomeDepot" car...he went independent. He drive the 14 car for Haas now.

It's the Office Depot car, dude. Pay attention....

I've been a Stewart fan since day one....

I always pull for the "outcast"....it is in my nature.

Labonte is still racing? I thought he was past the age for mandatory retirement.... ;)

Smoke Rules!!!

It’s been a few weeks since the outspoken comedian and actress (“24”) called tea party tax protesters racists, but she is still in hot water with some Bay Staters.

A group of steamed citizens led by conservative radio talk host Ken Pittman of New Bedford’s WBSM-AM plan to protest outside her gig tonight at the Somerville Theatre.

“She has exposed herself as a bigot,” Pittman said.

About 20 to 40 people are expected to show up, he said......

How embarrassing ... 20 to 40

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1170872&format=t...

Free Democracy

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Ask racing legend Junior Johnson who his best driver was at Darlington Raceway, and you have to add the codicil, "Present company excepted."

Johnson is justified in his self-assessment, and right, too. The 77-year-old racing pioneer from the mountains of North Carolina was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, and (that same year) the best stock-car driver of all time by Sports Illustrated magazine. - SceneDaily

When I read what he did to get out the vote in South Carolina for Barack Obama. It really restored a lot of my feelings about Americans and white folks in general. It changed how I perceived all of it.

Two words for your ageism cent - Mark Martin! I don't know how that porker Stewart overcomes the physics of getting his car out in front. Office DEepot/ Home Depot.... Same dif. Few teams are progressive in their support and its NEVER Stewart.

Have a good weekend.

Happy Mothers Day to all who fit the bill....

...you too Crank....yeah, you're a "mother" alright. ;)

SOUTH BEND — Anti-abortion activist and commentator Alan Keyes was arrested just after noon Friday on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Keyes was arrested along with a group of 10 to 20 other protesters, who were pushing baby strollers with dolls covered in fake blood....

She was on her best behavior today.

I like that, people who actually are sensitive to it when they realize they are being a pain. Can't ask for more than that. (And comparatively not that much of a pain anyhow;I've had an easy stretch lately [knock knock]). Y'all know, I'm sure, there are plenty of people who will only dial it up if they know they are bothering you because "they are always right."

That's semi-dyke to you, Ono. (Neither is correct but that's closer.) I'm only about one sixteenth fag (roughly speaking ;) ).

Forget “State of Play” or even “Star Trek” — the hottest movie in Washington this weekend is bound to be “Outrage,” the documentary premiering Friday night that explores closeted gay public officials.

Opening at the Landmark E Street Cinema, the flick takes on the controversial subject of “outing” gay pols, and features plenty of Capitol Hill denizens sure to make it a must-watch for Beltway types.

And before it even reaches audiences, the film is already kicking up some dust: An interview Thursday on News Channel 8 with local blogger and film subject Mike Rogers and anchor Doug McElway practically ended in fisticuffs.

In the segment, McElway makes it clear that he opposes outing politicians, which prompts Rogers to accuse McElway of saying that “being gay is wrong.”

That doesn’t sit well with the anchor, who becomes so agitated he finally throws a threat Rogers’ way. “I’m about to do more than point my finger at you,” McElway says. “That’s not what I said. ... I’m about to take you outside and give you a punch across the face.”.....

http://www.rollcall.com/news/34719-1.html

cent.

these are just a bunch of sicko's. the rethuglicans had eight years to demonstrate that they were pro-life and they failed on all aspects.

having coffee and smoking fancy french cigarettes

and not in my hovel kitchen alone

drinking coffee and smoking aussie cigarettes at 4 in da morning

i won't do that

i refuse to do that... (don't touch me)

ah, here it is now

"merci, japanese slut"

(invisible coffee)
(for a the man who wasn't there)

Depends on the venue then. Esp. if part of a fest it might be rather big, you're right.

Not wishing trouble on Janeane at all though. Hope it's a fizzle (the protest).

let me consult my politically correct dictionary on that one

hmmm... yes, you are correct (tick)

merci

anyway, so i'm banging this french bitch

and after she's like...

"pffft"

and i'm like well i-i-i-if that's your attitude
i'm going back to australia

(so there)

pista'o

---

How did it get to be 1988 in here?

And where's that Delorean parked?

>>were pushing baby strollers with dolls covered in fake blood....

how can we be sure they weren't supporting the troops and the wars in the middle east?
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

A member of the royal family in the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, has been "detained" in Abu Dhabi by authorities investigating a chilling videotape that shows him torturing an Afghan grain dealer, according to officials in Washington.

UAE officials told American diplomats the Sheikh was put under "house arrest" this week and prevented from leaving the country as the UAE Ministry of Justice conducts a criminal investigation of the incidents on the videotape, the officials said.

The 45-minute torture tape, first broadcast on ABC News Nightline two weeks ago, shows the Sheikh, the brother of the UAE crown prince, beating his victim with an electric cattle prod and a wooden plank with protruding nails. Men in police uniform are seen on the tape restraining the victim, who has sand shoved down his throat and is later repeatedly run over by a Mercedes Benz SUV driven by the Sheikh.

After first insisting the case was closed and settled privately, UAE authorities reversed course. Officials told ABCNews.com that other individuals seen on the tape who worked for Sheikh Issa have also been detained in the investigation.....

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7538363&page=1

Free Democracy

But here it is anyhow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/glenn-beck-in-a-minute-ou_n_200...

Japanese monster movie?

the life they believe they are fighting for.

The dull gaze on their faces points to their confusion about how family planning actually reduces more abortions than talk of abstinence. This is the tribe born with the gene that makes them vulnerable to myths and devoid of any sense of nuance.

Mission to Honor Bush Still Not Accomplished - TexasObserver

Even in Texas, we are having a darn time trying to say something good about George W. Bush.

..makes me realize I don't fully understand natural selection.

Shopping done! (God do I ever hate to shop.)

Real inside baseball in this - Somervell County Salon article. Talk about your angles on a pins head!

Somervell is put out by a group in Glen Rose. Glen Rose is one of the prettiest little Texas towns you will ever come across. This time of year, whole hills get covered in bluebonnets.

It is also the site of one of the largest exposed dinosaur tracks in the world. The geography there has been scaring the myth seekers for many years. I recommend it to anyone who visits Texas. Take a moment if you can and canoe down the Brazos here after spending the night out at Dinosaur valley. The Brazos gets it's names from the giant trees on each side of the banks that appear as "brazos de dios", the arms of God, cradling the river.

"The UAE should demonstrate that their commitment to human rights and the rule of law goes beyond detaining Sheik Issa—there should be a thorough, credible judicial proceeding," said McGovern.

i board the wrong plane

so i'm in mongolia enjoying a cup of horse wine

and i'm banging this bitch...

and she's like "pffft! plus, you owe me $1,000"

and i'm like "whoa! who do you think you are... fucking genghis kahn"

"no, you're fucking me... #1 sucky-fucky"

What did I miss?

Health Noir: $10 Million Ransom Demand for Data - and Stranger Crimes Are Coming
RJ Eskow

"Attention, Virginia!" the ransom note begins. "I have your shit! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :( "

"For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password. You have 7 days to decide."

Someone says they've stolen 8.3 million patient records, and now the FBI is on the case. However strange this crime may sound, it was a predictable event. Stranger and more severe crimes are coming, if they're not here already. I've been tracking health data breaches for a while, and it's one of six scenarios I sketched out (but chose not to publish). It's important now to ensure that these concerns are given a high enough priority - and proper funding - in future health IT initiatives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/health-noir-10-million-ra_b_20025...

it sounds like gloryoski and A/O are considering opposite sex, cent roots for bad-boys. Didn't expect that.

when you move somewhere cold?

And does drinking help? I was drunk alot for the six-or-so months I lived close to Boston, and I don't remember getting sick (that way). Maybe I'm confusing correlation with causation?

Oh wait. There was that whole other year. It must help to be young.

>>so i'm in mongolia enjoying a cup of horse wine

it sounds like a perfectly charming visit.

and such delightful people!
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

She decided not to wait for me to get her car cleaned and decided to do it herself. With a brillo pad.

y Chris Hedges

May 5, 2009 "Truthdig" -- Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

Continues....... http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22551.htm

it was pleasant

a little pricey, but pleasant

until they tied me to an anthill

and i was lucky to escape with ants in my pants...

anyway, speaking of infestation

i went to ghetto's post in the way back machine

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/476#comment-334861

so newbies, if you want to know about nicky rose

go to that thread

When Fall comes here in Illinois, normally we get a gradual falling of the temperature. You get used to the cold in stages. That's if you have a nice Fall. When the temps fall fast, it takes a few weeks to get used to the cold.

The clothing stores in the area try to help by advertising the new winter clothes and fashions so that people will take their mind off the cold and on to the winter fashions.
A bit of mind trickery to help you deal with the cold.

Oh Fern...so sorry...:}

Sounds to me Somerville is overrun with Free Thinkers, or as I like to case them, my kind of Texans!

Thanks for sharing it!

call me a wishy washy ol' apologist asshole suffering from cognitive dissonance

but obama has his constraints...

remember when Radio listener asked chomsky:

"I've often wondered about people who have a lot of power because of their financial resources. Is it possible to reach them with logic?"

and chomsky replied, and i quote...

They're acting very logically and rationally in their own interests. Take the CEO of Aetna Life Insurance, who makes $23 million a year in salary alone. He's one of the guys who is going to be running our health-care program if Clinton's plan passes.

Suppose you could convince him that he ought to lobby against having the insurance industry run the health-care program, because that will be very harmful to the general population (as indeed it will be). Suppose you could convince him that he ought to give up his salary and become a working person.

What would happen then? He'd get thrown out and someone else would be put in as CEO. These are institutional problems.

http://books.zcommunications.org/chomsky/sld/sld-1-01.html

to help me install a new DVD-R/W drive to my computer. Mine died. I found a new one for $39.99 at Tiger Direct. A Sony.
Had to by the right one because my computer is 10 years old.

He ended up not helping that much because his hands were too big to get into the small spaces to hook up the drive.
But it's in and running good and now I can make copies of my music for my car and I can copy my files to disc to free up some space.

I also cleaned the inside that was really dusty, it's almost like brand new.

Good feeling to get that done. And it's cheaper than a new tower would be, even though I'd like more memory and Ram!

you need to kick your daughter in the head

oh the humanity!

(it should buff out, though)

"this machine kills fascists"

I posted this the other day. It is a beloved anthem for those free thinkers around here.

there's a certain amount of humility she's going to have to live with before I go buff that out.

...or not. I had to move from Ft. Worth to Waukegan, IL in late November '64. I literally went from cutoffs to hockey skates in a matter of a few days as I made the trip by train. I don't think your blood thickens to adapt to the cold but your adipose layer certainly will. That's how you beat the cold, well survive if you're lucky. ;-)

we have a lot of work to do if we are ever going to redeem ourselves.

It wasn't the most careful decision, but people do srcrub pots and pans with brillos, so she prolly thought it wouldn't be too abrasive. hell, even a scotch brite will scratch up a clear coat pretty good, but I guarantee you a shitload of people wouldn't think twice before using one on a car.

Plus, brillos are mesmerizingly soapy...she was probably distracted by the pride in having chosen something that is self-sudsing. :)

"this machine kills fascists"

my suggestion was to show Star Trek : The motion picture tomorrow.

now I have to write a p.a. announcement for it.

any help?

ecrasez l'infame

to even out a scratch on the car. But not the fine sand paper the really rough one. That was a pretty sight for awhile. Luckily she had a boyfriend at that time that worked on cars and he fixed it for me.

the new Star Trek movie is a prequel(sp).

MSNBC is having a segment right now on Star Trek

It doesn't change the way I feel about her or the car in a negative way. Actually, I can't wait to tell my grand kids about it if they ever make a boo boo.

you're the one that needs a head kicking

you're an intelligent guy & your daughter scrubs the duco with brillo...

something's missing somewhere

ah-ha!

parental guidance!

I have a daughter. You can't give a daughter guidance. You buy them insurance.

point taken

and excellent riposte

: )

as always,
that actually helps.

you rule.

ecrasez l'infame

do you have any idea how many really cool power orbital buffers are out on the market? I don't know what it is about power tools that gets me so excited.

not much rhymes with prequel.

ecrasez l'infame

Alan Keyes wanted to get arrested at Notre Dame and thrown in jail forever so very much that… well he just COULD NOT WAIT until the actually graduation ceremony in nine days! - Wonkette

Just try not to laugh at this. I dare you. Same as story above but in a more entertaining context.

notre dame might have peaked too fast for the wang nuts. in southwest ohio it reached a fever pitch about 10 days ago with the right screaming that obama was aborting babies in the white house basement. the response on the editorial pages has been increasing in obama's favor.

this sounds like keyes wanted to escalate the political theatre and get some more attention by becoming a martyr.

apparently he was told he would be arrested if he did not first get the approval of the student body before protesting.

Doing it a week and a half early, I guess, is intended to create a crescendo of sympathy for the group who has elected to not pay the $250 bond so they can appear before the judge on Monday where they will all be laughed at.

//I don't know what it is about power tools that gets me so excited//

you're so immature

Instant Rimshot

from Scott Lamb’s Links

http://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/desktop-sound-effects/instant_rimshot

when i learn how to embed the bastards...

the blog will be mine

: )

Randi Rhodes Returns!

there'll be the Bike Horn Double Toot

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=27882

no problemo!

just insert the sad trombone

These Corporatists are DEATH CULTISTS!

If you walk the Earth and eat, you MUST read this:

http://www.raw-wisdom.com/genetically-modified-food

[excerpt]

Furthermore, " bioengineering" offers a contradiction in terms. "Bio" refers to life, what is not mechanistically predictable or controllable. "Engineering" refers to making the blueprints for machines that are predictable - but not alive. They are dead. Thus there is the joining of what is living with what applies to the opposite.

What is patentable also needs to be mentally "distinctive" - fixed or mostly unchanging in our minds to obtain an ownership or right-to-control patent. Again, something unchanging is not constantly and consciously adapting to its surrounding environment. It is less alive, and strategies to maintain that are often deadly. For example, much of GM technology is directed at eliminating surrounding biological environment - competing animals and plants by soaking them with lethal toxins. Secondly, there are terminator plants and suicide seeds that do not reproduce a second generation. This prevents a subsequent generation from escaping the controlling patented mold. In contrast to nature's rainforests teeming with life, GM technology has planted forests of flowerless and fruitless "terminator trees." They are not habitats for life but rather exude poisons from every leaf, killing all but a few insects. Thirdly, genetically-modified food companies have gone on multi-billion dollar buying sprees, purchasing seed companies and destroying their non-patented (potentially competitive) seed stocks. This includes Monsanto's 2005 purchase Seminis, the world's single largest developer, grower and marketer of vegetable and fruit seeds (supplying 40% of US vegetable seeds) and 20% worldwide), Monsanto is now the world's largest seed company overall, either owning or being partnered with 13 other major seed-owning corporations. It further announced its intention to purchase De Ruiter Seeds, in its on-going buying binge of seed-owning corporations. As a result just 10 seed-growing companies now own more than 55% of our planet's commercial seeds, and almost 2/3rds of all patented seeds. Time magazine referred to the consequences of a growing effort to buy out seed companies and eliminate their competitive stocks as the global Death of Birth. All of this is why "biotechnology," in its naked essence, has been tagged by some as thano- (meaning death) technology.

[end excerpt]

nora on fri,05/08/09-5:16pm
Randi Rhodes Returns
I think my Mac is to slow.But It is amazing what ToniD can do with her old computer.. I can listen to mp3 shows but not live.

ON Monsanto,Codex ,corporate food,bio tech,environmental issues
and animal rights,. Everyone has a nitch. Nora your posts are often what I am thinking about.

nora, have you seen: 9/11 Coincidence Theory

A video presentation by Spencer Morgan

http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-5236492071990669218&q=POLITI...

at the 14 minute mark

it dispenses the coincidence theorists to the trash heap of history

My yard is mowed, the dishes are done, a gin and tonic is at my side and the weekend is on!

Darlington in 55 minutes.

Brett Ellis, a real estate agent in Fort Myers, Fla., was thrilled when he got an offer for a property in Bell Tower Park in May 2008.

"It was a gorgeous property on the corner lot," Ellis told the Huffington Post. The owner, who had lost his job, wanted to sell the apartment for a loss rather than go into foreclosure, a strategy known as a short sale.

The offer was for $350,000, and Ellis, who is a certified distressed property expert trained in executing such sales, knew it was as good an offer as he was going to get in this market. He immediately sent the paperwork into the bank.

He waited for four months. The bank finally told him it wouldn't take anything less than $400,000 -- a price Ellis was sure he could never get. In September, the buyer's agent called to say, "You know what, we gotta move on, we gotta buy something else."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/short-sales-banks-blockin_n_199...

David Rivkin is on my TV. Gross. He's got an orange shirt on and his hair is orange too. A candy stripe coat over the mess and square glasses lopsided clipped onto his nose. He looks and sounds like a clown even without having to dress the part. How can he expected to be credible?

He's defending torture again.

Even though privatized healthcare delivery doesn't work in the USA -- and scads of people and employers PAY THE PREMIUMS/FEES and the private insurers WITHHOLD medical care -- Washington DCers are telling us to expect a so-called "reformed" healthcare system based on the same for-profit model!

First the insurers take money out of false pretenses, then they break their contractual arrangement with the insured, and then they force the sick and injured to go without care or sink into debt paying medical bills. This is sick and twisted and unacceptable.

This rip-off of patients will not end or change as long as Singlepayer is EXCLUDED from the discussion AND decisionmaking process.

Why won't the holders of power in the White House and Congress -- that is the Dems now -- allow Singlepayer proponents to speak? Is it PROFITEERING? It looks like the Dems are profiteers before they are even Dems.

And how did they come to this low point where a decision was made to LOCK OUT and CENSOR any Singlepayer proponents? Who sat around and talked this over and made the decision that Singlepayer was off the table? Who are these individuals in Congress and the private sector? If the American people no longer want dysfunctional, profit-motivated, sociopathic PRIVATIZED healthcare, then why are they denied the opportunity to say that and propose an alternative? By what deliberation have the Dems ruled out Singlepayer and the existence of a public forum for debate of the alternatives?

Are there certain private corporate agents or individuals giving the DEMS their marching orders on this? If so, which corporations are telling these Senators and Congressmen what to do? Are there private meetings? When and where? Who conducts these deliberations? Who seeks to lock Americans into further years, even generations, of inadequate and overpriced and DENIED healthcare and treatment? Who is conspiring to profit off Americans through a system where Americans are healthy and pay premiums for decades as well as when Americans need medical care and are denied?

Why can't this be called a 'conspiracy to defraud'?

*nods*

Along half her entire smooth hood in front of the driver's seat. Like grooves on a record. I can get it out, no problem. But right now it's a thing of beauty.

I know my daughter. I can just see her in a swim suit doing that. She loves playing outside with water. She literally just skipped out of the house on her way to Edgefest.

About Single Payer Healthcare. I have to admit he did a great job covering it.

We need more coverage like he had yesterday.

He also interviewed Dr Margaret Flowers who was thrown out of the Bauchus Committee Meeting for protesting that there wasn't a representative on single payer health care on the panel.

?

Commentary and video--

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/fed-inspector-general-kno_n_197...

[excerpt]

The inspector general tasked with overseeing and auditing the Federal Reserve knows pretty much nothing about what the Fed is doing. That's the conclusion that comes from watching the exchange Tuesday between Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and inspector general Elizabeth A. Coleman.

Coleman could not tell Grayson what kind of losses the Fed has so far suffered on its $2 trillion portfolio, which has greatly expanded since September.

She appeared unaware that the Fed engages in trillions of dollars in off-balance-sheet exchanges.

She is not investigating the role of the Fed in allowing the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

She did not know where the Fed has invested its $2 trillion on the liability side of the balance sheet. "I do not know. We have not looked at that specific area at this particular point on," she said.

"We do not have jurisdiction to directly go out and audit reserve bank activities specifically," she said, though the IG's Web site proudly declares that her office "conducts independent and objective audits, inspections, evaluations, investigations, and other reviews related to programs and operations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System."

[end excerpt]

PROVIDENCE — Environmentalists on Friday filed two appeals — one to the Rhode Island Supreme Court and another to the Rhode Island Superior Court — intended to block the expansion of Champlin’s Marina in the Great Salt Pond on Block Island, an already complex legal battle dating back to 2003.

In February, Superior Court Judge Netti Vogel allowed Champlin’s to expand 195 feet into the Great Salt Pond, a move objectors say would irretrievably damage the environment. After an evidentiary hearing, she reversed an administrative decision made by a divided Coastal Resources Management Council that denied the marina’s bid to expand.

Friday’s appeals were filed by the Conservation Law Foundation and other objectors who say that Vogel erred on several points of law.

The appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court alleges that Vogel’s decision to issue Champlin an expansion permit herself, instead of sending the case back to the CRMC, violates the objectors’ constitutional rights to due process.

By issuing the permit, Judge Vogel swept away the normal avenue of appeal objectors would have had, to the Superior Court, if the decision had been made on the administrative level by the CRMC, according to Jerry Elmer, staff lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation.

In a statement, he said the lawsuit filed in Superior Court amounts to an appeal of Vogel’s decision as if the CRMC, not the court, had in fact issued the expansion permit.

Joining the Conservation Law Foundation in both appeals were the Town of New Shoreham, the Committee for the Great Salt Pond, the Block Island Land Trust, and the Block Island Conservancy, according to the lawyer for the latter objectors, R. Daniel Prentiss.

The CRMC has filed its own appeal of Vogel’s decision to the Supreme Court. Efforts to contact the CRMC lawyer, Mark DeSisto, were unsuccessful Friday.

Originally, a CRMC subcommittee had recommended approval of Champlin’s expansion plans to the full council, but it denied the application on a tie vote.

Objectors have alleged that members of the CRMC subcommittee were biased in favor of Champlin’s. After the marina was denied an expansion permit by the full council, it appealed to the Superior Court, where the case was assigned to Vogel.

Among other things, objectors allege in their latest appeals that Vogel’s evidentiary hearing gave undue weight to evidence presented by Champlin’s.

After Air Force One Flyover, Military Office Director Resigns

The director of the White House Military Office, Louis
Caldera, has resigned, an administration official said
Friday. The resignation comes two weeks after Mr. Caldera
authorized an Air Force One flyover of the Statue of Liberty
that terrified thousands of people in New York City.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Johnsen confirmed to head the Office of Legal Counsel is "probably my top priority

." At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Holder said the office requires the "solidity and continuity" of a Senate-confirmed assistant attorney general.

http://app.mx3.americanprogressaction.org/e/er.aspx?s=785&lid=21008&elq=...

Memo to Jackass, the Credit Card Industry Doesn't Need Anyone Standing Up for It

By Matt Taibbi, True/Slant. Posted May 8, 2009.

"Is there any business in the United States more vilified than credit card lending?

The card companies stand accused by Congress and the Federal Reserve of gouging customers with impenetrable fees, enticing innocents to borrow themselves into bankruptcy, and blowing off cardholders who try to correct errors in their accounts.

Attacking these firms is a crowd-pleasing sport for lawmakers, in part because every constituent has a story about being mulcted by a card issuer. Last week the House of Representatives easily passed a credit card holders' bill of rights. The Senate will take up a similar measure soon. President Obama has signaled his approval.

Someone has to stand up for these companies. I guess it'll have to be me…

…The real scandal, according to the common refrain, is that issuers such as American Express, Citigroup and Bank of America have received billions of bailout dollars from taxpayers. How dare they repay the favor by putting the squeeze on us?

This is where populism shades into demagoguery. Critics who argue that it's inappropriate for bailed-out banks to tighten credit terms on taxpayers have it exactly wrong: If we're footing the bill, we should praise these banks for being stingy with credit, not hammer them for it. It won't be any easier for them to pay us back if we hector them into maintaining the loose standards that produced this mess."

-- Michael Hiltzik, Credit card companies as evil villains? It's not that simple, Los Angeles Times.

"Someone needs to stand up" for the credit card companies? Did I hear that right, Michael Hiltzik?

More here:

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/139890/memo_to_jackass%2C_the_credit_c...

I broke down and took a pill this morning...but this weekend I'll be in intense self-imposed behavior modification training...I hope to calm the lil bugger down by Monday... (thanks for wondering...) :)

Give Everyone Healthcare By Shutting Down Insurance Companies

Obama to address
Muslims from Egypt
President Barack Obama has chosen Egypt as the location to deliver his long-awaited speech to the Muslim world.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22272.html

Raw Story says its
having financial problems
The online site, RawStory, says it's having financial problems and has issued a plea for donations. The site claims it has spent $60,000 on new web design -- started in 2007 -- and is in need of funds. Raw Story has reverted to its old look after debuting the new design just a few days ago.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/08/help-us-help-you-support-raw-stor...

I really hope they didn't put $60k into that. If so would donating help if that's how they use money? How about we donate to a fund if they promise not to screw up their site.

Sources: Senators weigh 3 government health plans

WASHINGTON – Senators are considering three different designs for a new government health insurance plan that middle-income Americans could buy into for the first time, congressional officials said Friday. Officials familiar with the proposals said senators plan to debate them in a closed meeting next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the controversial plans have not been released.

Creating a public plan is one of the most contentious ideas in the debate over how to overhaul the nation's health care system to cover the uninsured and try to restrain costs.

President Barack Obama and many Democrats say a government option would serve as a check to keep the private insurance industry honest.

Insurers fear the government would use its power to drive them out of business. And Republicans call a public plan in the legislation a dealbreaker, dashing hopes for bipartisan legislation for overhauling the health insurance system. Employer groups are also opposed.

The three approaches being discussed are:

_Create a plan that resembles Medicare, administered by the Health and Human Services department.

_Adopt a Medicare-like plan, but pick an outside party to run it. That way government officials would not directly control the day-to-day operations.

_Leave it up to individual states to set up a public insurance plan for their residents.

But many key details would still have to be fleshed out.

Among them is whether the public plan would be open to everyone, or be limited to small businesses and individuals purchasing coverage on their own.

Also, would the plan reimburse medical providers at discounted Medicare rates or the higher fees that private insurers pay? And would it be financed by tax dollars, or entirely from premiums?

Senators on the Finance Committee will consider the proposals during a closed-door session scheduled for late next week. Committee leaders want to bring a bill to the Senate floor this summer. It's unclear whether a public plan in any form will emerge from Congress.

Citing surveys that show most seniors are happy with Medicare, Democrats say they believe that a public plan would be a political winner. But Republicans counter that it would be a step toward a government-run system in which medical services sooner or later would be rationed.

The majority of Americans now get health insurance through private insurers, about 170 million people in all. Most of them are enrolled in employer-sponsored plans.

A recent report by the Lewin Group, a numbers-crunching firm that serves government and private clients, found that a new government plan could radically alter that landscape — or maybe not.

It depends on the design.

If the public plan were open to all employers and individuals — and if it paid doctors and hospitals the same as Medicare — it would quickly grow to 131 million members, while enrollment in private insurance plans would plummet, the study found.

By paying Medicare rates the government plan would be able to set premiums well below what private plans charge. Employers and individuals would rush to sign up.

But the results would be far different if the government plan was limited to small employers, individuals and the self-employed.

In that smaller-scale scenario, the public plan would get from 17 million to 43 million members, the study said. It found that a government plan could be effective in reducing number of uninsured.

Lewin is a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest health insurer. The consulting firm says it makes its own judgments, however. Its work is used by groups on all sides of the health care debate, including supporters of a public plan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090508/ap_on_go_co/us_health_overhaul_publi...

Soldier surplus allows Guard to make cuts

By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Friday May 8, 2009 7:02:48 EDT

WASHINGTON — As unemployment soars, a combination of cash incentives and aggressive recruiting has left the Army National Guard with a surplus of soldiers, and now it plans to trim its force, according to government documents and interviews with Guard officials.

As recently as 2005, the National Guard fell 20 percent short of its recruitment goal and was 20,000 soldiers shy of its overall target of 350,000, leading its commander to call it a “hollow” force. The bonuses and relaxed standards for recruits helped fill the Guard’s ranks to 366,880 soldiers, beyond the 358,200 authorized by Congress.

The Guard has already cut some bonuses, stopped accepting convicted felons on special waivers and lowered the maximum age for recruits.

The Guard stopped issuing felony waivers in 2007 in an attempt to increase the quality of its recruits, according to the Government Accountability Office. The maximum enlistment age has been reduced from 42 to 35, said Grant Zachary, deputy chief of the Army National Guard’s strength maintenance division.

”We’ve taken all kinds of measures in order to increase the quality of the force,” Zachary said.

The Army National Guard began to rebuild in late 2005. Bonuses and more recruiters stemmed the decline, said Lt. Col. Ronald Walls, chief of the Guard’s strength maintenance division.

More here:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/gns_guard_cuts_050809/

Darlington is a bitch.

They're new format did suck. I don't know what to advise on donations. Whoever they used to design the new site should not be paid, in my opinion.

I liked the old site just fine. It was easy to use and updated regularly.

CIA can’t vouch for claims in torture briefing document, agency director says

he CIA cannot vouch for the complete accuracy of details in a memo outlining who was briefed on the CIA’s “harsh interrogation” program, a letter obtained today reveals.

In a letter from CIA chief Leon Panetta to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes and ranking House Intelligence Republican Pete Hoekstra, Panetta says the information about the briefings is taken from the “best recollections” of those who were there.

But he says, “In the end, you and the [House Intelligence] Committee will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened.

“That would appear to be a concession that the CIA isn’t willing to vouch for the accuracy of the info about the briefings in the docs, and that only further inquiry will produce a reliable recounting of what happened,” The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent wrote, who noticed the quote in the letter accompanying the CIA’s report.

“To be clear, it’s perfectly possible that the info about what Dems were told is right,” he added. “But not even the CIA is willing to promise this right now. So it’s unclear how much stock to place in the documents at this point.”

The memorandum asserts that at least 19 Congressional Democrats were briefed on the torture techniques the Bush administration employed by 2006, and offers specific accounting of who was told what, and when. Often, it simply refers to briefings on “EIT,” or “Enhanced Interrogation Technique.”

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/08/cia-cant-vouch-for-claims-in-tort...

Attacking Pelosi: The unethical leading the blind

by Larisa Alexandrovna

Apparently most people only read a headline, before they run off to blog and Twitter about the “news” of an article. Case in point, the reaction to the "news" that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had been briefed by the CIA on torture techniques (or as the corporate press likes to call torture, enhanced interrogation techniques).

The latest “leak” of convenience shows that Ms. Pelosi had in fact been briefed on the use of some techniques (which she has already said), but not on warterboarding (which she has also said), which she understood to be “legal” based on the opinions of Bush administration lawyers (which she has said as well).

Yet in an article entitled Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. ’02, ABC News seems to entirely bury the facts of the story and imply that Pelosi had not been truthful:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.”

This would seem to contradict Pelosi’s earlier claims that she was not briefed on the use of waterboarding, right? ABC would have gotten a hell of a scoop if the sexed-up implications were actually true. But the news of this “news” is entirely misleading. Buried near the end of the article is the following:

“The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used,” Daly said.

Daly pointed out that the report backs up Pelosi’s contention that she was briefed only once on “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Her name does not appear elsewhere in the report.

"As this document shows, the speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002," Daly said.

So the report actually corroborates Pelosi’s assertion that she did not know that waterboarding had been used, thought the other interrogation techniques were legal based on the legal opinions of corrupt Bush administration lawyers, and had been briefed only minimally. Why then does the article read as though Pelosi has been caught in a lie? Perhaps ABC News can answer that question.

While the article is entirely an unethical version of journalism, the readers of it appear to be blind enough to buy it. Democrats and Republicans alike are screaming for Pelosi’s scalp based on an article, which if read closely, actually supports her earlier claims.

Now I am no fan of Ms. Pelosi because of her disregard for the Constitutional obligations she has taken an oath to uphold. If you recall, Ms. Pelosi declared that impeachment was “off the table,” despite her having no right or authority to declare that Constitutional obligation null and void. Since then, I have had little respect for the California Democrat.

I say this because I want it to be clear that I am not defending Ms. Pelosi out of Party loyalty. In fact, I am not a Democrat (or Republican for that matter), although my sympathies lean left. I am pointing out the obvious for people who I assume know how to read, but apparently are either incapable of reading comprehension or are too crazed to actually care.

Whatever the reasons, it is very troubling that ABC News would slant the article in such a way as to mislead and it is also very troubling that readers are unable to actually consider and absorb what they are reading.

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/05/attacking-pelosi-the-unethical-leading-...

//a decision was made to LOCK OUT and CENSOR any Singlepayer proponents//

Submitted by nora on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 6:16pm.

another cheney energy meeting...

//Officials familiar with the proposals said senators plan to debate them in a closed meeting next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the controversial plans have not been released.//

Submitted by toniD on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 7:49pm.

if you had a democracy, you'd say to the health insurance companies

NO SOUP FOR YOU!

now fuck off...

instead they're saying it to you

This is what rocks about being me. My friend Megan (25 yo strawberry blond 5'9" bombshell) is coming over for dinner impromptu out of the blue just because she had a bad day and wants to cheer up. I usually don't have guests on Friday so this is a treat for me! Megan is funny as hell too and can out cuss any sailor you will ever meet. Good thing I have flowers all over the yard. She loves that stuff.

The neighbors hate her because she's always in a mini skirt and never knocks. Just walks in. I can hear their fingers waggin right now. As if Megan would talk to me if I was just some dirty old man.

below

Among the giant taboos afflicting Congress these days is the proposal to create a single payer health insurance system (often called full Medicare for everyone).

How can this be? Don’t the elected politicians represent the people? Don’t they always have their finger to the wind?

Well, single payer is only supported by a majority of the American people, physicians and nurses. They like the idea of public funding and private delivery. They like the free choice of doctors and hospitals that many are now denied by the HMOs.

There are also great administrative efficiencies when single player displaces the health insurance industry with its claims-denying, benefit-restricting, bureaucratically-heavy profiteering. According to leading researchers in this area, Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler, single payer will save $350 billion annually.

Yet, on Capitol Hill and at the White House there are no meetings, briefings, hearings, and consultations about kinds of health care reforms that reform the basic price inflation, indifference to prevention, and discrimination of health insurers.

There is no place at the table for single payer advocates in the view of the Congressional leaders who set the agenda and muzzle dissenters.

Last month at a breakfast meeting with reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to a question about health care with these revealing and exasperating words: “Over and over again, we hear single payer, single payer, single payer. Well, it’s not going to be a single payer.”

Thus spake Speaker Pelosi, the Representative from Aetna? Never mind that 75 members of her party have signed onto H.R. 676—the Conyers single payer legislation. Never mind that in her San Francisco district, probably three out of four people want single payer. And never mind that over 20,000 people die every year, according to the Institute of Medicine, because they cannot afford health insurance.

What is more remarkable is that many more than the 75 members of the House privately believe single payer is the best option. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, and Nancy Pelosi are among them. But they all say, single payer “is not practical” so it’s off the table.

What gives here? The Democrats have the procedures to pass any kind of health reform this year, including single payer. President Obama could sign it into law.

But “it’s not practical” because these politicians fear the insurance and pharmaceutical industries—and seek their campaign contributions—more than they fear the American people. It comes down to the corporations, who have no votes, are organized to the teeth and the people are not.

So, when Senator Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a large recipient of health insurance and drug company donations, held a public roundtable discussion on May 5, fifteen witnesses were preparing to deliver their statements. Not one of them was championing single payer.

As Senator Baucus started his introductory remarks, something happened. One by one, eight people in the audience, most of them physicians and lawyers, stood up to politely but insistently protest the absence of a single payer presentation.

One by one, the police came, took them out of the hearing room, arrested and handcuffed them. The charge was “disruption of Congress”—a misdemeanor.

They call themselves the “Baucus Eight”. Immediately, over the internet and on C-Span, public radio, and the Associated Press, the news spread around the country.

You can see the video on singlepayeraction.org.

To the many groups and individuals who have labored for single payer for decades, the Baucus Eight’s protest seemed like an epiphany.

Dr. Quentin Young, a veteran leader for single payer and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) e-mailed his reaction: “For our part, when the history of this period is written, we believe your action may well be noted as the turning point from a painful, defensive position to a more appropriate offensive position vis-à-vis Senator Baucus and his health industry co-conspirators.”

Webster’s dictionary defines “taboo” as “a prohibition against touching, saying, or doing something for fear of a mysterious superhuman force.” For both Democrats and Republicans in Congress it is a fear of a very omnipresent supercorporate force.

However, moral and evidential courage is coming. On May 12, 2009, Senator Baucus is having another roundtable discussion with thirteen more witnesses, including those from the business lobbies and their consultants. Word has it that the Senator is about to invite a leading single payer advocate to sit at the table.

Here come the people! Join this historic drive to have our country join the community of western, and some third-world, nations by adopting a state of the art single payer system.

Visit singlepayeraction.org and break the taboo in your region.

http://nader.org/index.php?/archives/2116-Stop-the-Single-Payer-Shut-out!.html#extended

Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say

WASHINGTON — People in 34 states who live near 210 coal ash lagoons or landfills with inadequate lining have a higher risk of cancer and other diseases from contaminants in their drinking water, two environmental groups reported on Thursday.

Twenty-one states have five or more of the high-risk disposal sites near coal-fired power plants. The groups -- the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice -- said that a 2002 Environmental Protection Agency document that the agency didn't release until March of this year adds information about toxic releases from these facilities to nearby water systems and data on how some contaminants accumulate in fish and deer and can harm the health of people who hunt and fish.

The report said that people who live near the most problematic disposal sites have as much as a 1-in-50 chance of getting cancer from drinking water contaminated by arsenic. The highest risk is for people who live near ash ponds with no liners and who get their water from wells.

The report said the ash ponds also produced an increased risk of damage to the liver and other organs from exposure to such metals as cadmium, cobalt and lead, and other pollutants.

Although the health information mainly came from an EPA study released in August 2007, the information was largely neglected and was too technical for most people to understand, the groups said. The report and a chart of the sites "takes the numbers and fleshes them out so the most dangerous units are identified," said Lisa Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice.

Evans also said that the actual number of coal ash disposal sites is nearly three times larger. EPA has long estimated there are about 600 ponds and landfills storing the material, but its 2007 survey only looked at 210.

Coal-fired power plants annually dispose of an estimated 100 million tons of ash and sludge scrubbed out of their emissions. The EPA has found that the highest health risks are from water contamination from unlined ponds where both coal ash and other waste products from coal are mixed. It also found unlined ponds increased the risk of other problems, such as damage to the liver and other organs. The risk also is elevated when the disposal sites are only lined with clay.

More:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/67753.html

Spitzer: "a breakdown of
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 10:50pm.
Spitzer: "a breakdown of capitalism"
by Chris in Paris on 5/07/2009 06:45:00 PM
......When I listen to him on CNBC is infuriates me that he made so many poor personal decisions because this was someone who really understand what was going on and how costly the failures would be for the country. The interview is inside the link and definitely worth the investment of 10 minutes. If only we had a few more hardball types out there today who could make a difference.

We won’t know if these bank stress tests are real until we see how the government measures them, said Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York.

"What we have seen is a breakdown of capitalism," Spitzer said in a live interview on CNBC.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/spitzer-breakdown-of-capitalism.html

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

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30619073 <- the 10 min video

thanks toniD

==============
also Thanks smcgee43 for the picts of
Marc and Janeane in Chicago last week.

I wanted to see the show very much however I had
to replace my Furnace in March , and I
don't seem to have two dimes to rub together.

I did see Janeane and Patton Oswalt in _2007_ at the
same location and it was a great show.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/cartoons/index.html

om mani padme hum

No Generation Gap
Democrats now lead Republicans among every age group of the American electorate, according to a new Gallup analysis.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/polltracker/2009/05/baby-boomers.html

Kennedy May Be Strongest for Senate in Illinois
The Chicago Sun Times says White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel "is privately telling folks Chris Kennedy -- if he runs -- may potentially be the strongest candidate for the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by Barack Obama."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/1564083,CST-NWS-SNEED08.article

"Kennedy, who runs the Merchandise Mart and is the son of the late U.S. Sen. Bobby Kennedy, is weighing his options. But top Dems are predicting Kennedy is going to run."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/04/28/kennedy_may_run_in_illinois...

Henry Pressured to Run for Senate in Oklahoma
Southern Political Report: The word from the Sooner State is that Gov. Brad Henry (D), a moderate Democrat, is getting lots of pressure from the DSCC and the DNC to run for the US Senate next year if -- as is looking likely -- US Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) decides to step down... Coburn, who has yet to say yea or nay on a 2010 re-election bid, raised only a pittance ($17,000) in the 1st Quarter, which suggests he isn't planning to run again.

http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/storylink_58_859.aspx

Meanwhile, a new Sooner Poll found that 66% of Oklahoma voters said they approve of Henry's job performance, slightly ahead of the state's two Republican senators.

http://soonerpoll.com/news_05509.html

...I was watching Rachel with the dogs in the recliner.

The Sunday Show Line-Ups
By Eric Kleefeld - May 8, 2009, 2:54PM

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of CENTCOM; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

• CBS, Face The Nation: Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of CENTCOM.

• Fox News Sunday: Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of CENTCOM; former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan; Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan.

Citibank's New Gambit

Going to war against Obama's money-saving student loan reform plan.

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/if_citigroup_--_recipi...

Submitted by maggiesboy on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 10:01pm.
...I was watching Rachel with the dogs in the recliner.
-------------
(Obviously a Barkalounger.)

Home Grown

Over at TPMmuckraker we've been digging into these public pension investment scandals in which an overlapping group of players have been scamming (or perhaps better to say, skimming) money out of public pension plans in several states. So we got curious why something very similar seemed to be going on in Illinois but with a very distinct group of villains. The upshot seems to be that Chicago and Illinois had enough native grown corruption just not to need any help from outside -- or to let outsiders take their cut.

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the_national_pay-to-pl...

Rachel Maddow is booked on Charlie Rose tonight.

Actual U.S. Unemployment: 15.8%

This morning's news that U.S. unemployment has hit 13.7 million, pushing the rate to 8.9 percent, tells only half the story of this recession.

The total number of Americans who are not working full-time but ought to be is actually about 22 million, or 15.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Who are those other 8.3 million Americans? Call them the unofficially unemployed.

As The Ticker points out each time the Bureau releases the monthly unemployment figure, it does not include many out-of-work Americans.

There are many reasons for this.

The bureau, which is under the Labor Department, cannot use unemployment compensation records to count the out-of-work, because they are not reliable or up-to-date enough. The bureau also cannot count every out-of-work person.

Instead, as The Ticker reported here in December: "In the case of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department contacts 60,000 households to determine the unemployment picture for the entire workforce, which consists of about 154 million Americans."

The problem with this methodology is that it does not include millions of Americans who are not working full-time who ought to be. Those, in the bureau's words, who are "marginally attached to the labor force."

Those numbered an additional 2.1 million Americans in the first quarter of this year, the bureau said. Alarmingly, that number was up 35 percent from the first quarter of 2008.

Of this number, the bureau categorized 717,000 as "discouraged" workers, or those that have simply given up looking for work for any number of reasons. That number was up 70 percent from the first quarter of 2008.

"Discouraged" workers include a disproportionate number of young people, blacks, Hispanics and men, the bureau said.

On top of all of this, add an additional 3.6 million unemployed Americans who say they want a job but have not looked for work in the past 12 months.

The remaining 2.6 million or so officially unemployed Americans include part-time workers who would prefer to have full-time jobs, those who have not looked for work because of illness or transportation reasons and those who believe they have other impediments.

But even though these workers don't count toward the official monthly unemployment number, they are nevertheless a true weight on the economy.

They don't pay payroll tax, or as much of it as they would; they don't contribute to Social Security or other government entitlement entitlements and they don't spend as much.

The 15.8 percent figure is the highest since the bureau began keeping these figures in 1994. Excluding the current recession, the highest previous rate came in January 1994, when it hit 11.8 percent.

The number was 8.7 percent in December 2007, when the current recession began. That means the number of the unofficially unemployed has shot up 7.1 percentage points since then.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2009/05/actual_us_unemplo...

Docs Show Rockefeller Was Briefed On "How The Water Board Was Used"
By Zachary Roth - May 8, 2009, 12:31PM

The hot story of the morning is the release of CIA documents appearing to show that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on "enhanced interrogation techniques" in September 2002. Things have already descended into a he-said she-said debate -- literally -- over exactly what Pelosi was told, and whether the new information contradicts what she'd said in the past.

But let's set that aside for a second, because according to the documents, it was another Democratic lawmaker who received the first briefing whose summary in the newly released document specifically mentions waterboarding -- the technique that has been at the center of the controversy, especially for Pelosi lately.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/docs_show_rockefeller_...

US Senate Stiffs the People, Cheers Wall Street

by Jim Hightower

-clip-

Last week, 45 U.S. senators dodged an excellent chance to do just what Mr. Sam advised. At issue was a straightforward, common-sense amendment proposed by Dick Durbin, D-Ill. It would have allowed bankruptcy judges to help hundreds of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who now find themselves trapped by exploding, exorbitant interest rates that bankers had attached to their loans.

Here was a conspicuous opportunity for even the most ethically blind of our congress-critters to take a principled stand, for Durbin's bill practically had a flashing red-and-yellow neon arrow attached to it, declaring, "Vote Here for the People Against Greedy Bankers."

Actually, even GBs would've benefited, for the bankruptcy provision would have allowed families to stay in their homes and keep making monthly payments to banks (albeit in reduced amounts). Also, banks could still make a profit (though not a killing), and there would be far fewer vacant homes going on the market, thus giving a badly needed break to America's depressed housing market.

What a sensible idea! So, naturally, the Senate stomped it to death.

The members were prodded to do so by Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other upstanding members of the hyper-aggressive GB lobby. These are, of course, the same banksters who for years speculated rapaciously on people's homes, created a housing bubble that has since burst and shattered our economy, reduced their own financial fiefdoms to insolvency, then rushed to Washington to unscrew the Capitol dome and help themselves to a taxpayer bailout that is nearing $3 trillion.

-clip-

Goldman Sachs alone has more than 30 ex-government officials in its lobbying army, including former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and the former top staffer to house banking chairman Barney Frank.

The first and chief target of this furious lobbying blitz was a guy who had long backed the homeowners protection plan, promising again and again last year that he would lead the fight to pass it: Barack Obama. The banker lobbyists were aided in this effort to back off Obama by two White House insiders who have shown themselves to be shameless Wall Street softies - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and top economic advisor Larry Summers. Timid Timothy reportedly argued that even a small, tightly targeted bankruptcy provision for common folks would create "uncertainty" for big investors in Wall Street banks.

Never mind that millions of homeowners are facing crushing uncertainty over their mortgages, Obama and team promptly disappeared from the legislative fight, abandoning Durbin.

This let Wall Street's hired guns go after pusillanimous, bank-financed Democrats. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, for example, was a swing vote, counted on by Durbin. But with no pressure from Obama, Bayh was free to sidestep principle and vote his own political pocketbook. Up for re-election next year, Bayh's top campaign donor is Goldman Sachs.

-clip-

"The banks are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill," sighed Sen. Durbin afterward. He added this sobering note: "They frankly own the place."

http://www.creators.com/opinion/jim-hightower/u-s-senate-stiffs-the-peop...

Naomi Klein and Matt Taibbi on Maher's panel?

Nice! They're talking Maher down now about torture and how it should be investigated.

There's another guy on, too, Rezla Aslan.

Here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/real-time

Obama to hold town hall meeting on credit cards

U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a town hall meeting next week in New Mexico to promote congressional efforts to reform credit card practices, the White House said on Friday.

Banks such as Bank of America Corp (BAC.N)>, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) face a new set of rules issued by the Federal Reserve last year aimed at reining in abusive credit card practices.

The rules are to be implemented by July 2010, a date some lawmakers and consumer groups complain is too far away to help struggling consumers.

U.S. lawmakers are trying to codify those rules in legislation and send it to Obama this month to sign into law. Legislative efforts are aimed at stopping credit card companies from imposing certain late fees, restricting retroactive rate increases, as well as other questionable billing practices and marketing to minors.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/id...

>>Ralph "invisible" Nader ~ www.nader.org

Big fuckin' deal, Ralph wrote a letter!

Nader has had decades to be part of the solution, yet he lamely lectures from afar and every 4 years gives a lackadaisical run for president.

pretty words aren't any help...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

crank gets knighted, dons on a british accent and becomes a whitehall civil servant

everythings spiffy until...

he receives a visit from that meddlesome stiff-necked nora

"the people demand it"

say what, old chap...

doesn't that infernal woman know how the system works

good grief!

"the system is working"

Chrysler holdout creditors give up court challenge
Gordon Trowbridge and David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington --In a major boost for Chrysler's chances of emerging from bankruptcy in the coming weeks, dissident creditors said Friday they would give up their court fight against the automaker's bankruptcy reorganization plan.

"After a great deal of soul-searching and quite frankly agony, Chrysler's non-TARP lenders concluded they just don't have the critical mass to withstand the enormous pressure and machinery of the U.S. government," Thomas Lauria, a lawyer for the holdout lenders, said in a written statement.

Lauria's statement said the lenders would drop their fight in U.S. Bankruptcy Court against Chrysler's plan, but they did not agree to a U.S. Treasury proposal, OK'd by most of the company's secured lenders, that would give them roughly 29 cents for every dollar of debt they hold.

The move came after two of the largest holdout creditors, OppenheimerFunds and Stairway Capital Management, withdrew their objections Friday. It is likely to make it even easier for the company to win approval of a bankruptcy plan constructed by Chrysler, alliance partner Fiat SpA and the Obama administration. And it's a victory for Obama and Michigan elected officials who had lashed out at the holdout lenders, calling them "vultures" and "speculators" who put their financial interests ahead of thousands of workers.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090508/AUTO01/905080433/Chrysler-holdou...

Miss you round here.

How come so scarce?

they're both duds in person...

i'm going to listen to the footy

in my Barkolounger.

I sometimes call it my La-Z-Sit-Boy, Good Boy. Not nearly as catchy.

about his bill to allow a bankruptcy judge to demand that the banks renegotiate a mortgage for people facing foreclosure. Said there was an agenda against his bill by the GOP and some Dems.

Durbin says he'll keep on fighting.

Check your local PBS station or go to Moyers' site.

bank.."frankly own the place" comment?

just not really into blogging these days.

I don't know why....no real reason.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

And alot more. He's really upset about it.

They played a vid of him saying that the banks own the place.

But we did miss you, Chubbs

Oops, he quit already.

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 11:21pm.
just not really into blogging these days.
I don't know...

Jonathan. Listen for it on the podcast if you get a chance.

----

Between the last break and the end.

..but not really. I was putting the finishing touches on the next show and there's too much competing noise to hear the radio. I will get the podcast tomorrow and check him out. I could tell from the tone of Mike's voice he was into the guy.

..and it's OK.

You're OK too.

Life is a series of peaks and valleys isn't it?
It's how well we negotiate the valleys that determines the quality of our lives.
If the going gets tough you go to Happe's Travel Agency and get directions outta the valley, or at least move over to Happe Valley. ;-)

SERE Program: The 'trainees' were given a 'safe word' -- like 'stop' -- to indicate when they could tolerate no more. Why did they allow that blatherer Rivkin to have a airtime anyway? In the absence of a valid reason to interview him (was there one?), I think it shows lack of discernment on the part of the media.

Outstanding information in this interview of Dr. Darius Rejali, author of 'Torture and Democracy', by Thom Hartmann! It's where I heard mention of the "safe word". [This dovetails with why I call open-ended detainment psychological torture (which is also prohibited by the Geneva Conventions) -- when a victim has no timeframe, sees no end to the ordeal, is offered not a crumb of fairness or justice, perceives no end to the torture -- it causes destruction to that time/space reality in which the individual defines himself.]

Here's the video of the interview, each part about 9 minutes...
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwRu2T44ev8&feature=related
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s32_zyOSmX0&feature=related
part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPj7kfqcsk&feature=related
part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sP2CpPhajs&feature=related

Rivkin said (in the interview Fernando posted): "Nine out of ten of these techniques were part of the SERE program." As if that made them kosher.

But SERE was practice for resisting other people TORTURING. So, by definition, he has just said at least nine out of ten of the techniques were torture AND not sanctioned before by us or else we would have been training people (officially) to implement them, not just to resist them.

The whole point is that it was a PERVERSION of the SERE program.

Thank God most of these ppl are so stupid, but it doesn't seem to help as much as it should...

ChB.

.. on fascists. Those bastards need outed but it's so hard. The most powerful tool they have is they accuse everyone else of being the fascists. Have to admit it's damn effective. Still, there's only so many times you can pull a dirty trick.

We must be getting close if Grodin could call Hannity a fascist to his face on Fascist News Network.

There has to be a way to pay those bastards back for the way they turned liberal into a pejorative for all things bad. There has to be a way to super glue the fascist label to them but I'll be damned if I know how to do it.

Where's all the smart people when you need them?

gloryoski nailed it. If you reverse the technique to resist torture you are doing torture.

It's that kinda thinking that nails peoples asses to the wall.

5 gold stars for that one

*****

Oh, OK. I'll be right up.

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse."

thanks for all the well wishes.

I just don't have a lot to say these days. Just kinda of feel blah
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

in a DLP theater tomorrow with Megan :)
How fun. My friends don't usually do anything in the AM.

I'm really excited.

Historically, whenever hard times come, Hollywood and fantasy rule.

http://news.aol.com/article/oldest-dog/471051

many interesting pictures of animals in the news. #7 is a calico cat!
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

for Serious Self-Learners

by Dan Colman

Looks like they were committed to making a good prequel...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE7fkoap810&feature=channel

When Vladimir Nabokov died in 1977, he was working on a manuscript called The Original of Laura. And he asked that it remain locked in a Swiss vault and never published. His son, Dmitri, who also happens to be his translator and surviving heir, is now wondering what to do with “the most concentrated distillation of [my father's] creativity.” To burn or not to burn? That’s Dmitri’s dilemma, and it gets explored in this piece by Slate.

Nabokov Reading from Lolita

Nabokov on Lolita

http://www.openculture.com/2009/05/the_fate_of_nabokovs_final_unpublishe...

What do YOU think?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sent troops to take over companies that provide services for the oil industry.

"This is a revolutionary offensive," he told workers near Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela's main oil-producing area.

Military vehicles were used as the state oil company seized supply boats and two US-owned gas facilities.

Mr Chavez nationalised Venezuela's main oil assets two years ago. The fresh drive comes as falling oil prices put state finances under pressure.

The move places hundreds of boats, several ports and an estimated 8,000 oil workers under state control.

The state-owned oil company PDVSA has recently clashed with foreign and local service providers over the prices they charge.

The service companies are owed billions of dollars by PDVSA. But the state firm says lower oil prices mean the contractors are being paid too much.

President Chavez has re-invigorated his nationalisation programme since his victory in a February referendum that removed limits on how many times he and others can stand for re-election.

Venezuela has some of the biggest oil reserves in the world and is the largest oil exporter in the Americas.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8041366.stm

More than half the genes in the H1N1 virus behind the current flu outbreaks were traced to pigs. The first person known to be sickened with swine flu in Mexico, the outbreak's epicenter, lived near an industrial farm that produces almost a million hogs a year.

The virus was quickly dubbed "swine flu."

Officials in Egypt ordered destruction of all 300,000 of the country's pigs. Afghanistan's one known pig was quarantined. Pork imports were banned by some nations due to unfounded fears that the virus might linger in cooked meat.

But don't turn the pig into a scapegoat.

"The easy way out is to blame the pig," said Robert Webster, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and a preeminent expert on influenza.

Though pigs provided a share of the raw material, he and others said, the viral bomb probably couldn't have been assembled without a small cadre of jet-setting humans carrying flu viruses across oceans, unwittingly mixing and matching them -- perhaps inside their own bodies.

"This is a human virus," Webster said.

Indeed, the flu strain, which has killed dozens of people and sickened thousands more since March, has yet to be found in a single pig outside Alberta, Canada, where an infected farmworker -- yes, a person -- transmitted it to a herd.

Pigs do harbor flu viruses, and sometimes we catch them. But next to regular flu, which infects as many as a fifth of the people in the U.S. each winter, swine flu in people is rare. Virologists have documented about 50 cases in the last 35 years.

It is also true that swine influenzas can contribute portions of their genomes to the starkly new flus that rise up at times to plague us. An unusual class of flu that combines pig, avian and human viruses jumped to people 12 times between December 2005 and February 2009, according to a report released Wednesday.

One of those strains is an ancestor of the new H1N1 flu, though there are significant differences in a key gene, H1.

"Do pigs contribute to the flu gene pool? Yeah, and so do people and so do wild birds," said Dr. Kurt Rossow of the University of Minnesota, who studies diseases in people who handle pigs. "I just don't agree that pigs are an evil mixing vessel just boiling over with flu that's pumping out to people on a regular basis."

If accusing fingers have pointed at pigs, they have also pointed at modern-day pig-farming practices.

Such operations are part of a global industry that bears little resemblance to the "Charlotte's Web"-style sties of yesteryear. Most pigs are raised indoors, thousands under one roof. The ground is concrete or a synthetic material; urine and excrement fall through slats.

It's a crowded, unnatural environment that can spur creation of new viruses, critics say.

"When you concentrate animals, you both stress their immune systems and create conditions where microbes can become more virulent more quickly, which is exactly what you don't want leaking into the human population," said Dr. David Wallinga, director of the Food and Health Program at the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

He said he didn't know of any studies that prove this, "but when I talk to farmers, they will say that when pigs are raised on pastures or in barns, they just don't get sick."

Animal scientists say that is not so. The biologically secure facilities, they say, protect pigs from germs like flu. The air is filtered, and bacteria-rich animal waste is kept out of pens. There is virtually no exposure to wild birds or other animals.

The number of humans who come into contact with the animals is far lower than on traditional farms,reducing risk of infection either way. People entering the facilities must shower and change into special clothes. "You don't even wear your own underwear in these facilities," said Dr. Liz Wagstrom, a veterinarian and officer of the National Pork Board.

The new H1N1 is a transcontinental combination of flu segments from North America, Europe and Asia. Virologist Jan de Jong of the Netherlands' National Influenza Center said that based on genetic analysis, the last step in the mix-and-match process probably occurred late last year.

He said he was surprised, in these days of people and cargo crisscrossing the planet, that the Eurasian genes didn't show up sooner in North America.

Everett Forkner, a pig breeder and exporter in Richards, Mo., and a member of the National Pork Board, said he couldn't see how two pigs infected with the different strains could wind up in close quarters. More than 20 million pigs a year are shipped internationally, but few cross an ocean.

And when Forker does sell live pigs to Asia, they are quarantined for at least 30 days before being trucked to Chicago, then isolated one or two days before being loaded onto cargo planes. They are quarantined again upon arrival in Asia for as long as 60 days, he said.

The pork industry, reeling from the bad publicity the outbreaks have wrought, has reason to downplay its part, of course. But even researchers with no connection to the industry say the flu strains from North America and Eurasia probably got together courtesy of humans.

"I don't think it would make one squiddly bit of difference" if pig travel were banned, said Webster, the St. Jude virologist.

Scientists see two possible ways in which people may have helped assemble the building blocks of the new flu. In the first, a pig transmitted one virus to a person. That person crossed an ocean and gave it to a pig that was already infected with another one. The pig became a "mixing vessel" in which the two strains re- assorted to form the new virus.

Alternatively, a person who'd had contact with pigs on two continents picked up a virus in each place. That person, not a pig, was a mixing vessel.

As for the H1N1-infected Alberta pigs, a farmworker got the virus in Mexico, probably from a person, and brought it back. About 200 pigs, a tenth of the herd, became ill.

Animal breeder Ronald Bates of Michigan State University said that should be a warning: "If you have flu-like symptoms, don't go near pigs."

alan.zarembo@latimes.com

he can do this or he can sit quietly and do nothing -- but the Globalists will still find him undesireable either way. If he takes the lead like this, as least he's taking a stand against economic imperialism by the transnationals, and serves as an example to other nationas striving to survive without the corporate boot on their necks.

BEIJING (Reuters) - An invasion of unidentified worms has forced 50 herdsmen and their families from their grassland homes, taking 20,000 head of livestock with them, in northwest China's Xinjiang region, state news agency Xinhua said Friday.

The worms are packed up to 3,000 per square meter and chew through the grasslands like lawnmowers, leaving only brown soil in their wake, Xinhua said.

The agency described it as the worst plague in three decades in Usu, about 280 km (175 miles) west of the Xinjiang capital Urumqi.

Local experts could not identify the 2-cm (1 inch) long, thorny green worm with black stripes and samples had been sent to Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinhua said.

"The pasture was green a week ago. But now the worms are creeping around, and they even come into my house. I have to sweep them out several times an hour," Xinhua quoted one herdsman as saying.

Xinjiang has in the past used chickens, ducks and other birds to fight locusts, which are also a menace on the grasslands, but so far they have shown little interest in the pesky worms.

One local official said the worms might be moth larvae that have flourished in the relatively warm winter and plenty of rain.

(Reporting by Kirby Chien; Editing by Paul Tait)

Rupert Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a "malfunctioning" business model.

Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said.

Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, he replied: "We're absolutely looking at that." Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over."

Plunging earnings from newspapers led the way downwards as News Corporation's quarterly operating profits slumped by 47% to $755m, although exceptional gains on sale of assets boosted bottom-line pretax profits to $1.7bn, in line with last year's figure.

Dwindling advertising revenue across print and television divisions depressed the News Corp numbers despite box office receipts from Twentieth Century Fox movies such as Slumdog Millionaire and Marley and Me. But Murdoch said he believed signs of hope were appearing.

"I'm not an economist and we all know economists were created to make weather forecasters look good," he quipped. "But it is increasingly clear the worst is over."

He continued: "There are encouraging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous declines are done, and things are beginning to look healthier."

News Corp's newspaper division barely broke even, with quarterly profits collapsing from $216m to $7m year-on-year. Advertising revenue in Britain fell by 21% and Murdoch revealed the Sunday Times is struggling: "It's still in profit, but only just so." The tabloids had fared better, aided by price battles at supermarkets which spend heavily on print promotions.

Television profits also shrank dramatically, falling from $419m to $4m due to a loss of Superbowl revenue and weaker advertising at the group's Fox channels in the US and its Star network in Asia.

News Corp has cut 3,000 jobs over the last year, although Murdoch said very few affected journalists or "creative" personnel. Its filmed entertainment division enjoyed an 8% rise in profits to $282m, while Fox News Channel in the US helped push profits from cable subscription networks up by 30% to $429m.

But News Corp revealed that its interactive media division, which includes the social networking site MySpace, had turned in a lower contribution. MySpace's management was recently replaced as News Corp struggles to build sustainable profitability but Murdoch dismissed competition from its larger rival, Facebook.

"We're not going for the Facebook model of getting hundreds and hundreds of million of people who don't bring any advertising with them at all," he said.

Meanwhile a threat to close the Boston Globe was averted today as its owner, the New York Times Company, struck a deal with the daily's largest union after a week of talks; the 137-year-old publication is the 14th biggest-selling US paper.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

I think he is ballsy but I think he should watch his back even With Obama in. I wish him luck. At least he takes big steps .

The Bloomberg administration has quietly begun charging rent to homeless families who live in publicly run shelters but have income from jobs.

The new policy is based on a 1997 state law that was not enforced until last week, when shelter operators across the city began requiring residents to pay a certain portion of their income. The amount varies based on factors that include family size and what shelter is being used, but should not exceed 50 percent of a family’s income, a state official said.

Vanessa Dacosta, who earns $8.40 an hour as a cashier at Sbarro, received a notice under her door several weeks ago informing her that she had to give $336 of her approximately $800 per month in wages to the Clinton Family Inn, a shelter in Hell’s Kitchen where she has lived since March.

“It’s not right,” said Ms. Dacosta, a single mother of a 2-year-old who said she spends nearly $100 a week on child care. “I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers, and I’m trying to save money so I can get out of here. I don’t want to be in the shelter forever.”

City officials said the new rent requirement had been in the works since a 2007 state audit that forced them to pay back $2.4 million in state housing aid that should have been covered by homeless families with income. They argued that homeless people with income should be expected to pay for a portion of their shelter costs, a model that echoes the federal Section 8 housing voucher program.

“I think it’s hard to argue that families that can contribute to their shelter cost shouldn’t,” Robert V. Hess, the city’s commissioner of homeless services, said in a telephone interview Friday. “I don’t see this playing out in an adverse way. Our objective is not for families to remain in shelter. Our objective is to move families back into their own homes and into the community.”

It is unclear why the state law has not been enforced until now. New York’s situation is unusual, with far more working homeless families than elsewhere in the state, and higher housing costs than virtually anywhere in the country.

Anthony Farmer, a spokesman for the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said the new policy will eventually affect about 2,000 of the more than 9,000 families in New York City shelters. More than 500 families have been informed that they were expected to begin paying rent on May 1.

City officials said they started with families who are new to shelters, and would phase in the new approach over the next several months, including for people who are on welfare and are also working. They could not yet estimate how much it would raise.

A flier posted in one shelter last week warned residents in bold, underlined type, “Failure to make the required contributions could result in the loss of your family’s temporary housing.”

But advocates for the homeless said the new policy was punitive and counterproductive, and some shelter residents, in protest, have already refused to sign the documents acknowledging receipt of the rent notifications.

“Families have been told to pay up or get out,” said Steven Banks, the attorney in chief for the Legal Aid Society. “The policy is poorly conceived, but even more alarmingly, it’s being poorly executed. What is happening is that we have seen cases of families being unilaterally told, without any notice of how the rent was calculated, that they must pay certain amounts of rent or leave the shelter. We’ve already had a case of a survivor of domestic violence who was actually locked out of her room.”

Mr. Hess acknowledged that if a family does not pay the required rent, it could be told to leave the shelter, but he noted that residents can contest the rent required through a state hearing.

Ms. Dacosta, for one, said she had spoken with her caseworker and demanded a hearing. Martha Gonzalez, who is 49 and lives with her 19-year-old son in a rundown shelter in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said she was informed last week that she owes $1,099 in monthly rent on a $1,700 monthly income as a security guard in Midtown. She said she planned to contest the rent demand in court.

City officials did not immediately respond to Ms. Gonzalez’s assertion that her rent would exceed half of her income.

Patrick Markee, the senior policy analyst of the Coalition for the Homeless, called the policy “impractical,” arguing that most working people who live in homeless shelters earn low wages and would be better off saving for a place of their own. “It’s going to make families stay in shelter longer because they’ll have fewer financial resources,” he said.

“They are taking money from them that could otherwise be used to help themselves get out of the shelter system,” agreed Arnold S. Cohen, the president and chief executive of the Partnership for the Homeless. “We’re dealing with the poorest people, the people who are the most in need, and we’re asking them to pay for a shelter of last resort. As a city and a state that has a history of social and economic justice, I think we can do better than that.”