open

I got some cookies...

Sieze ya later!!!

Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna

OBAMA, COME WITH ME TO CARTHAGE

Maybe I can invite you for "a cup of coffee"
or if you prefer, a "cold one" in the White House garden
as you did with the black guy and that policeman
who went after each other in a misunderstanding.
But the best place for us to meet
--is Carthage.

As García Lorca said:
Nothing ever happens there
two Romans always kill
three Carthaginians.

But really there's a more portentous place
to meet and talk face to face.

In Carthage
as in Massada
or in Numantia
people go there to fight
and die. 　

[...]

http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/default.asp

how is it possible for such stupid effin people to get elected?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/history-in-bizarroworld-by-digby....

{yet still i must BREW more & more Tea (eye-roll)
...but yummmmm with a "spoonfull of sugar & a dash of 1% milk - my back intown "mush-city" tea cheers. :}
...I do not speak much usually about my CA weather ... :):(

The above post from Poetsagainstwar made me want to tell you all about this cool book I bought at the Tucson Festival of Books. It's called ADDICTED TO WAR: WHY THE US CAN'T KICK MILTARISM an illustrated expose by Joel Andreas. It's endorsed by Veterans for Peace and there are 300,000 copies in print worldwide. The inside cover was full of endorsements from "Liberal Hollywood elites" like Martin Sheen and Edward Asner. It's a footnoted comic book that covers America's militarism from Manifest Destiny to Iraq. If you can, buy a copy for your favorite student. I wish it could be a required text to counteract the "rah-rah" line in most US History texts.

Israeli aims its arsenal at Europe.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article164432.html

charter school system instituted after katrina

what you say is correct, my experience is that all my friends with school age children are happy about it and say exactly what you said; schools have improved their standards and there are more choices of where to send your kids; tuition is subsidized, not through vouchers but some other system which i am not sure i understand; this is not an issue i follow that closely since it doesn't affect me much, other than maybe through taxes, because it's my property taxes which support a system that gives my money to private entities, and i imagine these taxes are higher than they would be if we would instead support a good fully public system; but people with kids still get to send their children - at no additional cost to them - to schools which have reportedly been improved so what's not to like about that, as long as it can be sustained

...five renminbi, six renminbi, seven renminbi more....

I understand how your friends feel exactly. All parents want the best for their kids. But the reason I'm torn is that we are resegregating schools. Not necessarily by race,we are doing it more by class. Charter schools that get 100% support from parents will always do better than schools that have MIA parents. Ask any public high school teacher and they'll say the parents they NEED to talk to never come to open houses or conferences. So, I'm almost ready to see a move to a more European system with testing that sends kids to college-prep or voc schools, depending on their test scores.

CURRENT MOON PHASE

Ingredients
1 medium-sized red onion, peeled and sliced
8 ounces pancetta, cut into small dice
3 tablespoons olive oil
11/2 pounds very ripe, fresh tomatoes, chopped; or 1 1/2 pounds canned tomatoes, preferably imported Italian, drained and crushed by hand
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound bucatini

not the exact recipe I used but pretty close.

ty mire

As for this afternoon, I couldn't get my laptop out of my briefcase until lunch and that was about all I saw of it during work.

Now I'm gonna practice scales and watch BarfO'Donnell.

Submitted by SEDER on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 6:48pm.

I got nothing at the moment

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

Either Sam is busier than a frantic bee in spring or he's on his couch in a fit of limp-wristed ennui.

(I would love to see a video of Sam in either or both of those states, by the way. Or any at all.)

Tenure/unions/charters
Submitted by Sandy on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 5:57pm.
I have been reading a lot on these subjects. I know that there is a problem with tenured teachers, especially in Urban schools. I do believe that those rules need to be modified but not completely removed. But, I have also read that the Charter schools replacing the regular public ones in Chicago are doing about the same as the ones they replaced. And, if you look at who's pushing the Charter/voucher movements, you'll see the Walton Family Foundation listed prominently. I do worry about privatizing education. Look at what has happened in the military (Blackwater/KBR) They provide no better services and rake off a hugh profit.

What do I think is the core problem? Motivating students. In the olden days parents kept kids motivated, with a spanking if necessary. Now too many parents either don't know how to be good parents, are too busy keeping a roof over their heads, or think that Junior is too precious to do anything wrong. I grew up in the Calumet Region (NW Indiana) and watched the dismantling of the Steel Industry. I'm not surprised kids don't see the value of education when the adults in their lives have little hope of finding decent jobs. When heavy manufacturing got outsourced, the powers that be said retrain for the computer age. Then many of those jobs were outsourced. I know technology changes employment opportunities, your old career as a Travel Agent is a perfect example of that. I think we need to invest in green jobs, have a manufacturing policy and give kids incentives (scholarships)to work hard.
===============================================

Some Walton Family Foundation articles touch on --

o rightwing agenda disguised as education philanthropy
o double standard: educate American children philanthropy, but exploit children overseas in the production of Wal-Mart merchandise (Has this changed? Can't find anything that indicates Wal-Mart has changed....)

http://old.mediatransparency.org/funderprofile.php?funderID=25

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

Also, my searches don't find anything about whether or not Walton Family Foundation plays a role in the Texas textbook committee, although I thought I read it somewhere once....Anyone else come across mention of this?

True dat. It's a delicate balance. If the parents aren't involved enough, they cannot share info with the teachers about where any given kid's edge is or is not.
======
This does raise the question of Why many (vast majority of?) parents are not involved in their children's education. Could it be that they have to work ungodly hours and do not have much time to be involved? That, and much more. ( I am sure many here could come up with better scenarios than mine.)

Anyway, my guess is that the education system, like much of American society, is geared to produce winners and losers. The public education system will reflect this brutal truism--despite brave and sincere efforts of regular people.

One important insight from Marx (and others)was an awareness of class. A privileged group's opportunities and experiences are not the same of a non-privileged person.

What do I think is the core problem? Motivating students. In the olden days parents kept kids motivated, with a spanking if necessary.[Is that right, nora?] Now too many parents either don't know how to be good parents, are too busy keeping a roof over their heads, or think that Junior is too precious to do anything wrong. I grew up in the Calumet Region (NW Indiana) and watched the dismantling of the Steel Industry. I'm not surprised kids don't see the value of education when the adults in their lives have little hope of finding decent jobs. When heavy manufacturing got outsourced, the powers that be said retrain for the computer age. Then many of those jobs were outsourced. I know technology changes employment opportunities, your old career as a Travel Agent is a perfect example of that. I think we need to invest in green jobs, have a manufacturing policy and give kids incentives (scholarships)to work hard.
====
Excellent stating of the dilemma we face. Solutions?

Why do they always happen at the same time as other problems?

Maybe cent is right, I'll blame it on the moon cycle!

The meeting was about the Water Park and the Mini Golf and some new procedures we have to follow. They keep adding and changing the things we do at the front desk. It's always in a state of flux.

Glad to be home.

This country has changed so much in the past 10 years. It was slowly changing for awhile but sped up in the 90s.

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/031510.html

[excerpt]

Last week’s death of Israeli spymaster David Kimche – and the omissions in his obituaries about his most sensitive operations, especially those regarding the United States – are a reminder of how much crucial history is being lost as key figures from this era take their secrets to the grave.

The failure to debrief as many of these people as possible can be blamed significantly on U.S. mainstream journalists who in years past took the lead in collecting, vetting and presenting serious evidence of historical wrongdoing, such as the Pentagon Papers secrets about the Vietnam War and complex political scandals like Watergate.

But in recent years, newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have ignored many national security crimes or even have gone on the offensive against journalists who tried to examine them, such as the ugly assault on investigative reporter Gary Webb over his work on the now-CIA-admitted cocaine trafficking by Ronald Reagan’s Nicaraguan contra rebels.

The problem has been compounded by the timidity of Democratic leaders to conduct thorough investigations of Republican wrongdoing, such as in 1993 when Bill Clinton became President and in 2009 under Barack Obama. In both cases, new Democratic administrations thought that looking forward, not backward, would achieve some measure of bipartisanship. Not likely.

And, the American Left has offered little help, usually staying on the sidelines when there's evidence of a genuine government conspiracy (though some leftists have gotten carried away with invented conspiracies, such as the 9/11 “truth” movement’s witness-less claims about "controlled demolitions" of the Twin Towers and "a missile, not a plane, hitting the Pentagon.”)

This combination of disinterest in actual conspiracies and fascination with conspiracy parlor games has made the assembling of real history about the past several decades next to impossible.

Now, Kimche’s death on March 8 marks another lost opportunity. Most newspaper obituaries touched on some of the known high- and low-points of his long career as a spy/diplomat who was called “the man with the suitcase” for his work with the Mossad paying off foreign officials and spreading around money that advanced Israel’s national security goals.

...

[end excerpt]

Yeah, one of those days, I guess...I'm juggling a million things right now, so sparse blogging/tweeting will be the norm for me for a while.

Just watched uber-douche JD Hayworth lie through his teeth on Rachel's show and when she called him on it, he said, "well, we just disagree".

She pretty much Pwned him the entire time..toed him to Abramoff for about 5 mins then called him on his same sex marriage = bestiality nonsense.

Yep, he's an idiot. I'm betting that particular spot didn't help him as much as he thought it might. He was obviously trying to soften his image to pander to the less batshit crowd. Didn't work.

"this machine kills fascists"

mwah haha

& also taking note on the Charter School info... :):(

Haven't really opened the envelope yet.

toniD's Ya Think?

I don't think this was posted here?

forgive me if it was
-------
From my e-mail

date Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 11:49 AM
subject Tell Speaker Pelosi: Be a public option hero
mailed-by list.credoaction.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/BoldProgressives
__ _ _
brr

I hate it when this happens...stop me before I free associate again....

Most Independents Once Belonged to a Party
A CBS/New York Times poll found 42% of Americans identified themselves as political independents.

Interestingly, 61% say they used to identify with one of the nation's two major political parties -- 14% were once Republicans, 23% are former Democrats, and another 24% say they actually belonged to each of the major political parties at one time or another.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000368-503544.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Published on Monday, March 15, 2010 by Reuters AlertNet
Relying on GM Crops to Battle Climate Change 'Suicidal,' Indian Activist Charges
by Laurie Goering

LONDON - Faced with growing demand for food and increasingly unpredictable weather, many developing nations are debating whether to relax restrictions on the use of genetically modified crops.

Seed developers promise that a coming generation of genetically modified (GM) food crops will have climate-resilient features, from drought resistance to saltwater tolerance.

But widespread adoption of GM varieties by small farmers would be "suicidal in terms of climate change," said Vandana Shiva, an Indian social activist, environmentalist and proponent of small-scale farming.

"The (GM) system is more about companies making money from farmers than food security," she told AlertNet in an interview in London.

Adopting GM crops puts small farmers at greater financial risk because they often have to borrow money to buy more expensive GM seeds. If their crops fail, particularly repeatedly, they can find themselves unable to repay the loans, she said.

Worldwide, crop failures are increasingly harder to predict because the climate is becoming more erratic.

In recent years there has been an unprecedented spate of suicides by heavily indebted cotton farmers in Central India, Shiva said. More than three quarters of the suicides, her research shows, have been committed by farmers using GM cotton seed and struggling to repay loans.

GM suppliers sell their seeds on the condition that farmers buy fresh seed each year - something many growers can't afford if their crop fails. A decade ago, 80 percent of Indian farmers saved part of their harvest as seed to plant the following season's crops, Shiva said.

EXISTING SOLUTIONS

Plenty of drought- and flood-resistant traditional crop varieties already exist and simply need to be brought back to market, supporters of traditional farming say.

Shiva said India has hundreds of varieties of rice, and many that show resistance to flooding, drought and saltwater are now being carefully bred at Indian research institutes to increase yields and are then re-released to farmers.

In India's northeast Assam province, where fields have been flooded for weeks after intense rains, demand has surged for two rice varieties that can survive weeks under water and also produce well even in dry conditions.

Planting a broader variety of crop strains - rather than a couple of GM varieties - should help protect the world food supply and insure it against emerging climate threats, including an expanding range of crop pests.

While a pest might decimate some varieties of crops, it is unlikely it could destroy a wide range of varieties, she said.

"Resilience is built through diversity," Shiva said.

Keeping small farmers on their land is also key, she said, because small farmers are more productive per acre than big-scale growers, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation's figures.

"The majority of people in the world are still farming on small farms," she said. "If we're addressing food security we'd better enhance the security of small farms."

India's government recently delayed releasing a GM aubergine, which would have been the country's first GM vegetable, calling for more testing in the face of protests by environmentalists and some farmers.
URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/15

When Staffers Eye Their Boss' Job
"Since World War II, the number of seats in Congress occupied by former Congressional staffers has dramatically increased, with many in the positions once held by their former bosses. In the current session of Congress alone, 75 one-time staffers are now Members... Of this group, a survey by Congress.org found that over two dozen inherited the seats of retired Members they once worked for."

"And at least six staffers are currently vying for seats in elections coming up this year."

http://www.congress.org/news/2010/03/15/congress_staffers_eye_the_boss_j...

toniD's Ya Think?

nite all...

...Kucinich is playing a great game, if that's what he's doing.

If the public option survives being stripped out during the Reconciliation Bill markup, or is swapped out for Grayson's Medicare for all, he is going to get a big boost from this. So is Grayson.

I like very much that Kucinich was on Air Force One today for the Ohio stop. Oh, to be a fly on the wall during that meeting.

As to the AHIP "media blitz" we were discussing on Ya Think and many times before, I'm still not seeing it.
In fact, since then, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for them..so far the only one I've seen has been from the Chamber of Commerce. No blitz.

"this machine kills fascists"

I like very much that Kucinich was on Air Force One today for the Ohio stop. Oh, to be a fly on the wall during that meeting.
====I would love to see Obama spin out of his capitulation to the decree against Single-Payer. You know Kucinich will press him on the matter.
Power to the People!

viable...

The Senate Bill, without the PO, is not the enemy of the insurance companies, it is their savior...

As we discussed last week, they are hitting the wall with regard to return, the only way for them to increase profits is to inject a huge group into the system, or, increase premiums and rescind the sick...the latter solution will not last very long before the system collapses, so it is in their best interest to get the Senate Bill passed.

They will only try to kill the bill when it is obvious the PO is going pass...

...in fact, for me, that will be the sure sign the PO actually has a chance....JMHO.

;) Pleasent Dreams. Rest well. ;zzzzzzzz

Good!
Submitted by Leah on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 9:32pm.
What do I think is the core problem? Motivating students. In the olden days parents kept kids motivated, with a spanking if necessary.[Is that right, nora?] ....

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

I think motivation and spanking have nothing to do with one another. Motivating children and spanking children seem very different things to me.

I think the best parents used to have high expectations for their kids, expected them to follow a consistent trajectory of maturity and responsibility. It was like a given. I think that's what I sensed. Just thoughts.

I don't think spanking is useful for all kids. That research that says people learn via different ways -- visual, aural, kinesthetic -- might be useful here. Maybe it's those kinesthetic individuals, when their naughty behavior is interrupted with a physical reminder that their actions have consequences, who might benefit. But I think quiet, more introspective children can be scarred or broken (permanently shamed) by corporal punishment. I don't know, just thoughts.

Children are motivated when their strengths and interests are acknowledged, encouraged, supported and nurtured. Their confidence in their own talents grows when they can see it exists in others' eyes (being seen and appreciated). It doesn't have to be gushy or fawning acknowledgement, just matter-of-fact acknowledgment that "you too have potentials and gifts that have value (all kinds of value, for yourself and society), meaning, and they are YOURS". (Are children's lives shrunken with fewer opportunities to discover their interests/talents, when all they know is TV, video games, consumerism filling in the time when the parents are at work and even at home? I don't know, but I wonder.)

The question is, can "seeing" kids occur when parents are too busy or when schools are turned into education factories? Can motivation be tapped/encouraged and occur in such scenarios when the child is left alone or when schools view him/her as a number/statistic?

Are charter school classrooms smaller than the public schools? If that's so, it may be the only thing that really means children do better. In smaller classrooms the individual has a greater opportunity to be "seen". Just thoughts.

When people TAKE FOR GRANTED THAT EVERY CHILD has innate and valuable talents to offer (as I theorize), it is easy to have high expectations of the kids (and it seems that would be empowering for the child).

ALSO, I think today parents and teachers may be confused and not sure WHAT talents are worthwhile and useful in a rapidly changing, high tech society that values the individual less than it it values technology/machines. Do they know what to encourage in their child these days when even talented, trained, skilled adults are laid-off and set aside in the name of profit?

I see this dilemma goes far beyond whoich parents attend PTA meetings (and 'lobby' (in both good and lousy ways) for 'their' kids). It is a dilemma that is part of our LARGER dilemma of where the hell this society is going with its overall goals and on hold, even up-in-the-air, priorities.

Virginia Thomas, wife of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, forms tea party group. Virginia Thomas told a recent panel “I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you.” She specifically went on to say that she was going to work against Obama’s “hard-left agenda.” It is an association that will likely add to a further patina of politics surrounding the Court, which just ruled in favor of conservative groups in the Citizens United case. I will be discussing this story tonight on Countdown.

There is, of course, no limitation on the spouses of justices in terms of political activities. However, historically spouses have avoided such entanglements in deference to the neutral role that their spouses are expected to perform on the Court. The involvement in such a raw political organization is, well, injudicious.

Worse yet, her group will be scoring members of Congress and accepting donations from corporations. This could raise recusal issues in future cases for Clarence Thomas, but he is unlikely to see his wife’s involvement as a recusal matter unless her group is directly involved in a case.

Ironically, Thomas said he does not attend the State of the Union because it is to “partisan.” He will not be married to one such partisan whose group will actively seek to oppose the President and democratic members.

http://jonathanturley.org/2010/03/15/wife-of-clarence-thomas-organizes-t...

For the Thomas story, click here.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/14/nation/la-na-thomas14-2010mar14

toniD's Ya Think?

i wuz tending my Bee house because it's getting into that temp range for the hatch. so i took all the full bee nest tubes out of the bee house, positioned them for the hatch and put the new empty tubes in the bee condo's.

as i was working the first one of the male bees dug through the mud cap and greeted the new spring with me watching.

what a treat they are to see and the trees are going to match the hatch just right.

Nature is still so beautiful. I hope we can save it!

toniD's Ya Think?

I think motivation and spanking have nothing to do with one another. Motivating children and spanking children seem very different things to me.
====
I thought those words were yours. Anyway, why no further discussion on the structural problems? You know, the effects of steel industry collapse and outsourcing.

a day at a time eh?

the boys hatch first then the ladies show up, mine seem to spread this over a month. he was a cutie, they have fur on their heads, his was all dusty from digging through the mud cap that protects the nest.

watching a new life greet the world is magic.

GOP SMACKDOWN: Dick Armey Says Tom Tancredo Is A 'Destructive' Force

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/armey-tom-tancredo-is-a-d_n_499...

toniD's Ya Think?

Tell the Moon-Dog, tell the March-Hare.....
YES!

I always thought it was
Tell the Moon - Don't tell the Martians...
He's here!

Charles Antonucci: Ex-Park Avenue Bank Chief First To Be Charged With Stealing Bailout Funds

NEW YORK — The former president of a small Manhattan community bank on Monday became the first person accused of trying to defraud the federal bailout program.

Prosecutors also contend that Charles Antonucci Sr., stole so he could live a lavish lifestyle that included a Super Bowl junket.

He was arrested Monday.

Antonucci, 59, of Fishkill, was charged with self-dealing, bank bribery, embezzlement and fraud. The criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. If convicted, he could face up to 260 years in federal prison.

Authorities said the rip-off targeted the New York State Banking Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Antonucci resigned last year as president of The Park Avenue Bank, which is headquartered in Manhattan with four retail branches in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The bank was taken over by the FDIC on Friday and reopened Saturday as a new institution with its half billion dollars in assets protected, authorities said.

Among other allegations, Antonucci was accused of using false information to request $11.3 million from the federal government's TARP bank bailout program.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the arrest represented "decisive action against fraud and deceit in the banking industry."

He said Antonucci "put his personal greed ahead of his professional duties" after his bank ran into financial troubles in 2008.
Story continues below

Bharara said Antonucci lied to banking authorities in late 2008 and early 2009 to make them believe he had invested $6.5 million of his own money in the bank when the money actually belonged to the bank and had merely been moved around to make it seem as if it came from Antonucci.

The prosecutor said it was the "functional equivalent of Monopoly money" and was meant to convince federal authorities he should qualify for TARP money, a program to aid struggling banks that was announced on Oct. 14, 2008.

Antonucci's bank submitted its application for TARP money a month later, on Nov. 14, 2008.

In an effort to press his application for the TARP money, he made telephone calls to FDIC regulators reviewing the bank's TARP application to falsely represent that he had made a substantial, personal capital contribution to the bank, authorities said.

After the application for TARP money was rejected on Feb. 24, 2009, Antonucci did a media interview in March 2009 in which he said the bank withdrew its application because of "issues" with the TARP program and a desire to avoid "market perception" that bad banks take TARP money, the complaint said.

Federal authorities say Antonucci actually wanted to obtain millions of dollars for his own use, in part so he could obtain a controlling interest in the bank.

The complaint accused him of approving approximately $8.5 million worth of overdrafts at the bank to companies controlled by a coconspirator who was a close associate of his.

In return, the coconspirator, whose identity was not released, allowed Antonucci to use his private plane at least 10 times for personal trips, including flights to Phoenix to attend the Super Bowl, to Augusta, Ga., to watch the Master's golf tournament, and to Florida to visit a relative. He also used it for a flight to Panama, according to the complaint.

In another scheme, Antonucci was accused of defrauding the pastors of the Calvary Springs Chapel in Coral Springs, Fla., of $103,940 by telling them the investment could earn them more than $600,000 in a few weeks time, the complaint says. Authorities said the $103,940 instead was deposited into an account owned by Antonucci and divided between himself and another coconspirator.

James T. Hayes Jr., special agent-in-charge of the New York Office of the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the probe began after his agency received a tip from its office in Ecuador that someone was interested in doing something illegal with Antonucci.

Antonucci's lawyer, Charles Stillman, said he plans to study the complaint "and consider an appropriate response to the charges." He said Antonucci would plead not guilty at a future court appearance.

Antonucci was freed on $2 million bail after a brief court appearance Monday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/charles-antonucci-ex-park_n_499...

Bailed out with Bail out money? TARP?

toniD's Ya Think?

I agree. It looks like society is in chaos; how do we treat the children when the adults are no longer in a social contract with employers?

Since the early part of the 1900s, the school was engineered to mimic and serve the factory/business sectors the school product (ready employees) was supposed to serve. But today, now what? In a socially engineered system, when the school is no longer needed for its previous purpose, isn't it obvious everything would start wobbling? Do they KNOW what they want to socially engineer now? Maybe they don't even want an educated populace anymore; why else allow the system to collapse (on purpose even via the disgusting "No Child Left Behind" slop!).

As for the factories closing, that's the blue collar employees. But even the white collar employee base is collapsing.

I believe the Power Elite and Oligarchy have the wherewithall to create a system that supplies the pool of employees they require, because they controlled that in the past. My guess is that it is working out the way they want it to work out now. Why else would the Dems NOT leap in and really undo the "No Child Left Behind" damage. It is OBVIOUS damage-control is needed. (The baloney about costing too much money is only an excuse; it holds no water. They always find money for what they want.) BUT, I want to be wrong. I want to see the education system taken back (taken away from the Elite) and respond to real human needs. But I think the way the religious-Right is jumping in to fill the vacuum and take the lead is NOT a good sign; are regular folks too complacent to step in demand a separation of church and state in public schools? Just thoughts.

Answers to the problem? a/ REALLY getting around to defining it in an historical context. b/ Be willing to admit it was never a perfect system (since it served the Elite employers first). c/ Willingness to have a vision for a balanced way to teach kids and utilize their talents (rather than put them through an education where they are molded to be primarily the product the employers want).

I want us to come out of this current period of societal chaos with a new plan. I get uneasy when I hear EVEN Hartmann talking about recreating America in its old manufacturing image, upping our exports and protecting our economic integrity with tariffs on imports (although I agree that we should make our own stuff, STOP our reliance on imports ASAP, and up tariffs). Being a Manufacturing Center goes hand-in-hand with the gluttonous Consumerism Culture wherein we do nothing but consume 25% of the Earth's resources. The next stage of the USA has got to be something different, something based on sustainable living within communities where each member of the community hones skills to make a self-contained sustainable community economy work.

last?

How did we manage to work spanking into this thread, is what I need to know right now. Must back-read.

White House stands ground on
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 7:16am.
White House stands ground on high court criticism Updated at 12:31 AM

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The White House on Sunday defended President Barack Obama's scathing criticism of a Supreme Court decision that allows unions and corporations to funnel unlimited dollars to political campaigns.

Senior adviser David Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to retreat from criticism Obama leveled during his State of the Union address, with six of the nine members of the court sitting a few feet in front of him. The two White House officials defended Obama's statement that the ruling was seriously flawed.

"Under the ruling of the Supreme Court, any lobbyist could go in to any legislator and say, `If you don't vote our way on this bill, we're going to run a million-dollar campaign against you in your district.' And that is a threat to our democracy," Axelrod said. "It's going to further reduce the voice of the American people, and it's something we have to push back vigorously on."

Chief Justice John Roberts said this week that Obama's unusually open criticism was "very troubling" and questioned whether justices should attend the annual address.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_white_house_supreme_court
================================

This makes me think the Administration's "focus groups" results are holding in favor of standing up to the Supreme Court. So if that's so, what's the next question? Are they holding to this position for effect/spin or as a prelude to action? And WHAT action is possible from the Executive Branch? New appointments to the Supreme Court? Is Obama looking to rally public interest and support for his next appointments?

Ok. Children. *spits*... ;)

I didn't know Clarence's wife worked for Dick Armey....

Seems like just yesterday you were pricing it out. And it's done already. Pretty great!

Are the cats glad the process is over?

The floor will be done by Thurs. The bathroom ceiling (done by the landlord) will be done in two days. Then the painter comes back on the 27th to do nicks and touch ups and replace pieces of the trim that are broken. He'll do the bathroom ceiling too...(which we are currently debating if it should be red or white.)

But the main room is done with flooring (minus baseboards). And the furniture is setup out here. Plus I micro-cleaned every appliance yesterday.

A roomba might be the last thing I would like to buy for the house. Or I will be sweeping every single day.

It says it won't work for one month. Which is how long the replacement thingies last...30 days..But we have the spray form also so we spray that around too...

I've been mentally and verbally pleading with them to be cool... (the cats).

http://wayoutjunk.blogspot.com

Christopher Walken 1988 Children's Comedy: PUSS in BOOTS

Comforting pheremone. Synthetic version.

Feliway is working for your catfriends, Alice? Do they all act subdued or what?

(& thanks, Alice, for that goofy Christopher Walken - fairy-tail hero bit)

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/15/noam_chomsky_on_obamas_foreign_pol...
- in which Noam says just what you were thinking:

The lesson that we ought to learn, there was a split in American public opinion, very sharp split, very visible, in the early ’70s, between elite opinion—you know, newspapers, Harvard faculty and so on—on the one hand, and the general population, on the other. Not the antiwar movement, the general population. In elite opinion, articulate opinion—and that you can read, so it’s easy to document—the most extreme condemnation of the war was that it was a mistake which proved to be too costly. OK, that’s about as far as you can go. Among the public, about 70 percent, in polls, said it’s not a mistake, it’s fundamentally wrong and immoral. OK? It’s a very sharp and significant split. And I think the lesson we ought to learn is, to bring it to today, that, say, when Obama is praised for opposing the war in Iraq because he thought it was a mistake, we should recognize that to be on a par with Nazi generals after Stalingrad who thought that the two-front war was a mistake. The issue isn’t was it a mistake; it’s whether it’s fundamentally wrong and immoral. Well, that’s the lesson that has to be drawn. That’s what the public probably already understands, but we have to do something with them and organize with them.

Wha happened to the freaking moon?

Senate Bill 3081 unveiled on March 4: "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010"...

http://senatus.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/mccain-lieberman-unveil-the-enem...
------------------------

These geezers want to leave a pretty disgusting legacy:

http://current.com/items/92315322_mccain-lieberman-enemy-belligerent-int...

[excerpt]

Our Constitutional freedoms are in grave danger of being stripped from us, moreso now than ever. As a citizen who loves this country, we cannot and must not allow this bill to become law. I strongly urge you to contact your members of the Senate and House and tell them you do not support such a bill that would eliminate our freedoms and destroy our Constitution any further!

[end excerpt]

--------------------

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/a-detention-bill-you...

[excerpt]

A Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully
Mar 5 2010, 3:40 PM ET

Why is the national security community treating the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration's choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. Read the bill here, and then read the summarized points after the jump.

According to the summary, the bill sets out a comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning.

(There is no distinction between U.S. persons--visa holders or citizens--and non-U.S. persons.)

It would require these "belligerents" to be coded as "high-value detainee[s]" to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president. (The H.I.G., of course, was established to bring a sophisticated interrogation capacity to the federal justice system.)

[quote]

Any suspected unprivileged enemy belligerents considered a "high-value detainee" shall not be provided with a Miranda warning.

The bill asks the President to determine criteria for designating an individual as a "high-value detainee" if he/she: (1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S. military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President considers appropriate. The President must submit the regulations and guidance to the appropriate committees of Congress no later than 60 days after enactment.

To the extent possible, the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must make a preliminary determination whether the detainee is an unprivileged enemy belligerent within 48 hours of taking detainee into custody.

The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must submit its determination to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General after consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General make a final determination and report the determination to the President and the appropriate committees of Congress. In the case of any disagreement between the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General, the President will make the determination.

[unquote]

Note that the president himself doesn't get to make the call.

[end excerpt]

Yes!

(Leah I assumed the structural explanations and was not blaming the parents.)

What are these SPED laws of which Sandy spoke that the Charter schools don't have to follow? (Individually designed instructional plans, etc?) Is Sandy's contention that something LIKE this is not ever needed for some kids--that the paradigm does/would not work well in any sense? That what happens is that the Charter schools "behavior contracts" make acknowledging learning differences in a more formal way (while still mainstreaming as much as possible) generally unnecessary?

I agree with nora about the importance of smaller class sizes...Don't know if small is always all that is needed for some kids. What might be needed would be something more like IDEA but without the stigma and the bullshit. If that is not what happens in the smaller classes, "SPED" kids' "performance" will still not be up to the standards that have been set by those that ultimately favor Charter schools (many of them) and that the Charter Schools themselves have to meet (or look like they are meeting) to be "more successful." Their performance as far as learning really useful things (e.g, about history) and as far as developing critical thinking skills to be able to keep learning on their own (in a four-year college or not) may also not be up to what a reasonable person would expect a truly democracy and individual freedom optimizing education to provide.

What does this all mean for "SPED" kids "left behind" in traditional public schools? Or, if there are only Charter schools in certain cities, what happens to the "SPED" kids--they drop out as soon as they are legally allowed? They scrape by with Bs and Cs because of the individual attention they get, but are "tracked" out of any kind of college education in which talents they have might have been able to develop? (Talents that, when allowed to blossom, would have been the opposite of useful to "power elites") In any of hypothetical cases see nora, above.

I have similar questions about these "civil rights laws" that Sandy says the Charter Schools do not have to obey, but know even less about the situation there so I refrain from blathering altogether on this. Are we talking rules about integration? What?

Alex Jones has his say on the McCain/Lieberman EBID&P Act--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poErBXtw-Bw&feature=related

------------------------

36-84% (depending on the poll) of Americans don't believe the official 9/11 explanation. Jones questions recent violent events and indicates the "false flag" (staged terra) markers that appear to be in use in the reporting of these events (such as instantly inferring domestic groups such as the 9/11Truth movement influenced, for example, the actions of the perpetrator at the Pentagon).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUoBbBIk8ow&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1n6fxyPYtI&feature=related

Interesting string of descriptions of false flag markers in this video clip, such as drill programs conducted just before or simultaneously with the event.--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX0VlF1n3rw&feature=related

Robert Reich remembers--

http://www.truthout.org/health-care-2010-and-1994-and-political-lessons-...

[excerpt]

I was serving in the Clinton administration at the time. In the first months of 1993 it looked as if Clinton's health care proposal would sail through Congress. But the process dragged on and by 1994 it bogged down. We knew health care was imperiled but none of us knew that failure to pass health care would doom much of the rest of Clinton's agenda and wrest control of Congress out of the hands of the Democrats. In retrospect, it's clear Republicans did know.
On February 5, 1994, the National Association of Manufacturers passed a resolution declaring its opposition to the Clinton plan. Not long after that, Michigan Democrat John Dingell, who was managing the health care bill for the House, approached the senior House Republican on the bill to seek a compromise. According to Dingell, the response was: "There's no way you're going to get a single vote on this [Republican] side of the aisle. You will not only not get a vote here, but we've been instructed that if we participate in that undertaking at all, those of us who do will lose our seniority and will not be ranking minority members within the Republican Party."
In early March, 1994, Senate Republicans invited Newt Gingrich, then House minority leader, to caucus with them about health care. Gingrich warned against compromise, a view echoed by Senator Phil Gramm. A few months later, at a Republican meeting in Boston, Bob Dole, then Senate minority leader, promised to "filibuster and kill" any health care bill with an employer mandate.
By then Gingrich had united House Republicans against passage of health reform and told the New York Times he wanted "to use the issue as a springboard to win Republican control of the House." Gingrich predicted Republicans would pick up thirty-four House seats in the November elections and half a dozen disaffected Democrats would switch parties to give Republicans control.
By August, it was over. It didn't matter that Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the Senate by 56 to 44 and in the House by 257 to 176. Health care was a lost cause. Republican Senator Bob Packwood boasted to his colleagues "We've killed health care reform."
In early September, William Kristol of the Project for the Republican Future spelled out the next stage of the Republican battle plan: "I think we can continue to wrap the Clinton plan around the necks of Democratic candidates." And that's exactly what they did. On November 8 voters repudiated President Clinton. They brought Republicans to power at every level of government. Democrats went from a controlling majority of 257 seats in the House of Representatives to a minority of 204, and lost the Senate.
I remember how shocked we were the morning after the votes were counted. I asked one of Clinton's political advisors what had happened. "It was health care," he said, simply. (That advisor, by the way, is now in the Obama White House.)
Today's Republican battle plan is exactly the same as it was sixteen years ago. In fact, it's been the same since President Obama assumed office. They never were serious about compromise. They were serious only about regaining power. From the start, Republicans have remembered the lesson of 1994. Now, as they prepare to vote, House Dems should remember the lesson as well.

[end excerpt]

White House continues push for peace talks, GOP sides with chaos
by Chris in Paris on 3/16/2010 04:39:00 AM
Why does John Boehner like to encourage terrorism? Or maybe he's terrified that Obama may have success with building a peace plan. We all know that invading and spending billions makes so much more sense than peace talks, right? The White House isn't backing down and so far neither is Netanyahu. Shaking up the relationship is not such a bad thing and it just may deliver positive results. The old model obviously has not been effective at leading towards peace.

The White House has steadily built up the heat on Israel over the last few days, with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, berating Netanyahu in a 45-minute call on Friday and David Axelrod, the chief White House adviser, describing Israeli behaviour as an insult yesterday.

The US wants Israel not only to backtrack on the East Jerusalem building plans but to enter into talks with the Palestinians on substantive issues and not just talks about talks, as Israel wants. Washington also wants Israel to make gestures towards the Palestinians, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and withdrawing more Israeli forces from Palestinian territory. The US special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories, the former senator George Mitchell, is to visit Israel this week in the hope of hearing that Israel will bow to at least some of the US demands.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a meeting in Washington early next week of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful Israeli lobbying group. The US does not yet know whether he will attend in person or make a televised address.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/white-house-continues-push-for-peace....

toniD's Ya Think?

still trying to figure out what to do with all this daylight i've been saving.

The Mother of All Self-Executing Rules
by mcjoan

Via TWI, House Republicans say they can't block the House procedurally in their plan to pass the reconciliation bill with a self-executing provision considering the Senate bill "deemed" as passed.

House Republicans say they cannot block a Democratic maneuver that would allow Members to avoid a separate vote on the Senate health care bill.

“There is nothing that can prevent it,” said Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the Rules Committee. “It’s something they can clearly do if they have the votes."

Of course, that's not preventing Dreier from attacking it.

Dreier ripped the plan as “trying to avoid the accountability of an up-or-down vote” and said it violated Pelosi’s pledge of an open and transparent Congress. “It pains me to see,” he said.

You know what's coming next, right?

When Republicans were in the minority, they railed against self-executing rules as being anti-deliberative because they undermined and perverted the work of committees and also prevented the House from having a separate debate and vote on the majority's preferred changes....

When Republicans took power in 1995, they soon lost their aversion to self-executing rules and proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively). Thus far in the 109th Congress, self-executing rules make up about 16 percent of all rules.

On April 26, [2006] the Rules Committee served up the mother of all self-executing rules for the lobby/ethics reform bill. The committee hit the trifecta with not one, not two, but three self-executing provisions in the same special rule. The first trigger was a double whammy: “In lieu of the amendments recommended by the Committees on the Judiciary, Rules, and Government Reform now printed in the bill, the amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of the Rules Committee Print dated April 21, 2006, modified by the amendment printed in part A of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, shall be considered as adopted in the House and the Committee of the Whole.”

And which Republican was chairing the Rules Committee in April, 2006? Why, David Dreier, of course.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/15/846539/-The-Mother-of-All-Se...

toniD's Ya Think?

A third party on the left?

Gabe Beltrone and I report:

Labor and progressive leaders are threatening House Democrats who oppose health care legislation with potentially destructive third party challenges in November.

The discussions have already taken concrete form in New York State, where a handful of votes hang in the balance. They’re part threat, part an early attempt to channel what liberal leaders expect to be a wave of anger if Congress fails to pass health care.

New York and a handful of other states have “fusion” rules that allow candidates to run on multiple ballot lines, giving minor parties like the Working Families a great deal of political leverage. For wavering Upstate New York moderates like Reps. Michael Arcuri, Scott Murphy, and Bill Owens, the line could mean the margin between victory and defeat.

The first target, however, seems to be Rep. Michael McMahon, a New York City Democrat who has indicated he opposes the bill.

“There’s a lot of voters in Staten Island and Brooklyn who [will] realize that [McMahon] just chose to be on the side of the insurance companies and start seeing their wages go to pay for their health care,” said Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, a close ally of President Barack Obama and a prime mover in the attempt to ensure the votes of moderate and conservative Democrats.

“It’s a very volatile time, and no one should believe that third party candidates don’t have a chance.”

In districts where Democrats vote “no,” voters “will have the Republican against health and the Democrat against health care, and they’re going to ask themselves, ‘Where’s the candidate that shares my values,’” Stern told POLITICO. “A lot of us would like to run another candidate.”

“I am not the only labor leader looking at [the question of] what is the price of betrayal,” he said, suggesting that Pennsylvania and Illinois could also see liberal third party challenges.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/A_third_party_on_the_left.ht...

Steve Greenhouse reported some of this earlier today.
Posted by Ben Smith 11:44 PM

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/union-chief-threatens-to-b...

toniD's Ya Think?

It's still dark here so I guess I am saving daylight right now. I'm saving it for another hour anyway.

I guess it's supposed to be better getting the light later in the evening. It will be nice to have it in the morning so I don't feel like I am getting up in the middle of the night though.

toniD's Ya Think?

Workers Crushed by Toyota
By BOB HERBERT

California has been very, very good to Toyota. It is one of the largest markets in the world for the popular Prius hybrid. Nearly 18 percent of all Toyotas sold in the U.S. are sold in California. The state has showered the company with benefits, including large-scale infrastructure improvements for its operations and millions of dollars for worker training. California is one of the key reasons that Toyota is the wealthiest carmaker on the planet.

Toyota is paying the state back with the foulest form of ingratitude.

The company is planning to shut down the assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., that makes Corollas and the Tacoma compact pickup. The plant closure will throw 4,700 experienced, highly skilled and dedicated employees onto the street during the worst job market since the Depression, and it will jeopardize nearly 20,000 other jobs around the state.

It is a cold and irresponsible act on Toyota’s part, a decision that was not necessary from a business standpoint and that completely disregards the wave of human misery it is setting in motion.

The New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant (generally referred to as NUMMI) began as a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors in 1984. G.M. abandoned the venture when it collapsed into bankruptcy proceedings last year. Toyota declared that the plant was no longer viable because of the absence of G.M. and announced that it would close at the end of this month.

What has not been made clear to the public is that for many years the plant has been used primarily to produce vehicles for Toyota, not General Motors. A report prepared for a state commission that has been seeking to avert the plant closure noted that “G.M. accounted for only 10 percent of the plant’s production last year and an average of 15.4 percent between 2001 and 2009.”

In fact, from Jan. 1 to Feb. 27 this year, with G.M. gone, Toyota produced 61,000 sparkling new vehicles at the plant. That was more than double the 27,000 that were produced in the same period in 2009, when G.M. was part of the operation.

The report, written by Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that “Toyota could easily fill its production lines at NUMMI by building a higher percentage of the Corollas it sells in the U.S.,” or by adding a new model to the plant — a hybrid, for example.

What we’re dealing with here is the kind of corporate treachery toward workers and their local communities that has ruined countless lives over the past several decades and completely undermined the long-term prospects of the economy.

The NUMMI plant is a heck of a lot more viable than the nonstop dissembling of top Toyota executives. The company could keep the plant open and profitable if it wanted to. But, instead, it has decided to shift the production of these vehicles to Japan, Canada, Mexico and Texas.

The scale of the ingratitude is breathtaking. The U.S. is the largest market for Toyota vehicles in the world, larger even than Japan. The Corolla, one of the vehicles produced at NUMMI, is the best-selling car of all time.

Beyond sales, Toyota has reaped endless benefits not just from California, but from the U.S. government and other states as well.

The federal cash-for-clunkers program, for example, was a bonanza for Toyota. As Professor Shaiken’s report put it: “The automaker ranked first in ‘Cash for Clunkers’ sales in summer 2009, a stimulus effort that allocated $3 billion in incentives to trade in older models for newer, more fuel-efficient ones. The Corolla proved the most popular model.”

Among the infrastructure investments made by California on behalf of the NUMMI plant was the dredging of the Port of Oakland 12 years ago at a cost of $410 million. That was done to accommodate the types of cargo ships required by the plant.

It will be a crushing economic blow if Toyota, as planned, high-tails it out of Fremont. Like the rest of the nation, California is struggling with the worst employment crisis since the 1930s. The NUMMI plant closure would be the single biggest layoff in the state since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007.

Those who are trumpeting the alleged fact that the recession is over should consider that the unemployment rate in California in January (the last month for which complete statistics are available) was a mind-numbing 12.5 percent. That was the fifth worst in the nation. In eight California counties, the jobless rate — not the underemployment rate, mind you, but the official jobless rate — was higher than 20 percent. Those counties are suffering through a depression.

The human toll behind such data is of no apparent interest to the fabulously wealthy Toyota operation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/opinion/16herbert.html?partner=rssnyt&...

toniD's Ya Think?

Internet grew 20% more hateful in 2009
by John Aravosis (DC) on 3/15/2010 09:59:00 PM
And that doesn't even count Glenn Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's tweets.

The report [by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance], based on some 11,500 problematic Web sites, social networks , chat forums, twitter posts, other Internet postings, found that hate-filled language is increasingly filling social networks. In compiling it, researchers for the Wiesenthal center found such disturbing online content as video footage showing bomb-making instructions and hate games — including one about bombing Haitian earthquake victims.

The report found a 20% increase to 11,500 in hate-filled social networks, Web sites, forums, blogs, Twitter feeds, and so on (up from 10,000 last year). It notes that beyond its role in our social lives, the Internet often acts as the incubator and validator of dangerous conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and organ theft.

http://www.alan.com/2010/03/15/internet-grew-20-more-hateful-in-2009/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+liberaland+(Alan+Colmes+Liberaland)

toniD's Ya Think?

nothing is going to change until we restore tariffs at our borders and establish some federal level regulations about plant closings

It looks like the coming House vote on health care reform will be the decisive one after all.

As of this weekend, sources including House leadership aides indicated that the House might pass health care reform under a special procedure, effectively making enactment of the legislation contingent upon the Senate passing amendments to its original bill. Some House members favor this approach because they don't trust the Senate and don't like the Senate bill. But under this approach, the fate of reform would remain uncertain until the Senate acted on those amendments, dragging out the process days if not weeks and giving Republicans all sorts of opportunities to delay a vote.

Apparently that idea is no longer under discussion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking Monday morning at a round-table discussion with bloggers and journalists, indicated the leadership had ruled out that approach. The reason, she said, was the Senate Parliamentarian, who had made it impractical to pass amendments to a bill that wasn't yet signed into law.

I'm still not entirely certain what the Parliamentarian said; all of the accounts have been second hand. But the bottom line is clear: If and when the House votes on health care reform, the underlying Senate bill--the one that does most of the work of reform--will be ready for presidential signature. And that's a good thing.

Of course, still unclear is whether the House will vote on the Senate bill and its amendments separately, or whether it will simply vote on the amendments in a way that "deems" the Senate bill passed. Pelosi said the latter was her preference, because her members don't want to vote for the Senate bill directly if they can avoid it.

I remain baffled by this logic, for reasons Ezra Klein laid out very nicely today:

No one cares whether the House passed the bill or "deemed" the bill passed. People don't pay attention to whether you voted using the passive voice or not. But by falling back on this bizarre locution, the House signals to voters that it thinks it's passing a bad bill. Some members of the House may indeed think that. I disagree with them. But for their own sake, if they're going to let this bill become law, they'd better pretend they agree to me.

Imagine the ads. "My opponent thought the health bill such a bad piece of legislation that he wouldn't even vote for it. But nor was he brave enough to stand up to Nancy Pelosi and say no! Vote for the guy who's not a wimp." And what's our hypothetical House members response? "No, you don't understand. I only refused to vote yes or no because I was hoping to pass a small package of amendments and was worried that the Senate wouldn't act on them fast enough?" You have to be kidding me.

Of course, it's entirely possible Pelosi favors this largely because her caucus is demanding it. And if Pelosi thinks this step is necessary for getting the bill through the House, it may well be.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/pelosi-explains-the-way-forward

toniD's Ya Think?

A number of us just met with Speaker Pelosi to talk Health Care Reform
by John Aravosis (DC) on 3/15/2010 01:56:00 PM

I was invited along with a small group of bloggers to meet with US House Speaker Pelosi this morning in the US Capital building to talk about health care reform. I'll be adding my observations in a moment, but here's what Greg Sargent is reporting:

In her most expansive case yet for health reform, Nancy Pelosi argued in a small roundtable with bloggers today that passing it into law would set the stage for a great, long-term debate with the GOP over the proper role of government in our lives — and predicted that it would “take the country in a new direction.”

Pelosi argued that passing reform would give Dems a tool for drawing a sharp ideological contrast with Republicans and conservatives over time.

“Give them credit for being true to their convictions,” Pelosi said. “They don’t believe in health care for all Americans with any public role in it. That’s by and large what the Republican Party believes.”

Pelosi said passing the bill would allow Dems to undertake a “debate” with Republicans over “what is the balanced role that government should have.”

“We have to take it to the American people, to say, this is the choice that you have,” she said. “This is the vision that they have for your health and well being, and this is the vision that we have.”

Here's what Brian Beutler of TPM reported:

Pelosi avoided delving deeply into postmortems--Why didn't the public option survive? What should have been done differently?--but she did suggest, at a couple different points, that the White House was not a perfect ally in this fight.

"There will be plenty of time for whatever--in the executive and the legislative branch--as to how [the public option] evolved to what it is now," Pelosi said, suggesting that some fault lies with the White House.

Equally vexing for her have been elements in the White House who urged her to revert to a strategy of passing a small--rather than comprehensive--health care bill. "Those who are trying to say 'just do a small bill,'" Pelosi said gesturing out the window of her office, westward toward the White House. "In our midst there's the small bill crowd. Here and there. And that empowered [the insurance companies]."

And that's to say nothing about the White House/PhRMA deal."If you're asking me were we unhappy about the pharmaceutical thing?" Pelosi asked rhetorically. "Yes. Very. But apart from that, I don't know what else they've done with industry....We just thought, Wait a minute, the Senate and the White House and PhRMA made a deal, and we have to honor that?"

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/number-of-us-just-met-with-speaker.ht...

toniD's Ya Think?

Dylan Ratigan: Politicians & Bankers Enriching Themselves By Destroying Our Country!

toniD's Ya Think?

From Dylan's show yesterday re Dodd's bill

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#35879851

toniD's Ya Think?

Chamber: Dodd bill takes "three steps backward"

Source: The Hill

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is striking back hard against financial overhaul legislation unveiled on Monday by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

"This bill takes three steps backwards with the hope of making future progress," said David Hirschmann, president of the Chamber's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.

Hirschmann expressed continued concern with efforts to set up a new consumer financial protection office. The Chamber has long campaigned against a standalone Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), as originally proposed by President Barack Obama and passed by the House in December.

Dodd replaced the standalone agency with a consumer protection bureau at the Federal Reserve that would have broad rule-writing powers and enforcement provisions for banks and non-banks with assets in excess of $10 billion.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/869...

Chamber of Commerce should be dismantled.

toniD's Ya Think?

Lost in the noise is the fact that Obama and other Dems have given NO REASON for abandoning the PO

Edited on Mon Mar-15-10 09:55 AM by Vinnie From Indy
It is rather astounding that in regard to the PO in the health care debate that the Obama people and some Democrats never give a reason for NOT including the PO in a final bill. It is repeated ad nauseum that there cannot be a PO solely because the votes are not there to pass it. The question that should repeatedly shouted out is WHY NOT? Why can't Americans have what 70+% are clamoring for in this bill?

The reason there is no direct, reality based answer to this question is because the real answer is that the insurance companies do not want it and they have more power to sway elections than we the people.

I cannot remember a time when so many Americans have expressed a desire for something in legislation and being told not only no, but hell no by Congress.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&fo...

toniD's Ya Think?

“This is Starting to Get Dangerous”-Petraeus briefing-Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story

“This is Starting to Get Dangerous”

By Scott Horton

Last week, Vice President Joe Biden was publicly slapped in the face by the Netanyahu Government during his trip to Jerusalem. The Israeli Government used the occasion to announce the settlement of 1,600 Israelis in Arab East Jerusalem, in defiance of America’s calls for a freeze on settlements. According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, Biden responded: “This is starting to get dangerous for us. What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.
”http://harpers.org/archive/2010/03/hbc-90006710

Now in a fascinating briefing note at Foreign Policy, Mark Perry gives us a clearer sense of what Biden was thinking:

The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story
Posted By Mark Perry Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 11:05 PM

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/14/the_petraeus_briefing_...

On Jan. 16… a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM’s mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region, and that Mitchell himself was (as a senior Pentagon officer later bluntly described it) “too old, too slow … and too late.”

The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus’s instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. “Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling,” a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. “America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding.” But Petraeus wasn’t finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command — or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations. Petraeus’s reason was straightforward: with U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged in the region’s most troublesome conflict.

Perry goes on to say that the briefing “hit the White House like a bombshell.” There’s no doubt that this is what inspired Biden’s comments. Indeed, this was plain from the Yedioth Ahronoth report, which went on, after quoting Biden, to state: “The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.”

The Netanyahu Government and its supporters in the United States want the controversies relating to Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip to be dealt with alone, detached from any impact they could have on the broader region and the interests the United States is pursuing there with its troop placement in two different theaters. That in fact reflects the way most American media report on these developments. But this approach is foolish, for reasons that the Petraeus briefing makes clear. Perry sees this as a struggle between two “lobbies,” namely the Israel lobby and the U.S. military. The Israel lobby is very powerful, he says, but how can it compete with the U.S. military asserting the imperative interest in the security of U.S. troops? The Netanyahu Government’s recent dealings reflect contempt for the Obama Administration and indifference at best for its position in the Middle East. These steps seem perfectly coordinated with neoconservatives in the United States, as shown in the “apology” offered on their behalf by Washington Post editorial writer Jackson Diehl (“Biden flunked,” he concludes, applying typically obtuse reasoning). The question is whether a close ally can throw juvenile tantrums and abuse its protector indefinitely without consequences. So far the answer appears to be: yes it can.

toniD's Ya Think?

This time, in L.A. 4.4 mag

"Los Angeles residents were woken up early on Tuesday morning by a small earthquake that struck in Pico Rivera, roughly 11 miles from downtown LA.

More information will be posted as it becomes available."

"this machine kills fascists"

;)

Maybe there're more clues in the funny papers.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/03/15/t...

Here's the link to NYT article (from August 2009) quoted in comic.
The article sticks to the hospital industry as an example, but there's always a lot of negotiating going on that we never hear about.

Excerpt:

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates — generally 80 percent of private sector rates — or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

“We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference,” one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter.

[snip]

... industry lobbyists say they are not worried. “We trust the White House,” Mr. Kahn said. “We are confident that the Senate Finance Committee will produce a bill we fully can endorse.”

This won't be coming out officially until tomorrow but we (USPS) in conjunction with the Ellen Degeneres Show will be unveiling new stamps with pics of pretty little critters. The project is called Stamps To The Rescue and you will be able to preorder at stampstotherescue.com (site not up yet, prolly tomorrow) or at your local (or my!) PO on April 30th.

beaver stamps

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8569548.stm

envoy George Mitchell has postponed a visit to Israel amid a continuing row over Israel's decision to build more Jewish homes in Arab East Jerusalem.

Mr Mitchell had been due to meet President Shimon Peres on Tuesday but the trip has now been delayed.

The building announcement - made as US Vice-President Joe Biden visited last week to try to kick-start stalled peace talks - angered Washington.

Tension remains high in Jerusalem, with a number of clashes on Tuesday.

'No curbs'

Mr Mitchell had been due in Israel to try to set up the resumption of indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The renewal of talks had been agreed before Mr Biden's visit, but Israel's announcement that it planned to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem left it in tatters.

The office of the Israeli president confirmed that it had been notified that Mr Mitchell would not arrive in Israel on Tuesday and "thus the planned meeting today at 5.30 pm between President Peres and Special Envoy Mitchell will not occur".

Mr Mitchell's visit will be rescheduled for an as yet undetermined time, US and Israeli officials indicated.

The US says it is still awaiting a "formal" response from Israel to the settlement row and has urged Israel to show it is committed to Middle East peace efforts.

(continues)

Stevens considers retiring
from Supreme Court
Justice John Paul Stevens, at 89 the Supreme Court's oldest member, says he will decide in the next month or so whether this term will be his last.

LINK

toniD's Ya Think?

Israel's foreign minister is reported to have boycotted the visit to Israel by the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Israeli and Brazilian media said Avigdor Lieberman declined to attend meetings with the visiting head of state and his address to parliament.

Mr Lieberman was reportedly upset that Mr Lula refused to visit the grave of the founder of the Zionist movement.

Mr Lula also opposes sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

'Mission of peace'

Mr Lula described his visit to Israel as "a mission of peace" that he hoped would help his country emerge as a bigger player in foreign affairs.

He informed Israeli President Shimon Peres that Israel had been accepted as the first non-South American partner in the free trade group, Mercosur.

Brazil is Israel's largest trading partner in Latin America, and trade between Brazil and Iran has also grown by 40% during Mr Lula's presidency.

The Brazilian leader is visiting Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan ahead of a more controversial visit to Iran in May.

In November last year, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian president to visit Brazil.

On that occasion, President Lula criticised attempts to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambitions but he also urged President Ahmadinejad to engage with the West.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8569471.stm

America's Solid Credit Rating Gets Shaken

(March 15) -- Could the federal balance sheet become so strained that the U.S. can't pay its debts?

The short answer is not now or anytime soon. But a quarterly look at the government's financial situation by Moody's Investors Service says the costs of stimulating the economy and fending off a global depression have left the U.S. and some other major Western economies with "a delicate balancing act" as they hang on to their top credit ratings.

The U.S., like fellow top-rated borrowers Britain, Germany and France, is struggling with both persistent unemployment following a recession -- making all three want to spend more on stimulus -- and diminished revenue from tax income, which is another recession symptom.

"This exposes governments to substantial execution risk in the implementation of their exit strategies, which could yet make their credit more vulnerable," said Arnaud Mares, a senior vice president at Moody's Sovereign Risk Group and author of the new report.

The loss of the nation's triple-A credit rating would add billions or trillions to the cost of borrowing money through the issue of Treasury securities, although that trouble might pale in comparison to the kind of economic cataclysm that would badly weaken confidence in American fiscal trustworthiness. Even worse than the recent financial crisis, picture a run on the dollar and a credit freeze that could keep banks from lending.

And yet the report from Moody's is only the latest warning about the oceans of red ink generated by the U.S. government's fiscal stimulus, the waging of two wars, significant tax cutting in the past decade and a political inability to find solutions for the looming financial problems of Social Security and Medicare.

This year, for the first time since Congress last made changes to Social Security in the 1980s, the program will pay out more than it collects in Social Security taxes. And as a growing share of Americans reach retirement age, that deficit -- an estimated $29 billion this year -- is expected to balloon. The Federal Reserve, members of Congress and successive presidents have warned about an impending Social Security crisis in the coming decades, but opposition by older Americans to any changes has scuttled all efforts at reform.

It doesn't help that for decades the federal government has essentially been borrowing money from the Social Security surplus by selling to the program some $2.5 trillion in bonds.

For Moody's and others, though, the more pressing political question is dealing with discretionary spending -- the budget choices made each year beyond the mandatory spending for Social Security, Medicare and similar programs. And that includes government programs aimed at getting people back to work and nurturing the economic recovery.

"In light of the muted recovery, discretionary fiscal adjustment is now the principal means of repairing the damage that the global crisis has inflicted on government balance sheets," said Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of Moody's Sovereign Risk Group. "A key issue is whether governments are able and willing to implement such unprecedented adjustments. Growth will support some governments' adjustment plans more than those of others, but no government can rely on it."

The political difficulty of cutting spending -- imagine a member of Congress voluntarily reducing dollars headed toward his or her district or state -- is the main reason President Barack Obama ordered creation of a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The idea is for the commission to make hard budget choices, leaving Congress with the option of approving them as a whole or rejecting them.

But the commission's recommendations aren't due until December.

In the meantime, Congress will be making election-year use of its control over the national purse strings, which is likely to inflate the already massive deficit anticipated for the proposed budget Obama unveiled last month. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that even if Congress adds no spending to the budget proposal, the federal government will record a deficit this year of $1.5 trillion, or more than 10 percent of the gross national product.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/americas-solid-credit-rating-gets-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli soldiers during clashes in the East Jeruslaem neighbourhood of Issawiya, 16 Mar 2010

Dozens of Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli police and set tires ablaze in East Jerusalem Tuesday to protest Israel's consecration of a synagogue in the area.

Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at the demonstrators and arrested several of them. Arab media say at least 20 Palestinians were injured. Israeli police say two officers also were hurt.

Palestinians are also angered by Israel's decision last week to build new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, an area they claim as a future capital. Palestinian officials want the project scrapped before they join U.S.-mediated indirect peace talks with Israel.

U.S. officials say Mideast envoy George Mitchell has postponed his latest peace mission to the region. He had been due to leave Washington Monday.

The State Department says it is waiting for a formal Israeli response to U.S. demands for Israel to demonstrate its commitment to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the unspecified demands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call Friday. In that conversation, she rebuked Israel for approving the housing project.

Mr. Netanyahu said Monday the government will keep building in Jerusalem as it has for the past 42 years. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and declared the territory part of its eternal capital in a move not recognized internationally.

Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Palestinians-Riot-in-Ea...

Will Health Care Vote Be Constitutional?
Constitutional law scholar Michael McConnell says that if House Democrats attempt to pass the Senate health care bill without actually voting on it, they may open the door to a Supreme Court challenge.

"These constitutional rules set forth in Article I are not mere exercises in formalism. They ensure the democratic accountability of our representatives. Under Section 7, no bill can become law unless it is put up for public vote by both houses of Congress, and under Section 5 'the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question . . . shall be entered on the Journal.' These requirements enable the people to evaluate whether their representatives are promoting their interests and the public good. Democratic leaders have not announced whether they will pursue the Slaughter solution. But the very purpose of it is to enable members of the House to vote for something without appearing to do so. The Constitution was drafted to prevent that."

Rick Hasen: "If I were working for the Democrats in Congress, I would take his concerns here very seriously. Could it really be that the Democrats want to give the Supreme Court a way to strike down the health care bill on a technicality, without even having to reach the merits?"

However, while Jack Balkin says McConnell's concerns "are textually well founded," he notes there is a way Democrats could proceed constitutionally.

"The House may do this on a single vote if the special rule that accompanies the reconciliation bill says that by passing the reconciliation bill the House agrees to pass the same text of the same bill that the Senate has passed. That is to say, the language of the special rule that accompanies the reconciliation bill must make the House take political responsibility for passing the same language as the Senate bill. The House must say that the House has consented to accept the text of the Senate bill as its own political act. At that point the President can sign the two bills, and it does not matter that the House has passed both through a special rule."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/16/will_health_care_vote_be_co...

toniD's Ya Think?

First Lady to meet with food companies on anti-obesity strategy

Posted: Mar 16, 2010 8:36 AM
WASHINGTON (WKOW) -- Michelle Obama is taking her anti-obesity campaign straight to the source.

The first lady is meeting with some of the country's largest food companies Tuesday, including Kraft Foods Inc., Coca Cola Co. and General Mills Inc.

Michelle Obama has not yet gone directly after large food companies but said recently she is looking for easier-to-read food labels and healthier products in schools.

The industry is positioned to take some blows in the coming year, including a childhood nutrition bill about to move through Congress that could eliminate junk food in schools.

this doesn't make any sense. just upstream was a post about self executing legislation and the fact that there was nothing unconsitutional about it when republicans used the maneuver.

Lott Echoes Sanford: 'Beware The Ides Of March' On Health Care Reform (VIDEO)
Jillian Rayfield | March 15, 2010, 5:24PM

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) took up Gov. Mark Sanford's (R-SC) Shakespearean warning today that the American people must "beware the Ides of March" when it comes to health care reform.

Sanford released a statement earlier saying that today -- March 15 -- is the day Julius Caesar was murdered, sometimes known as the Ides of March. The day is usually associated with a sense of foreboding, and Sanford warned the public to be wary of health care reform.

Trent Lott agreed today on Fox News: "Shakespeare warned us to beware the Ides of March. That's today, and I have a very ominous feeling about what's fixing to happen on health care votes."

At least, that's probably what he meant to say, though Lott's "Ides of March" sounds suspiciously like "Eyes of March" in the clip.

Judge for yourself:

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/lott-echoes-sanford-bew...

toniD's Ya Think?

Israel-Palestine

A fascinating quick read from Ha'aretz's Akiva Eldar. The first part gives some of the background on just what happened with that announcement of new building in East Jerusalem that has rocked US-Israeli relations. And then after that, a brief discussion of a conversation Eldar had a few years ago with David Kimche, the legendary Israeli spy and diplomat who died last week at 82. They discussed a proposal Kimche and a colleague submitted to the Israeli cabinet in June 1967, outlining a two-state solution quite similar to the various proposed 1967 border-based agreements that are the only real solution to the conflict. Of course, the idea was rejected.

--Josh Marshall

Referred link: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1156765.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Pro-Life Dems Start Breaking In Pelosi's Direction
Brian Beutler | March 15, 2010, 4:03PM

This is the week that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) will be forced to show his cards and reveal whether he actually has the votes (and the will) to kill health care reform.

By all appearances, House leadership has given up on attempts to reach an accord with Stupak, and other pro-life Democrats who disapprove of the Senate bill's abortion language. Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others hope that most of them will come to their senses (perhaps after a bit of arm-twisting and pressure from the White House) and vote for the bill.

Stupak himself has acknowledged that Pelosi has probably pulled a couple Democrats away from his group. "The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate's health-care bill without us," Stupak told the conservative magazine National Review last week. "At this point, there is no doubt that they've been able to peel off one or two of my twelve."

And, indeed, press reports indicate that they have. Pro-life Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) told the Duluth News Tribune he's prepared to vote for the bill. And last week, Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI)--a pro-life Democrat who may or may not have been one of the Stupak dozen--told reporters he'll also probably vote for reform.

That may seem promising for Pelosi at a glance, but Oberstar and Kildee were among the easiest members of the dozen for leaders to win over. They'll also need others still on the fence--members like Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Jerry Costello (D-IL), and Senate hopeful Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)--to hop on to their side. Indeed, all members of the Stupak crew voted yes on the House health care bill back in November. Every member that sticks to his guns must be made up for by converting a different Democrat who voted "no" back in the fall. And Stupak himself is not budging--at least not yet.

"I'm telling the others to hold firm, and we'll meet next week, but I'm disappointed in my colleagues who said they'd be with us and now they're not," Stupak told National Review.

Then again, the Catholic Health Association broke with the Conference of Catholic Bishops and endorsed the Senate health care bill despite it's abortion language. And House Majority Whip James Clyburn predicted Stupak himself would ultimately cave and vote for reform. We'll be keeping an eye on this dynamic all week as we approach the final vote on health care reform.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/playing-chicken-pro-life-dems...

toniD's Ya Think?

Simon Johnson

Last week, Senator Ted Kaufman (D., DE) gave a devastating speech in the Senate on "too big to fail" and all it entails. A long public silence from our political class was broken -- and to great effect. Today's Dodd reform proposals stand in pale comparison to the principles outlined by Senator Kaufman. And yes, DE stands for Delaware -- corporate America has finally decided that its largest financial offspring are way out of line and must be reined in.

Now, the Senator has gone one better, putting many private criticisms of the financial sector -- the kind you hear whispered with conviction on the Upper East Side and in Midtown -- firmly and articulately on the public record in a Senate floor speech to be delivered tomorrow (this is a direct link to speech). He pulls no punches:

"fraud and potential criminal conduct were at the heart of the financial crisis"

He goes after Lehman -- with its infamous Repo 105 -- as well as the other entities potentially implicated in those transactions, including Ernst and Young (Lehman's auditors). This is the low hanging fruit -- but have you heard even a squeak from the White House or anyone else in the country's putative leadership on this issue?

And then he goes for the twin jugulars of Wall Street as it still stands: The idea that we saved something, at great expense in 2008-09, that was actually worth saving; and Goldman Sachs.

"[T]his is not about retribution. This is about addressing the continuum of behavior that took place -- some of it fraudulent and illegal -- and in the process addressing what Wall Street and the legal and regulatory system underlying its behavior have become."

Our system has long been imperfect, but it used to work much better:

"When crimes happened in the past (as in the case of Enron, when aided and abetted by, among others, Merrill Lynch, and not prevented by the supposed gatekeepers at Arthur Andersen), there were criminal convictions."

Here's the most intriguing bit -- he challenges the moral authority of those who think they are doing "God's work" in finance.

"If we uncover bad behavior that was nonetheless lawful, or that we cannot prove to be unlawful (as may be exemplified by the recent reports of actions by Goldman Sachs with respect to the debt of Greece), then we should review our legal rules in the US and perhaps change them so that certain misleading behavior cannot go unpunished again."

But that's not all -- he actually lays out the parameters of what should be, if our legal institutions still functioned, a compelling case against Goldman.

"Following these transactions, Goldman Sachs and other investment banks underwrote billions of Euros in bonds for Greece. The questions being raised include whether some of these bond offering documents disclosed the true nature of these swaps to investors, and, if not, whether the failure to do so was material."

"These bonds were issued under Greek law, and there is nothing necessarily illegal about not disclosing this information to bond investors in Europe. At least some of these bonds, however, were likely sold to American investors, so they may therefore still be subject to applicable U.S. securities law. While "qualified institutional buyers" (QIBs) in the U.S. are able to purchase bonds (like the ones issued by Greece) and other securities not registered with the SEC under Securities Act of 1933, the sale of these bonds would still be governed by other requirements of U.S. law. Specifically, they presumably would be subject to the prohibition against the sale of securities to U.S. investors while deliberately withholding material adverse information."

This sounds like a potential violation of Rule 10b-5 -- you are simply not allowed to sell securities in the United States while withholding material adverse information, i.e., what any reasonable investor would want to know (like the true indebtedness of a government, when you are being pitched on a sovereign debt issue). In fact, such actions are frequently considered serious fraud -- at least when the people involved aren't as powerful as Goldman Sachs.
more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-johnson/senator-kaufman-fraud-sti_b_...

toniD's Ya Think?

Will The Volcker Rule Survive In Dodd's Bill? Citigroup Is Betting That It Won't

Devotees of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker may less than thrilled by the bill unveiled by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)

Citigroup, for its part, doesn't seem to believe the rule is coming anytime soon. The bank is actually hiring employees at a trading unit that could be affected by the rule, Bloomberg reports.

Announced earlier this year by the Obama administration, the so-called Volcker Rule was devised to prohibit banks from owning, operating or sponsoring hedge funds or private equity operations. The aim of the Volcker Rule is to prevent the nation's largest banks from using taxpayer-provided financing -- from the Fed's discount window, for one -- to fund trades for their own accounts.

In short, the rule is intended to ensure taxpayers don't directly subsidize hedge fund-like trading or private equity investments.

The rule, however. appears to be something less than a strict mandate in the latest legislation. Here's the FT:

The bill instructs regulators to study and then enforce the "Volcker rule" in spite of Mr Dodd's earlier frustration at the White House for pushing a ban on deposit-taking banks from trading for their own account, which has been advocated by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman.

However, the financial industry is still betting that the rule will be softened amid scepticism from Republicans and Democrats.

Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia, yesterday told the Financial Times: "I don't necessarily think it needs to be a mandate."

In other words, it's completely unclear whether or not the Volcker Rule will actually have any teeth.

Citigroup -- which we should point out is 27 percent owned by the U.S. government -- is making a significant wager that the rule won't be enacted anytime soon. The bank's execs, Bloomberg notes, told employees it is increasing its trading capital limits in its proprietary trading unit.
Story continues below

Here's more from Bloomberg:

Citigroup is trying to preserve the unit, which produces about $100 million of annual revenue, as banks face a proposed ban on proprietary trading dubbed by President Barack Obama as the Volcker rule. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit fed concern among the unit's remaining employees that Citigroup's commitment might wither under U.S. pressure when he told a bailout oversight panel this month that banks shouldn't use their own money to speculate, the people said.

"Vikram the academic can put on his academic hat and conclude that the Volcker rule makes sense," said Brad Hintz, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. who follows the securities industry. "On the other hand, the Volcker rule hasn't been passed, nobody knows what the capital rules are going to be, so why on earth not take advantage of it?"

Last month, the Treasury Department indicated it will allow regulators discretion to determine what constitutes "proprietary trading" and what counts as serving client interests or legitimate market-making activities.

Get ready to hear a lot more about the definition of "prop trading" in the next few months.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/will-the-volcker-rule-sur_n_499...

toniD's Ya Think?

Big Bailout Banks Slashed New Lending In January

DANIEL WAGNER | 03/15/10 07:42 PM | AP

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Monday that new lending plummeted in January at the nine largest banks that have yet to repay their taxpayer bailouts.

Treasury's monthly survey of bank lending shows overall new loan origination dropped 35 percent from December's level. Treasury says the drop "may be partially explained by large increases" in late 2009.

The survey also shows that average loan balances at the nine banks were 2 percent higher than in December – bringing them to their highest level since September.

The nine banks are: Citigroup Inc., Comerica Inc., Fifth Third Bancorp, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., KeyCorp, Marshall & Ilsley Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Regions Financial Corp. and Suntrust Banks Inc.

Increasing lending to consumers and small businesses was one of Congress' stated goals when it passed the $700 billion financial bailout in October 2008.

Treasury said this is the last time it will publish a summary analysis of the bank survey because "aggregate month to month changes are no longer meaningful."

The nine banks surveyed in January held 17 percent of industry assets at the end of 2009. When the survey was first conducted in November 2008, it included the 22 largest banks holding bailout money. Those banks held 61 percent of industry assets.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/bailout-banks-cut-lending_n_500...

toniD's Ya Think?

WASHINGTON – Housing construction fell in February as winter blizzards held down activity in the Northeast and South. The decline highlighted the challenges facing builders as they struggle to emerge from the worst housing slump in decades.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that construction of new homes and apartments fell 5.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000 units, slightly higher than the 570,000 that economists were expecting. January activity was revised up to a pace of 622,000 units, the strongest showing in 14 months.

Homebuilders are trying to emerge from a severe housing downturn. A rebound in housing is seen as critical to sustaining the overall economic recovery.

The February weakness reflected a modest 0.6 percent drop in single-family construction, which declined to 499,000 units. The more volatile multi-family sector plunged 30.3 percent to an annual rate of 76,000 units after having surged 18.5 percent in January.

Activity dropped by 9.6 percent in the Northeast and 15.5 percent in the South, two regions hit by snowstorms in February. Building rose by 10.6 percent in the Midwest and 7.9 percent in the West.

Building permits, considered a good barometer of future activity, fell 1.6 percent to an annual rate of 612,000 units after having fallen a larger 4.7 percent in January.

Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, said the February weakness stemmed from severe winter weather which prevented builders from breaking ground on new projects. But he said the housing outlook remains bleak because of a huge glut of unsold homes, reflecting the weakness in sales and the continued crisis with home foreclosures.

He said that in addition to 3.8 million homes for sale currently, foreclosures could dump another 5 million to 6 million homes on the market.

"Some of this excess may be reduced by a surge in sales ahead of the end of the tax credit, but the bulk is going to take a very long time to work off," Dales said in a research note.

To qualify for a government tax credit, buyers must sign the purchase contract by the end of April.

Housing set records in sales and construction during the boom years but more recently has undergone a painful bust, a downturn which helped push the overall economy into the worst recession since the 1930s.

The National Association of Home Builders reported Monday that its survey of builder sentiment dropped by two points to 15 in March, underscoring the gloom in the housing market.

Builders said that harsh winter weather and the competition from deeply discounted foreclosures were dampening sales prospects. They said they were seeing fewer prospective buyers and were feeling less optimistic about the likelihood of sales over the next six months, according to the latest survey.

Sales of new homes plunged 11 percent to a record low in January, the third consecutive monthly decline. Sales of previously occupied homes were down 7 percent, the sharpest drop since last June.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100316/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

A FIGHT TO THE FINISH.... I'll admit it -- it's tempting to think the final push towards health care reform all going well. President Obama told ABC's Jake Tapper yesterday, "I believe we are going to get the votes, we're going to make this happen." House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) told reporters after a caucus meeting last night, "There's tremendous anticipation, and certainly a lot of anxiety, but I believe we have the votes and that we will get this bill done this week."

At the same time, Republicans sound increasingly discouraged. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) seems to think Democrats are going to succeed, and as desperation sinks in, GOP rhetoric is getting a little more excessive.

But let's pause for a moment to remember that failure remains a distinct possibility, and by most estimates, the leadership still doesn't have 216 votes. Indeed, with the clock winding down, we don't see a new round of undecided Dems announcing their support for health reform; we actually see some key Dems making very discouraging announcements in the opposite direction.

On-the-fence members are hearing plenty this week from those who don't want to fix the dysfunctional status quo.

Several on-the-fence Democrats said they were scrambling to sort out their constituents' views as the outside noise grows deafening.

"There is definitely more passion from people opposed to the bill," said Representative Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, whose offices have been inundated with protests and calls. "I have to decide between passing this bill or doing nothing at all. I need to do what's best for my district." [emphasis added]

The White House is twisting arms, and that's likely to help. Labor leaders and MoveOn are playing hardball, and that's critically important, too. But are rank-and-file Democratic and left-leaning voters picking up the phone? About half the country wants this bill to pass -- but how many of them have communicated that directly to their House rep?

Jonathan Cohn explained, "[W]ith the vote count so close, reform may not pass without ... a push from the outside. It's not clear if that push will come. Recent polls show a clear change in public opinion: People are demonstrating more approval both of the Democrats and their reform bill. But, as far as I can tell, an enthusiasm gap remains. Conservatives hate the bill. Liberals, well, they're still learning to like it."

It's not at all complicated. A once-in-a-generation opportunity is on the line, and if supporters fail to fight, reform may fail to pass.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_03/022878.php

Kucinich seems still a no and Bernie Sanders says he will vote for it with the idea of changing it. I'm still conflicted but I would like to see a bill just to make the repubs sweat more. But still conflicted.

toniD's Ya Think?

http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=50663

(snip)

Twice in the past year, Netanyahu has fallen out with the Obama Administration: first, he flouted the U.S. wish for a total settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank, then he flaunted his commitment to Jewish settlement throughout occupied East Jerusalem, including in the heart of Palestinian neighbourhoods - over Washington's strong objection that he should not do so.

There's also a historical and a personal dimension to the U.S. anger: when he was last in power at the end of the 90s, Netanyahu clashed also with the U.S. administration precisely over the same issue - Israel's settlement policy in East Jerusalem.

Back then when Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, was in his second term as U.S. President, the settlement of Har Homa (a now flourishing Jewish neighbourhood on the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem) was the blot on the U.S. peace record.

The U.S. clearly does not want Netanyahu to "pull off" another Har Homa in the planned new neighbourhood called Ramat Shlomo.

Back then, U.S. officials had let it be known that they regarded Netanyahu as "unreliable" and "devious". The tone of the present argument seems very much in keeping with those sentiments.

But at that time, the antagonism was kept on the personal plane and Har Homa was allowed to remain. This time the U.S. is stressing the damaging political impact on their overall Mideast policy.

After listening to the scathing remarks from the State Department, Netanyahu called European leaders, including two to whom he is closest, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, to explain why he believes the U.S. is wrong in fomenting a crisis.

But, says Aluf Benn, Haaretz diplomatic correspondent, in a news analysis which led the paper's Sunday edition under a banner headline about the deepening row: "The Prime Minister has reached the moment of truth. He must choose between his ideological beliefs and political cooperation with his right-wing coalition on one hand, and his need for American support on the other."

Excellus board voted itself a 37 percent pay raise

Source: Syracuse Post Standard

The directors of Excellus voted to raise their pay by 37 percent last year after a consultant hired by the insurer determined they were underpaid.

The raises for the 17 outside directors came at the same time the nonprofit insurer lost money on its operations and cut the pay of its top executives.

The same year, Excellus increased health insurance rates on average 8 percent. For 2010, the insurer raised its rates an average of 8.8 percent. Both years, some customers saw substantially higher rate increases

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/excellus_board_voted_itse...

toniD's Ya Think?

March 16 Tea Party Protests In Washington: The Final Anti-Health Care March

Tea Party activists "will storm Capitol Hill this morning, spending the day rallying and protesting against President Obama's health-care bill and demanding meetings with targeted members."

But on the eve of their final coordinated push to kill health care reform, one of the Tea Party movements key leaders and funders -- former Republican leader and lobbyist Dick Armey, head of the group FreedomWorks -- said the battle was likely lost.

At a press conference on Monday, Armey acknowledged that Democrats "will most likely pass health care reform legislation that has been debated for the last year and is expected to come to a vote this week."

"They'll probably force this through," he said. "But you can't discount the number of people who can be moved by a ruthless and powerful political leader or group of political leaders."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/march-16-tea-party-protes_n_500...

toniD's Ya Think?

Labor and progressive leaders are threatening House Democrats who oppose health care legislation with potentially destructive third party challenges in November.

The discussions have already taken concrete form in New York State, where a handful of votes hang in the balance. They’re part threat, part an early attempt to channel what liberal leaders expect to be a wave of anger if Congress fails to pass health care.

New York and a handful of other states have “fusion” rules that allow candidates to run on multiple ballot lines, giving minor parties like the Working Families a great deal of political leverage. For wavering Upstate New York moderates like Reps. Michael Arcuri, Scott Murphy, and Bill Owens, the line could mean the margin between victory and defeat.

The first target, however, seems to be Rep. Michael McMahon, a New York City Democrat who has indicated he opposes the bill.

“There’s a lot of voters in Staten Island and Brooklyn who [will] realize that [McMahon] just chose to be on the side of the insurance companies and start seeing their wages go to pay for their health care,” said Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, a close ally of President Barack Obama and a prime mover in the attempt to ensure the votes of moderate and conservative Democrats.

“It’s a very volatile time, and no one should believe that third party candidates don’t have a chance.”

In districts where Democrats vote “no,” voters “will have the Republican against health and the Democrat against health care, and they’re going to ask themselves, ‘Where’s the candidate that shares my values,’” Stern told POLITICO. “A lot of us would like to run another candidate.”

“I am not the only labor leader looking at [the question of] what is the price of betrayal,” he said, suggesting that Pennsylvania and Illinois could also see liberal third party challenges.

The left has already sponsored a serious primary challenge to Senator Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas, but backing third-party candidates – who could easily split the vote and hand a seat to the Republicans – would mark a new level of disgust with Democrats opposed to health care.

Rules for independent candidacies vary by state, and New York’s labor-backed Working Families Party has already taken the first step, with its state committee voting to bar endorsements of any candidate who votes against health care legislation. more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34466_Page2.html

toniD's Ya Think?

turn on the tv to msnbc - at 9:30 on the Shuster show, mike malloy said he was gonna make an appearance

then let the rest of us know how it went. jmach? do you have the tools to rip it and make an youtube?

Florida Vampire to Run For President
Man Claiming to be a Vampire and a Direct Descendant of Vlad the Impaler Says He's Running on the GOP Ticket in 2012

(CBS) Not satisfied with living in Florida, Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey wants to move to Washington, D.C., to become the nation's first vampire president, reports CBS affiliate WTSP.

Sharkey, 45, spent Friday on a Greyhound bus with his new fiancee, Audrianna Foster, a 19-year-old girl from Ohio he met online. She too believes she is a vampire, or vampyre.

"I haven't dated a girl older than 19 since 2006," said the Tampa man as his 19-year-old daughter and his 2-year-old grandson met him at the Greyhound station. "It's good to be me."

"The Impaler" claims he's a direct descendent of Vlad II the Impaler, better known as Dracula.

He has scheduled a Monday press conference in Tampa to announce his plans to file paperwork to run for President of the United States in 2012. He recently switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican so he can run with the G.O.P.

He ran for Governor of Minnesota in 2006 and also had short-lived bids for U.S. Senate in 2000, U.S. President in 2004, and U.S. President in 2008.

In an extended interview with WTSP, Sharkey shared well-thought-out opinions on capital punishment, the abortion issue, and veterans issues. However, he also bragged about having numerous teen-aged girlfriends in recent years.

The girls have also provided several skeletons in Sharkey's closet.

He's accused of "brainwashing" a 16-year-old in Minnesota. The two were engaged until last month. Her family now has a restraining order against Sharkey and claims his texts to her violate it.

He reportedly admitted to harassing another 16-year-old Minnesota girl online in 2009.

He was arrested in Tennessee several years ago and is currently on probation from Indiana after he was found guilty in 2009 of intimidating a judge. He served six months in a Marion Co. jail before his release. Sources confirm the Secret Service has had to keep him on its radar, since he moves around the country.

Sharkey was once on the Executive Committee of the Hillsborough Co. Republican Party (HCRP) in the 1990s, but A.J. Matthews, HCRP State Committeeman, says he didn't show any of the extreme behaviors he's exhibiting now.

"He does believe in Republican values," Matthews said. "Is he going to make a big splash with his current identification of being a vampire? That's up to the voters to decide."

Matthews said he'd help Sharkey with campaign basics, just like he would any Republican candidate. But he's been trying to advise him to focus on mainstream issues and away from the extreme behaviors.

Sharkey, meanwhile, continues to develop a movie on his campaign, "The True Impaler."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/national/main6300766.shtml

Just goes to show you how weird the GOP has become.

toniD's Ya Think?

I didn't see Malloy because I was doing things around the house.

toniD's Ya Think?

Left-wing Rome politicians drop trousers in budget protest

By Agence France-Presse

ROME (AFP) – Around 50 left-wing municipal officials dropped their trousers at Rome's city hall on Monday to call for the speedy passage of the Italian capital's 2010 budget.

"Alemanno has reduced us to our underwear," read one protester's poster, referring to the city's right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno.

"Parks and gardens abandoned," "Homeless people, empty homes," others read.

Sandro Medici, the mayor of Cinecitta, the home of the city's legendary movie studios, said Alemanno was dragging his feet over passing the budget "for electoral reasons, because it contains unpopular taxes."

"Without a budget, we only have funds for current expenses," he told AFP. "In my district, two schools that are supposed to open in September won't be able to operate."

Eleven of Rome's 19 districts are headed by left-wing mayors.

Alemanno, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom party and formerly of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, wrested city hall from the left-wing Walter Veltroni in 2008.

Italy is set to hold elections in 13 of the country's 20 regions, including Rome's Lazio region, at the end of the month.

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/leftwing-rome-politicians-drop-trousers-budg...

toniD's Ya Think?

Left-wing Rome politicians drop trousers in budget protest

By Agence France-Presse

ROME (AFP) – Around 50 left-wing municipal officials dropped their trousers at Rome's city hall on Monday to call for the speedy passage of the Italian capital's 2010 budget.

"Alemanno has reduced us to our underwear," read one protester's poster, referring to the city's right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno.

"Parks and gardens abandoned," "Homeless people, empty homes," others read.

Sandro Medici, the mayor of Cinecitta, the home of the city's legendary movie studios, said Alemanno was dragging his feet over passing the budget "for electoral reasons, because it contains unpopular taxes."

"Without a budget, we only have funds for current expenses," he told AFP. "In my district, two schools that are supposed to open in September won't be able to operate."

Eleven of Rome's 19 districts are headed by left-wing mayors.

Alemanno, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom party and formerly of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, wrested city hall from the left-wing Walter Veltroni in 2008.

Italy is set to hold elections in 13 of the country's 20 regions, including Rome's Lazio region, at the end of the month.

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/leftwing-rome-politicians-drop-trousers-budg...

toniD's Ya Think?

don't be afraid to open your census envelope. I let it sit unopened on my desk for more than a week because i didn't have the time to deal with it; then i finally did it yesterday and it took me less than 5 mins. especially for us living alone folks, there's nothing to it, just a couple of pages and all they are asking is your age, whether homeowner or renter and how many people in the household at that address - no big deal. i thought there would be a bunch of personal questions, income and such. no.

An inexpensive, generic anti-inflammatory drug from the aspirin family helped patients in a clinical trial manage their Type 2 diabetes and lower their blood sugar, adding to evidence that inflammation plays a role in diabetes, and possibly pointing to new therapeutic approaches to the disease.
The drug, salsalate, which is related to aspirin but is not as hard on the stomach, has been used for years to treat arthritis and joint pain. Patients who took it as part of a randomized clinical trial led by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center improved their blood sugar levels after three months, with those taking the highest dose lowering their hemoglobin A1C scores by 0.5 percent on average. Patients who took the drug also lowered their triglycerides.
“The potential is really exciting,” said Dr. Allison B. Goldfine, Joslin’s director of clinical research and the lead author of the paper, which will be published in Tuesday’s Annals of Internal Medicine. “We may have a new class of therapeutic agents to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes, and when you have a new safe, effective and inexpensive agent, that’s pretty exciting.”
Even more importantly, the work may help unravel the root causes of diabetes, said Dr. Steven E. Shoelson, the paper’s senior author and head of Joslin’s research section on pathophysiology and molecular pharmacology, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“If we can figure out how this is working, we can figure out some of the root causes of diabetes and how obesity promotes inflammation, and how inflammation promotes diabetes and other chronic health problems,” Dr. Shoelson said.
Both authors injected a note of caution, however, saying more research was needed before doctors start prescribing salsalate.
Just over 100 patients completed the randomized clinical trial and some experienced negative side effects, like an increase in LDL, or so-called bad cholesterol.
The most common side effect was experienced by patients who were on diabetes medications called sulfonylureas and experienced episodes of mild hypoglycemia, a drop in blood sugar that can be dangerous.
Experts who were not involved in the multi-center trial agreed larger trials were needed, and said the impact of the drug on blood glucose levels was moderate. But they said the findings were exciting because they suggested Type 2 diabetes could be treated by targeting the underlying inflammation.
“It expands the therapeutic weaponry against the disease,” said Dr. Domenico Accili, director of the Columbia University Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center.
Since atherosclerosis is also considered an inflammatory state, this approach may also potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes, he said.
Dr. Meredith Hawkins, a professor of medicine at Albert Einstein, also said the work showed that “inflammation is a good target in terms of treating diabetes — and that’s something that we’ve been talking about for a long time.”
The research is being supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Salsalate sells for less than a quarter a pill, and does not present the opportunity for profit that would attract large pharmaceutical companies to do the research. But with an estimated 23.6 million Americans already suffering from diabetes and an additional 57 million having pre-diabetes, the federal government has a huge interest in developing new treatments.
As part of the trial, researchers at 17 different clinical centers randomly assigned 108 individuals ages 18 to 75 to four different treatment regimens, three of which included different amounts of salsalate in three daily doses while patients in the fourth group were given placebos, or dummy pills.
The patients continued with their regular Type 2 diabetes treatment regimen throughout the study. After three months, patients who were taking salsalates were far more likely to have improved their blood sugar levels than those on placebo, with patients on the highest doses of 4 grams a day having the most improvement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/health/16diabetes.html?nl=health&emc=h...

Lindsay Graham:

"Nancy Pelosi, I think, has got them all liquored up on sake and you know, they're making a suicide run here," Graham said Monday during a call to the Keven Cohen Show on WVOC radio in Columbia, S.C.

===

for the life of me i missed the reference to kamikaze's. talk about dog whistle race baiting.

The Whip Count
Democrats appeared to be closing in "on achieving support from enough lawmakers in the House to pass a historic and sweeping health-care reform bill, though the outcome was still far from certain," the Daily Caller reports.

"President Obama signaled said that while Democrats do not yet have the 216 votes they need in the House, he believes the votes will be there when they need to be."

Roll Call has a nice chart of the 24 House members targeted by Democratic leaders.

Meanwhile, The Hill notes that "If every member votes and all GOP lawmakers vote no, the maximum number of Democratic defections to pass a bill is 37, which would result in a 216-215 tally."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/16/the_whip_count.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Appeals Court Upholds $20,000 Fine Against Orly Taitz
Justin Elliott | March 16, 2010, 8:50AM

Orly Taitz

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Orly Taitz's appeal of the $20,000 fine imposed on her for making frivolous filings in a long-running Birther case.

"We have fully considered Taitz's arguments," the ruling from a three-judge panel reads. "We find them unpersuasive and therefore affirm the district court's sanctions judgment."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/appeals_court_upholds_...

toniD's Ya Think?

Boehner Moving To Force House Dems To Vote Directly On Senate Health Care Bill
Ben Frumin | March 16, 2010, 12:53PM

House Minority Leader John Boehner

House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement today that Republicans are calling for an up-or-down House vote on the Senate health care bill, demanding that Democrats not use a self-executing "deem and pass" strategy (also called the "Slaughter solution") that would free them from having to actually vote on the Senate bill.

Boehner called the Dems' strategy a "scheme" intended to allow them to "hide from their constituents."

Read more »

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/boehner-moving-to-force-house...

toniD's Ya Think?

Sorry,if posted before..

**

But More Needs to Be Done to Protect Consumers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In response to a proposed package of financial industry reforms announced by Senator Chris Dodd today, Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, said the legislation contains some important reforms, but said more needs to done to better protect consumers.

Gail Hillebrand, Director of Consumers Union’s Defend Your Dollars campaign (www.DefendYourDollars.org), said “It is encouraging that Senator Dodd’s financial reform package includes a new government watchdog to protect consumers from unfair financial practices that can undermine family wallets and our economy. But we are concerned that this bill gives veto power over new consumer protections to another group of banking regulators and relies too heavily on these same regulators to enforce new safeguards. We need a government watchdog with real authority to protect consumers. Lawmakers should strengthen the Dodd proposal by making sure that the banking regulators who failed to prevent our current financial crisis can’t stand in the way of needed consumer protection.”

Con't..

http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_financial_services/016043.html

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

MMRules

Dems On GOP Complaints About Rules: You Started It!
Christina Bellantoni | March 16, 2010, 11:16AM

Floor Of The United States House Of Representatives

Democrats are pushing back against Republican indignation over the potential path the House will use to pass health care reform this week. Despite Republicans insisting the "deem and pass" tactic is totally unprecedented, it's a maneuver the GOP should actually be familiar with.

The Democratic National Committee sends over a 2006 article from Roll Call with stats showing how the Republicans actually "set new records" for writing House floor rules that allow leadership to pass their bills with an easier path.

The article shows that this year Democrats are actually using a smaller percentage of rules that fall into this category than Republicans used when they were in charge under former President George W. Bush.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/dems-say-gop-crying-crocodile...

toniD's Ya Think?

New Jersey Court: Recall Against Sen. Menendez Can Go Forward (Maybe)
Eric Kleefeld | March 16, 2010, 10:52AM

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

A New Jersey appeals court just threw a real curveball to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), handing down a ruling that a Tea Party-led recall effort against him can go forward -- or at least it can go forward if this decision isn't reversed on appeal.

The court stayed its own decision, pending an expected appeal by Menendez, so the recall effort cannot actually go forward as of yet. Menendez's lawyer Marc Elias -- perhaps best known for having been Sen. Al Franken's (D-MN) lead attorney during the Minnesota recount and election contest -- argues that the United States Constitution does not allow the recall of a federal lawmaker.

Read more »

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/new-jersey-court-recall-again...

toniD's Ya Think?

Policy Battle Over Afghan Peace Talks Intensifies

By GARETH PORTER

The struggle within the Barack Obama administration over Afghanistan policy entered a new phase when the president suggested at a meeting of his "war cabinet" Friday that it might be time to start negotiations with the Taliban, according to a report in the New York Times Saturday.

Obama said that the success of the recent operation to take control of the "insurgent stronghold" of Marja, combined with the killing of insurgent leaders in Pakistan by drone attacks, might be sufficient to "justify an effort to begin talks with the Taliban", two participants in the meeting told the Times.

That proposal puts Obama directly at odds with key members of his national security team, especially Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Both Gates and Clinton have argued in recent months that attempting to negotiate with Taliban leaders would be fruitless unless and until they have been convinced by U.S. military operations that they are losing.[..]
http://www.counterpunch.org/porter03162010.html

Key House Dem To Vote Yes

A key get for House Dem vote counters, per the Syracuse Post Standard:

Rep. Dan Maffei said today he will vote for the health care reform bill that is likely to face a historic vote in the House of Representative by Saturday…

“I’m proud to support this legislation, because it is going to expand coverage, lower costs and finally stop so many of the unfair practices insurance companies have been using for too long,” Maffei said. “While reform process isn’t pretty, we’ve debated this bill long enough. In fact, we’ve talked about reforming health care for decades. Doing nothing is no longer an option.”…

“To everyone who reached out and told me their deeply personal stories — I heard you,” Maffei said. “The time for action is now. I will carry your stories with me when I vote in favor of reform.”

Maffei’s decision to vote Yes is particularly irksome to Republicans because he recently opined that the Senate bill “burns the village in order to save it,” leading GOPers to think he’d be a No.

Maffei, along with two other New York Dems — Michael Arcuri and Bill Owens — were being aggressively targeted by Republicans because they had previously voted Yes and had since switched to undecided. Flipping them would have been a big deal for the GOP. So Maffei is an important get for Dems, and Arcuri and Owens will now be worth watching.

Posted at 03/16/2010, 12:00 PM EST

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/key-house-dem-to-vote-yes/

toniD's Ya Think?

Poll Finds That We Have No Idea How Passing Reform Will Impact Dems

MSNBC teases some really interesting numbers from their forthcoming national poll — numbers that make it pretty damn hard to conclude that passing reform will lead to a widespread political shellacking for Dems:

According to the poll, if their congressman votes with Republicans to defeat the bill, 34% say they would be less likely to re-elect that member, 31% say they would be more likely to vote for him/her, and 34% say it makes no difference.

However, if their congressman votes with Democrats to pass the legislation, 36% say they would be less likely to re-elect that member, 28% say they would be more likely to vote for him/her, and 34% say it makes no difference.

Now it’s true that the number who would be less likely to vote for their member (34%) if he or she supports reform is six points higher than the number who would be more likely (28%). But that spread is pretty small when it comes down to it, and besides, a sizable 34% say it would make no difference.

In a certain sense these numbers don’t tell us that much. What matters is how a Yes or No vote would play in individual districts. National numbers don’t tell us how these votes would directly impact individual members.

But still, as NBC’s GOP pollster indicates in the above link, the bottom line is that there’s no national consensus on what Dems should do. It’s hard to see how you’d look at these numbers and conclude with any certainty that if Dems pass reform, it portends widespread political disaster this fall.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/poll-finds-that-we-have-no...

toniD's Ya Think?

Rep. King Calls For Velvet Revolution Against The Government

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) urged a smaller-than-expected crowd of Tea Party protesters on Tuesday to launch a Velvet Revolution-style uprising against the federal government, saying the parallels are striking between America's current government and Eastern European communist rule.

Speaking to the Huffington Post shortly after his speech, King declared that a peaceful uprising, a la the successful overthrowing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the streets of Prague in 1989 "would be fine with me."

"Fill this city up, fill this city, jam this place full so that they can't get in, they can't get out and they will have to capitulate to the will of the American people," he said.

"So this is just like Prague under communist rule?" the Huffington Post asked.

"Oh yeah, it is very, very close," King replied. "It is the nationalization of our liberty and the federal government taking our liberty over. So there are a lot of similarities there."

Earlier, King implored the crowd to bring the nation's capital to a sort of paralysis. Warning, erroneously, that the health care bill would fund abortion and fund care for 6.1 million illegal immigrants, he demanded that concerned citizens "continue to rise up."

"I look back 20 years ago in the square in Prague... when tens of thousands showed up there and they shook their keys peacefully and they took over their country and they achieved their freedom back again," he said. "If you can keep coming to this city, fill up the congressional offices across the country but jam this city. If you can get on your cell phones, and get on your Blackberries and your email, and ask people to keep coming to this town. Storm this city, fill up Washington D.C., jam this capital so they can't move. And if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of you show up, we will win. We will defeat this bill and you will have your liberty back."
Story continues below

Cheers from the surrounding crowd greeted the remarks. But King's prophesy seemed a long way off. The Tea Party protest was a shadow of the one that occurred during the height of the health care debate last fall -- though organizers stressed that the number was in the thousands, it looked to be far less.

And the audio setup on Tuesday was so lackluster that few beyond the circle immediately surrounding the congressman could actually hear what he had to say. In fact, as he spoke, another organizer was holding court at a nearby circle, with cheers from there occasionally puncturing King's remarks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/rep-king-calls-for-velvet_n_500...

Maybe he should talk to the Vampire running for president!

toniD's Ya Think?

Texas Republican Gohmert: Demons Have Invaded The Capital

Speaking shortly after he riled up a crowd at Tuesday's Tea Party protest, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) declared that "demons" - yes, demons - have invaded the capital (and likely the souls of Democrats), forcing lawmakers to mislead the public about the content of the health care bill.

"Well it would take a demon to be this dishonest about a bill," the Texas Republican told the Huffington Post. "If they would just read the bill, they would see what they are saying is dishonest."

Asked to expand a bit more on what he meant, Gohmert stepped back a bit from a literal interpretation, though still floating the possibility that Democrats were possessed. "Well, somebody is making people be dishonest and it is a play on words, too," he said.

Moments earlier, the congressman energized an audience in the hundreds who had come to hear him and others protest the possibility of health care's passage. Gohmert insisted that the bill the House was set to consider would appropriate $700 million for abortions -- defying the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal money going to such a procedure.

"I brought an abortion to show you today," he said, hosting a copy of the health care bill in his right hand. The crowd responded with a chant of "Abort the bill!"

And then, out of nowhere, Gohmert began spreading the word that underworld spirits were lurking around the Capitol building behind him.

"There's a whole lot of demon going on," he said. "There are a lot of demons around here apparently."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/texas-republican-goehmert_n_500...

toniD's Ya Think?

schuster was on schultz in the noon hour and said there were dozens and of that a significant number were congressional staff...

who knows what the reality is.

DNC mocks tea party numbers

Tea Partiers planned to "flood the halls of Congress" to protest health care legislation, a plan that prompted Democratic leaders to instruct their members to respond with politeness and Twinkies.

The 10 a.m. Washignton, D.C. rally, though, wasn't quite on the scale of some earlier events. The communications director for the Democratic National Committee, Brad Woodhouse, emails that his count is 300 attendees.

"I've been to birthday parties that drew more people," he emails. "More people attended my wedding than went to the tea party kill the bill rally on the hill.

An organizer, Jennifer Hulsey, pegged the number at closer to 2,000, though some had come late, and said the group considered the morning rally a success. There are other rallies on the same theme around the country and at members' offices.

The more important test will come in visits to the offices of key members of Congress. If you're there, send me a picture.
Posted by Ben Smith 12:09 PM

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/DNC_mocks_tea_party_numbers....

toniD's Ya Think?

what a freak...

CAUTION...LEWD LAUNGAGE

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 2:21pm.
Texas Republican Gohmert: Demons Have Invaded The Capital
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5715#comment-400581

...reThugs only make sense when they have a paid audience or supporters who wear "stupid" like a badge of honor.

that our heads explode because we can't take it anymore

GEN. PETRAEUS: 'THE TIME HAS COME' FOR GAY AMERICANS TO SERVE OPENLY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/david-petraeus-on-dadt-th_n_500...

toniD's Ya Think?

Have to renew my driver's license today and then on to work

toniD's Ya Think?

**

Christine Kane - Mary Catherine's Ash Wednesday [*][Live]

http://hypem.com/#/track/1064588/Christine+KaneMary+Catherine%27s+Ash+We...

**

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

MMRules

Looks like another earthquke, a minor one...
Submitted by 60th Street on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 7:47am.

Regulators Snoozed While Oil Company Expanded Drilling Operations in the Heart of Urban Los Angeles
Regulators Snoozed While Oil Company Expanded Drilling Operations in the Heart of Urban Los Angeles

State and local regulators were asleep at the wheel when Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP) embarked on a huge expansion of oil drilling operations in the Baldwin Hills community south of Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported yesterday.....
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dnagami/regulators_snoozed_while_oil_c...

Los Angeles and the whole coast of California are at risk of new offshore oil drilling. Environment California and Surfrider Foundation are hosting a community meeting on March 17 in Santa Monica to discuss the oil drilling threats, and what the public can do to protect its beaches - thus possibly preventing another monumental earthquake.

Oil drilling triggers earthquakes

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen reported last week on the link between oil drilling and Earth's recent monumental earthquakes.

"If oil drilling is proven as the cause, the people of the Indian Ocean, Haiti, and Chile can deliver a huge bill to the oil companies." (See Wayne Madsen, Earthquakes: the drilling angle,March 2010)

Haiti, one of the poorest nation's on Earth is "sitting on 1.5 trillion barrels of Black Gold." (See Glenroy Blanchette, Oil Drilling And Haiti's Earthquake, March 2, 2010)

"A New York Times’ report confirmed oil drilling sets off earthquakes and showed how oil drilling projects near San Francisco, USA, and Switzerland were shut down amid concerns they triggered damaging earthquakes. In both instances, the drilling for oil involved the fracturing of hard rocks more than two miles deep."
http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-Rights-Examiner~y2010m3d11-LA-prop...

"...The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina..."
Arne Duncan

'Looks like we're about land Dennis. Ever read about 'quakes in Ohio. It can happen. Watch your step.'

just announced on countdown that she's gonna have tim geithner on

uh oh, she so thrilled that she's been able to secure the participation to her show of all these major league assholes

who did she have last night? this right wing asshole freak

and tonight i'm supposed to tune in to listen to this disgusting specimen to fudge and bob and weave? i don't care if she makes them uncomfortable by speaking the truth, i don't care that she's good at it; i am just sick and tired of having this scum on even the supposed precious little space allotted to the socalled liberal media

hey rachel why don't you have chomsky on? why don't you invite some of luminaries on the left, there are still some out there - but not many of these left and many are in advanced age, may crap out at any time; why don't you consider it a feather on your quiver or however silly that expression is, to get some of these important endangered species of oldtime left intellectuals on your show to get their take on the shit that is going down - i would tune in for that (hey rachel, what about having spitzer, stiglietz, krugman, kuttner, robert reich, on your show instead of this darling tim geithner? I assure you they have much more interesting stuff to offer than this shit vip jerks you like to invite)

but this tim geithner? i don't care how you grill it, it's still going to be scum and filth and no, i am not going to watch it

and you're really starting to irritate me

a lot!

and Chomskey's no sage compared to Michael Parentti.

michael parenti of course, or his son christian, or max blumenthal, or his dad sidney, or so many others i would be happy to see on my tv over this twit geithner

sam seder

hey rachel, how about inviting sam seder to your show to hear his take on current events?

i blame you for my turning to movie bambloozlement every night at this ungodly early hour of 8pm

(with the movies being mainly responsible for my dozing off way too early...)

sounds fun. YOu know she's done a lot to advance the agenda.

We need to back our media folks imo. The ones who at least try to put out facts. And you know what..... she's on the hook for bringing all of them problems to her court.

Are you assuming she is on his side and why?

he's covering tiger woods now, after having expanded on the latest rush limbaugh horror...

rolling eyes, whatever.....

these characters are already splattering their fecal matters all over the tv, on c-span, on all the morning and afternoon shows; i don't care that rachel "does it better"

i'd just like her to give a voice to some of "our" people for a change, wouldn't you like that

seeing that nobody else is doing it

Thomm Hartmann has these right wingers on almost
every day.
He promotes the idea that he is standing up
to them, however many times the debate
ends in a draw.
WE know they are kooks, but they should not
be given a platform to spew thier lies anywhere!
_ _ _ _
brr

since she mentioned driver's license renewal

so what are we going to do for her

throw her a party? (a coffee party, maybe?)

Happy birthday to you, tonid!

be given a platform to spew their lies anywhere!
- ?

What's wrong with airing the debate publicly, as she does?

geithner's side

you just not getting what i am saying; i am sick and tired of having these assholes on tv, no matter how she treats them

i get it, they're royalty, they're important, it's thrilling for rachel to sit down with them; and of course she's going to try to embarras them (whether or not that comes off successfully is open to debate i guess)

but it's all a fucking game and i'm sick of it

Yikes. Those hearings with Congress calling him a tax cheat and manipulator were right?

Trust me. The dirty fucking hippies are right.

.

to allow rachel to interview him

unless he somehow feels it is going to turn out to his advantage? to appeal to the "left" through this icon "rachel maddow" to spread his message

she's established a certain clout, so you can expect to see high caliber guests on her show who will exploit her popularity with the left to appeal and shmooze with that constituency

all i can say is, it doesn't work with me

(if there's nothing to my liking on the turner movie classic channel - last night's bette davies marathon was awesome by the way - there's always netflix)

tim geithner IS important, and will continue to be, until he gets the kick in the pants he deserves

but she hammered on about stupak and abortin language, that's yesterday's news, rachel!

and now she's announcing that geithner was CANDID!

well folks, will you tell me about it tomorrow please, will ya?

just not have the stomach for it right now

g'night!

responsibility to broadcast in the
best interest of the public.
Because the F.C.C. hasn't been doing its job
for the last 30 years, Limbaugh, hannity beck, ect
have corupted the hearts and minds of
millions of Americans.
The same was done to the dumb Germans
in the '30's.

Whole generations of americans are as dumb as
a bucket of rocks.
If the Reagan Admin hadn't de-regulated the broadcasting
industry the World trade center may still be standing!
The broadcasters have been propigating the
false idea that Offence = Defence for decades.
If the US foriegn policy wasn't so offensive
Pearl Harbor would never have been attacked.
If we hadn't invaded the mid east in '90 the Trade Center
probably would not have been bombed a few years later.

Bottom line:
Any Tv or Radio Station that Carries Right wing Propiganda
should have it's License Revoked.
It's a matter of live and death.
Millions have died over the last 8 years because
people were so stupid (because of the media)that they
voted for the war mongering Rethuglicans in '68, '72
'80,'88, 2000,2004
_ _ _
brr

mire on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:08pm.!

and others.

@cspan RT @nbcnightlynews: Video: C-Span junkies rejoice! Entire archive to go online http://bit.ly/9KGUP0

just now, I forgot to catch the
start to Malloy :(
Was He on MSNBC this morning?
_ _ _ _
brr

she just had my darling wiener on
Submitted by mire on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:13pm.

-----
No further comment. (And you know it's killing me.)

Que descanses bonito, bella.

"
'The great art of riding, as I was saying is - to keep your balance properly. Like this you know -'

He let go of the bridle, and stretched out both his arms to show Alice what he meant, and this time he fell flat on his back, right under the horse's feet.

'Plenty of practice!' he went on repeating, all the time Alice was getting him on his feet again. 'Plenty of practice.'
"

through the looking glass - carroll

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

Blue Roots Radio

U.S. Revokes Visa Of Irish Anti-Renditions Activist

The North Carolina News Observer reports in a March 15 article that the co-founder of ShannonWatch, Edward Horgan, a well-known Irish activist and former Irish Defense Force officer, has had his 10-year, multiple-entry U.S. visa revoked without explanation. Horgan and others believe it is because of his principled stand against the U.S. use of renditions, and in particular, the use of Shannon Airport in western Ireland as a stopover for U.S. rendition flights. ShannonWatch has documented the use of the airport as a stopover for CIA rendition flights (see their page documenting such flights).

[...]

http://firedoglake.com/2010/03/16/u-s-revokes-visa-of-irish-anti-renditi...

(Links in above pasted text; also pointer to YouTube of Morgan at link.)

Holder: Osama bin Laden will never be taken alive

By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 -- 7:01 pm

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers on Tuesday.

During a heated exchange with Republican congressmen, Holder predicted that "we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden" rather than to the US public enemy number one in captivity.

"Let's deal with reality," the attorney general added. Bin Laden "will never appear in an American courtroom."

Holder reacted angrily to Republican critics who say the attorney general's proposal to try terror suspects in US federal civilian courts would put Americans at risk.

"They have the same rights that a Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer," he told a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

[...]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/19Osld/rawstory.com/2010/03/holder-osama-b...

Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

On the GOP's hypocrisy over process
by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 3/16/2010 09:16:00 PM
Norm Ornstein, from the conservative American Enterprise Institute, destroys the GOP's latest round of lies over Congressional procedure:

In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.” That strategy, then decried by the House Democrats who are now using it, and now being called unconstitutional by WSJ editorialists, was defended by House Republicans in court (and upheld). Dreier used it for a $40 billion deficit reduction package so that his fellow GOPers could avoid an embarrassing vote on immigration. I don’t like self-executing rules by either party—I prefer the “regular order”—so I am not going to say this is a great idea by the Democrats. But even so—is there no shame anymore?

Of course, many in the traditional media (not just the GOP-owned media like FOX), buy the GOP's lies. Might be good if this Ornstein post got sent around MSNBC and CNN. They Republicans are hypocritically attacking over things they've done. Even Dana Bash should be able to grasp that.

Orenstein's article:

http://blog.american.com/?p=11467

toniD's Ya Think?

you can't speak truth to power if you don't speak truth to power.

If only at the end she would have said, "Thank you for being on the show"

...and then bitch slapped him back into last week.

CNN's practice of running viewers' Twitter feeds at the bottom of its screen put some jarringly raw anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment on cable during an interview with Wolf Blitzer, a reader pointed out to me today, and the segment above illustrates.

As Wolf Blitzer and Rick Sanchez talked about the crisis in U.S. Israel relations, captions included, "Israel is greedy," and "Jewish lobby runs America."

The items are authentic replies to Sanchez's Twitter feed and come with attributions to their Twitter authors, but the source isn't immediately obvious to a viewer unfamiliar with the social network, and it's hard to imagine CNN intends to air conspiracy theories about the "Jewish lobby" (not even the "Israel lobby"!).
Posted by Ben Smith 08:43 PM

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/From_CNNs_lower_third_Jewish...

toniD's Ya Think?

That name sounds fimiliar?
I think he was a regular guest on
The Al Franken Show
_ _ _ _
brr

Loud Sex Enough For Cops To Search Your Home, Court Rules

For Brian McGacken of Farmingdale, New Jersey, an evening of loud sex resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for growing marijuana.

On Feb. 17, 2007, New Jersey state troopers arrived at McGacken's home, responding to an anonymous 911 call complaining of screams coming from McGacken's home. McGacken explained the noise was a bout of loud sex; his girlfriend appeared at the front door and corroborated his claim.

But officers searched his home anyway, and found enough marijuana -- including potted plants -- to put him away for 10 years on charges of producing a controlled substance.

Appealing the conviction, McGacken argued that, once police knew the noise was consensual sex, they no longer had reason to search his home.

But the appellate panel at the Superior Court of New Jersey disagreed.

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/loud-sex-cops-search-home/

Is a big DLC guy.

(If I am wrong, slap me with a wet noodle cuz must FON.)

Crazy Dumb Assed TX Legislator's..
*

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

MMRules

Activist: China trying to silence critics
By Tom Evans, CNN

(CNN) -- Leading Chinese activist and artist Ai Weiwei declared that China's government has no humanity -- and that the Communist Party is trying to silence anyone who disagrees with it.

"They crack down on everybody who has different opinions -- not even different opinions, just different attitudes," Ai told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

"Simply to have different opinions can cost (dissidents) their life; they can be put in jail, can be silenced, and can be disappeared," he said.

Ai is no stranger to controversy or danger. He helped design the iconic Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but then called for a boycott of the games because in his opinion China was using them as propaganda.

He also faced a barrage of official criticism in 2008 when he assembled activists to collect the names of thousands of unidentified students who were killed in the massive Sichuan earthquake. He also slammed local governments for allowing the construction of shoddy schools that collapsed.

Ai has paid a heavy price for his dissent. He says he was beaten in a hotel room by Chinese police and later needed emergency brain surgery for injuries he suffered in the assault.

Even as Ai spoke to CNN, Google appeared to be moving closer to leaving China in a showdown over Internet censorship and hacking from inside the communist nation.

more...

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/china.activist/index.htm...

toniD's Ya Think?

WARNING!!!!

Cops are excitable.

Do not howl or cry out while in your private property a passionate orgasm ensues. By LAW GOD Darn it.

He's a rare breed. Critically thinking conservative. Al liked him because he was smart I think. "Norm's insight is nothing to scoff at", he wrote wondering whether or not he ended a sentence with a preposition.

wrote "Frankie and Johnny" when he did or it would have been a whole different play/movie.

(I guess depends upon your taste in movies...)

Freshmen and sophomore Democratic Senators today went to the Senate floor as a group to highlight the Republican obstructionism on nominations. As of this morning, there are 88 nominees on the Senate calendar, including posts at the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Treasury and the Army. "This is a perversion of the filibuster and a perversion of the role of the Senate," said Sen. Al Franken. "It used to be that the filibuster was reserved for matters of great principle. Today it has become a way to play out the clock."

toniD's Ya Think?

Clinic: Ohioan championed by Obama will keep home

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

By MEGHAN BARR

CLEVELAND (AP) - A woman championed as the Obama administration's emblem for health care reform does not have to choose between her home and her health, according to officials at the Ohio hospital where she is being treated.

With a self-reported annual income of about $6,000, Natoma Canfield is a prime candidate for financial aid in the form of Medicaid - the federal health care program for low-income and disabled people - or charitable assistance.

And the Cleveland Clinic said it has no intention of putting out a lien on Canfield's house - or letting the billing process interfere with her treatment.

"It appears that I think she'll be fine," said Lyman Sornberger, the hospital's executive director of patient financial services. "By nature of the fact that she was not early on rejected by either program, that's a key indicator that she will most likely be eligible."

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100316/AP09/303169857#clinic-ohioan-champ...

toniD's Ya Think?

cent on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 12:00am
cent on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 9:18pm.

I like :)
Thanks cent.
It looks good at double that size to.

-------
thanks for the Franken vid toniD
'nite all
-later
_ _ _ _
brr

-The Great Art
Submitted by jbenet on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:24pm.-

and here’s why.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/35568

By: Steelydan3 Tuesday March 16, 2010 4:47 pm
TweetTweet1 Share

I wrote this as a comment to Jon’s piece here. It just struck me as a good diary as well. I’ll post it at Open Left as well.

Love your analysis Jon, but I think you’re wrong on this one. Your thinking is based on what are a number of flawed theories about third party runs and the Ralph Nader presidential run.

First, I totally and wholeheartedly support labor if it decides to make third party runs at the congressional level. The easiest and quickest way for third parties to make a splash is running at the congressional level. Labor should have its own party, period. Especially now.

Misconception one: Third party runs are always losers.

They say that about primary runs, too. And you’re right if Bill Halter raises 25000 grand for a primary run against Blanche Lincoln then its a waste of time. If he raises 1 million and counting he’s gotta helluva shot. Use your imagination and apply this same logic to independent third party runs.

Let’s say the SEIU runs a third party campaign against Jason Altmire, who hasn’t attracted a primary candidate as of yet and probably won’t. Its too late. There are two ways you can run a challenge to a third party. Here’s the Green Party way: raise two thousand dollars and make a run against Mike Doyle, who’s actually a pretty dependable liberal democrat. Okay, then you’re running as a spoiler.(True story by the way.)

But what if you raise about 300000 grand for the candidate and recreate the American Coming Together canvas for four months? That’s a run that would have a real shot. Rich people like Lamont and Bloomberg aren’t viable candidates because they’re charismatic. They win because they have money. The SEIU has the same resources to make candidates “viable”. They could probably blow their noses and find 300000 grand either in direct funding or campaign staff/doorknockers. I think you could win with just doorknockers.

Misconception two: People just love the two party system.

There needs to be a party that challenges the two party system. One of the things that’s disturbing about the republican attack against the plan is that they’re fundamentally unable to attack the worst part of the plan: forced mandates and IRS enforcement. I just think they’re incapable of making that kind of argument, especially as the party that prides itself in shilling directly for corporate interests that screw the public. I think the republicans are mad that they couldn’t deliver on NAFTA or forcing every single american to buy a product so that it will widen the pool and hopefully lower rates. (ha ha ha.)

A third party can do that. Not that its a guarantee that a labor party would be consistently progressive. I would watch all labor candidates on both the choice and environmental issues…but it would be better than conservadems and republicans. I’ll try a different pain I guess

Misconception three: A third party has to win every single seat in every single race to be effective.

That’s false. I will air my plan again. You need to contest 5 senate seats/25 house seats to have a say on most issues that are before the congress. We could start in 2010 and be ready by 2012. It would be nice if those 30 or so people were hard negotiators like Bart Stupak. You need 300000 to run a viable house campaign and you need 2 million to run a viable US Senate race. The SEIU could easily do this.

Misconception 4: Progressives can only win within the Democratic Party.

Jon, go reread your own work. Or read Glenn on civil liberties. Or read Jane’s recent comments on the choice issue. We need to leverage our position with viable third party runs. This is what Rahm meant when he said don’t worry about the left and how fucking retarded we are.

This is a really a combined sentence. He really meant “Progressives are fucking retarded because they’ll vote democrat no matter what evil policies we pass.” Frankly, if this is his thinking, he’s completely correct. I mean, your position is “Screw me hard and dry, Rahm and Barry. I’ll vote democrat anyway and criticize the SEIU if they look for a way out…”

Philip Shropshire

http://www.examiner.com/x-10379-Pittsburgh-Progressive-Examiner

PS: One more thing about Nader: Democrats lost in 2000 and 2004 because republican secretaries of state essentially caged and stole the vote. Nader didn’t help but there’s a very good chance that the republicans would have won anyway. The fix was in and both Gore and Kerry should have fought long and hard just like Norm Coleman to make sure every vote was counted. Kerry might have won if he had simply requested a recount, at the very least the theft would have been more obvious…

Senate bill would penalize China over yuan
By Doug Palmer and Paul Eckert Doug Palmer And Paul Eckert 1 hr 18 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of Congress on Tuesday threatened Beijing with duties on some of its exports if it fails to revalue its currency, pressuring the Obama administration to label China a currency manipulator.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate merges previous legislative efforts to press China to change policies that critics say keep its yuan currency cheap, effectively subsidizing Chinese exports and taxing competing imports.

"When there's a 20 percent or 30 percent undervaluation that reduces the price of a product coming in, that's not fair. That's cheating," Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, a co-sponsor of the legislation, told a news conference.

"If they're not going to do it, we're going to force them," Republican Senator Sam Brownback added.

The bill, a rare show of bipartisan accord, reflects widespread concern about high U.S. unemployment. It follows two days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao dismissed U.S. complaints about China's exchange-rate policy as protectionist.

Many U.S. lawmakers, with strong backing from economists, believe the yuan is undervalued by 25 percent to 50 percent, giving Chinese companies an unfair price advantage in trade --- a situation seen as more acute now that the U.S. economy is struggling to recover from the worst downturn since the 1930s.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, asked on Fox Business Television about the legislation, said it illustrated "how strong people feel about this, and it's understandable and it's true in countries around the world.

"I think ultimately they're going to decide over time it's in their interest to move to a more flexible exchange rate," Geithner added.

White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama "wished and hoped that China approached the currency using a more market-based interpretation."

A Treasury official added: "The rebound of China's economic growth and exports and their continued large-scale reserve accumulation indicate clearly that China should resume appreciation of the RMB."

However, Dan Ikenson, a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said he feared the legislation could inflame relations with China without accomplishing the lawmakers' goal of reducing U.S. imports from that country.

He noted that when the yuan rose 21 percent in value between July 2005 and July 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China actually increased from $202 billion to $268 billion.

Nick Bennenbroek, head of forex strategy at Wells Fargo in New York, called the lawmakers' move counterproductive.

"When China gets international pressure to adjust its currency policy, it seems to resist that pressure. It doesn't like to be pushed around," he said.

'REMEDIAL INTERVENTION' PROPOSED

The legislation was crafted by Senators Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican. The two got 67 Senate votes in 2005 for a bill threatening to put a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese goods.

"This is a good coalition to make something happen in the Senate, and I hope our colleagues in the House will follow," said Graham.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill was "something that committees with jurisdiction should take a look at."

The bill would require the U.S. Treasury Department to identify countries with fundamentally misaligned currencies each September and March.

The proposed legislation would authorize the Commerce Department to include currency misalignment in its calculation of anti-dumping duties on specific products if a targeted country has not begun steps within 90 days to realign its currency.

It also requires the Department to investigate if currency manipulation is a subsidy that warrants additional "countervailing duties."

It ratchets up pressure by instructing the U.S. Trade Representative to initiate action at the World Trade Organization against any country that has not taken steps within 360 days to realign its currency.

The bill also would require the Treasury Department to consult with the Federal Reserve and other central banks to consider remedial intervention in currency markets if a targeted country has not acted after a year. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100317/bs_nm/us_usa_china_currency/print

toniD's Ya Think?

Riots rock Jerusalem as Hamas calls for new 'intifada'
by Ahmad Gharabli Ahmad Gharabli 2 hrs 33 mins ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces across east Jerusalem on Tuesday in the worst rioting in years, as a senior Hamas leader called for a new "intifada" or uprising.

As the unrest rocked Jerusalem, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell delayed a visit to the region amid the worst diplomatic spat in decades between Israel and key ally the United States, which was struggling to revive peace talks.

Police fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian protesters who hurled stones and set up barricades of dumpsters and burning tyres in several neighbourhoods.

Twenty-one injured Palestinians were hospitalised and dozens more were treated on the spot, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

One policeman suffered a pistol shot to the hand in an Arab neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding that the unknown gunman got away.

Four other policeman were briefly taken to hospital and another 10 treated on site after being hit by rocks.

Sixty Palestinians were arrested.

Also Tuesday, stones were thrown at a bus in the largely Arab neighbourhood of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, said Rosenfeld, the first reports of unrest in other Israeli cities. The bus was damaged, but there were no injuries.

The clashes erupted across east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.

As the rioting flared, Hamas deputy politburo chief Mussa Abu Marzuk called for another popular Palestinian uprising.

"The intifada must enjoy the participation of all of Palestinian society," he told Al-Jazeera television. "Every Palestinian should rise up ... against the forces of the (Israeli) occupation."

In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip thousands of people took to the streets, chanting: "With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you, Jerusalem."

The Palestinians have launched two intifadas against Israeli rule in the occupied territories, the first in 1987 and the second in 2000, but Hamas's calls for a new uprising in recent years have been largely ignored.

Facts on the ground: Israel's Jewish settlements

Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen told reporters he did not see signs of a new uprising: "We are seeing signs of disorderly conduct, but that's all."

Palestinians were already seething over Israeli plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem.
more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100316/ts_afp/mideastconflictjerusalem/pri...

toniD's Ya Think?

As usual one’s class perch informs all perspectives on the political reality.

THE FIRST WEEK OF MARCH has seen a number of commentaries in the American media, mainly from liberal pundits, worrying over the declining public standing of President Obama and the growing signs of disarray in the Democratic Party.

Typical is the column in Sunday’s New York Times by Frank Rich, who writes that the problem facing Obama is that “there is no consistent, clear message to unite all that he is trying to do.”

“Obama needs to articulate a substantive belief system that’s built from his bedrock convictions,” Rich advises. “That he hasn’t done so can be attributed to his ingrained distrust of appearing partisan or, worse, a knee-jerk ‘liberal.’”

Similar laments have come from the Times’ economic columnist Paul Krugman, E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post and other commentators who have deplored the failure of the administration to rally popular support. Dionne warned last month that if Obama and the Democrats continued on the current path, “they’ll be washed out by a tidal wave” in the November congressional elections.

The underlying premise of this opinionating is that Obama heads a progressive administration that suffers from a “communication problem” and is somehow unable to explain the benefits of its policies to the American public.

Obama does not, however, suffer from a failure to communicate. He heads a right-wing, big business administration whose policies and performance are rapidly dispelling the popular illusions that accompanied his runaway election victory only 16 months ago.

Working people have seen the bailout of Wall Street and the continuing slide in jobs and living standards. They understand that when the administration speaks of cutting health care costs, it will be the elderly and the lower-paid who will pay the price. They have heard Obama praise the firing of public school teachers in Rhode Island, while not a banker or speculator has been held accountable for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

They have seen Obama continue the Bush administration’s assault on democratic rights, including military tribunals, indefinite detention without trial, rendition and assassination—the full panoply of the Bush “war on terror.” Sunday’s New York Times carried a full-page ad from the American Civil Liberties Union, appropriately showing the face of Obama morphing into that of Bush.

In foreign policy, the public has seen Obama, who postured as an opponent of war when a candidate, don the mantle of commander-in-chief with a vengeance, escalating the war in Afghanistan with the dispatch of 30,000 additional US troops and a doubling of missile strikes into Pakistan, and continuing the US occupation of Iraq, with nearly 90,000 troops still in that country, 14 months after Obama’s inauguration.

Such a record can be defended as “progressive” only on the basis of the complacent perspective of upper-middle-class liberals who are indifferent to the colossal impact of the economic crisis on working people and bloody destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They see Obama through the rosy prism of the rise in their stock market portfolios. This week marks the anniversary of the stock market bottom, and the 4,000-point rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average since then is proof enough to this privileged layer that the Obama administration’s policies have “worked.”

The inversion of reality is particularly apparent on the health care question, where the liberal pundits suggest that the Obama administration is on the brink of engineering a great social advance, like Social Security in the 1930s and Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s.

The inversion of reality is particularly apparent on the health care question, where the liberal pundits suggest that the Obama administration is on the brink of engineering a great social advance, like Social Security in the 1930s and Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. At the same time, they are forced to admit that the bills adopted by the Senate and House are deeply unpopular, and that the Democrats are likely to pay a price in the November congressional vote.

The liberals don’t ask the obvious question: if the health care reform plan is a progressive reform that will benefit the American people, why do its right-wing opponents, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday, vow to turn every House and Senate campaign this year into a referendum on Obamacare?

Roosevelt did not pay a price at the polls for the passage of the Social Security Act. On the contrary, the bill was enormously popular and the program that it established led to a significant improvement in the living conditions of millions of elderly people. Medicare and Medicaid won similar public support, and remain the only enduring social reform enacted in the 1960s, guaranteeing the elderly access to decent medical care for more than a generation.

If the Obama health care plan is unpopular, it is not because of the White House’s failure to communicate, or the ravings about “death panels” and “socialized medicine” from the Republican right. It is because the American public has seen through the rather threadbare rhetorical fig leaf of “reform,” and correctly identified the essential purpose of the legislation as cost-cutting, with the working class and the elderly to pay the price.

Within the straitjacket of the US two-party system, the only alternative to the right-wing, anti-working-class policies of the Democratic Party is the even more right-wing policies of the Republicans. That is why the central task facing all working people and youth who want to oppose the policies of social reaction and war, advocated by both big business parties, is the building of an independent mass political movement from below.

This political movement must be based on a socialist and internationalist program, rejecting American imperialist domination of the globe and capitalist domination of America. All working people and youth who want to take this road of independent political struggle should make plans to attend the Emergency Conference on the Social Crisis and War, called by the Socialist Equality Party, to be held April 17-18 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (For information on the conference and to register, click here.)

http://www.socialequality.com/conference

...
The historical fact is that Dennis Kucinich has always been a principled proponent of his constituents against corporate greed and power as far back as when, as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, he defied all the powerbrokers and prevented the sale of the Cleveland Municipal Light Company, saving his constituents millions of dollars in corporate rate hikes. In a city plagued by lobbyists, their elected employees and smarmy promoters of the incestuous political status quo like O’Donnell, Kucinich earned his populist credentials long before Markos Moulitsas was a Republican carrying water for Henry Hyde and so opportunistically experienced a liberal conversion.

In a August 3, 2004 posting on Daily Kos, Moulitsas wrote that his greatest hero and inspiration is Salvadoran martyr Archbishop Oscar Romero. In refusing to vote for a health care reform bill that extorts billions of dollars for near worthless insurance from United States citizens into the pockets of the immoral health insurance industry, Congressman Dennis Kucinich better lives up to the heroism of Archbishop Romero than Daily Kos’s politically compromised Markos Moulitsas.

Kos should feel ashamed of himself, but he has become so compromised since elevation from blogger, to Newsweek contributor, columnist for the Hill (all MSM/establishment maintainers and enablers of Washington DC’s political culture) and elbow-rubber with most of the privileged and well connected. History is littered with the rise and downfall of those who escaped and chose to forget where they came from. Unless Markos Moulitsas takes back his soul, he will add his own bones to the debris.
...

http://www.greanvillepost.com/?p=4251

of the greanwillepost. They do that all the time?

...

I like it when I do read there tho..

http://murrayhillweb.com/new_day/index.html

"We put people second.....or third."

http://weedmaps.com

A disastrous Supreme Court ruling has lifted restrictions on how much money big corporations like ExxonMobil can spend to elect their friends and defeat pro-environment allies.

This means that Big Polluters, motivated by nothing but profits, can now spend unlimited amounts on elections, drowning out the voices of the majority of Americans who support clean energy.

Congress has held hearings to address this issue. I just emailed my Members of Congress to ask them to pass legislation that fixes this wrong-headed decision. Now, will you do the same? Add your voice.

http://www.lcv.org/
(At Home page,Click on Slide-show picture showing the Supreme Court and that says,
Take Action:Supreme Court Justices give Big Blank Check to Oil Companies,to get to the petition..)

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

MMRules

U.S. Will Explain Drone Position In Due Time, Adviser Says
By Shane Harris
Updated at 6:10 p.m. on March 16.

http://burnafterreading.nationaljournal.com/2010/03/drone-program-under-...

The Obama administration has asserted a legal position on the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists and militants, and officials plan to share the details "at an appropriate moment," according to Harold Koh, the State Department's legal adviser.
National Journal asked Koh, the senior official responsible for international legal issues, to share his views after his public remarks at an American Bar Association speech Wednesday. "I have studied this question," Koh said. "I think that the legal objections that are being put on the table are ones that we are taking into account. I am comfortable with the legal position of the administration, and at an appropriate moment we will set forth that in some detail."
The administration has made drone strikes the centerpiece of its fight against terrorists, but officials have never said why they believe the program complies with international law. A number of legal scholars and international officials have said the killings could violate certain laws of armed conflict, particularly when they're carried out in countries where the United States is not at war, such as Pakistan and Yemen.
Koh gave no indication of when the administration might unveil its legal rationale or what it might entail. But he added, "You can expect a more detailed discussion of this to come." Koh was reluctant to reveal specifics, and he said that the informal venue of a speech was not the appropriate setting to discuss the "complicated" issue.
Some scholars have argued that the United States can justify drone killings of terrorists and militants who would attack Americans on the grounds of self-defense. But, as National Journal reported in January, a growing chorus of experts believes the drone strikes could be deemed extrajudicial killings. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see all documents that might illuminate the administration's legal thinking on the matter.
Given the political consensus in Washington that drone attacks are effective, safe and palatable tools for killing foreign terrorists, the Obama administration presumably would refute any suggestion the strikes were illegal.
Koh is a prolific writer and authority on human rights, civil liberties and the application of international law, and in his former position as the dean of Yale Law School, he was a vocal critic of the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies. Koh declined an earlier request on the subject of drone strikes, but an extensive survey of his writings suggested that he might take issue with the drone program, at least as it is currently designed.

...

Obviously, the Democrats could end the filibuster with a majority vote but choose not to because they may wish to use this tool of obstruction should they be in the minority. In fact, Harry Reid has ruled out any filibuster reform. Well then, why not end the “virtual” filibuster and make the Republicans hit the floor with round-the-clock debate televised around the nation. People are waiting and suffering from corporate-desired inaction.

Chicago lawyer and scholar, Thomas Geoghegan wrote an open letter to Senator Reid (See it at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/geoghegan_editors) urging that he make the Republicans actually filibuster. Either make them stall the Senate on a minor bill to generate public ire or generate public outrage by making them filibuster a popular bill aimed at curbing corporate crime, waste and abuse or one that would save people money or their health.

Still, no response, other than debilitating talk by the Democrats about seeking bi-partisan support for their bills.

Face it—the Senate is breaking an already broken Congress into little pieces which are then sold for a mess of pottage. Organize Congress Watch Locals in every state, folks, for nobody will save you but yourselves.

...

http://nader.org/index.php?/archives/2178-The-Filibuster-Flim-Flam.html

Yoo Besmirches Legacy of Jefferson
Tuesday 16 March 2010
by: Ray McGovern, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

http://www.truthout.org/yoo-besmirches-legacy-jefferson57722

Initially I was shocked at the thought of the University of Virginia (UVA) welcoming former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo to the "Academical Village" founded by Thomas Jefferson.

There was something very wrong about that picture. Was it not Jefferson who condemned tyrannical acts - including ones that fell far short of waterboarding-in the Declaration of Independence?

But I have come around to the view that Yoo's visit on Friday could present a rich teaching moment for those of us Virginians who believe passionately in the highest ideals that Jefferson articulated so eloquently.

Yoo's visit presents a unique opportunity for my own children - four of them UVA alumni - to convey the essence of the university to those of our eight grandchildren who already aspire to study there.

[...]

----

He does wax on a bit here... (Oh jeezusgod...Faulkner too?)

Still hoping for the opportunity to fetch him a bottle of water tho.

I mean it this time.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry :):(

Dry your muk luks by the fire.

Audrey...is that you???

Man..You have to read this one !
Who elects these asshat butt clowns ?

Nevermind..Unfortunately I know..
**

"Nancy Pelosi has got them all liquored up on sake and they're making a suicide run here."

-- Lindsay Graham (R-Gay), comparing the Democrats to Japanese Kamikaze pilots, Link

Bartcop

**

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

MMRules

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

MMRules

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

MMRules

Justified Warrantless Search That Led to Drug Bust, Says Court

Charles Toutant
New Jersey Law Journal
March 16, 2010

Screaming too loud during sex can get you or your partner arrested in New Jersey, thanks to an appeals court ruling handed down on Monday.

Affirming denial of a motion to suppress drugs found in a Farmingdale, N.J., home, the judges said the screaming reported by a neighbor gave police an objectively reasonable basis to believe that a limited investigation was necessary to determine whether anyone was in need of aid.

Even after the occupants gave a plausible explanation -- that the cries were released in the height of passion -- the potential for harm was sufficient for police to search further, the court said in State v. McGacken, A-4527-08.

Responding to an anonymous 911 call, state troopers went to Brian McGacken's home on Feb. 17, 2007, and he answered the door dressed in a bathrobe. When he explained the source of the noise, the troopers asked to speak to his girlfriend. She came downstairs wearing a towel and confirmed his explanation. Nevertheless, the troopers asked McGacken for identification. He went upstairs to retrieve it and did not object when a trooper followed him.

On the second floor, the trooper smelled raw marijuana and saw McGacken use his foot to push a tray under a couch. Asked what was on the tray, McGacken admitted it was marijuana. In the bedroom, the trooper saw bagged and loose marijuana as well as growing plants. Arrested, McGacken consented to a search of his home, resulting in the seizure of 12.5 ounces of loose and bagged marijuana, 15 plants and marijuana-related equipment and paraphernalia.
...

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202446277497&rss=newswire

...
The fact that our top military commanders believe that Israel's actions towards the Palestinians are putting our troops in danger should add urgency to campaigns to "boycott, divest, and sanction" companies linked to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Many have complained that while our troops and their families bear a tremendous burden, other Americans are contributing little. Boycotting companies linked to the Israeli occupation is something every American can do.

Every American can shun Israeli consumer products such as Ahava Dead Sea Cosmetics, which operates a factory in the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the occupied West Bank. Every American can shun Sabra Hummus, half owned by an Israeli company that touts its support for the Golani Brigade, an Israeli army brigade notorious for human rights abuses. Every American can shun Motorola, which arms the Israeli military and has assisted in the construction of the illegal "apartheid wall" in the West Bank.

In addition, everyone who is active in a religious organization can agitate for local, regional, and national religious organizations to shun companies linked to the Israeli occupation, including by divesting investments from such companies. Folks on college campuses can follow the lead of students at Hampshire College who successfully pressed the college to divest from a mutual fund that invested in Caterpillar, Terex, Motorola, ITT, General Electric, and United Technologies (Methodists explain the targeting of these companies here.)

Note that these divestment campaigns have not been targeted at "divesting from Israel," but at divesting from the Israeli occupation, a crucial distinction.
...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/16-4

Submitted by gloryoski on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:59pm.

Loud Sex Enough For Cops To Search Your Home, Court Rules

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5715#comment-400620

*******

Man..And,I'd thought I had some bad days..

**

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

MMRules

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 9:17am.
Lott Echoes Sanford: 'Beware The Ides Of March' On Health Care Reform (VIDEO)
Jillian Rayfield | March 15, 2010, 5:24PM

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) took up Gov. Mark Sanford's (R-SC) Shakespearean warning today that the American people must "beware the Ides of March" when it comes to health care reform.

...

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

The Beware the Ides of March warning in Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' turns out to presage the assassination of Julius Caesar by the senators of what was left of the Roman republic. So what are these guys trying to say?

This was a great segment on Hartmann today [excerpted from Hartmann's daily 'newsletter']--

Hour Three: How has capitalism been used by the new robber baron predators to destroy America's middle class? - Thom speaks with Barry C. Lynn, author of "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction", Director of the Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Initiative, and a senior fellow in the New America Foundation's Economic Growth Program.
Article: "Who Broke America's Jobs Machine?" by Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman.

=======

Also, Lynn's articles:

http://www.newamerica.net/people/archives/93

its even worse than that. the guy ended up in prison for 10 years for drug possession and marijuana cultivation.

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/loud-sex-cops-search-home/

my bad, i see alice posted the story up above.

http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/radio-show/58-broadcasts/13227-fire...

Live Broadcast: Wednesday, March 17th, 8:00 pm, ET.

A common sense test: You’re dispatched to a house fire in a 2 story with a basement. Upon arrival, all 3 floors are well involved. After the fire has been extinguished, the neighbor across the street tells you he saw flashes on all 3 floors within seconds of each other. It turns out the owner has arson convictions on his record. You smell gasoline. Now, should you test the debris for accelerants? No matter what the owner and his friends tell you, wouldn’t you still test it? It’s a “NO-Brainer”…isn’t it?

Let's hear what some firefighters have to say about the events of that horrible day. Join our guest, Erik Lawyer from Firefighters for 9/11 Truth (http://firefightersfor911truth.org/), to hear what a growing number of firefighters have to say about what happened to the WTC.

[end excerpt]

It seems the human rights movement has been compromised, considering their support for Obama's continuation of rendition. And, hasn't the environmental movement been taking some weak positions lately? So, what is the exact nature of how progressive groups start to backslide on their progressive stances?

In the author's piece below, he indicates that the anti-war community compromises with the warmongers when it accepts the warmongers excuses for for going to war--amongst some other very potent viewpoints:

http://rockcreekfreepress.tumblr.com/post/409399530/zwicker

[excerpt]

Followers in the anti-war movement “do not realize,” as Paul Craig Roberts wrote Sept. 15th, 2009, in Information Clearing House, “that by accepting the [government’s] 9/11 explanation they have undermined their own opposition to the war. Once you accept that Muslim terrorists did it, it is difficult to oppose punishing them for the event. [Anti-war activists] do not understand that if you grant the government its premise for war, it is impossible to oppose the war.”

[end excerpt]

Corporate Debt Coming Due May Squeeze Credit

When the Mayans envisioned the world coming to an end in 2012 — at least in the Hollywood telling — they didn’t count junk bonds among the perils that would lead to worldwide disaster.

Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets.

The United States government alone will need to borrow nearly $2 trillion in 2012, to bridge the projected budget deficit for that year and to refinance existing debt.

Indeed, worries about the growth of national, or sovereign, debt prompted Moody’s Investors Service to warn on Monday that the United States and other Western nations were moving “substantially” closer to losing their top-notch Aaa credit ratings.

====

its time to wakeup and start raising taxes to whittle down the deficit and the debt.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25006.htm

[excerpt]

US Military Created Private Spy and Murder Squad in Afghanistan

By Patrick Martin

March 16, 2010 "WSWS" -- A long-time US military official used Pentagon funding to establish a private intelligence and assassination network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a report Monday in the New York Times. The network was shut down after the CIA station chief in Kabul objected to a competing military-backed intelligence operation, the newspaper said.

The article identified the official as Michael D. Furlong, a 25-year veteran of the Air Force who is now a senior Pentagon civilian employee, working at the US Strategic Command at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He reportedly diverted money from a $22 million contract to gather cultural and political information about Afghanistan and funneled it to at least two private firms which employed former intelligence and military Special Operations personnel.

[end excerpt]

reminds me of the opening scene in "dead like me" where the girl is killed by space debris.

Hillary keeps up pressure, Mitchell cancels trip for peace talks
by Chris in Paris on 3/17/2010 03:53:00 AM
After a career of bullying, Netanyahu may have gone too far at the wrong time. No word yet on when special envoy George Mitchell will head back to Israel though much of that will have to do with how and when Netanyahu responds. While the GOP continues to support the chaotic environment, Democrats and General Petraeus are supporting a new, positive direction in the region. Is there ever any kind of reform that the GOP doesn't reject or block? The Guardian:

As rock-throwing Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in Jerusalem in protests dubbed "a day of rage", Clinton sent a double-edged message to Israel.

She softened the tone of remarks coming from the Obama administration over the last few days by talking about the deep bonds between the two countries. But she combined this by firmly placing the onus on Israel to make concessions needed to get the Palestinians back into talks.

Clinton told reporters at the state department that the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had to take action to show he was serious about a peace process. She said: "We are engaged in very active consultations with the Israelis over steps that we think would demonstrate the requisite commitment to the process. It's been a very important effort on their part as well as ours. We know how hard this is. This is a very difficult, complex matter. But the Obama administration is committed to a two-state solution."

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/hillary-keeps-up-pressure-mitchell.ht...

toniD's Ya Think?

Report: US shipping arms ahead of strike on Iran

Scottish newspaper says US transferred ammunition containers with 'bunker-buster' bombs to Diego Garcia in Indian Ocean. Expert: They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean ahead of a possible attack on Iran, The Herald reported Wednesday.

The Scottish newspaper said the American government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures, The Herald reported.

The report quoted experts as saying that the bombs are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to the newspaper, although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971.

The report said Superior Maritime Services, a shipping company based in Florida, , will be paid $699,500 to transport many thousands of military items from Concord, California, to Diego Garcia.

The cargo includes 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs, said The Herald.

Dan Plesch, director of the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London and co-author of a recent study on US preparations for an attack on Iran was quoted by the Scottish newspaper as saying, “They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran. US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours."

whats the difference between and irish wedding and and an irish wake?

one less drunk.

Climate bill supporters are leaning toward exempting big oil companies from a broader cap on greenhouse gases as a way of winning critical support from industry players and key lawmakers.

The three co-authors of the Senate climate bill hope the proposal — backed by several large oil companies — will bring a new set of players to the negotiating table.

They are floating the idea of levying a carbon tax on each gallon of gasoline, which would be passed along to consumers at the pump. The fee would be linked to the market price of carbon emissions bought and traded by utilities and other industries.

“A linked fee to me makes sense,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who’s working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a climate bill.

Graham stressed that he wasn’t sure “how far the idea would go” but that it is already picking up support from oil-state members.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a vocal opponent of earlier climate bills, has said she’s “open” to the new proposal.

The three senators plan to release the first draft of their revamped climate bill before lawmakers leave for the congressional recess scheduled for the end of the month.

Last week, they presented key pieces of their plan to the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other powerful trade associations.

“The cap-and-trade systems that passed are not going to make it,” said Graham. “The oil companies were basically left out of the system.”

Supporters believe that consumers will opt to lower their fuel consumption if gas prices increase. Oil companies think the bill is fairer because it puts greater impetus to lower emissions on consumers than on producers, which, they argue, are just responding to market forces.
(Because we don't have options to this right now)

“Producers produce to meet demand; they aren’t deciding how much fuel to use,” said API policy analyst Lou Hayden. “We’d like the policy to be closer to the person who makes the decision.”

Revenues from the tax would be used to fund programs promoting cleaner transportation options like public transit, bike and pedestrian projects and carpooling.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34536.html

---This sucks. In a recession, raise taxes on oil that the oil companies pass on to the people who can barely afford the price at the pump now. Maybe they should freeze the price of gas first. But why not hit the oil companies bottom line not our already hitting bottom line!?!

Oil companies making out and the people screwed again.

toniD's Ya Think?

why did you have to do that?

posting that cute pic of the irish kitty

didn't you know you were gonna get a reaction from gramma mire?

it did trigger something in me... some recollection of some resemblance....

Enthusiasm Gap Widens
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC survey found a 21-point enthusiasm gap -- with 67% of Republicans saying they are very interested in the November elections, compared to just 46% of Democrats.

Said pollster Peter Hart: "If the Democrats are going to close that gap, they've got to get their people excited. And I don't see how you get those people if you vote no on health care reform... I don't think it's about winning the middle. It's really about alienating the base."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870468860457512599253822749...

toniD's Ya Think?

for my antirachel rant last night

i dunno what got into me, i was in one of those moods that are hard to control, probably triggered by something else going on... lots of stress and disgust towards everything tv and politics and corrupt media - not really anything against rachel particularly, she's the least of the offenders for sure.....

anyway, yeah, i did exaggerate a bit

feel a little better, fresh and rested this morning and acquiring some proper perspective

so, was the geithner interview good? what say you?

I'll read about it when i get back - now i've gotta run

Obama to Fox News
President Obama will make a rare appearance on Fox News tonight at 6 p.m. ET for an interview with Bret Baier.

The White House has been critical of the network's political commentary, at one point accusing Fox of being the "political arm of the Republican Party."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/17/obama_to_fox_news.html

toniD's Ya Think?

And I don't see how you get those people if you vote no on health care reform... I don't think it's about winning the middle. It's really about alienating the base

the base has already been alienated by the crappy bill that's been put on the table after months of wrangling... it's got nothing to do with voting no

so the wsj is insinuating the the dems better vote yes or else, so the wsj is now in favor of the bill passing?

sheeez, no surprise

i do have to get outta house right now

Never seen so many reposts on one (relatively short) thread.

And in 89 minutes, I am going to ask my shrink what it means.

And she'll likely give an unsatisfactory, noncommittal, tepid answer.

So then I will probably have to make something better up.

Just be forewarned.

Busy Signal Or Breakthrough? Congressional Switchboards Flooded With Health Care Call Deluge
Christina Bellantoni | March 16, 2010, 1:05PM

Interns are scrambling to get the talking points right as the phones ring off the hook. Press secretaries' BlackBerries are running out of batteries from downloading hundreds of emails along the lines of, "Will your boss switch his vote?" Constituents asking about taxes aren't able to get through the clogged switchboards.

In what seems to be the final (really!) push on health care reform on Capitol Hill, offices have been deluged with phone calls from across the country. They are pro-reform, anti-reform, blasting reconciliation or begging for an up-or-down vote - engaged voters who are attempting to influence the course of what will be a razor-close vote this weekend.

No one has been more targeted than the 37 House Democrats who voted "No" the first time around on health care, the majority of which did so under the mantle of fiscal responsibility. They are prime gets for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House, who need to peel off a few to make up for the lost votes due to retirements and a change in the abortion provisions in the legislation.

At one point this week, the calls shut down the Congressional switchboard. Democrats would not release a tally of their organized effort but said the calls seems to surpass the record number set last fall.

Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH) is still deciding if he'll switch his vote and support the final health care bill. And without a clear answer, activists from across the country are trying to register their say.

On Monday Boccieri's office received 1,500 calls, nearly all of them about health care and substantially higher in volume than a normal day, according to Jessica Kershaw. A new staffer starting in the Washington office Monday logged 400 of those calls on her own, doing nothing but answering the phone. In addition, aides had 1,200 e-mails in their system sent over the weekend - more than twice the normal volume.

Of the 1,500 calls, 985 were from people calling from outside of the district about health care. The office said many of them were run through an autodial system by various groups. When a real person of the eight answering phones isn't available, the calls kick into a general voicemail box. When that's full, staffers individual voicemails fill up.

The calls are about evenly split on the pro-health care and anti-health care, though Boccieri would prefer to hear thoughts on health care coming from within his district, Kershaw said.

Kershaw said the calls put the office at a standstill when trying to respond to constituent needs, adding: "If we can't get to those people it not only puts them at risk, it means we're not doing our job."

We tried calling about a dozen other Democrats who voted against health care in the last 24 hours, getting a busy signal or full voicemail every time.

TPM reader DP tells us he had a hard time getting his pro-health care message through to Rep. Jason Altmire's office as weary aides input his vote wrong into their system.

After trying the Washington office and being greeted auto-recordings warning of full voicemail boxes, DP called one district office to say, "I'm calling the Congressman to urge him to SUPPORT the bill." The aide on the phone asked for his name and ZIP code and said, "And you want him to vote NO?" Finally he got through to register his support for health care.

We documented similar problems last fall when supporters and opponents were phoning Senators.

A Democratic source told me today that members are reporting the majority of the "No" votes are coming from outside of the district.

The Democrats send over this highlight reel of news reports showing the DNC's Organizing for America grassroots efforts on health care: at link

Late Update: According to The Hill, the office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) told Congressional offices the system is "nearing capacity" and "It got critical enough whereby we notified all systems administrators throughout the House that the phone systems are overloading."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/busy-signal-or-breakthrough-c...

toniD's Ya Think?

Is this author on to something? (SJ--Any thoughts?)
Submitted by nora on Wed, 03/17/2010 - 6:22am.

.....

In the author's piece below, he indicates that the anti-war community compromises with the warmongers when it accepts the warmongers excuses for for going to war--amongst some other very potent viewpoints:

http://rockcreekfreepress.tumblr.com/post/409399530/zwicker

[excerpt]

Followers in the anti-war movement “do not realize,” as Paul Craig Roberts wrote Sept. 15th, 2009, in Information Clearing House, “that by accepting the [government’s] 9/11 explanation they have undermined their own opposition to the war. Once you accept that Muslim terrorists did it, it is difficult to oppose punishing them for the event. [Anti-war activists] do not understand that if you grant the government its premise for war, it is impossible to oppose the war.”

[end excerpt]

-----

nora: From this excerpt I don't think I agree with PCR or the author on this. Even accepting the official story (which, [disclaimer] of course, any honest person at least should acknowledge includes a lot of LIH[W]OP[ON] [let it happen whether on purpose or not]) it can still be about who gets punished and how. I.e, Why whole countries especially those not even tangentially involved?
Why so many civilians? Why with an official (though secret) position against the Geneva Convention etc in re detainees/prisoners? Why in a way that attempts (at least, although they fucked it up) so transparently (including planning/lobbying before) to shore up/increase US hegemony in the region?

You can ask all these anti-war, anti-imperialist questions about what came after (yes, disclaimer) 9/11 and still accept some version of the official story in re perps.

He's saying that Israel is now a threat to our National security by not agreeing to peace talks....

Petraeus Makes His Move
Josh Marshall | March 16, 2010, 5:59PM

I mentioned a few days ago that part of the backstory to the recent crisis in US-Israeli relations is tied to a briefing David Petraeus gave the Adm. Mullen and the Joint Chiefs back in January. (And let's not get upset about the word 'crisis'. Friendships and alliances have occasional controversies and crises. There's nothing wrong with that. Denial feeds problems.) At that briefing, which reportedly took the Chiefs and the administration by some surprise, Petraeus made a straightforward case that the lack of progress in settling the Israel-Palestine dispute was damaging American interests in the Middle East and the lands of Islam more generally.

Now we have him saying it in his own words, in prepared remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Lists under root causes of "drivers of instability, inter-state tensions, and conflict ... [and potential] root causes of instability or as obstacles to security" Petraeus notes the following ...

Insufficient progress toward a comprehensive Middle East peace. The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR [CentCom Area of Responsibility]. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large-scale armed confrontations. The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas.

In a sense, all of this is no more than commonsense, a given in many conversations about the US position in the world, especially in the arc of Muslim majority nations from the eastern Mediterranean to Indonesia. The continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict directly harms the vital interests of the United States. But if this is the consensus view at the highest levels of the US military, that's a very different world we're living in than the one we've been in heretofore.

What remains to be seen is whether this is a statement not to be acted upon or a strategic analysis that will inform Pentagon policy.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/03/petraeus_makes_his_mov...

toniD's Ya Think?

Let's Be Clear

Before the bamboozlement gets too far, let's be clear about what the House is considering doing. There are two bills. The senate's original bill and the changes to that bill the House has now negotiated with the Senate. Normally, this is all hashed out in a conference committee. And it's all voted on in a single vote. In this case, that's not possible because of the continuing Republican filibuster in the Senate. So the House is considering taking both bills, consolidating them into a single vote, up or down. The old fashioned way. This isn't 'not having a vote'. And this has been done repeatedly before. Anybody who thinks these two bills shouldn't be passed simultaneously or thinks one or the other shouldn't pass has a simple solution. Vote no. Simple.

This isn't complicated. It's consolidating two votes into one.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/03/lets_be_clear.php?ref=...

toniD's Ya Think?

Worried about her! I just sent an email so I am hoping she answers.

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 03/17/2010 - 9:23am.
Let's Be Clear

------
to make up a lot of embarrassingly bad puns on the word _deem_. So why spoil 60th's fun?

This Modern World: If we can't get single-payer... We'll settle for the public option.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/03/15/t...

cent will like this one! Not Chess, Poker!

toniD's Ya Think?

not since last Friday.

just saw it on cspan 3

Bill Clinton: 'Hillary Will Be The Happiest Person In America' If Health Care Reform Passes

A Democratic victory on the health care reform front would make many in the Obama Administration happy, and none more so than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton said after a meeting with Senate Democrats on Tuesday.

"Maybe Hillary will be the happiest person in America. I'll be the second happiest person. Even more than President Obama, even more than Rahm, even more than all the people that have been laboring over this forever. I just want it to pass and I think it will," Clinton told reporters, according to Roll Call.

During Bill Clinton's first term, HIllary Clinton was put in charge of spearheading a health care reform initiative that was eventually be thwarted by Congressional Republicans.

It "doesn't have to be perfect," Clinton said of the final health care reform bill. "Just remember that the economists at USC and Harvard said that if any version of these bills passes it will bend the cost curve in health care so much that it will add 250,000 to 400,000 jobs a year in the economy for a decade."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/bill-clinton-hillary-will_n_501...

toniD's Ya Think?

Dennis Kucinich Flips: Will Support Health Care Reform

After an intense White House lobbying effort, Dennis Kucinich announced on Wednesday morning that he has decided to vote for health care reform when it comes before the House in the next few days, reversing his previous position and giving a boost to President Obama, congressional leaders and the reform effort.

Kucinich had been one of the few remaining holdouts who felt that the bill did not go far enough. Kucinich, a former presidential candidate, objected that the bill did not include a robust public insurance option tied to Medicare rates and did not include a provision to allow states to enact single-payer legislation if they so chose. His support gives House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a much-needed vote as she looks for 216 members to move the package through this week.

Kucinich came under intense pressure from liberals, with blogger Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos, going so far as to suggest he should face a primary challenge if he votes no. House leadership, however, largely considered his vote lost.

On Monday, Obama flew on Air Force One with Kucinich to a health-care rally to the lawmaker's home state of Ohio. During the flight, Obama pressed Kucinich on the merits of the bill. Obama also brought Kucinich to the White House along with other members of Congress, though Kucinich left that meeting indicating he would still oppose the bill.

Obama's ability to sway Kucinich undermines the White House's longstanding position that it couldn't get a public option through Congress because it didn't have the votes. The president, it turns out, does have the ability to sway a member of Congress, even one as committed to a position as Kucinich.

"He's always persuasive," said Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who was also on Air Force One with Kucinich and Obama.

Fudge is also holding out from the liberal end and got a pitch from Obama during the flight, she told HuffPost Tuesday. "Did it change my mind at that point? No. But it gave me some other things to think about, so I'm really glad that we had the conversation."
Story continues below

She said she is still on the fence but appears to be highly likely to support the bill.

"I'm on the fence. Certainly I'm leaning towards passing the bill, obviously, voting for it, because I think that we need reform. I just need to see what is in the bill," she said. "I need to see if, in fact, it does all the things that we've been told it does. I need to see how it's going to affect states, how it's going to affect people who work every day. How is it going to affect their premiums going forward? There are just some things I need to see. But I am certainly for reform. I just need to see if this is the bill that I can support to do it."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/dennis-kucinich-flips-wil_n_502...

toniD's Ya Think?

Jobs Bill Poised To Clear Senate, Head To Obama

WASHINGTON — Companies that hire unemployed workers get a temporary payroll tax holiday under a bill headed for likely Senate passage Wednesday.

A positive vote would send the legislation to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.

It would be the first of several election-year jobs bills promised by Democrats to be enacted into law, though there's plenty of skepticism that the measure will do much to boost hiring.

The bill contains about $18 billion in tax breaks and a $20 billion infusion of cash into highway and transit programs. It would exempt businesses that hire the unemployed from paying the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give employers an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year. Taxpayers would reimburse Social Security for the lost revenue.

It would also extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump in $20 billion in time for the spring construction season. That money would make up for lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues.

The measure is modest compared with last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill, and the bulk of the hiring tax breaks would probably go to companies that were likely to hire new workers anyway.

Obama has promised to sign the measure into law.

In addition to the hiring tax incentives and highway funding, the bill would extend a tax break for small businesses buying new equipment and modestly expand an initiative that helps state and local governments finance infrastructure projects.

A far larger measure that would extend health insurance subsidies and jobless checks for the unemployed is in the works but has hit slow going. That measure has passed both House and Senate but is hung up as the rival chambers wrangle over how to partially finance the legislation, which also would extend a variety of tax breaks for individuals and businesses.
Story continues below

As a result, it may require a third temporary extension of unemployment benefits, which would otherwise expire at the end of this month.

The Senate vote also comes as a House panel is to vote on a new bill designed to help small businesses. That bill would exempt long-term investments in certain small businesses from capital gains taxes and would expand a program that subsidizes interest costs paid by local governments when they borrow for construction projects.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/jobs-bill-poised-to-clear_n_502...

toniD's Ya Think?

BEIJING — The World Bank raised its China growth forecast this year to 9.5 percent from 9 percent on Wednesday but said Beijing needs to cool inflation and possible bubbles in real estate prices.

Premier Wen Jiabao warned Sunday that inflation will be a key challenge as Beijing tries to keep a recovery on track. Inflation rose to 2.7 percent in February, near the government's official cap of 3 percent for the year.

"China's macro stance needs to be tighter than it was in 2009," World Bank economist Louis Kuijs told a news conference where the bank released a quarterly report on Chinese economic conditions.

Analysts expect Beijing to raise interest rates soon as it eases off its stimulus after growth rebounded to 10.7 percent in the final quarter of 2009. But authorities say easy credit will continue because the global outlook is uncertain.

Inflation "is on course to be significant" and the government also needs to control the risk of a bubble in real estate prices, the World Bank said.

"Inflation will not be taking off in a major way, but we do observe other macro economic risks that are in part an outcome of the stimulus," Kuijs said.

He cited rapid rises in real estate prices and growing debt for the investment arms of local governments.

A deputy central bank government warned last week that local governments could cause problems for Chinese banks if financing platforms set up to invest in real estate and infrastructure projects cannot repay their heavy borrowing.

"The flow of new lending to the platforms needs to be contained and local government revenues need to become less dependent on land transaction revenues," the bank said.
Story continues below

Still, the bank gave an upbeat overall outlook for 2010, saying trade and household consumption should grow strongly as the stimulus winds down.

"We feel comfortable upgrading our forecast and we now foresee about 9.5 percent GDP growth this year," Kuijs said.

Wen, the country's top economic official, said Sunday the combination of inflation, the rich-poor income gap and corruption could threaten communist rule if left untended.

"These will be strong enough to affect our social stability and even the stability of state power," the premier said.

The World Bank also said more exchange rate flexibility would help if Chinese leaders worry that higher interest rates might draw in speculative capital.

A group of American lawmakers wrote to President Barack Obama this week urging him to press Beijing to loosen controls that its trading partners say keep the yuan undervalued, giving China's exporters unfair price advantages. Beijing denies that it does.

The bank's chief China economist, Ardo Hansson, said the bank does not follow exchange rate issues and could not comment whether the yuan was undervalued. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/china-to-grow-95-in-2010-_n_502...

toniD's Ya Think?

Rachel Maddow Questions Geithner About Role At New York Fed: 'Where Were You?' (VIDEO)

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner described the nation's financial crisis as "deeply unfair" to average Americans Tuesday, during an interview with Rachel Maddow. Geithner told Maddow that because of American suffering, he felt a "deep sense of responsibility" to reform the nation's financial system:

GEITHNER: I think this is a just war. I think it's a necessary and important thing to do. I think we have a deep obligation to get them to do this. The president has put out a sweeping package of reforms, strongest reforms we've contemplated as a country since the Great Depression, necessarily so because this was so damaging.

The House passed a bill very close to what the president proposed. Senator Dodd has put out a very good, strong bill. I do not think this is a Democratic or Republican thing. This is an American thing. I think you're going to see -- when this gets to the Senate floor, I think you're going to see a lot of support for this, because I think it's very hard for people in Washington to look their constituents in the eye and say, we've just had the worst financial crisis in generations, but we couldn't find the will as a country to reform the rules of the game.

While Maddow began her interview asking about financial reform, the most notable moments came when she told Geithner that she was "concerned" about the Fed and Geithner's former role at the agency. Maddow wondered why Geithner hesitated to press for reforms at financial institutions rescued by taxpayers during his tenure as chief of the New York Fed.

MADDOW: That issue of how much authority you have, though, is where I get hung up, and why I'm still concerned about the Fed now, why I'm still concerned about you working at the Fed, frankly.

GEITHNER: Really, I'm happy -- you can go back over my record. I can tell you, with a lot of knowledge, of course, the stuff we were right on early, the stuff where we made a lot of difference early. But I can also tell you -- and I know a lot about this -- where the Fed was behind the curve and late. The best example of that was the Fed did not use its authority to write rules to provide better protection for consumers like in mortgages early. The chairman of the Fed has said that openly. I agree with that. That's why we proposed to take that authority away from the Fed, and give it to an agency where the people wake up every day, and they think about one thing, which is how to protect consumers.

Earlier in the interview, Maddow essentially asked Geithner "where were you?" during the crisis, and what he wished he had done differently in New York.

Geithner defended the agency saying that it "did a very good job" and acted early to "try to bring a bit of order to derivatives markets," though ultimately he acknowledged that the crisis was a tragic failure of government and that the New York Fed could have done more. He accepted limited personal responsibility, and spread the blame around the agency and the country, using the word "we" to respond to Maddow's question.

Last week, a bankruptcy examiner's report on Lehman Brothers revealed that the investment bank and financial-services firm was able to manipulate its balance sheet despite the fact that New York Fed regulators were stationed within the company. The New York Fed has also been criticized for ordering bailed-out insurer AIG to keep quiet about details of its taxpayer-funded payouts to the likes of Goldman Sachs ($14 billion+), Societe Generale ($16.5 billion), Deutsche Bank ($8.5 billion), and Merrill Lynch ($6.2 billion). Geithner led the agency through both events, though a spokesperson for the agency has said that Geithner "had no role or knowledge of the AIG disclosure matters."

Videos at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/rachel-maddow-questions-g_n_502...

toniD's Ya Think?

It's a beautiful, sunny 46 degrees.

Here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/lehman-brothers

toniD's Ya Think?

Moderate House Democrats feeling the heat on health care
David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: March 17, 2010 06:47:16 AM

WASHINGTON — As a historic vote on sweeping health care legislation nears, Democratic moderates in the House of Representatives face relentless pressure as they juggle personal pleas from President Barack Obama, a multi-million-dollar ad barrage and constituents who are fed up with the convoluted congressional process.

In the spotlight are 39 Democrats who voted against the House's original health care measure Nov. 7. Democrats hold 253 of the House's 431 currently filled seats, and 216 votes are needed for passage. The bill won't pass unless some of those 39 switch their positions.

Democratic leaders hope to vote by this weekend, but they're finding it difficult to push wavering members off the fence.

"I'll vote the way my district wants me to vote," said Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., after hearing from Obama this week.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., emerged from an Obama meeting saying that he remained undecided.

Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, a freshman who was elected in an overwhelmingly Republican district, says he won't vote for the bill.

The White House won't say which lawmakers the president is pressing, despite Obama's campaign calls for transparency in government.

Altmire, a second-term congressman, said Obama's pitch Tuesday was that "the economy will turn around and people will judge the effects of the health care bill in that context."

Sometimes colleagues apply the heat. Minnick said pressure to fall in line with other Democrats usually came at House caucus meetings, but mostly he was listening to his Idaho constituents.

"That is more the pressure that I tend to pay attention to," he said. "I try pretty hard to be more responsive to that than I do to arm-twisting from colleagues or leadership here."

The pressure will only grow before the final vote. Interest groups on both sides plan to spend at least $10 million on ads.

The National Republican Congressional Committee vowed Tuesday that "any Democrats who might think they can get away with a 'yes' vote for the Obama-Pelosi health care bill should brace themselves for an all-out blitz courtesy of the NRCC."

Also raising concerns about the bill are Employers for a Healthy Economy, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce-led coalition of business groups that plans to spend $4 million to $10 million on a TV ad in 17 states and on national cable. The ad, which began running last Wednesday and will continue through this Saturday, charges that the bill would mean "billions in new taxes ... more mandates on businesses."

America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, is spending a seven-figure amount for a cable TV ad that's running nationwide.

Pressure is also strong from the other side. Health Care for America Now, a coalition of liberal groups and labor unions, launched a $1.4 million ad buy Tuesday that runs through Friday in 11 swing districts, including Altmire's. The coalition and like-minded groups plan to spend $11 million overall.

MoveOn.org, another liberal group, plans to spend $300,000 on ads in swing districts in Pennsylvania, North Dakota and New York.

Obama has met recently with blocs of liberals and members of the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses, and had one-on-ones with lawmakers. House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut said the president was prepared to help swing members with their campaigns and fundraising.

Altmire had three conversations in the last 10 days with Obama; the most recent came Monday.

"We talked policy," he said.

Altmire had voted against the House bill. Among his concerns were its income tax surcharge on the wealthy and a mandate that employers offer health insurance. Obama noted that the surcharge is gone and the mandate has been eased in the measure's final version.

Altmire said he remained unsure whether the legislation would curb costs, and that this week's furor over the complicated process that congressional leaders were planning to use to pass it was troubling his constituents.

House leaders are leaning toward not voting directly on the Senate-passed measure. Instead, they plan to have the House vote on a rule governing debate on a "sidecar" bill intended to modify the Senate legislation's most controversial terms. The rule would "deem" that the rule's passage meant that the House has approved the Senate-passed measure, and the House next would vote on the "sidecar" bill to modify the Senate legislation. House leaders of both parties have used this obscure process many times to expedite bills, but never for such sweeping legislation.

This way, House members never would vote directly on the Senate measure, which includes controversial terms such as big Medicaid subsidies for Nebraska, which other states wouldn't get. That might insulate House members against attack ads before November's elections charging that they'd voted for the Nebraska giveaway.

However, Altmire and a lot of other members say the public often sees such maneuvers as sneaky ways to avoid tough choices.

"It taints the process for my constituents," he said, "and so it weighs on my view of the process."

Obama is scrambling to push the bill through the House in time to salvage his trip to Guam, Indonesia and Australia, which he's postponed by three days. He's now set to leave Sunday.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a key enforcer on health care votes, will stay behind, as will Vice President Joe Biden, should his vote be needed to break a Senate tie.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/16/90505/moderate-house-democrats-und...

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62G2DO20100317

By Murray Waas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.
Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that.
So he hired an attorney -- not because he wanted to sue anyone; on the contrary, the shy African-American teenager expected his insurance was canceled by mistake and would be reinstated once he set the company straight.
But Fortis, now known as Assurant Health, ignored his attorney's letters, as they had earlier inquiries from a case worker at a local clinic who was helping him. So Mitchell sued.
In 2004, a jury in Florence County, South Carolina, ordered Assurant Health, part of Assurant Inc, to pay Mitchell $15 million for wrongly revoking his heath insurance policy. In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the lower court's verdict, although the court reduced the amount to be paid him to $10 million.
By winning the verdict against Fortis, Mitchell not only obtained a measure of justice for himself; he also helped expose wrongdoing on the part of Fortis that could have repercussions for the entire health insurance industry

(continues)

I will check back and see if she writes you back, I hope.
Tis a "SMcGee" Lass Day ;)

wee Lass with The RED{hair}. {My younger brother had The Red hair also - me I have red highlights on chestnut hair & Red Wine {teahee ;)} & Top O' The Day To You {almost midday 2 u ;)}.

Good news! The park doggies are now sleeping on my floor :)

Late last week I got lucky and found the business card of a sweetheart of a guy who traps stray animals in his spare time and (usually) gives them to the Animal Welfare League here in the city.

We trapped the feral dog last night, the Shepherd was docile enough to leash, and brought them both up here to my place.

Over the weekend I called all the people in my neighborhood who've been looking after or feeding them them and arranged for all of us to pool our resources together to foster them, get their medical treatment and get them adopted.

So I'm gonna keep them here until they're ready to go

So far so good. :)

click for larger

"this machine kills fascists"

http://www.alternet.org/story/146062/netanyahu_takes_his_siege_against_h...

Editor's Note: Scroll to the bottom for a recent interview with Max Blumenthal by GritTV's Laura Flanders.

is on: ://kboo.fm/program

When the world around US is crumbling you are taking care of wild dogs. I guess it is therapy for the "wild dog' in you.

There is a congressperson with that name? And he/she was undecided about voting for the bill?

the ridiculous never stops

laura flanders?

(to the tune of my fair lady ...)

http://kboo.fm/listen

interview, thanks Laura!

I'll contribute to their rescue..

Guess this is as good a time as any to plug

Stamps To The Rescue

lovely music though

Good idea!!

Not necessarily smart move for Ellen in re memory hole.

Yay 60th on the dogs!

one of the arguments commonly heard about hcr and a myriad other things is that its unconstitutional because it violates the tenth ammendment.

if that were anything more than a conservative wet dream why aren't there any significant cases before the supreme court (which has had a conservative tilt for years) based on a violation of the 10th ammendment?

so very kewl ;)

You.

Wait.

(i.e weave my disgust into fame...)

(Ad infinitum)

mornin Nora. re your question, i keep in mind that "they" had a plan to pull off a '911' in the works years before. sociopathic control freaks eh?

WTG 60th! give em a scritch for me.

cool stamps MB, one of those exquisite things that pop up for the right reasons.

-
in a very special way.

UP THE REPUBLIC!!!

Happy Paddy's Day all.

devoted to the lunatic.

Actually I have a Paypal at my gmail email address, mb, if anyone wants else to pitch in and doesn't have my email addy let me know...I think one of the neighborhood ladies is also setting a Paypal up, but I haven't heard from her.

So far I got use of a nice big cage for them as long as I need it, and another woman is bringing over food and a harness so I can potty train the feral without worrying about her twisting out of the leash and bolting.

"this machine kills fascists"