HAPPY 233rd BIRTHDAY, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !




July 4th each year is an appropriate time to celebrate the birth of this country by reading the Declaration of Independence, that includes this famous excerpt:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

Take a few minutes on July 4, 2009 to read this historic document here for which the signers pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

Also, for a brief, insightful commentary on this fourth of July, go here.

        

Sarah Palin will be resigning before completing her first term as governor and not running for re-election; no reason given.  However, depending on the source, rumors are that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. or an "iceberg" of a scandal is circulating. 

Can the more than 100 nations to whom the US sold military arms and services all be reliable security partners, and will the Obama administration continue this Bushite policy?

Labor's vague rally for health care reform; labor leaders placing on the table first what should be their fall-back position.

Oil industry executives suggested Iraq invasion in 2001, eager for Iraq's oil reserves.

How Goldman-Sachs engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression; and how Goldman-Sachs could be compared to Saddam Hussein.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) playing Alice in Wonderland target employers who follow the law.

La governor Bobby Jindal solves state's low school passage rates by lowering standards...and this guy was considered potential GOP presidential material!

Obama continues to try and protect Cheney (and now, apparently,Bush) from their involvement (and lies) in Plame scandal.

CIA IG torture report again delayed until end of summer.

        

Independence Day, July 4, 2009, will have a fitting example of what this country affirms and should affirm: the right to form a union.

It took place at Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, North Carolina where workers, who toil under brutal work conditions and sought justice and dignity, approved the first union contract at that plant, and claimed victory over employer tyranny.<< MORE >>

Bernie Sanders demands that all Democratic senators agree to stop any health care filibuster so that legislation can come to an up or down vote.

Yesterday's FYII that Obama's national security advisor, James Jones told US generals in Afghanistan no more troops.  Today the other shoe dropped..."this year" was added.  It was too good to be true.

Senators imitate Captain Renault (Claude Rains) in "Casablanca" expressing "shock" that the credit card industry quickly raised rates before legislation halting such abuse goes into effect, even though the senators acquiesced to these companies' demand to delay implementing the bill for nine months.  The Senate multimillionaire club's hypocritical business as usual.

Big city police chiefs want overhaul of immigrant policy to integrate immigrants into the legal system and separate local police from immigrant enforcement.

Obama administration turning White House into Wall Street at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Quit making excuses for Senate Dems, whose leadership stinks, especially Harry "Mr. Whining Excuses" Reid.

Members of Congress increase vacation travel for themselves and families at taxpayers'
expense.

Obama's trampling of detainees' civil and human rights no different than that of Bush.

Senators who voted last fall to approve the federal bailout of Wall Street hold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock in the very banks that Washington has rescued in the nine months since.

        

Check It Out on the first Thursday in July offers these excerpts:<< MORE >>

As we head into the 4th of July with the economic debacle causing many towns and cities to curtail expenditures on fireworks, the depressing jobless figures are some of the terrible consequences of the slash and burn, laissez faire, government of, by, and for the wealthy few and corporations policies of the criminal Bush regime and its GOP supporters and cheerleaders. Those jobless numbers are not just statistics but stand for regular people who struggle to find non-existent work, keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, for themselves and their families, while the top 2%, like the crooks in the financial system are being rewarded for their crimes with hundreds of billions in taxpayers' and borrowed money.<< MORE >>

The Obama administration continues to reward the Wall Street perpetrators of this economic catastrophe, and real health care reform will be a Rube Goldberg failure courtesy of the elected hypocrites in Washington, whose benefits, like health care are government provided, as they refuse to even place Medicare for All on the table.

While this appalling state of affairs is ongoing, and regular Americans keep struggling, even more money is being spent on expanding the imperial presence of the US military and State Department garrisons at the expense of desperately needed economic and social justice programs like single payer, universal health care, which is a reality in other industrialized countries, but shamefully not in the U.S which is a death warrant for tens of thousands in this country each year.<< MORE >>

The stupidity in Politico can be traced to those who fund and run it....hardcore right wing, scandal ridden Repugs and their flunkies.

Even more reason for US Senate term limits; this shameful, unethical, conflict of interest misconduct by a Democrat who also shamelessly supported his birds of a feather colleague, guilty of being bribed, GOP former senator Ted Stevens (yet another good reason for term limits).

Why exiled Honduran President Zelaya's actions were legal and constitutional and the coup has drawn condemnation from other American nations.

Just one example of the useless and  weak US Senate Democrats aka GOP lite.

A logical, fact filled explanation of why legalizing 12 million undocumented immigrants would help the US economy that debunks the usual prevaricating, irrational, anti-immigrant diatribes bigotry.

McCain's potential Treasury Secretary, former Senator Phil Gramm, corporate shill who helped kill Glass-Steagall and setting the stage for the economic meltdown may have been instrumental in helping 52,000 US tax cheats.

Citigroup that received all that taxpayer's money arbitrarily raised rates for 15 million cardholders before law to prevent such abuse goes into effect.

GOP members of the FEC try to kill that commission. 

Obama's national security advisor tells US generals in Afghanistan: no more troops; while not the same as fewer troops, nonetheless, startled the generals.

For those who like graphs and charts, these show that the health insurance industry lobbying aka special interest money means longer odds for public option. 

        

Check It Out on the first day of July contains the following:<< MORE >>

President Obama, whose Wall Street filled economic team follows the Bushite pattern of protecting and enabling the thieving financial system perpetrators that caused this economic catastrophe, continues to exhibit either a feigned ignorance or complicity (either of which is appalling) regarding the predatory, dishonest corporate capitalists known as BigPharma.

In an amazing example of hypocrisy, Obama praised this dishonorable industry for offering "significant relief" to seniors in this country. When you hear words like that, start looking for the truth because that's not what is being disseminated.

The primary interest being served is that of the drug companies.<< MORE >>

Neocons right wing double standard on democracy continue with the military coup in Honduras.

These reactionary GOP asshats continue to spew their support for proto-fascist authoritarianism and anti-human rights, both hallmarks of their deranged philosophy which dominated the policies and actions of the criminal Bush regime.<< MORE >>

FDA confirms a deadly strain of E coli bacteria in Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough.

Al Franken has finally been declared the winner of the US Senate election in a unanimous decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court..  If the situation had been reversed, Coleman and the GOP would have pilloried Franken and the Democratic Party. So much for GOP "integrity."

A green way to dispose of old televisions and computers, although the "the plastics, which have no reuse market, are often shipped overseas to developing countries for disposal" raises questions.

Speaking of questions...in my posting yesterday about the coup in Honduras, I wondered why the NY Times report I quoted was datelined Bogota, rather than Tegucigalpa where the action was.  Perhaps because of the possibility of this: Honduran military detained international journalists at gunpoint.

White House and House leadership bully liberal environmental members who thought the cap-and-trade bill too polluter friendly claiming these members were ignoring the wishes of their president.  Thought that the imperial presidency was only a Bushite hallmark.

The Dick Cheney whining about US military withdrawal from Iraq's cities failed to mention that the withdrawal is the follow through of the SOFA agreement negotiated by the Cheney/Bush regime.

More regressive tax crap from Clintonite protectors of the financial kingdom

More rhetoric and hypocrisy from the Obama administration as the president promises to end torture (which is a crime) but his pledge disregards the criminal Bush regime.

        

Check It Out on the last day of June offers these excerpts:<< MORE >>

Iraqis declared jubilant that American troops are now out of the cities and confined to their garrisons, as Iraq's citizens celebrate "National Sovereignty Day.

However, since all government lie, what's the reality?

We know that although US troop strength is supposed to be reduced, there will be only be a cosmetic name change from combat to support troops as tens of thousands of US military remain in country.<< MORE >>

Over the last thirty years, many of the products that Americans buy are no longer made in the United States, but in China.

So when that coffee maker breaks after a year, or the toaster that you bought at Wal-Mart, which prides itself on selling "economical" items "Made in China", catches fire, your muttering or screaming that "Made in China" stands for "Defective Goods" isn't too far from the truth.<< MORE >>

Disgusting....Obama imitating Bush...again.

Torture, extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention...no wonder Obama regime dragging its feet on Congress confirming Dawn Johnsen at Office of Legal Counsel, continued lack of oversight and leadership apparently just the ticket.

Supremes rule for white firefighters in discrimination case.

Madoff gets 150 years in the slammer.

American intervention since 1945 paints an ugly picture.

GOP hypocrites and their enablers: impeach Clinton, forgive Sanford.

Clever ways to perk up CEO compensation by clever corporate honchos

Health care industry not only feeds at government trough and is infamous for fraud, but is also known for anti-trust consolidation not competition...all ignored on Capitol Hill, which it controls.

        

Check It Out on the last Monday in June contains these excerpts:<< MORE >>

There has been quite a bit written about the military coup in Honduras.

US response reflects the hemispheric unity denouncing the overthrow and exile of President Manuel Zelaya.<< MORE >>

Rural residents organize to keep their water out of corporate bottled water, as corporations like Nestle deplete their water and communities' finances.

If the private sector is so great on health care, why is it so worried about a public option?

Mark Sanford and the morally bankrupt GOP leadership.

Bagram detainees treated worse than animals.

Bushite who cooked up phony pitch for Iraq war now selling Wall Street's bull.

Members of U.S. House Financial Services Committee snapped up or dumped bank stocks as bottom fell out

Corporate downsizing creates chaos and damages "human assets capital."

Only 4 out of 25 senators showed up to listen to former health insurance executive blow whistle on Wall Street run health care industry.

Republican lack of ethics in action reprise 2008: GOP anti-health care reform hypocrites use a CD-ROM converter service center as their "think tank" to oppose current reform reprising the roll that GOP company, HSI, played in 2008 when owners of this so-called think tank were quoted as praising the egregious McCain health plan without noting that they had authored the plan they were analyzing

        

Check It Out on the last Friday in June has these excerpts:<< MORE >>

Obama' economic team, filled with Wall Street fraudsters and supporters and their ilk, have managed to protect and reward this crooked US financial system's perpetrators of the current economic catastrophe at the expense of struggling Americans, and.no amount of lofty rhetoric can begin to hide that dishonesty.

In addition, President Obama and his minions pressured Democrats in Congress to pass the egregious Iraq and expansion in Afghanistan supplemental funding bill that contained $108 billion for the IMF (which badly needs to be reformed) to distribute to European banks.

However, it takes the president of a small Latin American country, to honestly speak truth to power, and afflict the comfortable, the hypocritical, and the corrupt.<< MORE >>

Health insurance industry exec gives devastating testimony about the health insurance industry maximizes their profits by delivering as little care as they can legally get away with, or for that matter, illegally; a system that Republicans and conservative Democrats want to maintain.

Documents indicate Bernanke's Federal Reserve tried to hide problems of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch deal.

US looking to withdraw from Iraq in name only.

Don't cry for him, Argentina and other GOP crocodile tears about election erections.

Massachusetts model for national pseudo-health care reform continues to fail as predicted.

Supreme Court rules school's strip search (for Advil) of 13 year old student unconstitutional but school officials not accountable.

Obama's press conference highlights his failure to put his foot down; continues to backslide on health care and the economy.

Bankrupt economic system caused crisis in retirement security, aka screwing seniors,that  will last decades.

Bush administration leaks compromised criminal probe and warned affected GOP congressional lawmaker right before re-election.

Six ways unions can help themselves reinvigorate labor.

        

Check It Out on the final Thursday in June offers these excerpts:<< MORE >>

Something, anything is better than nothing; so compromise, dilution, are the order of the day until form erases substance and corporations and other wealthy contributors are satisfied that business as usual will continue.

That seems to be the mantra and method of operation of this Democratic administration and a Democratic majority in Congress.

However, during the criminal Bush regime, when the GOP was the majority in Congress, the reality was Republicans were able to accomplish everything...especially creating disastrous bills and policies re-inforcing government of, by, and for the wealthy few the hell with the rest of the people<< MORE >>

As hypocrite, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) spews that in order to be bipartisan, there should be no public option in health care reform bill, it seems Obama's chief of staff, hypocrite and GOP lite former investment banker, Rahm Emanuel, is privately signaling to Democratic Senators that the White House is prepared to drop the public insurance option from health care reform in order to get a bill passed.  Apparently, Obama will sign any bill labeled health care reform, even if it isn't.

Ralph Reed, GOP un-Christlike Christian, failed candidate, a plagiarist with an arrest record, who's been investigated, been accused of election-rigging, who turned to lobbying, who is forever associated with felon Jack Abramoff, to mobilize the brand spankin' new version of Values Voters.

And speaking of GOP family values like those of Senator Ensign (who, like Senator David "Diaper" Vitter, call girl enthusiast, was welcomed by GOP colleagues at the weekly conference lunch with a loud standing ovation), Governor Terry Sanford has joined GOP family values elected hypocrites club.

Obama will send envoy to Syria after a four year absence.

Diplomatic battle between UK and Iran heats up.

Young people's lack of civics knowledge---their understanding of the inner workings of government and their rights and responsibilities as citizens---as well as disappearing civics education, has been increasingly abysmal since 1969 and the damaging long term results can be seen in election results in the last quarter century as the decision to vote and the basis for decisions in the voting booth continue to decay.

Now wonder right wingers Bush and Uribe got along so well; Colombia's government destroyed evidence of its spying on Supreme Court judges, prosecutors, human rights defenders, opposition politicians and journalists.

Continuing Bushite policies, Operation Enduring Folly, US drone strike kills 60 more people in Pakistan.

Why should America support US corporations that don't support us?

        

Check It Out on the last Wednesday in June has the following:<< MORE >>

Some of the most deliberately woodenheaded* elected officials are those in Congress and the White House. These incumbents only think of lining their pockets for their next election campaign, selling themselves to crony corporate contributors that control them.

Elected officials are mainly either Republican right wing lunatics or Democrats who are the new Republicans. Very few Democrats have a progressive vision that encompasses the common good and the fortitude to fight for that common good.

And the health care reform issue is a perfect example of that.<< MORE >>

Medicare fraud is big business and occurs over and over again.

Even one of the Bushes, Jeb, former governor of Florida, was involved in Medicare fraud when he wasn't busy with bank fraud in Florida, like his younger brother, Neil, in the Colorado Silverado S&L fraud and scandal that cost taxpayers billions of dollars to repair...Silverado alone cost the taxpayers $1 billion in the 1980's.<< MORE >>

"Other countries have systems that prioritize health care treatment on the basis of need --- a triage system. We prioritize health care on the basis of who can pay. And in the most perverse form of rationing there is, we make the sickest people have the most difficult time getting access to health care."

Obama continues to prove he's not a manager.  "The man named by the Obama administration to administer the Endangered Species Act almost never invoked it to protect wildlife....had by far the weakest record on Endangered Species Act enforcement of any comparable official in the country."

"Negative role of employers, both public and private, in worsening the recession and undermining the stimulus effort, such as it is, by actually using economic crisis as an excuse to further attack and undermine workers and their incomes."

Goldman-Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.

Right wing, corporatist Supreme Court grievously damages Clean Water Act.

Public health option was not included in the CBO issued very preliminary cost estimates of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee’s health bill and the Senate Finance Committee’s draft legislation that Repugs and Dems aka GOP lite used as an excuse for ignoring a public plan option.

Another Republican lawmaker exposes a blatant lack of humanity.

A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution reveals US plan to provoke the invasion of Iraq.

Why the Don't Ask, Don't Tell hypocrisy must end.

A morally bankrupt US health care system bankrupts families...75% of those that have health care coverage.

Two U.S. military officials pleaded guilty to various bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges relating to Department of Defense (DOD) contracts in Afghanistan.

Deadly DC Metro crash provokes questions about an aging system and the US Congress upon which, unlike any other subway system, DC Metro has no dedicated source of funding, but instead must depend on the whims of lawmakers to appropriate money

        

Check It Out on a hot and humid Tuesday in June has the following: << MORE >>

As the mainstream media squints for silver linings in this economic crisis, silver linings only observable by them and others who ignored the warnings of progressive economists and other sane, logical truth tellers about the housing bubble and the predatory, greedy Wall Street gambling fraudsters who caused this financial catastrophe for which they were rewarded by a culpable Bush regime and a now complicit Obama administration, the reality for struggling regular Americans continues to be bleak.

The Obama administration's slow, timid, diluted, compromised, contradictory policies, e.g. stimuli not reaching the unemployed or continued promotion of offshoring of jobs, as in the auto industry, is dismaying, disappointing, and disgusting. << MORE >>

The US military has had a terrible record in Iraq and now Afghanistan of killing civilians, men, women, and children, by air strikes which it denies, denies, denies until irrefutable, non-military proof shows otherwise, followed by denials of the number dead, then a retraction....a familiar, despicable pattern.

It ranges from the Jessica Lynch scandal and the Pat Tillman cover-up to the lies of last year's August air attack that killed scores of Afghans and the most recent US air strike last month that left 86 dead.

After that terrible slaughter last August, the US military's gave its usual vehement denial which also relied on Iran-Contra traitor and liar, then embedded Fixed Entertainment Noise's Oliver North "eyewitness account" to dispute the allegations<< MORE >>

Democrats are the new Republicans..."We don't have a Left and a Right party in this country anymore. We have a center-Right party and a crazy party. And over the last thirty-odd years, Democrats have moved to the Right, and the Right has moved into a mental hospital."

Iran had a democracy before the United States took it away.

Obama's Department of Justice loves secrecy.

Supreme Court decides to let Voting Rights Act survive after narrowing it.

Obama tackles the Medicare's donut hole, that the GOP Bushite rubber stamps in a then GOP controlled Congress passed which placed a crushing burden on American seniors regarding drug costs.

No matter who won Iran's presidency, the incumbent or the challenger, either would have stoned this woman.

Stimulus is a mixed blessing for ailing transit systems.

Dubya's poodle, Tony Blair, pushed Gordon Brown to hold Iraq war inquiry in private.

How Obama is killing health reform.

Khamenei and Ahmadinejad terrified of the specter of counter-revolution.

Scheduling idiots at the National Press Club ignore the shameful US involvement in the overthrow of democracy which was supplanted by the brutal reign of the Shah of Iran and Savak

        

Check It Out on the fourth Monday in June offers these excerpts: << MORE >>

Obama's financial reform proposal is an example of why his administration's policies are go go status quo, with only superficial change, this administration being more like a third Republican lite and damaging Clinton third term with ingredients of a Bush third term included.

As I've indicated often before, there is a resounding silence about a re-instatement of Glass-Steagall (killed by Robert Rubin and Clinton) while Obama's financial reform package resembles ice cream on cow pies.<< MORE >>

As the post election Iranian demonstrations continue, albeit in much smaller numbers, members of the GOP on Capitol Hill persuaded their Democratic colleagues in the House to pass a resolution supporting the Iranian protesters, even though the protesters are more than satisfied that President Obama has not injected the US into these demonstrations with inflammatory statements, which would negatively brand these protesters as "imperialist lackeys."

It is the height of hypocrisy that those GOPers now claiming support for the demonstrators also wanted to bomb them not so long ago.<< MORE >>

EPA yesterday declared a public health emergency in Libby, MT, the first time the EPA has invoked that provision of the Superfund law since it was passed in 1980, epic asbestos pollution there by the notorious corporate polluter W.R. Grace and its predecessor, but too late for the hundreds who have already died.

The firm (filled by such hypocrites as Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker) that houses two of the three former Senate majority leaders who proposed a comprehensive health care compromise plan on Wednesday has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby on behalf of key players in the health care industry.

A Catholic priest in Brazil is standing up to Cargill, the agribusiness giant (with US revenues of $63 billion yearly) loved by Washington's elected officials, in its attempts to deforest the Amazon.claiming that what Cargill is doing is illegal, not just immoral.

Senator Tom Coburn uses the Henry Hyde "youthful indiscretion" excuse (Hyde was 41 years old at the time of his affair) to defend Ensign who is 51 years old.

In typical dishonest and deceptive GOP fashion, RNC chair, Michael Steele, has set up an RNC fundraising page on Facebook made to look like it’s the United Steelworkers union.

The right wing Washington Post fires its most popular not right wing columnist.

18 year old Ohio teen puts noose around Hispanic boy's neck and drags him around parking lot while shouting insults only gets ten days in jail for his unbalanced and dangerous to society behavior.

Senate Finance Committee to the American people: you have to buy health insurance with no public option.  Shame on the people who voted for these idiots.

While Illinois judges rule they cannot be forced to retire due to age, back in Washington the Supremes raise the bar on age discrimination for citizens.

What to do about bovine belching, little explosions of methane – the potent, greenhouse gas that's contributing to climate change....your average burping bovine expels some 400 pounds of methane a year?  There are 400 million cows in the U.S. alone, so those "eruptions" add up..

        

Check It Out on a sunny Friday in June offers the following excerpts:<< MORE >>

The Obama administration continues to bumble along following in the Bush regime's footsteps offshoring US manufacturing jobs; it's right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.

It maintains the ongoing "go along to get along" corporatist policies that pander to unfair trade practices and US companies' globalization machinations that eliminate American jobs, US corporations that instigate and/or are complicit in the unjust exploitation of workers in other countries.

Consider Obama's auto task force and this administration's dismaying contradictory policies.<< MORE >>

US Chamber of Commerce sides with foreign embassies against the Buy American provision in the stimulus bill.

Just as William Casey and Robert Gates (yes, the same) at the Reagan CIA colluded to hide Iran-Contra and politicized sensitive intelligence, Leon Panetta, Obama's CIA director, continues the culture of covering up abuses and crimes.

Iraq oil minister accused of mother of all sell outs.

Will a possible "changed" Iran complicate US engagement?

Pockets of influence, tailor made clothing with deep pockets that hold loot, is something that shoplifters and members of Congress have in common.

Supreme Court rules against constitutional right to access to DNA testing.

As cracks appear in Iran's mullahcracy, it seems to be divine assessment versus people power.

        

Check It Out on a cloudy, humid Thursday in June has the following:<< MORE >>

Apparently, the Obama administration and the pseudo Democrats on Capitol Hill continue their absolutely abominable machinations regarding health care "reform" in the hope that regular Americans won't notice or won't care or both.

Their disdain for the American people is blatant.

However, Susie Madrak over at Crooks and Liars weighs in with two pieces that expose the ongoing Washington hypocrisy on this important issue.<< MORE >>

The White House and the Democratic majority in Congress are ignoring the demands of the majority of the American people regarding health care, deliberately denying all Americans health care as a right not a commodity and privilege and playing their business as usual, corporatist role in Washington, apparently hell bent on establishing their historical place as a mediocre administration and Congress while inflicting continued struggles on regular Americans.

These elected officials have government provided quality health care at affordable cost, but have the hypocrisy of denying the same to you and me.

They stay busy getting dizzy, wasting time while people die because of lack of health care, pretending that they're doing something when, in fact, they are needlessly building a rickety house on sand, a slapdash monstrosity doomed to fail and fall in order to placate their health industry controllers/contributors.

However, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) understands the issue and has succinctly and factually listed the reasons that single payer, universal health care (S. 703 and HR 676) is the answer to the health care crisis caused by the for profit health care insurers.

For example:

• The United States spends $2.3 trillion each year on health care, 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product;
• Americans spend $7,129 per person on health care, 50 percent more than other industrialized countries, including those with universal care;
• The U.S. does not get what it pays for.  We rank among the lowest in the health outcome rankings of developed countries, and on several major indices rank below some third-world nations;

It will only take a minute or two to go here and read the rest of Bernie Sanders' straight talking petition.  Isn't affordable health care for you and every other American worth two minutes of your time?

        

I put in my two cents worth yesterday about President Obama's financial regulatory proposal when I wrote that it was only a beginning and shouldn't stop there.

"Now, if the Obama administration would push for regulation of hedge funds, a re-instatement of the Glass Steagall Act (that separated commercial banking from investment banking, updated to control speculation) and regulate modern financial tools (such as derivatives) while enforcing anti-trust laws that prevent big banking monopolies, such strong regulations would go long way towards correcting the continuing laissez-faire greed and fraud still being perpetrated by Wall Street financial institutions' crooks."

Others have weighed in this issue, and many, like me, feel that, if this is all the president and his economic team can come up with, his administration has already failed in solving the problems of the current financial debacle and preventing a future Wall Street caused economic catastrophe<< MORE >>

It isn't the affairs and scandals, it's the hypocrisy of current and former elected conservative Republicans in Washington like Ensign, Vitter, Gingrich, Foley, Hyde, etc.

The minuteman leader who allegedly killed a 9 year old and her father to finance her hate group, the Minuteman American Defense (M.A.D.) co-hosted an anti-immigration event in 2007 featuring Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson.

Obama lights North Korea's fuse with nuclear umbrella statement.

Will looming conflict between Iran and Israel be averted by events in Iran?

The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said including improper access of former President Clinton's email under the Bushite warrantless surveillance program.

Facts of the Bushite GOP DOJ political prosecution of former Alabama Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, including fallout from a qusetionable ruling by all GOP three judge panel of the 11th US District Court of Appeals upholding most of the convictions against him.

President Obama will outspend Reagan on defense as the Pentagon spigot remains wide open.

        

Check It Out on a rainy, cloudy third Wednesday in June offers the following excerpts:<< MORE >>

Even though there is a Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives, apparently there are only 32 true, staunch Democrats in that chamber.

You can forget the other wing on Capitol Hill, the Senate millionaires 100 club, where there is only one party, the corporatist party, bought and controlled by big money, with Democratic and Republican units (although the House is increasingly becoming a millionaire's club, too).

The House shamefully and recklessly passed the supplemental "war" appropriations bill 226 for-202 against (despite the Obama administration claiming no more "supplementals" a la Bush).<< MORE >>

In a substantive change in oversight of financial institution products, e.g. mortgages and credit cards, President Obama is proposing a commission to regulate these financial products rather than maintaining the present various rules for different issuers.

It simplifies and strengthens a regulatory oversight process and, as Elizabeth Warren says, is a sea change from the existing, cumbersome, diversified system. << MORE >>

Jim Hightower offers and example of Lily Tomlin's line, "No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up." concerning charitable hospitals who skip the charity.

Sam Pizzigati at Campaign for America's Future on how Tim Geithner and his Treasury Dept protect Wall Street crew is making Wall Street safe again for windfalls as the make the half a million dollars of compensation maximum the minimum.

I've written often about how the bank bailout are creating big bank monopolies.  Now, Andrea Orr at Economic Policy Institute explains how the bailouts are helping big banks get bigger.

Ironclad blind trusts for all member of Congress?  Sen. Dick Durbin, the second most senior democrat in the Senate, cashed out his stock the day after meeting with Bernanke and Paulson last September about the banking crisis

Brad Friedman at BradBlog writes that modern elections, including in the US, have become a game of Russian roulette dangerously and needlessly imperiling democracy.

Paul Rosenberg at Open Left writes about A massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru last weekend has resulted in the temporary roll-back of development laws that were passed without proper consultation under international law.  They were part of a package of laws issued to comply with a free trade agreement with the US.

Netanyahu backs Palestinian state with caveats.

Analyses of Netanyahu speech are flawed One confuses a call for a Palestinian ghetto as a call for a sovereign, viable Palestinian state. The other is based on the assumption that progress was made over the past (few) decades vis a vis Palestinian statehood.

"The Obama administration will order the Navy to hail and request permission to inspect North Korean ships at sea suspected of carrying arms or nuclear technology, but will not board them by force, senior administration officials said Monday."

Federal audit says Blackwater owes the government $55 million since they shorted the government on a $800 million contract. 

        

Check It Out on the third Tuesday of June has the following excerpts:<< MORE >>