ProgressiveDem

More FYII, Thursday, July 29, 2010

2010-07-29T21:33:00Z

New Deal raised the top tax rates on income over $200,000 — about $2.5 million in today’s collars — to over 90 percent. current tax rate on oversized incomes sits at 35 percent, and the debate this summer in Congress will only consider whether or not we should let that 35 percent revert back to the 39.6 percent level in effect pre-George W. Bush. The ultimate winners will be the wealthy.

"Coalition launches drive to fight Social Security cuts." The irony is having to even launch this coalition or post the top five Social Security myths with a Democratic president and Democratic majority on Capitol Hill. However, these mostly DINO Dems are an integral part of the problem.

Killing our oceans....."Microscopic marine algae which form the basis of the ocean food chain are dying at a terrifying rate, scientists said today."

You can fool some of the people some of the time....."Wetlands front groups funded by big oil uses celebrities (willing or duped?) "to spread the message that U.S. taxpayers should pay for the damage caused by BP to Gulf Coast wetlands, and that the reckless offshore oil industry should continue drilling for the "wholesale sustainability" of the region."

"Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film from the Helmand frontline shows the horrific chaos of a stalemate that is taking its toll in blood."

Secret spy agency known as the Pond, created by U.S. military intelligence as a counterweight to the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, it functioned as a semiautonomous agency for the State Department after World War II and ended its days as a contractor for the CIA with links to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.....it became discredited because its pugnacious leader was too cozy with Sen. Joseph McCarthy and other radical anti-communists.

FYII, Thursday, July 29, 2010

2010-07-29T21:31:00Z

Insider trading by Moody's CEO....perish the thought even though timing of stock sales smells; Wall Street is only filled with Boy Scouts.

Warnings by progressive economists about unemployment crisis and deflation growing louder since the creation of Obama's anti-Social Security deficit commission, are now being echoed by some Fed members.

UN declares water and sanitation a basic human right.

Senate drilling accountability bill, like most Capitol Hill legislation falls short since it does not regulate hydraulic fracturing which poisons groundwater, a human rights violation.

Good for her.....Sherrod to sue Breitbart.

Michigan pipeline oil spill adds more woes to an already polluted river; it was also another episode in a series of oil spills by the pipeline company in other locations.

Temperatures in the first half of 2010 have been the hottest ever; "scientists have also released what they described as the "best evidence yet" of rising long-term temperatures".....global warming as a reality.

Federal judge blocks key provisions of Arizona's infamous immigration law.

Obama administration more like the Bushites....pushing for warrantless access to Internet records; it's a hypocritical change for the worse from this administration as Obama's "embrace of the prior administration's policies has transformed Bush/Cheney radicalism into the "new normal."

Time for an Environmentally Strong Climate Change Bill That Prevents Wall Street and Its Ilk from Causing Another Meltdown

2010-07-29T21:24:00Z

The flawed and weak Senate bill, like most of the Senate's pathetic legislative efforts, deserved to be buried.

Time to go back to the drawing boards on a climate change bill, and this time to heed the following warnings.

I wrote this in FYII recently: "Greed and cowardice killed action on climate change; however, "if anything is deserving of blame, it is the cap and trade strategy itself."

Now EPA employees are raising their voices about the flawed climate bills in Congress.

From the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

"The major bills before Congress to regulate greenhouse gases to combat global climate change suffer from “multiple unfixable flaws” that undermine their effectiveness, according to a detailed congressional disclosure by two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). These agency experts’ unofficial protest is also testing new agency guidelines on employee free speech rights following EPA’s order last fall that the two employees remove a YouTube video they had produced on the frailties of cap-and-trade.

"The two EPA employees, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, are enforcement attorneys speaking as private citizens. They contend that the integrity failings of greenhouse gas offsets, the lynchpin for major climate bills before Congress, ensure that such legislation will be an ineffective – and deceptive – waste of funds. Specifically, they argue that:

The complexity and subjectivity of offsets renders them impossible to certify, regulate or enforce;
There is no reliable way to distinguish offset projects which will occur because of the offset incentive from those which would have happened anyway;
In some cases, such as in the context of forestry projects, the offsets will fail to appreciably mitigate demand and the polluting activity (such as logging) will simply shift elsewhere; and
The offsets will create perverse incentives to keep polluting activities legal so they can keep being sold as offsets.

"Williams and Zabel assert that these offsets, in essence, are a new “creative financial instrument” which carries the same deceptive potential to bankrupt markets as did the creative instruments peddled on Wall Street. The two ask for a congressional probe into the reliability of any offset program before enactment."

In June, 2009, Rachel Morris wrote at Mother Jones about the potential for cap and trade, carbon derivatives to cause another market meltdown.

"If the Waxman-Markey climate bill is signed into law, it will generate, almost as an afterthought, a new market for carbon derivatives. That market will be vast, complicated, and dauntingly difficult to monitor. And if Washington doesn't get the rules right, it will be vulnerable to speculation and manipulation by the very same players who brought us the financial meltdown.

"Cap and trade would create what Commodity Futures Trading commissioner Bart Chilton anticipates as a $2 trillion market, "the biggest of any [commodities] derivatives product in the next five years."

"In addition to trading the allowances and offsets themselves, participants in carbon markets can also deal in their derivatives—such as futures contracts to deliver a certain number of allowances at an agreed price and time. These instruments will be traded not only by polluters that need to buy credits to comply with environmental regulations, but also by financial services firms......"We are on the verge of creating a new trillion-dollar market in financial assets that will be securitized, derivatized, and speculated by Wall Street like the mortgage-backed securities market," says Robert Shapiro, a former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration and a cofounder of the US Climate Task Force.

"Among environmental groups, there is, understandably, less focus on the finer points of financial regulation. "The derivatives side is not something that a person who comes to the table worried about carbon emissions has on their agenda," says Michael Greenberger, a derivatives expert at the University of Maryland who has also served in the CFTC and the Justice Department. "Those people—and they're fighting a good battle—opened the door."

"Even a well-designed regulatory system may not be able to prevent gamblers from contorting prices and discouraging the investments in green energy that are the entire purpose of cap and trade. After all, one lesson to be drawn from the economic crisis is that complexity is like catnip to the unscrupulous, and the carbon regime that would be created by cap and trade is nothing if not complex.

"Perhaps the biggest uncertainty hinges on how offset derivatives—such as a contract to buy offset credits at a future date for a determined price—will be monitored. This too would be left to the White House task force to figure out. It will be a tough task because the quality of offset projects is notoriously difficult to verify. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has described them as 'fraught with opportunity for game playing, which will be fully exploited, I'm sure.' "

The economic disaster of the last few years proved that the greedy Wall Street and financial industry's casino players will find a way to cheat and commit fraud to increase wealth for the rich few, relying on their corporatist government marionettes for trillions of taxpayers and borrowed monies for a bailout from the financial meltdown they cause knowing they won't be held accountable for their crimes.

FYII, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

2010-07-28T20:03:00Z

Nothing we didn't know, but it bears repeating: BP's oil spill economic damage could take years to identify, in addition, scientific uncertainties remain, like the effect on marine life, etc.....the question is, given BP's terrible track record of causing death and destruction, will the US hold the company's feet to the fire for accountability and true payment of damages during those years.

US needs to keep its distance and allow South American diplomacy to resolve the Columbia-Venezuela dispute.

Wikileaks war logs bear relentless and devastating witness to the ignorance of history, the folly and incompetence of US presence in Afghanistan.

Hoyer and Clyburn should retire or be stripped of their leadership positions.....no Dem worth her/his salt would mimic John Boehner, like these two.

Fallen soldiers' beneficiaries being defrauded by insurance companies "by inducing the policyholder’s beneficiary to let the life insurance company retain assets they’re not entitled to. It’s turning death claims into a profit center.”

The bizarre, waning imperial power, US mind set of making war in Afghanistan....surpasses Orwell.

War funding and Congress.... this latest passage of deficit war spending while ignoring the unemployment and economic crises at home illustrates the disconnect between Washington and regular Americans regarding Afghanistan.

A National Manufacturing Policy: Beware the DINOs

2010-07-28T19:59:00Z

Since the Reagan era and the GOP war against unions and working people, progressives have been warning about the US becoming a nation of fast food chains and financial industry fraudsters....that the US wasn't making things anymore.

That day arrived and with the addition of an economic meltdown caused by greedy Wall Street and jobs offshoring corporations, perpetrators bailed out by the Bush and Obama administrations at the expense of regular Main Street Americans, created increased economic injustice and massive unemployment for those on Main Street.

Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers writes at Our Future: ".....shuttered U.S. factories and off-shored manufacturing are sapping American strength. The nation has lost more than 40,000 manufacturing plants and one-third of its manufacturing jobs, nearly six million, over the past dozen years. China is on the verge of overtaking the U.S. in manufacturing output. And Americans know it. Late in April, 58 percent of 1,000 likely voters told pollsters they believed America’s economy no longer led the world.

"They also told pollsters they supported enacting a national manufacturing policy to promote resurgence of domestic production -- a return to the days of a robust Rosie the Riveter and a country that could secure its independence with dynamic manufacturing capability."

"Democrats in Congress heard that message. They’ve created a program called “Make It in America.” They plan to pass a series of bills to create an environment in which both Americans and American manufacturers make it.

However, Washington seems to be filled with more DINOs than real Democrats, both in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

A bit of history should serve to remind everyone that DINOs have treacherously betrayed working people and their unions.

Beware the DINOs.

As David Macaray writes at Counterpunch: "...the vitality of the post-World War II labor movement was staggering—so staggering, in fact, that the federal government and America's leading corporations were in a state of panic. It’s no exaggeration to say that never in our history had organized labor come so close to becoming an equal partner in the national economy than in the years directly following the war.

"Not only were unions full of confidence and buoyed by the support of a sympathetic public, they were fearless....

"The realization that working men and women were now wielding genuine power—power that translated into independent political and economic clout—was scaring the wits out of the Establishment. It was that fear that precipitated the Taft-Hartley Act.

"Taft-Hartley was the naked attempt to neutralize America’s unions by revoking key provisions of the landmark 1935 National Labor Relations Act (commonly known as the “Wagner Act,” after its sponsor, New York Senator Robert Wagner), the act that legitimized a union’s right to strike, engage in collective bargaining, and serve as the workers’ sole representative.

"....the Taft-Hartley Act did precisely what it set out to do. It crippled the labor movement.

"Taft-Hartley prolonged the union certification process; it gave the federal government the right to issue strike injunctions; it expressly excluded supervisors from union membership and collective bargaining; and it severely weakened the union security clause (language under which joining a union was a condition of employment).

"By lengthening the certification process, management could now stall; with injunction power, the feds could now squelch any large-scale strike; by excluding supervision, bosses could now reclassify workers as “supervisors,” thereby exempting them from union membership; and by de-fanging the security clause, 22 states now have right-to-work laws....

"....while it became the law of the land despite the veto of President Harry Truman, it was congressional Democrats who assured its passage. Liberals and progressives like to place the blame on anti-union Republicans, but it was the Democrats themselves who pushed it across the finish line.

"Fact: A majority of the Democrats in congress voted to override Truman’s veto. While many were Southerners (“Dixiecrats”), many were not. Had the Democrats simply supported their president—had they provided working people with the economic equivalent of the same privileges guaranteed to citizens under the Bill of Rights—Taft-Hartley would not have become law.

"All of which raises a question: If American voters were given the choice, how would they choose to be governed? Would they prefer that Big Business—with the blessings of a corporate-oriented government—dictated our domestic and foreign affairs? Or would they prefer giving working men and women an equal voice in determining policy?

"If regular citizens had been running the show, they never would have abandoned our manufacturing base. They never would have agreed to enrich international oligarchies at the expense of the American economy.

"Taking the greatest manufacturing power in the history of the world and dismantling it—relegating it to the role of industrial “spectator”—is something that working people would never allow to happen. Never."

So, in promoting a national manufacturing policy, make sure that working men and women have an equal voice in determining that policy.

FYII, Tuesday, July 27, 2010

2010-07-27T21:47:00Z

Arlington National Cemetery scandal of thousands of improperly marked graves involves $5.5 million spent on failed effort to computerize records and possible "contract mismanagement."

21st century reality: "returning to a 'real economy' [in the US]—one in which we make things, rather than move around complex financial products..."

Trial of military contractor for massive fraud whose sole-source body armor company was an example, even back in 2004, of contracts awarded to contractors unequipped to fulfill their requirements for reasons that too often smack of political connections during the Bush era.

How Europe builds better products for better lives; social democracies like Sweden, Germany, and France, have more industry than the US or UK that smashed their industrial base by wrecking unions.

And while the Pentagon keeps shoveling taxpayers' dollars and borrowed monies into defense contractors' sinkholes, because of lack of or ineffective oversight and accountability, the US military cannot properly account for 96% of the billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction money.

White House excuse that it is was unable to reach Shirley Sherrod was lame and unworthy.

The Wikileaks Afghan Files: "will make it still harder in future for the US and British governments to explain why they are fighting to preserve an Afghan government so rotten with corruption and brutally uncaring towards its own people"

"Just because Obama has gotten comfy with the idea of endless funds [i.e. supplementals] for war doesn't mean that Congress and the rest of us need to mirror that inertia."

A Tuesday Moment of Ah

2010-07-27T21:45:00Z

Sometimes, we all need a few minutes of distraction, especially in this economic climate.

This should bring a smile to your face. Enjoy.

A Hopeless Future Ahead for Many Americans?

2010-07-27T21:42:00Z

As we head towards August, the unemployment news continues to be terrible with no 21st New Deal jobs programs on the horizon.

And the Obama administration proves to be the antithesis of the FDR New Deal and continues to confirm that it is DINO through and through.

It's disappointing and depressing, especially with the following facts Danny Schecter includes in a recent article at Consortium News:

"....last week we learned that the bankers siphoned off $1.2 billion for their own bonuses from government bailout funds. They were scolded but no one is demanding the money be paid back.

"We also learned that the total bailout for the banksters was not just $700 billion but a whopping $3.7 TRILLION once you factor in the Federal Reserve’s assistance, et. al.

"And on top of that, companies are making money by hoarding cash, not creating jobs.

"Unemployment is worse than we know. The Daily Finance site reports that the firm TechnoMetrica which monitors the stats is finding the real figures shocking.

“The June poll turned up 27.8% of households with at least one member who's unemployed and looking for a job, while the latest poll conducted in the second week of July showed 28.6% in that situation. That translates to an unemployment rate of over 22%, says Mayur, who has started questioning the accuracy of the Labor Department's jobless numbers.”

"Business insider cites these statistics:

--83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

--61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

--66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1 percent of all Americans.

--36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

--A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

--24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

--Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.

--Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975

"While the middle class is shrinking, their wealth is being transferred to the rich. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has been livid in denouncing this:

“ 'The 400 richest families in America, who saw their wealth increase by some $400 billion during the Bush years, have now accumulated $1.27 trillion in wealth. Four hundred families!

'During the last 15 years, while these enormously rich people became much richer their effective tax rates were slashed almost in half. While the highest paid 400 Americans had an average income of $345 million in 2007, as a result of Bush tax policy, they now pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest on record.

'Last year, the top 25 hedge fund managers made a combined $25 billion but because of tax policy their lobbyists helped write, they pay a lower effective tax rate than many teachers, nurses, and police officers.' ”

FYII, Monday, July 26, 2010

2010-07-26T22:04:00Z

The Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs provide a devastating portrait of that failing war; the documents shed light on that which has been hidden from the public eye; a bleaker picture than that painted by the government both under Bush and Obama; meanwhile the documents suggest Pakistan military spy service aids Afghan insurgents.

And the founder of Wilileaks "rebuts White House criticism."

War logs show "targeted killings" by US "commandos" are often unsuccessful and sometimes result in the killing of friendly forces and civilians; and "are increasingly being used far from any battle zone".

Greed and cowardice killed action on climate change; however, "if anything is deserving of blame, it is the cap and trade strategy itself."

15 hour DC power outage wouldn't have happened if government gave people work. but the power failure confirms the failure of power.

Red flags popping up in relationship between teachers and the Obama administration.

Tony Hayward's departure won't change much at BP; it's policy of secrecy and disinformation still reigns.

Letting Bush Tax Breaks for the Rich Expire Should Be a No-Brainer for Democrats

2010-07-26T21:55:00Z

The Democrats in Washington need to be doing more, and more, and more of this. They're supposed to uphold Democratic Party values: the common good and general welfare of all, government of, by, and for all not just the few.

From the Washington Post: "President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are setting the stage for a high-stakes battle over taxes in the final weeks before the November congressional elections, betting that their plan to eliminate tax breaks for the wealthy will resonate with voters who have lost houses and jobs to what many see as an era of Wall Street greed.

"Democrats, facing the potential loss of their majorities on Capitol Hill, believe that the strategy will both force Republicans to defend tax breaks for a tiny, wealthy minority and expose GOP hypocrisy on budget deficits.

"Although they have blamed Democrats for record budget deficits, most Republican lawmakers want to extend all of the tax cuts, adding at least $2 trillion over the next decade to the national debt. President Obama and senior Democrats want to extend the cuts only for families making less than $250,000 a year."

As Howie Klein at Down With Tyranny reminds us: "Time for the tax burden to be more fairly distributed----and come off the backs of working people.....

"In 2008, victorious Democrats running for the House, for the Senate and for President drew a clear, sharp line in the sand: Republicans stand for tax cuts for the wealthy; Democrats stand for making the rich pay their fair share of taxes in order to shift the burden off the backs of the middle class. It was an inspiring and winning formula across the country. They all focused specifically on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, campaigning on abolishing them while Republicans promised to extend them.

"So to have heard that some Democrats were getting cold feet about making the rich pay their fair share seemed like political suicide for Democrats."

He offers this example of Democrats maintaining their common good party principles while the Repuglicans try to keep the wealthy few even richer at the unfair expense of regular people.

"....reactionary South Carolina handmaiden for the wealthy and rabble-rouser for imbeciles, Jim DeMint, demagoguing against the Estate tax, while Bernie Sanders explains that the Estate tax is an attempt to "provide one trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top three-tenths of one percent. 99.7% of the American people do not get a nickel. In the end DeMint's amendment was defeated 39-59
with only the two most reactionary Democrats voting with the GOP, habitual aisle crossers and asskissers to wealthy donors, Blanche Lincoln (AR) and Ben Nelson (NE)."

Letting Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy expire is a no-brainer. No real Democrat should act other than to eliminate this unfair tax break for the rich or that person is not a Democrat.

FYII, Friday, July 23, 2010

2010-07-23T20:25:00Z

There's a reason BP was dubbed "Blair's Petroleum"; Blair involved in trading Lockerbie terrorist for Libyan oil.

The wimpy Obama administration's obeisance to and fear of the punditocracy, especially of the right wing, only confirms that it is an administration filled with Washington insiders averse to any change.

GOP revisionist Bush history or polishing a turd.

The illogical, crazy yet powerfully influential corporate front groups in Washington are listened to by an illogical, tone deaf to the common good DINO administration.

"Unemployment extension won't help the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Pentagon officials and contractors with high security clearances involved in child porn scandal, some of whom used government computers to obtain the illegal materials.

With "Democrats" like this......

Obama and the killed climate bill.

Even Considering the Source, Quit With the "both sides do it" Horse Patooties

2010-07-23T20:22:00Z

In case you haven't noticed, I very rarely post anything that comes from Politico. That is because the stupidity and unsound journalistic practices of Politico, which is unquestionably a biased source of news, can be traced to those who fund and run it....right wing, scandal ridden Reaganite Repugs and their flunkies.

As Glenn Greenwald wrote in 2007: "In the middle of an article by The Politico's Mike Allen regarding last night's GOP presidential debate, one finds this paragraph:

She [Nancy Reagan] was escorted out of the hall by Frederick J. Ryan Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, and president and CEO of The Politico.

"So the President and CEO of The Politico, Frederick Ryan, is also the Board Chairman for the Reagan Library. And that makes sense, because Ryan is a long-time, hard-core Reaganite.

"There is nothing wrong per se with hard-core political operatives running a news organization. Long-time Republican strategist Roger Ailes oversees Fox News, of course. But it seems rather self-evident that a news organization run by someone with such clear-cut political biases ought to have a hard time holding itself out as some sort of politically unbiased source of news. [Bold added.]

"The Politico's biggest boosters are Matt Drudge and George W. Bush, and it is run by a Reagan loyalist. At the very least, those facts are worth considering. Given that Editor-in-Chief John Harris has repeatedly vowed to be more "transparent" in how they conduct themselves, shouldn't we have some understanding of the role played by Ryan, and what his connection is to "Allbritton Communications," whose "deep pockets" are (partially? fully?) financing The Politico?

"The Politico's primary (perhaps sole) funding source is the Allbritton Company, of which Frederick Ryan is an employee. The Allbritton family's leader, Joe, was CEO of Riggs Bank when Riggs pleaded guilty to a series of illegal financial transactions with right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his brutal military that took place throughout the 1990s and into 2001."

So it's annoying as hell when Politico and its ilk plus talking heads like "Tweetybird" Matthews generalize about the "new media," insisting that "both sides [left and right] do it" which is blatantly misleading and a load of horse patooties. Right wing bloggers and media are notorious for habitually disseminating lies and disinformation; a clearly one-sided, reactionary practice but according to Politico done by "both sides."

Digby explains: "This Politico analysis of the problem with new media is very interesting. They use this week's "Journolist" leaks and the Breitbart mess as examples of how "both sides do it." That the first is the result of a right wing web site peddling off-the-record emails and the second is the result of a right wing web site peddling lies doesn't seem to inhibit their conclusion one bit. In fact, they go out of their way to point out that one of the experts they consult, Deborah Tannen, wrongly sees this more as a one-sided phenomenon.

"The fact is that partisan blogs are partisan. I'm not sure why that's even worthy of comment. But one side has a habit of unethical behavior by any standard --- making things up, editing to create a wrong impression --- and the other doesn't, [bold added] which the Politico manages to elide throughout the piece. Indeed, the entire analysis fails to even address this particular aspect of the story. Evidently, they've decided that it just doesn't matter --- it's part of the "landscape."

"In the end they pretty much say Breitbart rules their world and that there's nothing to be done about it. Indeed, they seem to be warmly embracing it --- may a million right wing hit sites bloom. And I think we can count on Politico uncritically covering each and every bogus story they print."

FYII, Thursday, July 22, 2010

2010-07-23T02:40:00Z

State Department to field corporate contractor mercenaries in Iraq.

"The major bills before Congress to regulate greenhouse gases to combat global climate change suffer from "multiple unfixable flaws" that undermine their effectiveness...."

"Obama to women: 'I am not your friend.' "

"Reputation assassination": Fixed Noise spewing 24 hours of feces, along with other right wing scum like Andrew Breitbart , that punked this wimpy administration. and the lack of integrity of the rest of the lemming like media.

"Another audacious whitewash at the DOJ"

The realities of heroism and military service...."as our media and our culture seek to elevate our troops into the pantheon of demi-gods....simply want to survive and come home with their bodies, their minds, and their buddies intact..."

"The Tea Party is a protofascist movement."

BP and Transocean witnesses decline to appear at hearing; interesting timing...just when NYT published story about workers voicing concerns about safety at Deepwater Horizon and feared reprisals.

Meanwhile, the revolving door is set at high speed: three out of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for the federal government.

"Seize BP"...."Obama could have demanded seizure of BP’s assets, but he didn’t. He could have dispatched Department of Justice lawyers to charge into court to collect the tens of billions of dollars of fines and penalties already accrued to date under the Clean Water Act and other legislation, but he opted not. The U.S. Congress could have, by now, enacted legislation lifting BP’s immunity for economic damages under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, but they have merely fiddled about."

Frugal minded consumers charging less on credit cards should beware: issuers punishing them by increasing non-penalty fees.

DINOs in Washington Either Ignoring or Only Using a Squirt Gun on Unemployment Conflagration

2010-07-23T02:38:00Z

We have an unemployment crisis of massive proportions with tragic consequences. The people of the United States desperately need a 21st century New Deal.

But instead of Democrats fighting to put people to work, we have spineless DINOs acting like Republicans and/or in cahoots with the GOP.

As Art Levine writes at Working, In These Times:

"While pundits and Democratic leaders give lip-service to the notion that more needs to be done as they celebrate the victory over the GOP, [regarding unemployment benefits extension] the reality is that there's no urgency in Washington to create more jobs, the real solution to unemployment.

"Even as mainstream and progressive economists such as Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz have issued a new call for urgent stimulus spending now and putting off deficit cutting, Washington remains fixated on deficits and long-term debt, instead of the lost revenues, economic blight and wasted lives caused by unemployment.

".....the small-bore extension of unemployment, while clearly helpful, doesn't address the deeper economic chasm that is well on its way to destroying the career opportunities of an entire generation:

" 'In February on our site [ourfuture.org] we began calling for a plan to create 402,000 jobs a month over three years. It is true that such a level of job creation, sustained month after month, would be extraordinary by today's standards. But if President Obama and Congress had at least tried, the political arguments at center stage would be over bold interventions that would make working-class people in Nevada, Michigan, California, Rhode Island, Florida and Mississippi--all states where the June unemployment rate was 11 percent or higher--believe that some real leadership was being exerted on their behalf.

" 'Instead, Democrats are congratulating themselves that they have successfully gotten extended unemployment benefits past the "hell-no-you-can't" Republicans, but are not marshaling themselves or the progressive base in fighting what should be the real war: a program that moves the economy toward that 400,000-jobs-a-month goal through investments in infrastructure, investments in people, clean energy legislation and rational tax policies.' "

Robert Reich weighs in with this commentary:

"The 1.5 dip recession should cause the President to demand a large-scale national jobs program including a new WPA that gets millions of Americans back to work even if government has to pay their wages directly. Included would be zero-interest loans to strapped states and locales, so they didn’t have to cut vital services and raise taxes. They could repay when the economy picked up and revenues came in. The national jobs program would also include a one-year payroll tax holiday on the first $20,000 of income.

"The President should stop talking and acting on anything else – not the deficit, not energy, not the environment, not immigration, not implementing the health care law, not education. He should make the whole upcoming mid-term election a national referendum on putting Americans back to work, and his jobs bill. Are you for it or against it?

"But none of this is happening. The hawks and blue dogs are still commanding the attention. Herbert Hoover’s ghost seems to have captured the nation’s capital. We’re back to 1932 (or 1937) and the prevailing sentiment is government can’t and mustn’t do anything but aim to reduce the deficit, even though the economy is going down."

He says the following about Ben Bernanke who was part of the greedy financial industry disaster for which regular Americans are now suffering (yet re-upped for a second term at the Fed courtesy of President Obama who was either clueless or incompetent):

"He [Bernanke] admitted unemployment would probably remain high for a long time, and the likelihood of growth was 'weighted to the downside,' which in Fed-Speak means we’re still in trouble. And he said the Fed still has the tools to do what’s needed if the economy needs more help.

"But would he use the tools now? No. 'We need to look at them carefully to make sure we’re comfortable with any steps that we take,' This is like the captain of the Titanic looking carefully at his lifeboats to make sure he’s comfortable with using them as the ship starts sinking.

Absolutely unconscionable and disgusting.

FYII, Wednesday, July 21, 2010

2010-07-21T23:50:00Z

Gutless Washington Democrats scared of the prevaricating, right wing media...first time it was ACORN, this time a USDA employee. What a bunch of sniveling cowards.

Even though warned that the Massachusetts health care plan was a failure, Obama and crew used it as a model for its Rube Goldberg "reform" which will also turn out to be a failure as the private for profit health insurers will make out like bandits at the expense of regular people.

Dem leadership forcing Dems on Capitol Hill to vote for Obama's Rube Goldberg health care bill may cost some swing district Dems their seats this November.

As President Obama signs a loopholed filled financial "reform" bill that polishes a turd and does nothing to stop Wall Street casino business as usual, much of what needed to be done will be conveniently forgotten in deference to Washington's financial industry controllers.

Washington at its best...Republican senators who share the blame for an economic collapse, drawing healthy salaries and generous health care and pension benefits, telling the unemployed workers who were victims of their incompetence, that they can't get $300 a week in benefits....." These Senate Repugs "continue to file a bunch of motions that could delay the vote on extending unemployment benefits for as long as another day."

".....any serious discussion about immigration must address the reasons why people are obliged to emigrate," such as misguided US economic policies like NAFTA.

News outlets close to suing Obama administration over Gitmo rules, some Kafkaesque.....not much has changed under the new administration.

Spineless Washington Pols Need to Catch up to Strong Grassroots Demands for Bold Action for the Common Good

2010-07-21T23:45:00Z

Those conservative Republicans continue to beat the drum about high taxes and the need to continue tax cuts for the rich. Well, as usual, when these GOP right wing nuts move their mouths, they're lying.

David Cay Johnston writes at Tax.com: "The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the income tax rates they paid fell to a record low, newly disclosed tax data show.

"Since 1992, the bottom 90 percent of Americans have seen their incomes rise by 13 percent in 2009 dollars, compared with an increase of 399 percent for the top 400.

"The report shows that the number of the top 400 who paid an effective tax rate of 0 percent to 10 percent declined slightly, to 25 in 2007 from 31 in 2006. In 1992 only 6 of the top 400 paid an effective income tax rate of less than 10 percent.

"Another 127 paid 10 percent to 15 percent in 2007, up from 113 in 2006.

"Only 33 of the top 400 paid an effective tax rate of 30 percent to 35 percent, which is the maximum federal tax rate."

However, these unfair, low tax rates just don't seem to be enough for the wealthy few, tax evasion is still rampant among gazillionaire multinational corporations and banks.

Pat Garofalo at WonkRoom writes:

"According to a new report from Business and Investors Against Tax Haven Abuse, an organization backed by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) that is seeking to end tax avoidance and evasion, multinational corporations and banks are ducking $37 billion annually in taxes:

Fifty years ago, corporate income taxes accounted for 23.2% of federal government receipts, and individual income tax payments were less than twice those of large corporations’ tax payments. Today, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget estimates corporate tax receipts will account for just 7.2% of federal revenues in 2010, with large corporations contributing less than one-sixth as much as small business and individual taxpayers to the Federal Treasury (small businesses most often pay taxes according to their owner’s individual tax rates).

"Eighty-three of the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. corporations and 63 of the 100 largest federal contractors have at least one subsidiary in a tax haven, the report says. Companies as different as Goldman Sachs, Safeway, and Liberty Mutual all share a common penchant for tax dodging. Such widespread avoidance simply shifts the tax burden onto law abiding individuals and businesses, who ultimately have to pay more to make up for the lost revenue.

"Of course, doing anything to crack down on tax evasion means incurring the wrath of the Chamber of Commerce and Big Business community, which continually fearmonger about the effect of taking such steps to ensure that companies pay the tax rate that is on the books."

Such economic inequality and unfairness justly angers regular struggling Americans, those working for stagnant wages and those tens of millions unemployed.

The reality is that spineless government leadership needs to catch up to and keep pace with, not ignore and diss, the strong, grassroots people of this country.

As Jim Hightower writes: "Right-wing Republicans and corporate Democrats have become a pathetic bunch of 'No-can-do Nancys.'

"Faced with an economy reeling from the plutocratic policies that these same lawmakers pushed down upon us, they are now whimpering that America is too weak to meet the obvious needs of its own people. "We must surrender to the Gods of Economic Despair," they cry. At a time when history calls for our leaders to step forth with a bit of FDR boldness and rally grassroots people to rebuild our economy, they trumpet for retreat, giving up on America's historic ideal of the common good.

"A jobs program? 'Everyone for themselves,' they shout. Health care for all? 'Go to the emergency room,' they scream. Social Security? 'Socialism,' they screech, 'run away from it!' Public education? 'Can't afford it,' they tell us, as they turn their backs on hundreds of thousands of teachers soon to be fired. Repair America's rotting infrastructure? 'Too big for us, ' they wail, 'leave it to the next generation.'

"Wagging teabags rather than picking up the tools of real recovery, the woeful voices of American failure insist that they speak for the People. Hogwash. Americans are a strong, community-minded, democratic-spirited, can-do people. Indeed, the latest Gallop poll shows that 60 percent of the public favors 'additional government spending to create jobs and stimulate the economy.'

" 'But we must balance the budget,' whine the naysayers. Of course we should, and big majorities say we should do that by putting people to work, taxing the superrich to pay their fair share of Social Security and other public needs, as well as by slashing the $12 billion a month we're spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It's time for our "leaders" to stop whining – and catch up to the people."

And it's time for voters to pick elected officials from among the people, not wealthy DINOs, but real 21st century New Deal Democrats.

FYII, Tuesday, July 20, 2010

2010-07-21T00:13:00Z

A word to those GOP hypocrites still blocking unemployment benefits for millions of people...

GOP estate tax lies continue as Republicans keep taxes low for the very rich.

"The economy desperately needs action on job creation.....assuming the trend rate of growth in the labor force, the unemployment rate will not fall back to the pre-recession level until April 2021."

BP has poisoned the Gulf's food chain

"U.S. workers have been forced to bear the brunt of the current economic crisis, though they had no part in causing it."

How DINOs like Dodd and Geithner keep corruption alive and well in Washington.

Bushite hypocrites keep rolling along spreading their lies.

Privatization of Government, Corporations/Government Merger, Without Accountability to the People, is a Scary Reality

2010-07-21T00:10:00Z

The privatization of government is almost complete, especially when it comes to national security.

Frighteningly, it operates without accountability to we the people,

And it should cause the utmost concern among this country's citizens.

As Glenn Greenwald writes at Salon about the Washington Post series on private corporations performing core military and intelligence functions: ".....we have a Secret Government of 854,000 people so vast and secret that nobody knows what it does or what it is. Roughly 30% of that Secret Government -- engaged in the whole litany of functions from spying to killing -- is composed of private corporations: "The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors." That there is a virtually complete government/corporate merger when it comes to the National Security and Surveillance State is indisputable: "Private firms have become so thoroughly entwined with the government's most sensitive activities that without them important military and intelligence missions would have to cease or would be jeopardized."

"Relying upon profit-driven industry for the defense and intelligence community's "core mission" is to ensure that we have Endless War and an always-expanding Surveillance State. After all, the very people providing us with the "intelligence" that we use to make decisions are the ones who are duty-bound to keep this War Machine alive and expanding because, as the Post put it, they are "obligated to shareholders rather than the public interest." Our military, our CIA, our spying agencies (such as NSA) are every bit corporate as they are governmental: in some cases more so. So complete is the merger that it's the same people who switch seamlessly back and forth between governmental agencies and their private "partners," which means we have not only a vast Secret Government, but one that operates with virtually no democratic accountability and is driven not by National Security concerns but by its own always-expanding private profits.

"If we empower a massive private industry this way -- with core governmental authorities -- to gorge on unchecked power and huge private profits at the public expense, all derived from Endless War and civil liberties abridgments, why would one expect anything other than Endless War and civil liberties abridgments to be the inevitable outcome?"

Jeremy Scahill comments at The Nation: "The Post does a fine job of exploring the scope of the privatization and providing some new or updated statistics....It was also hilarious to read CIA director Leon Panetta—who just gave Blackwater a brand new $100 million global CIA contract—act like he is anything other than a contractor addict. "For too long, we've depended on contractors to do the operational work that ought to be done" by CIA employees, Panetta told the Post. But replacing them "doesn't happen overnight. When you've been dependent on contractors for so long, you have to build that expertise over time." Panetta told the Post he was concerned about contracting with corporations, whose responsibility "is to their shareholders, and that does present an inherent conflict." I wonder if the Blackwater guys working for Panetta can contain their laughter reading those statements. I imagine them taping a post-it note that says "Kick me" on Panetta's back and then chuckling about it with the Lockheed contractors.

"In reality, there is little in the Post series that, in one way or another, has not already been documented by independent journalist Tim Shorrock, author of the (actually) groundbreaking book, Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. With the exception of some details and a lot of color, much of what I have read in the Post's series thus far I had already read in Shorrock's book and his previous reporting for Salon, Mother Jones and The Nation. Shorrock was the reporter who first revealed the extent of the radical privatization of intel operations. In 2007, Shorrock obtained and published a document from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence showing that 70 percent of the US intelligence budget was spent on private contractors. Shorrock was way out in front of this story and, frankly, corporate media ignored it.

"The Post and its reporters, Shorrock told me, "are doing their best to obfuscate what contractors really do for US intelligence. They're eight years behind and still haven't caught up. Basically their stories are throwing big numbers at readers—such as the fact that of 854,000 people with top security clearances, 265,000 are contractors. But that's work that can be done by interns; there's virtually nothing in their series about the broader picture—like what it means to have private for-profit companies operating at the highest levels of our national security."

"Much of the series reads like a description of the mundane work of analysts and IT people with the types of stats Shorrock mentioned thrown in.....

"....what about the contractors who have tortured prisoners, flown rendition flights and participated in lethal "direct actions" ie assassination operations?

"Perhaps the Post plans to publish a story called "Top Top Super Duper Triple-Decker Secret America" where the paper actually delves deep into the outsourcing of assassinations, torture, rendition, interrogation and "find fix and finish" operations..."

More FYI, Monday, July 19, 2010

2010-07-20T00:37:00Z

For many older Americans, their golden years won't be: the retirement years.

The US government has become a secret, surveillance state hiding behind the cloak of national security.

"Obama isn’t a socialist. Not even close....But we’d be a lot better of in this country if he were."

Pesky facts bothering some media types that emerge in Oliver Stone's new film documentary, "South of the Border," such as "the American government and media have both been kind to dictators who allowed the United States to get cheap deals on resources in their country at the expense of the natives there."

The people speak and don't follow the right wing, corporate funded script.

Why the surprise that the political class doesn't listen to ordinary citizens.

Democrats in Washington Have Betrayed Traditional Populist Democratic Party Values

2010-07-20T00:32:00Z

This is not your grandparents' Democratic Party. It is certainly not the 21st century New Deal. This current "Democratic" Party led by Obama and the so called leadership on Capitol Hill is not just a shadow of its former self, but more a shadow of the GOP rather than the populist, common good people's party it was formerly known for and proud of.

Roger Bybee at Working, In These Times writes: "The Republicans are brazenly displaying their loyalty to the richest 1 percent of Americans by fighting to extend George W. Bush's tax cuts at the very same time they oppose an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

"So why aren't Democratic leaders jubilant about the chance to exploit the Republicans' naked act of class warfare? After all, the Republicans, in the midst of severe economic hardship, are supporting more wealth for those who need it least?

"Unforunately, there's good reason for the Democrats' pessimism, based on their shabby treatment of their most excited and hopeful voters. This is bound to be a crucial factor shaping who shows up at the polls in a non-presidential year.

"Perhaps top Democrats are finally recognizing the huge "enthusiasm gap" between their now demoralized, drifting constituents and the ferocious and focused activism of the Republican base.

"Obama entered the White House facing an unprecedented level of problems, but he also had an extraordinarily involved and well-organized base of voters. But the White House has taken these voters for granted while playing for legitimacy with Wall Street. For example, It's amazing to recall that just weeks before the BP disaster Obama had capitulated to endorsing off-shore drilling.

"If the Democrats had more credibility as tough fighters willing to risk anything for working people hammered by Wall Street, they would be much better positioned to use the current situation to dramatize the distinctions between the two parties as we head toward November's elections."

But they aren't fighters for regular people. The current members of the Democratic Party in the White House and on Capitol Hill are mostly DINOs, many of whom are millionaires more concerned, like their colleagues in the GOP, with their wealthy, powerful cronies in the military-industrial complex and the Wall Street casino driven financial industry......the hell with the struggling people on Main Street.

As Jon Walker observes at Firedoglake:

"On ' Meet the Press,' Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, inadvertently admitted how mediocre the new health care law is when he attacked Republican Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposal for Medicare. The new health care law creates a system of expanding coverage by forcing people to buy poorly regulated private health insurance and providing subsidies or vouchers to make it more affordable.

"Rep. Ryan’s 'Roadmap for America's Future' would completely eliminate Medicare and replace it with a system similar to the new health care law’s exchanges for individuals and small businesses. Seniors would no longer just directly receive government health insurance from the popular Medicare program. Instead, just like those who buy from new exchanges, they would receive government subsidies and be required to buy their own individual coverage from the private insurance companies.

"Van Hollen correctly argues that government-run, single-payer Medicare is a much better way to provide health insurance than subsidized individual private insurance plans. Yet, during the health care fight, he never advocated for the simple solution of expanding Medicare to the uninsured. He promoted a law that used an idea—from the Republicans—to make vouchers for private insurance.

"If Ryan’s plan is 'throwing seniors over to the insurance industry,' then, by default, the new health care law Van Hollen supported is throwing the uninsured and individuals under 65 over to the insurance industry. It is too bad that it’s only after passage that Van Hollen finally, accidentally, admits the new law’s way to expand coverage is absurd compared with implementing single-payer public health insurance.

However, this is what the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled Congress did with their Rube Goldberg fiasco of a health care "reform" bill, with a diluted, not effective enough stimulus, and a pitiful financial "reform" bill that changes very little. They betrayed traditional Democratic Party values in favor of DINO/GOP policies.

Instead of being 21st century New Deal tough Democratic fighters "willing to risk anything for working people hammered by Wall Street" and the Bush administration, they are spineless DINOs caving to minority Republicans and corporate controllers while protecting, imitating, and embracing many of destructive and despicable policies and philosophies of the Republican Party, former GOP administrations, and triangulating DINO Clintonites.

No wonder the real Democratic base is disgusted.

FYII, Monday, July 19, 2010

2010-07-20T00:29:00Z

Social and economic justice principles means no sweatshop at this garment factory.

Since Obama's policy to help homeowners relies on the flow of money from taxpayers to banks – and unsurprisingly, it isn't working, maybe we should just end the discussion and make the banks work for their money instead of relying on taxpayer handouts.

The myth of retraining in the 21st century and this economy: still unemployed

"US leadership is clearly divided on the merits of staying in Afghanistan, but cannot work out how to withdraw without too great a loss of face....Dressing up a withdrawal as some sort of success will be far more difficult" than in Iraq.

Right wing Netanyahu said US was easy to manipulate and discussed how to undermine the Oslo Accords.

Obama & failed with Chicago charter schools Arnie Duncan's worse that Bush education fiasco....WH suggest cutting food stamps to pay for it, which is absolutely unconscionable and/or states and localities must fire administrators and teachers to qualify for funds which is stupid.

After Bush's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the pull-out of US combat troops leaves behind a country that is a barely floating, dysfunctional wreck, with no US objectives achieved.

Despite seepage, unexplained by Cmdr. Thad Allen, government allows BP to test, and keep Gulf well shut.

It bears repeating that Obama's selection and retention of the Wall Street protector, Tim Geithner, says a lot about Obama, none of it flattering.

FYII, Friday, July 16, 2010

2010-07-17T00:16:00Z

Tim Geithner, Wall Street's pal, opposes Elizabeth Warren to head new consumer protection agency.

Hold off on applauding BP's well cap...a lot could go wrong and BPs lies and greed haven't suddenly evaporated,no matter how much the government acquiesces to BP.

"The solution to our fiscal situation is: end the wars, allow the tax cuts to expire and restore robust growth. Our long-term structural deficits will require us to control healthcare inflation the way countries with single-payer systems do.....Conservatives and their neoliberal allies don't really care about deficits; they care about austerity—about gutting the welfare state and redistributing wealth upward.

The "staggering gap" between CEO and workers' pay has resulted in workplaces that are "nasty, brutish and short."

"Self-pitying sociopaths": Jay Bybee, Bushite torture authorizer, and Tony Hayward, BP, environmental killer.

Photographic evidence, objective polling, public statements by leaders, "show that a majority — not some tiny minority — of Teabaggers have serious issues with race."

As Greenspan calls for Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire, those he helped create, don't forget the terrible things Alan Greenspan did.

Financial Reform Bill: Much Ado About Almost Nothing...Casino Business As Usual on Wall Street

2010-07-17T00:14:00Z

No reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, but Congress and Obama will make much ado about a financial reform bill that substantively changes very little on Wall Street.

They've succeeded in protecting their financial industry controllers at the expense of Main Street. Casino business as usual on Wall Street....defrauding and robbing the American people.

Robert Reich comments: "Thursday the President pronounced that “because of this [financial reform] bill the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.”

"As if to prove him wrong, Goldman Sachs simultaneously announced it had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to pay $550 million to settle federal claims it misled investor — a sum representing a mere 15 days profit for the firm based on its 2009 earnings. Goldman’s share price immediately jumped 4.3 percent, and the Street proclaimed its chair and CEO, Lloyd (“Goldman is doing God’s work”) Blankfein, a winner. Financial analysts rushed to affirm a glowing outlook for Goldman stock.

".....the main point is that the Goldman settlement reveals everything that’s weakest about the financial reform bill."

(Note: And the Obama administration "almost employs more Goldman Sachs officials in financial and regulatory positions than Goldman Sachs itself does.")

Reich continues: "Reliance on the discretion of regulators rather than structural changes in the banking system plays directly into the hands of the big banks and their executives and traders who contribute mightily to Democratic and Republican campaigns.

"Make no mistake: As long as there’s no fundamental change in the structure of Wall Street — as long as the big banks stay as big and are allowed to grow bigger, and have every incentive to invent new financial gimmicks with which to bet other peoples’ money — they will remain too big to fail, and too politically powerful to control.

"Congress has labored mightily to produce a mountain of legislation that can be called financial reform, but it has produced a molehill relative to the wreckage Wall Street wreaked upon the nation."

Andy Kroll at Mother Jones writes: "Finally, new regulators won't do anything to stop the financial sector from exerting its influence over Washington and the regulators themselves. During the 2000s, we saw plenty of financial regulators—SEC, CFTC, Treasury, OTS—fall victim to what's called regulatory capture, when the regulated overpower the regulators. There's nothing in Dodd-Frank to prevent future regulatory capture.

"There's no doubting that Dodd-Frank is a major legislative accomplishment, the crowning moment in Connecticut senator Chris Dodd's long career. But will it prevent the next financial crisis? The chances don't look good."

And from Jonathan Tasini at Working Life: "...the passage of what I believe is a weak financial "reform" bill. Not only were key parts of consumer protection gutted and a strong so-called Volcker rule eliminated. The game remains the same.

"Remember, even back in 'the good 'ole' says of Wall Street, we, the people suffered. Nothing in this bill will stop Wall Street from continuing to be the financial engine behind the unwinding of the American Dream. Wall Street will continue to finance leveraged buyouts and corporate takeovers which are based heavily on debt--which has resulted in the shedding of millions of good-paying jobs and will continue to create the same sick dynamic in the financial system whereby the 'health of a company' is measured by its stock price, not by how well the workers are doing.

"The robbery of America continues."

FYII, Thursday, July 15, 2010

2010-07-15T20:19:00Z

"A severe shortage of jobs...job seekers face intolerable odds."

The Obama administration loves the revolving door politics that it scorned during his campaign: it almost employs more Goldman Sachs officials in financial and regulatory positions than Goldman Sachs itself does. One of the first acts of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was to hire a BP executive to serve as a deputy administrator for land and minerals management.

"Austerity: Why and For Whom? A capitalist system that generates so massive a crisis, spreads it globally, and then proposes mass austerity to "overcome" it has lost the right to continue unchallenged."

"When will greedy, corrupt BP plug the damn hole?" Too busy recovering from its intense, successful lobbying/bribing for UK government release of the Lockerbie bomber to protect a $900 million offshore oil-and-gas exploration deal off Libya’s Mediterranean coast.

Democrats have failed to govern, instead, they've wallowed in filibuster fantasies.

Watered down financial "reform" bill passes without any reinstatement of Glass-Steagall.

"....common-sense immigration reform could 'raise the floor' for the whole workforce, provided that it is supported with rigorous labor standards and protections for all."

Wal-Mart isn't the answer: "solution to food security in America must come through a revitalized food economy...."

Obama Scam: Former Wellpoint Exec Hired to Implement Taxpayer Funded Giveaway to Private Insurers Like Wellpoint

2010-07-15T20:13:00Z

Anyone who doubts that the Democratic base has been scammed by Obamaand his administration, anyone who doubts that he is a corporatist,anyone who doubts that he is a DINO surrounding himself with othercorrupt DINOs read on:

The Obama administration has hired former Wellpoint executive whohelped draft the Orwellian Rube Goldberg "health care bill" that willgive billions to the profit making private health insurance insurancecrooks taking it from the pockets of struggling, regular Americans.

No wonder US health care continues to miserably fail when compared to most other industrialized nations whose inhabitants are covered by universal, quality health care.

From David Sirota at Open Left: "From the Department of You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up, check out this little-noticed report from the Billings Gazette today:

" 'Liz Fowler, a key staffer for U.S. Sen. Max Baucuswho helped draft the federal health reform bill enacted in March, isjoining the Obama administration to help implement the new law...
'Fowler headed up a team of 20-some Senate Finance Committeestaffers who helped draft the bill in the Senate. She was Baucus' tophealth care aide from 2001-2005 and left that job in 2006 tobecome an executive at WellPoint, the nation's largest private insurer.She was vice president of public policy at WellPoint, helping developpublic-policy positions for the company. In 2008, she rejoined Baucusto work on health reform legislation.' "

"For some good background on Fowler and the insidious role she playedin killing the public option, watch Bill Moyers' recent segment here.

"Clearly, this is a telling indictment of the health care lawitself, strongly suggesting that it was constructed by the Obamaadministration - as some progressives argued - as a massivetaxpayer-financed giveaway to private insurers like Wellpoint. Andlet's be honest: In investment terms, Fowler has been a jackpot for thehealth industry. The industry maximized her public policy experiencefor their own uses when they plucked her out of the Senate. Then,having lined her pockets, they deposited her first into a key Senatecommittee to write the new health care law that they will operateunder, and now into the administration that will implement said law.Any bets on how much Fowler will make when Wellpoint (or another healthinsurer) inevitably rehires her in a few years?

"This story is also a telling indictment of the Washingtonmedia. You'll notice that the Obama administration's move was reportedby the Billings Gazette, but (save for a blog entry on the Hill's website, one context-free line at the bottom of the Washington Post's gossip column, and a blurb in Congressional Quarterly's HealthBeat newsletter) was almost completely ignored by national Washington-based publications.That's not because D.C. reporters didn't know it was happening - morelikely, it is because the political press corps in the nation's capitalno longer sees this kind of revolving door corruption as even mildlyproblematic, much less newsworthy. That's how pervasive corruption isthese days - ubiquitous to the point of invisible in the eyes of mostof the so-called watchdogs."

And for the icing on the cake here's what I wrote at FYII on Tuesday: "So, who did Obama pick to replace Orzag at OMB? A Clintonite, Rubinite, Citigroup hedge fund honcho...and a lawyer. More oligarchic corporatocracy from this DINO administration."

Digby adds more: "Here's a positive headline for you from the Boston Globe:

Obama picks adviser to cut deficit

“ 'Jack’schallenge over the next few years is to use his extraordinary skill andexperience to cut down that deficit and put our nation back on afiscally responsible path. And I have the utmost faith in his abilityto achieve this goal as a central member of our economic team,' Obamasaid.

'SenateBudget Committee chairman Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, calledLew “a superb choice’’ and a person of 'the highest integrity.’'

“'He knows how to make the tough choices. And he knows how to reachacross the aisle to find bipartisan solutions,' "Conrad said.

"Obama also said this:

" 'Ata time when so many families are tightening their belts, he’s going tomake sure that the government continues to tighten its own.' "

"Any questions?"

Tensof millions of people are "tightening their belts" because they'rejobless; many of them dependent on food banks to eat; those with jobsare working for wages that have been stagnant for decades, working moreand making less.

Yet, the unemployed, who paid into unemployment compensation, arecalled lazy and told they're on their own. These people are victims ofdecades of GOP and DINO administrations' support of Wall Street greedand fraud and corporatist policies like offshoring so that now therearen't enough jobs (five applicants for every position).

And this DINO administration and DINO Congress continue to cave to theminority selfish, avaricious GOP, doing the minimum (like a diluted "stimulus") or nothingwhile they and their corporate crony multi-millionaire controllers feed at thegovernment trough.

This is sick!

FYII, July 14, 2010

2010-07-15T00:14:00Z

"U.S. casualties throughout 2010 have been the worst in the war’s history. U.S. casualty rates have actually increased steadily every year since 2001, a sign of the increasing toll the war is exacting on the American people."

"Wall Street is laundering drug money and getting away with it."

Another corporate caused environmental disaster drilling for natural gas.

David Axelrod, Obama senior advisor, another ignorant DINO hurting the American people

Those whistleblower prosecutions: "government concern over leaks is about avoiding embarrassment and other accountability...revealing what the intelligence analyst quoted by the BBC calls "the unvarnished truth" about the illegal, corrupt, and embarrassing acts it undertakes....exposure of high-level government wrongdoing..."

Tax aversion, tax cuts for the wealthy, kowtowing to privileged elites all have roots in the legacy of slavery." h/t Dave Johnson "...Citizens at 'the help' "

Phillip Morris exploits migrant tobacco workers and child labor; they are tobacco slaves.

House Minority Whip Eric "the Liar & Hypocrite" Cantor (R-VA) says federal spending doesn't create jobs "at a job fair with companies funded by the stimulus"

Just as NOAA initially stonewalled other scientists evidence of oil plumes, it continues its hoarding of information except for sharing with its apparent controller and minder, BP. It's obvious that the Obama administration tolerates and apparently encourages the NOAA and the Coast Guard's Thad "I trust Tony Harward" Allen to believe they work for BP, not the American people.

Another article on wage inequality and the enormous gap between the wealthy few and the rest of us.....but the elected millionaires in Washington and their elite side kicks aren't listening to the people.... they're planning to screw the people, again.

What a Great Country

2010-07-15T00:11:00Z

Gee, ain't this country wonderful or what!

From Laura Bassett at Huffington Post:

"When Laurie-Ellen Shumaker, 59, was laid off from her job as a lawyer for a shopping center in January of 2009, she assumed she would be hired again in no time. In addition to her impressive resume, which includes a degree from a top-tier law school and 23 years of legal experience, she has always been actively recruited for positions.

"But in the past year-and-a-half, Shumaker says she has applied to over a thousand jobs -- everything from secretary to file clerk to daycare worker -- and she has yet to be called for an interview.

" 'It's frightening,' she told HuffPost. 'Interviews are like seeking unicorns. I've even gotten a status update on two different jobs saying I'm the best qualified, but then I never hear anything after that. It's hard not to rake through one's brain trying to figure out why. Is it my age or my gender holding me back?' "

"According to data released Tuesday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were nearly 5 unemployed workers in America for every open position in May.

"Shumaker, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1997, says she has drained her savings and 401K to pay for her medical bills as well as her daughter's, who recently had to undergo a serious surgery that the insurance company refused to cover. The federal subsidy for her COBRA payments ran out last month, her COBRA coverage will run out next month, and she is expecting her unemployment benefits to run out any minute now.

" 'You never think that this situation is gonna keep going on and on and on,' she said. 'You think that you're gonna get a job. When the unemployment check first started coming in, I kinda laughed at it cause it was so low--it's like chump change. But now it's the difference between having to live in a shelter or not. It's humiliating.' "

Or how about this unemployed worker who the GOP considers a moocher and lazy: "Deborah Coleman lost her unemployment benefits in April, and now fears for millions of others if the Senate does not extend aid for the jobless.

" 'It's too late for me now,' she said, fighting back tears at the Freestore Foodbank in the low-income Over-the-Rhine district near downtown Cincinnati. 'But it will be terrible for the people who'll lose their benefits if Congress does nothing.' "

"For nearly two years, Coleman says she has filed an average of 30 job applications a day, but remains jobless.

" 'People keep telling me there are jobs out there, but I haven't been able to find them.'

"Coleman, 58, a former manager at a telecommunications firm, said the only jobs she found were over the Ohio state line in Kentucky, but she cannot reach them because her car has been repossessed and there is no bus service to those areas.

"After her $300 a week benefits ran out, Freestore Foodbank brokered emergency 90-day support in June for rent. Once that runs out, her future is uncertain.

" 'I've lost everything and I don't know what will happen to me,' she said."

Meanwhile, the elected mostly millionaire denizens on Capitol HIll with their six figure salaries, top quality quality health care coverage, retirement and other benefits courtesy of the taxpayers don't give a damn about the tens of millions of jobless, many of whom are unemployed because of Congress and their corporate cronies. Ditto the White House that changed nothing.

FYII, Tuesday, July 13, 2010

2010-07-13T23:29:00Z

So, who did Obama pick to replace Orzag at OMB? A Clintonite, Rubinite, Citigroup hedge fund honcho...and a lawyer. More oligarchic corporatocracy from this DINO administration.

UK released Lockerbie bomber for BP drilling rights in Libya.

The lies of Simpson and Bowles on the Debt/Cat Food Commission are entirely Obama's fault....it was his decision to create the commission.

BP's oil/dispersants mix causing severe symptoms: muscle spasms, heart palpitations, liver, kidney damage, etc.

Many of the frustrations of scientists under the Bush administration continue under Obama....pitiful.

80% of Americans want government to spend more to create jobs; unfortunately the DINO Obama administration and spineless Dem majority Congress don't give a damn what the majority of people want.

Two failed CEO's, now GOP candidates, try and hoodwink California voters....but you can fool some of the voters all of the time.

Butt biting GOP operative follows in the footsteps of Segretti, Atwater and Rove.

Our DINO "Free" Trade Prez Alienating the Democratic Base

2010-07-13T23:24:00Z

Another chapter in the tale of our DINO president as he enters the realm of NAFTA redux.

Remember Clinton and NAFTA rammed through Congress by Rahm Emanuel? NAFTA caused the loss of 1 million American jobs. It has been so terrible a trade policy that Hillary Clinton and even Emanuel lied about it during her presidential campaign saying she never supported it.

Well, Obama wants to continue that NAFTA trend that he obviously disingenuously campaigned against. Flip-flopper extraordinaire.

Roger Bybee writes at Working: In These Times

"Has President Obama allowed Karl Rove to design a key piece of economic strategy crafted to deeply alienate core Democratic voters four months before the crucial mid-term elections?

"The notion is of course absurd, but you have to wonder how Obama's inner circle of Wall Street-oriented geniuses—and his political advisors—dreamt up the president's new push for expanded exports via new "free-trade" agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

"Americans already have had extremely negative perceptions of free-trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has cost more than 1 million jobs since 1994. Yet precisely at a moment of extreme anxiety, President Obama and his economic advisors seem bent on further amping up the economic worries of already-insecure voters with "free-trade" proposals that the vast majority of Americans—particularly Democrats—deeply despise.

"Working families remain deeply worried about their jobs moving overseas, no extension of unemployment benefits, the prospect of home foreclosure, and how they will provide food for their families. Mike Elk summarized the results of a very recent Mark Mellman/Alliance for American Manufacturing poll on this blog:

The poll …shows that President Obama's approval rating are 11 points lower among households where a family member is employed in manufacturing than a household where no one is employed in manufacturing. That underscores a trend already noted: those most affected by the Democrats' failure to deliver on their promises of trade reform are turning against the Democratic Party.

"With South Korea alone, the Economic Policy Institute's Robert Scott has calculated that a loss of nearly 200,000 jobs would occur due to a "free trade" deal designed, above all, to protect and expand the rights of financiers and investors—not workers, consumers or the environment.

"Jumping on the free-trade bandwagon of America's corporate, media, and political elites will have profoundly negative political and practical results.

"But Obama is not only forsaking much of the Democratic voting base....More fundamentally, he is displaying the contempt for democracy that is integral to the corporate globalization mentality.

"The drive for globalization has consistently come from elites across the globe who want to insulate their privileged economic status from democratically-established laws enacted at the local and national levels to protect worker rights, safeguard consumers from toxic products, and shield the environment from corporate greed.

"The globalizers use trade agreements like NAFTA and the World Trade Organization to trump local and national democracy.

"The elites committed to corporate globalization are accustomed to mocking, marginalizing and utterly ignoring the opposition of majorities victimized by the relocation of family-supporting jobs, the brutal exploitation of the poor in nations like Mexico and China, and the undermining of democracy.

"Sad to say, it appears that Barack Obama is signing on with the globalizers—and discarding a commitment to democracy, along with Democrats' prospects for November."

To the Horrible, Disaster Causing IMF: Shut Your Pie Hole

2010-07-13T23:21:00Z

The IMF has a history of inflicting suffering and cruelty on countries it is supposed to help. It created a bloody crisis in Bolivia, and caused havoc in the emerging countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

It almost killed Argentina which, in 2004 blamed the IMF for its decade long crisis that impoverished tens of millions; while even an internal IMF report said that the organization had exacerbated the crisis in that country.

The IMF continues to hurt poor countries....it's MO is horrific. It should be completely ignored. However, like those corrupt, malicious, demented geezers, Alan Greenspan and Henry Kissinger, the IMF is given a podium on the Potomac, the land of the deficit hawks, and it is screeching for Social Security cuts.

As The Guardian reported last year: "Policies implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the global downturn further exacerbated the crisis in many countries, a leading thinktank said today.

".....the measures proposed were too restrictive for the countries involved and did not produce the longer-lasting economic growth predicted."

Dean Baker writes: "Last week the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. This one is more than a bit outrageous for two reasons.

"First, the IMF deserves a substantial share of the blame for the economic crisis that gave us big deficits in the first place. The IMF is supposed to oversee the operations of the international financial system. According to standard economic theory, capital is supposed to flow from rich countries like the United States to poor countries to finance their development. In other words, the United States should be having a trade surplus, which would correspond to the money that we are investing in poor countries to finance their development.

"However, the IMF messed up its management of financial crises so badly in the last 15 years that poor countries decided that they had to accumulate huge amounts of currency reserves in order to avoid ever being forced to deal with the IMF. This meant that capital was flowing in huge amounts in the wrong direction. One result of this reverse flow was that the United States ran a huge trade deficit instead of a trade surplus.

"The other reason that the IMF’s call for cutting Social Security benefits is infuriating is the incredible hypocrisy involved. The average Social Security benefit is just under $1,200 a month. No one can collect benefits until they reach the age of 62. By contrast, many IMF economists first qualify for benefits in their early 50s. They can begin drawing pensions at age 51 or 52 of more than $100,000 a year.

"This means that we have IMF economists, who failed disastrously at their jobs, who can draw six figure pensions at age 52, telling ordinary workers that they have to take a cut in their $14,000 a year Social Security benefits that they can’t start getting until age 62."

Like the Roman Catholic Church which lost any claim to moral authority it may have had because of its criminal cover-up of clergy child abuse, the IMF, which has been criminal in its economic and financial policies, should be isolated and ignored.

FYII, Monday, July 12, 2010

2010-07-13T00:18:00Z

You expect this stupid garbage to come from the mouth of a Republican, but not from a Democratic vice-president! With so called Democrats like these.......

"The feckless Fed"....question is why did Obama re-appoint Bernanke?

Obama's health care bill neither protects patients nor leads to affordable health care. This Orwellian Rube Goldberg fiasco holds the people of this country hostage to the profit motive of private insurers.

Social Security did not contribute to the deficit, tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations and military spending did.
"Get the money from where the money went."

The tragic consequences of torture for US soldiers.

As BP continues killing the Gulf, given their lies, why would anyone believe these corporate thieves and why is the government allowing BP police state carte blanche? Why shouldn't these execs, like those at Massey Energy and Goldman Sachs face the prospect of jail time to force responsibility?

The sophisticated cephalopod retires with its record intact....."World Cup: Defeat for Van Diver, Van Whiner and Van Thug"

Afghanistan getting worse, not better. Just as almost 50 years ago the question was why are we in Afghanistan....Why are we in Afghanistan? Why is our treasure being wasted there when it’s needed here?

The slimy GOP mantra: extend tax cuts for the rich, but not unemployment benefits for those who actually worked.