20081223
Market
- 
History
- 
Ivory
Coast
"Cocoa
hits 23-year high on supply fears." ... "Cocoa prices
on Tuesday surged to a 23-year high as speculative investors poured into
the market amid concerns about dwindling supplies from Ivory Coast, by
far the world’s largest producer." ... "Prices for cocoa have risen 70
per cent in the past year, bucking the weakness in overall commodities
prices. " -By Javier Blas
-FT.com
20081218
Barack
Obama - 
Gay
- 
Politics
- Religion
- 
Book
- 
People
- 
Children
- 
Girls
- 
Schools
- 
US
- 
Pakistan
- Palestine
- 
British
- 
Soviet
- 
Military
- History
"Three
Cups of Tea for Rick Warren." ... "Rick Warren is
providing the invocation for the [Democratic President Elect Barack Obama's]
presidential inauguration. As a pastor whose books have been read by tens
of millions of Americans and whose voice is respected by an equal or larger
number, he has tremendous influence and power. And as an open homophobe
who aggressively works to wound gay people in this country (as well as
pretty much anybody else who doesn’t believe with his own particular and
peculiar recently-invented version of Christian theology) he should be
the guy with the bull’s-eye on his back for the progressive movement."
... "But consider that metaphor for a moment. In Pakistan there are entire
regions filled with people who not only hate gays but hate Americans as
well, regardless of religion. We've tried bombing them (as the Soviets
did, and the British before them). Three consecutive Western empires have
tried threatening them, starving them, poisoning them, infiltrating them,
and overpowering them - all without success." ... "And then Greg Mortenson
came to one of their villages, had three cups of tea with them (a metaphor
for hospitality - they nursed him back to health after a mountain climbing
injury - and the title of his best-selling book), and now in dozens of
these formerly Taliban-controlled villages the people are rejecting the
Taliban, embracing modernity, and openly proclaiming themselves as our
friends." ... "His "weapon" for this conversion? He built schools for their
children, particularly their previously-banned-from-school girls." ...
"We pushed the Palestinians on the West Bank to have open and democratic
elections, assuming that because they were using the tool of our culture
(the secret ballot) they’d vote in people reflecting the values of our
culture. Instead, they voted in Hamas, a group that is openly hostile to
us and our allies. Hamas’ “weapon” for winning the hearts and minds of
the Palestinians? They supported schools, hospitals, and fed and clothed
people." ... "You’d think that we’d have learned from these experiences
- particularly those of us who call ourselves “progressives” - that you
get your desired results faster when you embrace, engage, and nurture your
“enemies” than when you physically or rhetorically bomb them." ... "Barack
Obama has learned that lesson, and is applying it in inviting Rick Warren
to perform the invocation for his inauguration. In doing so, he is reaching
out a hand to those who today are - out of fear and ignorance - pushing
away gays the same way their intellectual ancestors pushed away African
Americans when anti-miscegenation laws were supported by most of these
same “fundamentalist” Christian churches in the 1950s and 1960s." -By Thom
Hartmann -ThomHartmann.com
20081217
Poll
- Financial
- Consumer
- 
Job
- 
Rent
- 
Federal
- Debt
- History
"New
Poll Shows 63% Are Already Hurt by Downturn." ...
"The deepening recession has eroded the financial standing and optimism
of a broad swath of Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom say that they
have been hurt by the downturn and that the country has slipped into long-term
economic decline." ... "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll also found
that a rapidly increasing share of Americans -- 66 percent, up from just
over half a year ago -- are worried about maintaining their standard of
living. Nearly two in 10 said they or someone living in their household
had lost a job in the past few months, and more than a quarter said they
had their pay or hours reduced. And 15 percent said that at some point
in the past year they fell behind on their rent or mortgage." ... "The
poll captures the widening fallout from the faltering economy that policymakers
are struggling to contain. The Federal Reserve yesterday cut its target
for the federal funds rate to a range of zero to 0.25 percent, the lowest
on record." ... "The poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans support
new federal spending to stimulate the economy, and majorities of both Democrats
and Republicans back the idea." ... "Twenty-four percent approve of the
way [Republican] President Bush is handling the economy, and a similarly
paltry 23 percent approve of the broader federal response to the crisis."
... "Democrats, Republicans and independents alike are highly critical
of the federal action to address the crisis -- among each group, more than
seven in 10 disapprove. In part, the criticisms stem from skepticism that
the government has put in place adequate controls to avoid waste and fraud
in the use of federal money in the economic recovery effort." (1, 2)
-By Michael A. Fletcher and Jon Cohen with contributions
by Jennifer Agiesta -WashingtonPost
Russia
- Human
- Rights
- Politics
- History
"Rights
activists denounce Russian treason bill: They say
legislation backed by Putin is 'in the spirit of Stalin and Hitler'." ...
"Rights activists Wednesday denounced new legislation backed by Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin that would allow Russian authorities to label any government
critic a traitor, calling it a chilling throwback to times of Soviet dictator
Josef Stalin." ... "The bill, which is expected to become law, would expand
the definition of treason to include damaging Russia's constitutional order,
sovereignty or territorial integrity. That, activists said, would essentially
let authorities interpret any act against the state as treason — a crime
punishable by up to 20 years in prison." ... ""It returns the Russian justice
to the times of 1920-1950s," the activists, which included Moscow Helsinki
Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva and Civic Assistance director Svetlana Gannushkina,
said in a joint statement." ... "Alexeyeva said a person who reports government
abuses to an NGO — for example Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch
— could be deemed to have harmed Russia's interests." ... "During Putin's
eight-year presidency, the government has systematically rolled back Russia's
post-Soviet political freedoms and that has shown no signs of stopping
under Putin's successor and protege, Dmitry Medvedev."
-AP via -MSNBC
20081216
Corporate
- Government
- 
Christmas
- Debt
- History
- 
Accounting
- Politics
- Homeowners
- 
Auto
- Military
- 
Space
"Bailout
payout tops $8 trillion." ... "As the holiday season
commences, it’s worth taking stock of the last gift that [Republican] President
George W. Bush and the 110th Congress have left for U.S. [United States]
taxpayers." ... "It’s a package of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of
potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout
goodies for businesses and distressed homeowners." ... "Amid the tissue
paper:" ... "• More than $1.5 trillion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
[Corporation] loan guarantees, including a $139 billion assist to the lending
arm of General Electric Corp." ... "• $1.8 trillion in cash, tax breaks
and loan guarantees doled out from the Treasury Department to taxpayers,
financial institutions and credit companies." ... "• $300 billion for homeowners
from the Federal Housing Authority." ... "• $25 billion in assistance for
auto companies from a program overseen by the Energy Department, which
is separate from the bailout proposal that tanked last week in the Senate."
... "• And $5 trillion worth of new money, loan guarantees and loosened
lending requirements from the Federal Reserve Bank." ... "According to
Bianco Research President James Bianco, who crunched these numbers, that
amounts to more government aid and assistance than nine other historic
bailouts and big government outlays combined." ... "The New Deal, for instance,
cost an estimated $32 billion in its day, which would be about $500 billion
in today’s dollars. The Marshall Plan cost about $12.7 billion, which is
the equivalent of a paltry $115.3 billion. The Louisiana Purchase? The
French got $15 million, which would be worth about $217 billion today."
... "If you take those three items, add in the adjusted costs of the Race
to the Moon, the savings and loan crisis, the Korean War, the Iraq war,
the Vietnam War and assistance for NASA [National Aeronautics and Space
Administration ], you still get to just $3.92 trillion — not even half
of the taxpayers’ exposure today, according to Bianco." -By
Jeanne Cummings -Politico.com
via -AP
Global
- 
Climate
- History
- 
Earth
- 
Fossil
Fuel - 
Gases
- Antarctic
- 
Pacific
Ocean - US
- Britain
"NASA
reports 2008 is ninth warmest year since 1880." ...
"The year 2008 was the ninth warmest year since instrumental temperature
measurements began in 1880, and all of the nine warmest years have occurred
in the past 11 years, NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration]
reported on Tuesday." ... "The new data from NASA's Goddard Institute for
Space Studies and other government agencies on Tuesday adds to the evidence
scientists have been observing about a warming Earth as fossil fuel burning
emits heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere." ... "NASA also reported
that the January to November global temperature was 0.76 degrees Fahrenheit
above the average for the 20th Century." ... "NASA also noted that the
past year was cooler than any since 2000. Scientists note that global warming
is a steady trend, but within it there are natural variations." ... "The
NASA report noted that "Eurasia, the Arctic and the Antarctic Peninsula
were exceptionally warm, while much of the Pacific Ocean was cooler than
the long-term average." It said the relatively cooler temperature in the
tropical Pacific was due to a La Nina, the cool phase of a natural temperature
variation." ... "Britain's Met Office on Tuesday also said that La Nina
was part of the reason 2008 was slightly cooler than earlier years this
decade. By Britain's accounting, 2008 was the 10th warmest year on record
dating back to 1850, and all 10 of the warmest years occurred since 1997."
-By
Renee
Schoof -McClatchyDC.com
20081213
US
- 
Iraq
- 
Reconstruction
- Money
- Politics
- Foreign
- 
Production
- Accounting
- 
Investigations
-Federal
- History
- Military
- 
Law
"Official
History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders." ...
"An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction
of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners
who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then
molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling
violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure."
... "The history, the first official account of its kind, is circulating
in draft form here and in Washington among a tight circle of technical
reviewers, policy experts and senior officials. It also concludes that
when the reconstruction began to lag — particularly in the critical area
of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army — the Pentagon simply put out inflated
measures of progress to cover up the failures." ... "In one passage, for
example, [Republican President Bush's] former Secretary of State Colin
L. Powell is quoted as saying that in the months after the 2003 invasion,
the Defense Department "kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces
— the number would jump 20,000 a week! 'We now have 80,000, we now have
100,000, we now have 120,000.'"" ... "Mr. Powell's assertion that the Pentagon
inflated the number of competent Iraqi security forces is backed up by
[Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former commander
of ground troops in Iraq, and L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator
until an Iraqi government took over in June 2004." ... "Among the overarching
conclusions of the history is that five years after embarking on its largest
foreign reconstruction project since the Marshall Plan in Europe after
World War II, the United States government has in place neither the policies
and technical capacity nor the organizational structure that would be needed
to undertake such a program on anything approaching this scale." ... "The
bitterest message of all for the reconstruction program may be the way
the history ends. The hard figures on basic services and industrial production
compiled for the report reveal that for all the money spent and promises
made, the rebuilding effort never did much more than restore what was destroyed
during the invasion and the convulsive looting that followed." ... "By
mid-2008, the history says, $117 billion had been spent on the reconstruction
of Iraq, including some $50 billion in United States taxpayer money." ...
"Five years after the invasion of Iraq, the history concludes, "the government
as a whole has never developed a legislatively sanctioned doctrine or framework
for planning, preparing and executing contingency operations in which diplomacy,
development and military action all figure."" ... "Titled "Hard Lessons:
The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," the new history was compiled by the
Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, led by
Stuart W. Bowen Jr., a Republican lawyer who regularly travels to Iraq
and has a staff of engineers and auditors based here." ... "The manuscript
is based on approximately 500 new interviews, as well as more than 600
audits, inspections and investigations on which Mr. Bowen's office has
reported individually over the years. Laid out for the first time in a
connected history, the material forms the basis for broad judgments on
the entire rebuilding program." ... "In the preface, Mr. Bowen gives a
searing critique of what he calls the "blinkered and disjointed prewar
planning for Iraq's reconstruction" and the botched expansion of the program
from a modest initiative to improve Iraqi services to a multibillion-dollar
enterprise." -By T.
Christian Miller and James
Glanz -ProPublica.org
-NYTimes
""Hard
Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience."" ... "The draft of
a federal report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction. Annotations are based on the review's findings." [(PDF)
Original Document] via -NYTimes
Ecuador - Audit
- Law
- Foreign
- History
- 
Argentina
"Ecuador
defaults on foreign debt: Ecuador is to default officially
on billions of dollars of foreign debt it considers "illegitimate", says
President Rafael Correa." ... "Mr Correa said he had given the order not
to approve a debt interest payment due on Monday, describing the international
lenders as "monsters"." ... "The president said that some of Ecuador's
$10bn debt was contracted illegally by a previous administration." ...
"It is the first debt default by a country in Latin America since 2001."
... "At that time, Argentina failed to repay debt in the midst of its financial
meltdown." ... "His decision follows a government audit in November which
recommended that Ecuador default on almost 40% of the $10bn foreign debt,
accusing former officials and bankers of profiting irresponsibly from bond
deals." -BBC/News
20081212
Christmas
- Children
- Consumer
- History
- Sacramento
- 
California
"Christmas
bleak for KB Toys as it files Chapter 11." ... "The
toy retailer filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday just two weeks before
Christmas and announced plans to immediately liquidate its stores, including
all four in the Sacramento [California's capital] area." ... ""It's sad
that all of these companies are going out of business," said Gina Quivan
of Sacramento after a day of Christmas shopping with husband Justin Vasquez
and their three children. Vasquez carried a large bag of toys stamped with
the KB Toys logo." ... "KB Toys now joins a growing list of household names
tacking up going-out-of-business signs, from Linens 'n Things to Mervyns
to Circuit City and Shoe Pavilion. That a toy retailer failed just before
Christmas shows how bleak things have become." ... "Retail sales are at
their worst in 35 years, and three in five people say they'll spend less
money over the next 90 days, according to a survey of consumer spending
released Thursday by Maryland-based researcher ChangeWave." ... "The 86-year-old
company decided the most viable way to cover its debt was to liquidate
its stores via immediate going-out-of-business sales." -By
Darrell Smith -SacBee.com
Auto
- Makers
- Legislation
- Workers
- Emergency
- Government
- Politics
- Economy
- History
- 
Cheney
- 
Michigan
"Senate
Republicans kill auto bailout bill." ... "Republican
opposition killed a $14-billion auto industry bailout plan in the Senate
on Thursday night, putting the future of [United States] U.S. automakers
in doubt and threatening to deliver another blow to the economy." ... "The
measure died after a last-ditch effort by Senate Democratic leaders to
strike a compromise that would have lured enough support to save the legislation,
which was crafted in consultation with the [Republican President Bush]
White House." ... "The bill's failure raises the possibility of bankruptcy
by one or more of [Michigan state's] Detroit's Big Three and puts new pressure
on [Republican] President Bush to authorize emergency loans for the automakers
from the $700-billion Wall Street rescue fund, a step he has adamantly
refused to take." ... "The collapse of General Motors, Chrysler or Ford
-- along with many of their suppliers and dealers -- could throw hundreds
of thousands more workers onto the growing unemployment rolls and further
cloud the closing days of the [Republican President] Bush administration."
... ""If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of [Republican
President] Herbert Hoover forever," [Republican Vice President] Cheney
told them, according to a Senate Republican aide, evoking the president
whose inaction is widely blamed for helping trigger the Great Depression
in the early 1930s." (1, 2)
-By Jim Puzzanghera with contributions by Ken Bensinger
-LAtimes
Auto
- Industry
- Legislation
- 
Sports
- History
- Michigan
- 
Ky
"Ky.
Sen. Bunning, ex-Tiger, snubbed for autos vote: Ky.
Sen. [Kentucky Republican Senator Jim] Bunning, ex-Tigers [baseball] pitching
great, gets booted from Detroit[ Michigan]-area fair for autos vote." ...
"Bunning was kicked off the schedule after he helped derail an auto-industry
loan package in the Senate Thursday night." ... "Bunning is a Hall of Famer
who pitched in Detroit from 1955 to 1963."
-AP via -CNN
Barack
Obama - 
Media
-Politics
- Investigation
- History
- 
Illinois
"Media
Matters: Media pick up where they left off 8 years ago."
... "To anyone who lived through the media feeding frenzy of the 1990s,
during which the nation's leading news organizations spent the better part
of a decade destroying their own credibility by relentlessly hyping a series
of non-scandals, the past few days, in which the media have tried to shoehorn
[Democratic President Elect] Barack Obama into the [Illinois Democratic
Governor] Rod Blagojevich scandal, have been sickeningly familiar." ...
"Whenever reporters think -- or want you to think -- they've uncovered
a presidential scandal, they waste little time in comparing it to previous
controversies." ... "Perhaps the most striking aspect of the media's attempts
to link Obama to the Blagojevich scandal has been the volume of news reports
that are purely speculative -- and not only speculative, but vaguely
speculative. That is, they don't even consist of conjecture about specific
potential wrong doing. They simply consist of completely baseless speculation
that Obama might in some way become caught up in the investigation at some
point in the future, for some reason. It's little more than, "Maybe Obama
will be involved." Well, sure. And maybe he'll play shortstop for
the Washington Nationals [baseball team] next year." ... "If you want to
make a "scandal" stick to someone despite the inconvenient truth that they
aren't actually guilty of the purported wrongdoing in question, one thing
you do -- if you're the media covering a Democratic president, or an overzealous
conservative -- is continually expand the scandal's definition. So the
"scandal" grows and evolves into an amorphous mass of innuendo as political
opponents and journalists begin throwing everything against the wall, hoping
something will stick." ... "If the news media regains a bit of the skepticism
so many of them set aside for the past eight years, that would be an unequivocally
good thing, and it should be applauded." ... "But this week brought signs
that much of the media is set to resume the absurd and shameful behavior
that defined the 1990s -- guilt by association, circular analysis whereby
they ask baseless questions about non-scandals, then claim they have to
report on the "scandal" because the White House is "besieged by questions,"
grotesque leaps of logic, downplaying exculpatory information, and too
many other failings to list." ... "If that happens -- if the media continue
to behave as they did in covering Whitewater -- they will damage the country.
It's really that simple. We cannot afford to be distracted from serious
problems by overheated conjecture and baseless insinuation masquerading
as journalism." ... "That's how the media behaved the last time we had
a Democratic president. They devoted wall-to-wall coverage to invented
"scandals," ignored exculpatory evidence, saw evidence of guilt everywhere,
took people out of context in order to accuse them of lying, and generally
behaved like a pack of wild animals who couldn't tell right from wrong
or truth from fiction -- or who simply didn't care. As a group, they behaved
without ethical standards and without regard for the truth." ... "It's
our responsibility -- all of us -- to make sure it doesn't happen again."
-By Jamison
Foser -MediaMatters.org
20081211
Torture
- Prisons
-War
Crimes - Secret
- Military
- Government
-
Intelligence
- Law
- Investigation
- Human
Rights - Politics
- History
- 
McCain
- 
Ariz
- Mich
- US
- Guantanamo
- 
Cuba
- Iraq
-
Afghanistan
- 
China
- 
Korea
"Bipartisan
Report: Rumsfeld Responsible for Detainee Abuse:
Senate Committee Finds Officials Made Decisions That Led to Offenses Against
Prisoners." ... "A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that [Republican
President Bush's] former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other
top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh
treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay [Cuba], and that their decisions
led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere." ... "In the most comprehensive
critique by Congress of the military's interrogation practices, the Senate
Armed Services Committee issued a report yesterday that accuses Rumsfeld
and his deputies of being the authors and chief promoters of harsh interrogation
policies that disgraced the nation and undermined U.S. security. The report,
released by Sens. [ Senators] Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.[ Democratic-Michigan])
and John McCain (R-Ariz.[ Republican Arizona]), contends that Pentagon
officials later tried to create a false impression that the policies were
unrelated to acts of detainee abuse committed by members of the military."
... ""The abuse of detainees in U.S. [United States] custody cannot simply
be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own,"
the report states. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States
government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined
the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their
use against detainees."" ... "The report is the most direct refutation
to date of the administration's rationale for using aggressive interrogation
tactics -- that inflicting humiliation and pain on detainees was legal
and effective, and helped protect the country. The 25-member panel, without
one dissent among the 12 Republican members, declared the opposite to be
true." ... "The [Republican President Bush's] administration's policies
and the resulting controversies, the panel concluded, "damaged our ability
to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the
hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority."" ... "A Defense
Department spokesman noted that the Pentagon cooperated extensively with
the Senate investigation and has taken numerous steps in recent years to
ensure the humane treatment of detainees." ... "The panel's investigation
focused on the Defense Department's employment of controversial interrogation
practices, including forced nudity, painful stress positions, sleep deprivation,
extreme temperatures and the use of dogs. The practices, some of which
had already been adopted by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] at its
secret prisons, were adapted for interrogations at the detention center
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later migrated to U.S. detention camps in
Afghanistan and Iraq, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison." ... "The
true genesis of the decision to use coercive techniques, the report said,
was a memo signed by [Republican] President Bush on [February] Feb. 7,
2002, declaring that the Geneva Convention's standards for humane treatment
did not apply to captured al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. As early as that
spring, the panel said, top administration officials, including National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, participated in meetings in which the
use of coercive measures was discussed. The panel drew on a written statement
by Rice, released earlier this year, to support that conclusion." ... "In
July 2002, Rumseld's senior staff began compiling information about techniques
used in military survival schools to simulate conditions that U.S. airmen
might face if captured by an enemy that did not follow the Geneva conditions.
Those techniques -- borrowed from a training program known as Survival,
Evasion, Resistance and Escape, or SERE -- included waterboarding, or simulated
drowning, and were loosely based on methods adopted by Chinese communists
to coerce propaganda confessions from captured U.S. soldiers during the
Korean war." ... "The SERE program became the template for interrogation
methods that were ultimately approved by Rumsfeld himself, the report says."
-By Joby Warrick and Karen DeYoung -WashingtonPost
[PDF]
"Senate
Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In U.S.
Custody." ... “What sets us apart from our enemies
in this fight… is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the
standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees
with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human
beings” -- General David Petraeus via -WashingtonPost
People
- Economic
- History
"Jobless
claims at 26-year high: Number of people filing for
initial unemployment insurance surges to 573,000 in latest week." ... "The
number of Americans filing new unemployment insurance claims jumped last
week to a 26-year high, surpassing the number of filings economists had
predicted." ... "The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial filings
for state jobless benefits surged to 573,000 for the week ended Dec. 6.
That was an increase of 58,000 from a revised 515,000 claims in the previous
week." ... "It was the highest number of jobless claims since Nov. 27,
1982 when initial filings hit 612,000." ... "The number of people continuing
to collect unemployment rose to 4,429,000 in the week ended Nov. 29, the
most recent week available, which was also a 26-year high." ... "The last
time continuing claims was at such an elevated level was Dec. 4, 1982,
when continuing claims hit 4,509,000." ... "So far this year, the economy
has lost 1.9 million jobs." -CNN
Animals
- Federal
- Law
- Enforcement
- 
Science
- Politics
- History
- Global
- Climate
- Ice
- Oil
- Emissions
- Construction
- Money
"Environmentalists:
New rule guts Endangered Species Act." ... "In a
move environmental groups says strikes at the heart of the Endangered Species
Act, the [Republican President] Bush administration on Thursday announced
a new rule that would let federal agencies decide on their own whether
their projects harm endangered species, instead of requiring them in many
cases to get a second opinion from federal wildlife experts." ... "Opponents
said the move destroys the checks and balances that have helped the gove
rnment save hundreds of species from extinction under the 1973 law." ...
"[Republican President Bush's] Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said
the reason for the rule change was linked to global warming." ... "Kempthorne
listed the polar bear as a threatened species in May but said that the
Endangered Species Act could not be used to try to halt global warming.
The new regulation specifies that there is no need for consultations when
the harm to endangered or threatened species is a result from a global
process that's too broad to measure." ... "Kempthorne said it's impossible
to pinpoint the death of any single animal from emissions from any single
polluter. In fact, emissions of heat-trapping gases disperse evenly in
the atmosphere around the globe and remain there for centuries. The resulting
warming and melting of polar ice have put the polar bear at risk of extinction
by mid-century, scientists have said." ... "The rule changes also go further
and specify that federal agencies are not required to consult with the
biologists of the two agencies that enforce the act — the Fish and Wildlife
Service and the National Marine Fisheries Services — if they think a project
such as a timber sale or construction of a power plant won't harm or kill
a threatened or endangered species. The changes do not rule out voluntary
consultations." ... "The Interior Department on Thursday also finalized
a rule implementing another section of the Endangered Species Act to clarify
that it will not protect polar bears from oil and gas development or greenhouse
gas emissions." -By
Renee
Schoof -McClatchyDC.com
Auto
- Manufacturing
- Politics
- Jobs
- Economic
- History
- Christmas
- Consumer
- US
- China
"Senate
Republicans Determined to Cause a Depression by Destroying Big 3."
... "Looks like the Senate Republicans are serious about killing the auto
deal. Here's the bottom line, if GM [General Motors] goes down, it
will take Ford and Chrysler with it, because the three of them share suppliers.
Losing GM's business will put most of them into the red. 80%
of American consumers will not buy a car from a company in bankruptcy,
so the idea that going bankrupt is the solution to the auto companies woes
is nonsense." ... "What comes out of any bankruptcy, even if they have
the names GM, Ford and Chrysler, will be a shadow of what went into bankruptcy—assuming
anything comes out at all. More likely would be that big chunks would
be gobbled up by foreign car companies, especially by the Chinese, who
want expertise, but not to make cars in the US [United States]." ... "We
can expect, then, to lose most o f the three million jobs related to the
auto industry if the Big 2 1/2 go under. To put this in perspective,
in the last year the US has lost 2.7 million jobs. This would be
more than the job losses for an entire (lousy) year. The
US lost half a million jobs last month, and almost every economic forecaster
expects the US to lose even more jobs in January, when retailers go fish-belly
up due to an abysmal Christmas retail season." ... "Economic contractions
of this sort are self-reinforcing. The more people who lose their
jobs, the less consumer spending there is. The less consumer spending
there is, the less money businesses make. The less money businesses
make, the more they have to lay off people. The more people who lose
their jobs, the less consumer spending there is. The less... but
why go on, you get the point." ... "The cascading financial and economic
effect will make the oncoming economic storm far, far worse. If 700
billion was ok to use to save Wall Street, whose business model was probably
even worse than Detroit's (add up their losses and most of Wall Street
didn't actually make any money for the last ten years), then 15 or 25 billion
to save Detroit is peanuts." ... "Or we can make sure this turns into a
Depression. Guess the Republicans playing Scrooge this Christmas
prefer that." -By Ian
Welsh -FireDogLake.com
20081210
US
- Government
- Debt- Money
- 
Safety
- Politics
- History
- Global
"Investors
buy U.S. debt at zero yield." ... "In the market
equivalent of shoveling cash under the mattress, hordes of buyers were
so eager on Tuesday to park money in the world's safest investment, United
States government debt, that they agreed to accept a zero percent rate
of return." ... "The news sent a sobering signal: in these troubled economic
times, when people have lost vast amounts on stocks, bonds and real estate,
making an investment that offers security but no gain is tantamount to
coming out ahead. This extremely cautious approach reflects concerns that
a global recession could deepen next year, and continue to jeopardize all
types of investments." ... "While this will lower the cost of borrowing
for the United States government, economists worry that a widespread hunkering-down
could have broader implications that could slow an economic recovery. If
investors remain reluctant to put money into stocks and corporate bonds,
that could choke off funds that businesses need to keep financing their
day-to-day operations." ... "Investors accepted the zero percent rate in
the government's auction Tuesday of $30 billion worth of short-term securities
that mature in four weeks. Demand was so great even for no return that
the government could have sold four times as much." ... "In addition, for
a brief moment, investors were willing to take a small loss for holding
another ultra-safe security, the already-issued three-month Treasury bill."
... "In these times, it seems, the abnormal has now become acceptable.
As America's debt and deficit spiral from a parade of billion dollar bailouts
and stimulus packages, fund managers, foreign governments and big retail
investors reckon they will get more peace of mind by stashing their cash,
rather than putting it toward any of the higher-yielding risk that is entailed
in stocks, corporate bonds and consumer debt." ... "The rapid decline in
Treasury yields — which since summer have headed toward lows not seen since
the end of the World War II — also renders the Federal Reserve less effective,
as investors and banks stuff the money that the central bank is pumping
into the financial system into Treasuries, rather than fanning it out across
the broader economy." ... ""The last time this happened was the Great Depression,
when people are willing to accept no return on their money, or possibly
even a negative return," said Edward Yardeni, an independent analyst. "If
people are so busy during the day just protecting the cash they have, it's
not a good sign."" (1,
2)
-By Vikas
Bajaj and Michael M. Grynbaum -IHT.com
US_Debt
- Politics
- Corporation
- Law
-History
"Fed
Weighs Debt Sales of Its Own: Move Presents Challenges:
'Very Close Cousins to Existing Treasury Bills'." ... "The Federal Reserve
is considering issuing its own debt for the first time, a move that would
give the central bank additional flexibility as it tries to stabilize rocky
financial markets." ... "Government debt issuance is largely the province
of the Treasury Department, and the Fed already can print as much money
as it wants. But as the credit crisis drags on and the economy suffers
from recession, Fed officials are looking broadly for new financial tools."
... "Fed officials have approached Congress about the concept, which could
include issuing bills or some other form of debt, according to people familiar
with the matter." ... "It isn't known whether these preliminary discussions
will result in a formal proposal or Fed action. One hurdle: The Federal
Reserve Act doesn't explicitly permit the Fed to issue notes beyond currency."
... "At the core of the deliberations is the Fed's balance sheet, which
has grown from less than $900 billion to more than $2 trillion since August
as it backstops new markets like commercial paper, money-market funds,
mortgage-backed securities and ailing companies such as American International
Group Inc." ... "... [T]he Fed has funded programs by flooding the financial
system with money it created itself -- known in central-banking circles
as bank reserves -- and has used the money to make loans and purchase assets."
-By Jon Hilsenrath and Damian Paletta
-WSJ.com
China
- Free
Speech - Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- 
United
Nations - History
"China
arrests a signer of a freedom charter: Literary critic
Liu Xiaobo had joined more than 300 in endorsing the 'Charter 08' document."
... "China has arrested at least one prominent dissident and has questioned
and possibly detained others who were among more than 300 signatories to
a declaration demanding more freedoms." ... "Liu Xiaobo, a prolific literary
critic who spent 20 months in prison for joining students in the 1989 Tiananmen
Square protests, was arrested Monday night at his home in Beijing [China's
capital]. Human rights organizations said the 53-year-old Liu was being
detained on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power," a charge
often used against government critics." ... "The arrest came in the run-up
to today's 60th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark document credited with inspiring
the modern human rights movement." ... "The Chinese activists are using
the anniversary as a peg to release what they are calling "Charter 08,"
a petition with recommendations for constitutional reforms that would make
the ruling Communist Party more accountable." -By
Barbara Demick -LAtimes
Terrorism
- Criminal
- Political
- History
- Corporate
- Religion
- Prison
- 
Pat
Robertson - Abortion
- Gay
- Rights
- Law
- California
- 
Texas
- US
- Iraq
- Military
"Bush
Awards Presidential Citizen Medal To Watergate Crook Chuck Colson."
... "Established in 1969, the Presidential Citizens Medal is the second
highest honor for a civilian, recognizing Americans “who have performed
exemplary
deeds of service for the nation.”" ... "Today, [Republican] President
Bush honored 24 recipients of this year’s award, including actor Gary Sinise
and Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. Also included in that mix was
Chuck Colson, “the first member of the [Republican President] Nixon administration
to serve
prison time for Watergate-related offenses.” Colson was President Nixon’s
counsel from 1969-1973 and pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice.
Colson received a one to three year sentence, but served just seven months.
David Plotz at Slate described Colson’s role in the Nixon administration:"
"As
special counsel to the president, he [Chuck Colson] was [Republican President]
Richard Nixon’s hard man, the “evil genius” of an evil administration.
According to Watergate historian Stanley Kutler, Colson sought to hire
Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators, and he plotted to raid
or firebomb the Brookings Institution. He eventually pleaded guilty to
scheming to defame Daniel Ellsberg and interfering with his trial."
"Since
that time, Colson has become an evangelical prison reformer, running the
nonprofit Prison Fellowship, which advocates for “privately run prisons
and the delivery of all social services by faith-based groups.” However,
according to author Allan Lichtman in “White Protestant Nation,” Colson
has also remained involved in conservative politics:"
"Colson
brought together politically conservative Catholics and Protestands for
a statement of common beliefs, advised conservative politicians including
Texas [Republican] governor George W. Bush, and worked with Christian right
leaders Pat Robertson and James Dobson on the development of political
strategy. He disseminated conservative messages on sex roles, abortion,
homosexuality, pornography, gay rights, and separation of church and state
in his radio broadcasts and columns, reaching millions of Americans."
"On
October 3, 2002, Colson was also one of the co-signers of a letter
from prominent evangelical leaders supporting an invasion of Iraq. More
recently he has spoken out in favor of California’s Prop. 8, accusing the
LGBT community of “anti-religious bigotry.”" -By Amanda
Terkel -ThinkProgress.org
20081209
US
- Government
-Debt
- Money
-Safety
- History
"Treasury
Bills Trade at Negative Rates as Haven Demand Surges."
... "Treasuries rose, pushing rates on the three-month bill negative for
the first time, as investors gravitate toward the safety of U.S. government
debt amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression." ... "The
Treasury sold $27 billion of three-month bills yesterday at a discount
rate of 0.005 percent, the lowest since it starting auctioning the securities
in 1929. The U.S. also sold $30 billion of four-week bills today at zero
percent for the first time since it began selling the debt in 2001." ...
"If you invested $1 million in three-month bills at today’s negative discount
rate of 0.01 percent, for a price of 100.002556, at maturity you would
receive the par value for a loss of $25.56." ... "The world’s biggest financial
companies incurred almost $1 trillion in writedowns and credit losses since
the start of last year, helping push the major economies into recession."
-By Daniel Kruger and Cordell Eddings
-Bloomberg
Barack
Obama - Poll
- History
"Poll:
79% approve of way Obama is handling transition."
... "Seventy-nine percent approve of [Democratic President-Elect Barack]
Obama's performance so far during transition, with 18 percent disapproving."
... "Obama's approval rating is 14 points higher than the approval rating
for [Republican] President-elect George Bush in 2001 and 17 points higher
than [Democratic] President-elect Clinton's rating in 1992, CNN Polling
Director Keating Holland said." ... "Obama's current approval rating is
also more than 50 points higher than President Bush's current approval
rating, which now stands at 28 percent --- with 71 percent disapproving
of the way Bush is handling his job as president." ... ""An Obama job approval
rating of 79 percent -- that's the sort of rating you see when the public
rallies around a leader after a national disaster," said Bill Schneider,
CNN's senior political analyst. "To many Americans, the Bush administration
was a national disaster."" -By Paul Steinhauser
-CNN
20081207
Barack
Obama - 
Medical
- Politics
- History
- 
Hawaii
- US
- 
Japan
- 
Vietnam
- Iraq
"Obama
Selects Shinseki for Veterans Affairs Secretary."
... "On the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, [Democratic] President-elect
Barack Obama Sunday nominated [Retired Army General] Gen. Eric Shinseki
(Ret.), a Japanese-American born in Obama's home state of Hawaii, to become
Secretary of Veterans Affairs." ... "“We owe it to all our veterans to
honor them as we honored our greatest generation, not just with words,
but with deeds,” said Obama, tasking him with a modernization of the Department
so troops get the medical care “far too few” are receiving right now."
... "Obama said Shinseki, the first Asian-American named to his cabinet,
was the right person to cut red tape, boost funding, and bring benefits
to veterans." ... "“There is no one more distinguished, more determined,
or more qualified to build this V.A. [Veterans Affairs] than the leader
I’m announcing as our next Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Gen. Eric Shinseki,”
Obama said." ... "“No one will ever doubt that this former Army chief of
staff has the courage to stand up for our troops and our veterans. No one
will ever question whether he will fight hard enough to make sure they
have the support that they need.”" ... "The former Army Chief of Staff,
criticized years ago by his Pentagon bosses for saying that “several hundred
thousand soldiers” would be needed to wage the Iraq war successfully, today
pledged to reform the Department to give troops a “smooth, error-free,
no-fail, benefits-assured transition into our ranks as veterans.”" ...
"“A word to my fellow veterans: if confirmed, I will work each and every
day to ensure that we are serving you as well as you have served us. We
will pursue a 21st-century V.A. that serves your needs,” promised Shinseki,
who lost part of his foot in Vietnam." ... "“We will open doors, new doors
of opportunity so you can find a good job, support your families when you
return to civilian life. And we will always, we will always honor the sacrifices
of those who have worn the uniform and their loved ones.”" -By
Matt Jaffe -ABCNEWS.com
20081205
Employment
- Market
- Housing- Rebuilding
- 
Roads
- Schools
- Energy
- Obama
- Politics
"Employers
cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years." ... "Skittish
employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting
the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening
deeper into recession." ... "The new figures, released by the Labor Department
Friday, showed the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly
rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays.
The net loss of more than a half-million jobs was far worse than analysts
expected." ... "The U.S. [United States] tipped into recession last December
[2007], a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what
many Americans already thought." ... "[Republican] President George W.
Bush, who used the word "recession" for the first time to describe the
economy's state, pledged Friday to explore more efforts to ease housing,
credit and financial stresses." ... "[Democratic] President-elect Barack
Obama said the dismal job news underscored the need for forceful action,
even as he warned that the pain could not be quickly relieved." ... ""There
are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis ... and it's likely to get worse
before it gets better," Obama said. "At the same time, this ... provides
us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of
ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children,
investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported
oil, and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will
grow and strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come.""
-By Jeannine Aversa -AP
via -Yahoo
Business
- History
"Payrolls
plunge by stunning 533,000 in November: Jobless rate
rises to 15-year high of 6.7%, as recession deepens." ... "U.S. [United
States] nonfarm payrolls plunged by an astonishing 533,000 in November
-- the worst job loss in 34 years -- the Labor Department reported Friday."
... "It was only the fourth time in the past 58 years that payrolls had
fallen by more than 500,000 in a month. Since the recession began 11 months
ago, a total of 1.9 million jobs have been lost. Job losses in September
and October were revised much lower." ... "In addition to the 533,000 lost
jobs, an additional 621,000 workers were pushed into part-time work and
422,000 simply dropped out of the labor force." ... "Over the past three
months, 1.26 million jobs have been lost, a pace of job destruction exceeded
only once since 1945." ... ""The threat of a widespread depression is now
real and present," said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University
of Maryland." -By Rex Nutting
-MarketWatch
20081121
Electric
- Cars
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Technology
- Transportation
- Infrastructure
- Jobs
- Consumer
- Military
- Historic
- San
Francisco - Sacramento
- California
- Michigan
- 
Oregon
- 
Washington
- US
- Global
- Planet
- Climate
- Emissions
"Recharge
America with Electric Cars." ... "Today, our country
is facing a set of seemingly insurmountable problems:"
"•
an economic meltdown of historic proportions"
"•
a car industry crashing, because of a lack of innovation and growth"
"•
oil dependence transferring our wealth abroad"
"•
an extended military presence in the Middle East"
"•
and climate change, which threatens the health of our planet"
"Yesterday,
joined by San Jose [California] Mayor Chuck Reed and Oakland [California]
Mayor Ron Dellums I [San Francisco, California's mayor Gavin Newsom] announced
a nine-step policy plan for transforming the Bay Area into the "Electric
Vehicle (EV) Capital of the U.S. [United States]" In support of this initiative
Better
Place, a global electric transportation company announced that it would
enter the U.S. market with California as its first state, beginning in
the Bay Area." ... "Commercial availability of electric cars is targeted
to begin in 2012, and Better Place estimates its network investment in
the Bay Area will total $1 billion when the system is fully deployed. I
welcomed Better Place's announcement and anticipate many other EV companies
will focus on the Bay Area as a top-priority market." ... "Electric vehicles
represent an overarching, game-changing solution that allows us to transform,
and recharge the American transportation sector for the 21st century. By
accelerating the conversion of the car industry from its oil dependent
past, to a new electric century, we can jump start the car industry, eliminate
our dependence on oil, reduce our required presence in the middle east,
create millions of jobs, and eliminate a significant portion of our CO2
emissions." ... "This plan ties together a triangle of influence that can
get our nation back on track: Detroit [Michigan] car makers who know how
to scale production, working in concert with San Francisco's culture of
innovation, aided by Sacramento [California's capital] and Washington DC
[America's capital] policy-making. The goal is to create a sustainable
strategic advantage for the US instead of a series of bailouts." ... "As
California prepares to launch this electric recharge infrastructure project,
it can also serve as a blueprint for a more widely integrated solution."
... "California can generate upwards of $2.5B in new investment in jobs
and the economy for the infrastructure effort, with billions more in cars
and battery sales to consumers. The nation as a whole can trigger tens
of billions in infrastructure, manufacturing and innovation investment.
At the same time, this conversion reduces the cost to the consumer and
nation per mile we drive. California, followed by the western US states
of Oregon and Washington are ready to drive this effort." -By
Gavin
Newsom -HuffingtonPost.com
20081119
Economics
- History
- Politics
"Amity
Shlaes strikes again." ... "When you hear claims
that the New Deal made the depression worse, they often come directly or
indirectly from the work of Amity Shlaes, whose misleading statistics have
been widely disseminated on the right." ... "Now, Ms. Shlaes has found
a new target: John Maynard Keynes. There’s a lot to critique in this
piece, but this one takes the cake:"
"But
the most telling fact about the new rush to spend is that its advocates
have insisted on invoking the New Deal. They tend to gloss over the period
when the phrase, “We are all Keynesians now,” was actually first uttered:
the mid-1960s. (Uttered by Friedman, in fact, though he meant only that
we all work in the terms of the Keynesian lexicon.)"
"The
Great Society of that period was the ultimate Keynesian experiment, and
it didn’t work very well."
"Grr.
Keynesianism says that deficit spending can help create jobs when the economy
is depressed. The Great Society wasn’t deficit spending, it wasn’t intended
to create jobs, and the economy of the 1960s wasn’t depressed. It was social
engineering; we can talk about how well or badly it worked, but it had
nothing whatsoever to do with Keynesian economics. "
-By
Paul
Krugman/Blog
-NYTimes
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - 2008
Election - 
Missouri
- Arizona
- Politics
"McCain
wins Missouri; State's streak over!" ... "Fifteen
days after [2008] Election Day, Republican [Arizona Senator] Sen. John
McCain has narrowly edged out [Democratic] President-elect Barack Obama
in the state, according to CNN's review of the latest unofficial vote totals
from the Missouri Secretary of State. This resolves the final outstanding
contest of the 2008 presidential race." ... "With Missouri's 11 electoral
votes in Senator McCain's column, the final count is 365 for Obama and
173 for McCain." ... "McCain's edging out of Obama in Missouri breaks the
state's bellwether streak in which Missourians correctly picked the presidential
candiate in every election dating back to the 1960 contest. Missouri got
it wrong in 1956, voting for the Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson,
who lost the election to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Before that election,
Missouri correctly picked the winner in every race for the White House
dating back to 1904." -By Paul Steinhauser with contributions
by Robert Yoon -CNN
20081118
Ted
Stevens - Criminal- Oil
- Money
- Federal
- Law
- 
Alaska
- History
- 2008
Election
"Alaska
Sen. Ted Stevens loses re-election bid." ... "[Alaska
Republican Senator] Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in
Senate history, narrowly lost his [2008 Election] re-election bid Tuesday,
marking the downfall of a Washington political power and Alaska icon who
couldn't survive a conviction on federal corruption charges. His defeat
by Anchorage [Alaska] Mayor Mark Begich moves Senate Democrats within two
seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority." ... "Stevens' ouster on
his 85th birthday marks an abrupt realignment in Alaska politics and will
alter the power structure in the Senate, where he has served since the
days of the [Democratic President] Johnson administration while holding
seats on some of the most influential committees in Congress." ... "Last
month just days before the election, Stevens was convicted by a federal
jury in Washington of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more
than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil field services
company. -By Michael R. Blood with contributions by
Jesse J. Holland, Andrew Taylor and Rachel D'Oro
-AP via -Yahoo
20081116
Obama
- Government
- Law
- Enforcement
- Markets
- Accounting
- History
-
Enron
- 
Eliot
Spitzer - 
New
York - US
- Global
"How
to Ground The Street: The Former 'Enforcer' On the
Best Way to Keep Financial Markets in Check." ... "[Democratic] President-elect
Barack Obama will soon face the extraordinary task of saving capitalism
from its own excesses, much as [Democratic President] Franklin D. Roosevelt
had to do 76 years ago. Up until this point in the crisis, policymakers
have appropriately applied the rules of triage -- Band-Aids and tourniquets,
then radical surgery -- to keep the global financial system alive. Capital
infusions, bailouts, mega-mergers, government guarantees of unimaginable
proportions -- all have been sought and supported by officials and corporate
chief executives who had until now opposed any government participation
in the marketplace. But put aside for the moment the ideological cartwheel
we have seen and look at the big picture: The rules of modern capitalism
have been re-written before our eyes." ... "The new president's team must
soon get to the root causes of the mistakes that have brought us to the
economic precipice. Yes, we have all derided the explosion of leverage,
the failure to regulate derivatives, the flood of subprime lending that
was bound to default and the excesses of CEO [Chief Executive Officer]
compensation. But these are all mere manifestations of three deeper structural
problems that require greater attention: misconceptions about what a "free
market" really is, a continuing breakdown in corporate governance and an
antiquated and incoherent federal financial regulatory framework." ...
"First, we must confront head-on the pervasive misunderstanding of what
constitutes a "free market." For long stretches of the past 30 years, too
many Americans fell prey to the ideology that a free market requires nearly
complete deregulation of banks and other financial institutions and a government
with a hands-off approach to enforcement. "We can regulate ourselves,"
the mantra went." ... "Those of us who raised red flags about this were
scoffed at for failing to understand or even believe in "the market." During
my tenure as New York state attorney general, my colleagues and I sought
to require investment banking analysts to provide their clients with unbiased
recommendations, devoid of undisclosed and structural conflicts. But powerful
voices with heavily vested interests accused us of meddling in the market."
... "When my office, along with the Department of Justice, warned that
some of American International Group's reinsurance transactions were little
more than efforts to create the false impression of extra capital on the
company's balance sheet, we were jeered at for attacking one of the nation's
great insurance companies, which surely knew how to balance risk and reward."
... "And when the attorneys general of all 50 states sought to investigate
subprime lending, believing that some lending practices might be toxic,
we were blocked by a coalition of the major banks and the [Republican President]
Bush administration, which invoked a rarely used statute to preempt the
states' ability to probe." ... "No major market problem has been resolved
through self-regulation, because individual competitive behavior doesn't
concern itself with the larger market. Individual actors care only about
performing better than the next guy, doing whatever is permitted -- or
will go undetected. Look at the major bubbles and market crises. Long-Term
Capital Management, Enron, the subprime lending scandals: All are classic
demonstrations of the bitter reality that greed, not self-discipline, rules
where unfettered behavior is allowed." ... "Those who truly understand
economics, as did Adam Smith, do not preach an absence of government participation.
A market doesn't exist in a vacuum. Rather, a market is a product of laws,
rules and enforcement. It needs transparency, capital requirements and
fidelity to fiduciary duty. The alternative, as we are seeing, is anarchy."
(1, 2)
-By Eliot L. Spitzer -WashingtonPost
20081113
Labor
- Market
"Jobless
claims hit 25-year high, imports plunge." ... "The
number of U.S. workers drawing jobless benefits hit a 25-year high this
month and imports suffered a record fall in September, according to reports
on Thursday that underscored a rapid drop-off in the U.S. economy." ...
"The number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by an
unexpectedly steep 32,000 last week to 516,000, the highest since the weeks
following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Labor
Department said." ... "The number of workers still on the benefit rolls
after drawing an initial week of aid hit 3.9 million in the week to November
1, the highest since January 1983." ... ""This is obviously very, very
serious deterioration in the labor market, more than a lot of people had
expected even a couple of months ago," said Scott Brown, chief economist
with Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla." ... ""We are
looking at the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and
the biggest economic crisis we have had in the United States since the
early 1980s."" (1, 2)
-By Doug Palmer with contributions by Lisa Lambert
and Diane Craft -Reuters
20081112
Auto
- Makers
- Jobs
- Government
- History- Military
- Politics
- 
Ohio
"Failure
of auto industry could set off catastrophe." ...
"Advocates for the nation's automakers are warning that the collapse of
the Big Three -- or even just General Motors -- could set off a catastrophic
chain reaction in the economy, eliminating up to 3 million jobs and depriving
governments of more than $150 billion in tax revenue." ... ""We've got
to do this because the cost of inaction is so high to communities, to workers,
to companies," said [Ohio Democratic Senator] Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat
from Ohio. He was among many lawmakers worried that an industry collapse
would be devastating for everything from school districts to small businesses."
... "Even if just GM [General Motors] collapsed, the failure could bring
down the other two companies -- and even the U.S. [United States] operations
of foreign automakers -- as parts suppliers run out of money and shut down."
... "Concern about the automakers hit new heights Friday when GM and Ford
reported they spent a combined $14.6 billion more than they took in last
quarter. GM said it could run out of money by the end of the year." ...
"Ford said it could last through 2009, but only because it arranged a hefty
credit line last year." ... "All this comes after tight credit and economic
uncertainty in October reduced U.S. auto sales to their lowest level in
25 years -- with no rebound in sight." ... "The Big Three have cut their
combined U.S. hourly work force more than 40 percent since 2005, from 244,000
to about 139,000." ... "Brown, the Ohio senator, said letting the industry
collapse would also be a national security risk, eliminating companies
that were essential in two world wars." -By Tom Krisher
and Ken Thomas -AP
via -Yahoo
20081111
Animals
- 
Environment
- Global
- Climate
- Gases
- Industrial
- Science
-History
"Report:
Greenhouse gases imperil oceans' web of life." ...
"Corals, lobsters, clams and many other ocean creatures — including some
at the bottom of the food chain — may be unable to withstand the increasing
acidity of the oceans brought on by growing global-warming pollution, according
to a report Tuesday from the advocacy group Oceana." ... "Based on scientific
findings of the past several years, Oceana's report "Acid Test" examines
the far-reaching consequences of the accumulation of heat-trapping gases,
particularly carbon dioxide, in the world's oceans." ... "A high level
of carbon dioxide in seawater depletes the carbonate that marine animals
need for their shells and skeletons. Creatures who are at risk if trends
continue include corals, which provide habitats for about a quarter of
the world's fish; things many people like to eat, including shrimp and
lobster; and pteropods, or swimming sea snails, which are an important
part of the base of polar and sub-polar food chains." ... "The acidity
of the oceans' surfaces has increased 30 percent since before the Industrial
Revolution, and the current trend would increase it 100 percent by the
end of this century, exceeding levels of the past 20 million years, the
report says." -By Renee
Schoof -McClatchyDC.com
Report:
"Acid
Test: Can We Save Our Oceans from CO2?" [PDF
Full Report] - Oceana.org
20081110
Barack
Obama - Economics
- History
- Federal
- Politics
- 
Social
Security -Health
Care
"Franklin
Delano Obama?" ... "Suddenly, everything old is New
Deal again. [Republican President] Reagan is out; F.D.R. [Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, Democratic President] is in. Still, how much guidance does the
Roosevelt era really offer for today’s world?" ... "The answer is, a lot.
But [Democratic President-Elec] Barack Obama should learn from F.D.R.’s
failures as well as from his achievements: the truth is that the New Deal
wasn’t as successful in the short run as it was in the long run. And the
reason for F.D.R.’s limited short-run success, which almost undid his whole
program, was the fact that his economic policies were too cautious." ...
"About the New Deal’s long-run achievements: the institutions F.D.R. built
have proved both durable and essential. Indeed, those institutions remain
the bedrock of our nation’s economic stability. Imagine how much worse
the financial crisis would be if the New Deal hadn’t insured most bank
deposits. Imagine how insecure older Americans would feel right now if
Republicans had managed to dismantle Social Security." ... "Can Mr. Obama
achieve something comparable? Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s new chief of staff,
has declared that “you don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste.” Progressives
hope that the Obama administration, like the New Deal, will respond to
the current economic and financial crisis by creating institutions, especially
a universal health care system, that will change the shape of American
society for generations to come." ... "But the new administration should
try not to emulate a less successful aspect of the New Deal: its inadequate
response to the Great Depression itself." ... "Now, there’s a whole intellectual
industry, mainly operating out of right-wing think tanks, devoted to propagating
the idea that F.D.R. actually made the Depression worse. So it’s important
to know that most of what you hear along those lines is based on deliberate
misrepresentation of the facts. The New Deal brought real relief to most
Americans." -By Paul
Krugman -NYTimes
20081108
Barack
Obama - 
Nebraska
- History- Law
- 
Maine
- 2008
Election
"Obama
wins electoral vote in Nebraska." ... "For the first
time ever, a blue circle will appear in Nebraska on national electoral
maps." ... "[2008 Election Democratic President-Elect] Democrat Barack
Obama won the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District on Friday, scooping
up one of the state's five electoral votes." ... "In the process, he made
history and shone the spotlight on Nebraska's unusual electoral college
system." ... "[Obama's Nebraska campaign director John] Berge said the
victory was a tribute to all the work done by staffers and the hundreds
of Obama volunteers who manned telephones and walked neighborhoods in the
Omaha [Nebraska] metropolitan area." ... "Obama's win will assuredly spark
interest in the split electoral system, which only Nebraska and Maine use.
All other states are winner-take-all on electoral votes." ... "It was the
first time since 1964 that Nebraska has awarded an electoral vote to a
Democrat. The state has been reliably Republican since it voted for Democrat
Lyndon B. Johnson that year." ... "Obama ignored Nebraska's history this
year, sending 16 paid staffers into the 2nd District and opening three
offices in Omaha." ... "A 1991 state law allowed Obama to concentrate his
efforts on the Omaha area, where Democrats outnumber Republicans." ...
"Nebraska is the first state in the modern era to have a split electoral
decision." ... "Nebraska and Maine are not, however, the first states to
try a split-electoral system, said Randy Adkins, a political scientist
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha." -By Robynn
Tysver -Herald
20081107
Economy
- History
- Auto
- Manufacturing
- Construction
"Jobs
lost in 2008: 1.2 million: Payrolls shrink by 240,000
in October, 10th straight month of cuts. Unemployment soars to 6.5%." ...
"The government reported more grim news about the economy Friday, saying
employers cut 240,000 jobs in October - bringing the year's total job losses
to nearly 1.2 million." ... "According to the Labor Department's monthly
jobs report, the unemployment rate rose to 6.5% from 6.1% in September
and higher than economists' forecast of 6.3%. It was the highest unemployment
rate since March 1994." ... "With 1,179,000 cuts, the economy has lost
more than a million jobs in a year for the first time since 2001 - the
last time the economy was in a recession. With most economic indicators
signaling even more difficult times ahead, job losses will likely deepen
and continue through at least the first half of 2009." ... ""It's pretty
clear that we're in a recession," said Robert Brusca, economist at FAO
Economics. "There is reason for us to believe we'll see a drumbeat of heavy
job losses for a while, and there's room for them to get even worse.""
... "Brusca noted that separate readings on the manufacturing and auto
industries indicated economic conditions are the worst in about 30 years."
... ""We may be in a severe recession, in which case these job numbers
are not even big yet," he said, suggesting monthly job loss totals could
grow in excess of 300,000 an unemployment could rise to around 7%." ...
"Job losses were spread across a wide variety of industries. Manufacturing
lost 90,000 jobs, the leisure and hospitality industries cut 16,000 jobs,
and construction employment shrank further by 49,000 jobs." ... "In another
sign of weakness, a growing number of workers were unable to find jobs
with the amount of hours they want to work. Those working part-time jobs
- because they couldn't find full-time work, or their hours had been cut
back due to slack conditions - jumped by 645,000 people to 6.7 million,
the highest since July 1993." ... "The so-called under-employment rate,
which counts those part-time workers, as well as those without jobs who
have become discouraged and stopped looking for work, rose to 11.8% from
from 11%, matching the all-time high for that measure since calculations
for it began in January 1994." -By David Goldman
-CNN
20081105
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - 2008
Election - Historical
- Race
- Politics
"Barack
Obama Wins Presidency: [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain Concedes As Democrat [2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama] Earns Historic Victory;
"A New Dawn Of American Leadership Is At Hand," Says President Elect."
... "In an extraordinary moment in America's history, Democratic presidential
nominee Barack Obama has won the 2008 presidential election and will become
the 44th president of the United States and the country's first African-American
leader." ... ""Because of what we did on this day, in this election, in
this defining moment, change has come to America," Obama told 125,000 supporters
gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to celebrate his victory." ... ""If there
is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all
things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is
alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight
is your answer," he added." ... ""A new dawn of American leadership is
at hand," Obama said." ... "[McCain:] "We have come to the end of a long
journey," McCain said in a concession speech late Tuesday night. "The American
people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."" ... ""Let there be
no reason now for any American not to cherish their citizenship in this,
the greatest nation on earth," he added, lauding the historic nature of
Obama's victory for African-Americans." ... "Democrats increased their
majorities in both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, assuring that their
party will control Congress and the White House just two years after the
Republican Party controlled both." ... ""The road ahead will be long,"
Obama said in his remarks. "Our climb will be steep. We may not get there
in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful
than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people
will get there.""-CBSNews
20081104
Dick
Cheney - Opinion
- Politics
- History
- 2008
Election - 2004
Election
"In
2008, will media recall 2004 declarations of Bush "mandate"?
Summary: [Republican] President Bush was re-elected in 2004 with 286 electoral
votes, the smallest popular-vote margin since 1976 (excluding the 2000
election) and the lowest electoral vote count for an incumbent president's
re-election since 1916. Nevertheless, many in the media were quick to echo
[**] [Republican]
Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that "the nation" gave Bush "a mandate."
It remains to be seen whether the media will apply the same standard in
assessing the results of the 2008 election." -By S.S.M.
-MediaMatters.org
20081025
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - History
-2008
Election
"Palin's
'going rogue,' McCain aide says." ... "Several [2008
Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain advisers have suggested
to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide
described as [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah]
Palin "going rogue."" ... "A second McCain source says she appears to be
looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign." ... ""She is a
diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She
does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or
anyone else." ... ""Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself
as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves,
as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."" ... "
... [T]wo sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended
the decision to keep her press interaction limited after she was picked,
both saying flatly that she was not ready and that the missteps could have
been a lot worse." ... "They insisted that she needed time to be briefed
on national and international issues and on McCain's record." ... ""Her
lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said
another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin
after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to
get her "up to speed than any candidate in history."" -By
Dana Bash, Peter Hamby and John King -CNN
20081020
Cartoon
- 
Fashion
- History
- 
Germany
- 
Poland
- US
- McCain
- Palin
- 2008
Election - 
/Channel
- Media
- Corp
"Fox
Family Feud Over ‘Family Guy’." ... "A Sunday night
episode of the Fox animated series “Family
Guy” stirred up trouble by suggesting rather directly that Nazi
officers would have supported the McCain-Palin ticket. And it was another
arm of the News Corp. conglomerate, Fox News Channel, that first reported
on the episode." ... "Fox (the broadcast network) aired the episode in
which Stewie, the obnoxious baby character at the center of the series,
and Brian, a talking dog, traveled back in time to Poland during the 1939
German invasion. The characters ambush Nazi soldiers in an alley and steal
their uniforms so they can travel without drawing attention. Putting on
an overcoat, Stewie notices a McCain-Palin campaign button affixed to the
lapel. “Huh, that’s weird,” Stewie remarks." -By Brooks
Barnes -NYTimes
"Family
Guy" cartoon with animated character "Stewie" in a Nazi uniform with a
McCain/Palin button on it:
WATCH
episode of "Family Guy" cartoon with character Stewie in Nazi uniform with
McCain/Palin button
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Military
- Politics
- 2008
Election - AZ
- 
Nevada
- 
VA
- TX
- US
-Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Vietnam
- History
"McCain
Lies Again, Repeats False Claim He ‘Received The Highest Honor And Awards’
From Every Vets Group." ... "Yesterday, [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain
(R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) held a telephone town hall meeting, in which
“thousands” of Nevadans — according to the McCain campaign — called to
listen in. Among some of the hostile,
pointed, and critical questions came one from a veteran, who challenged
McCain on his voting record regarding funding for the Veterans Administration
and veterans’ priorities:"
"Q:
I know you voted for lesser increases, and sometimes they were so much
less, and our VA desperately needs the money. Can you tell me why you
would vote for less money for the VA when there’s a war going on?"
"M:
Well of course I have not and I’m afraid I’ve been endorsed by the VFW
in every election that I’ve been in. I have been — received the honors,
the highest honor and awards from all our veterans organizations for my
consistent support of them. I don’t know what you’re looking at, but
the DAV, the VFW, the American Legion, all of them have given me their
highest awards for my consistent support of them."
"As
ThinkProgress has repeatedly
[-] documented,
McCain is either willfully lying or he is delusional about his record —
and the meaning of “highest awards.” In fact, McCain has recently stood
on the opposite side of all three of the groups he mentioned:"
"–
Disabled American Veterans (DAV): In a list of 36 “key votes,” shows
McCain “Voted
Against Us” 16 times. ([2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate
Barack] Obama “Voted
With Us” 17 times, and against only once.)"
"–
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW): Endorsed
[Virginia Democratic Senator] Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA [Democratic-Virginia])
GI Bill that McCain vigorously opposed; called McCain’s alternative GI
Bill “very
partisan” and said they “didn’t have much input” in its crafting."
"–
American Legion: Endorsed
Webb’s GI Bill and criticized McCain’s concern
about how it would affect retention, saying the bill “would
encourage young men and women to join the military.”"
"Just
last week, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a
grade of D for his record of voting against veterans. (Obama got a
B.)
The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) have noted that in its “Key Votes,”
McCain “Voted Against
Us” 15 times and “Voted For Us” only 8. (Obama voted for VVA 12 times,
and against only once.)"
... "Earlier this month, [Texas Democratic Representative] Rep. Chet Edwards
(D-TX [Democratic-Texas]), a leading veterans advocate, excoriated McCain
in an interview with ThinkProgress: “If you look at John McCain’s record
on veterans issues, it’s
a failed one.” It’s a sentiment IAVA executive director Paul Rieckhoff
agrees with. Noting McCain’s dismal voting record on VA funding, Rieckhoff
told ThinkProgress, “If he says the VA’s not working, it’s
in part because he hasn’t funded it properly.”"
"Update In an interview with Richmond's
[Virginia's capital] WTVR on Friday, McCain repeated his favorite lie:
"I've been a friend of the veterans for a long time and I've
received every award from every major veterans organization." He added,
"I'm proud of my support for the veterans."" -By Ali
Frick -ThinkProgress.org
Barack
Obama -
Madelyn
Payne Dunham - Grandmother
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- 
Kansas
- Politics
- Race
- History
- Book
- 2008
Election
"Obama's
grandmother fights to see him elected." ... "Madelyn
Payne Dunham gave young [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama a place to call home while his mother traveled the world.
When he needed money for school, she went without new clothes to help pay
his tuition." ... "And when the Illinois Senator decided to seek the Democratic
presidential nomination, Dunham provided the "Kansas heartland" pedigree
he needed to appeal to conservative white voters — and a personal anecdote
about racial prejudice that helped the man with the foreign name and Ivy
League resume connect with the African-American experience." ... "The 85-year-old
former bank executive is said to be "gravely ill" after falling and breaking
her hip, and some reports suggest she might not live to see the results
of the Nov. 4 election. Whatever happens, she's already lived long enough
to see her "Barry" achieve what she'd wanted for him, her brother says."
... "Although he made his mark thousands of miles from the Honolulu [Hawaii's
capital] apartment where she helped raise him, Obama and others credit
Dunham — whose birthday is Sunday — with instilling in him an appreciation
for education and hard work, and with setting an example of thrift, practicality
and tolerance." ... ""I think there's nobody more important than her, except
his mother, in shaping his character," said David Mendell, who interviewed
Dunham in 2004 for the Chicago Tribune and later wrote the book, "Obama:
From Promise to Power."" ... "While her husband [Obama's grandfather, Stanley
Dunham] was away in the Army during World War II, she was home raising
their daughter, Stanley Ann, and supervising a B-29 bomber assembly line
at the Boeing plant in Wichita [Kansas]." -By Allen
G. Breed -AP
via -Google
Obama's
Grandmother:
Madelyn
Payne Dunham
Obama's
Grandparents:
Stanley
Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham
Barack
Obama's Grandparents
20081014
History
- Book
- California
- US
- Global
"Taleb's
`Black Swan' Investors Post Gains as Markets Take Dive."
... "Investors advised by ``Black Swan'' author Nassim
Taleb have gained 50 percent or more this year as his strategies
for navigating big swings in share prices paid off amid the worst stock
market in seven decades." ... "Universa Investments LP, the Santa Monica,
California-based firm where Taleb is an adviser, has about $1 billion in
accounts managed to hedge clients against big moves in financial markets.
Returns for the year through Oct. 10 ranged as high as 110 percent, according
to investor documents. The Standard
& Poor's 500 Index lost 39 percent in the same period." ...
"The S&P 500 dropped 18 percent last week, its worst week since 1933,
on concern that the credit crunch would cripple the financial system and
trigger a global recession." ... "As a trader turned philosopher, Taleb
has railed against Wall Street risk managers who attempt to predict market
movements. Even so, Taleb said he saw the banking crisis coming." ... "``The
financial ecology is swelling into gigantic, incestuous, bureaucratic banks
-- when one fails, they all fall,'' Taleb wrote in ``The Black Swan: The
Impact of the Highly Improbable,'' which was published in 2007." ... "Taleb
said the current crisis is a ``White Swan'', not a Black Swan, because
it was something bound to happen." -By Stephanie Baker
-Bloomberg
20081010
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Terrorism
- History
- Illinois
- 
Pennsylvania
- 2008
Election
"Obama
charges McCain trying to divide country." ... "[2008
Election Democratic] Presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday accused
Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain of trying
to divide the country, but he let fellow Democrats handle harsher attacks
while he kept his message mostly upbeat." ... "Speaking to an outdoor audience,
Obama said "it's not hard to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division."
He said Americans want "someone who can lead this country" with a steady
hand in a time of economic crisis, not divide it." ... "Echoing McCain's
"country first" motto, Obama said, "Now more than ever it is time to put
country ahead of politics."" ... "With little more than three weeks before
the election, the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] presidential candidate
is seeking to turn his campaign around by steadily escalating his attacks
on his Democratic foe and raising questions about his associations with
[William] Ayers, who in 1969 helped found the violent Weather Underground
group blamed for bombing government buildings in the early 1970s[.]" ...
"The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Obama
and Ayers are not close but that they live in the same Chicago [Illinois]
neighborhood and worked together on two nonprofit organization boards from
the mid-1990s to 2002. Ayers also hosted a small meet-the-candidate event
for Obama in 1995 as he first ran for the state Senate." ... "During the
campaign, Obama has denounced Ayers' radical actions and views." ... "In
an interview with Philadelphia[ Pennsylvania]-based radio talk show host
Michael Smerconish, Obama said Thursday that when he met Ayers in the mid-1990s
Ayers was teaching education the University of Illinois." ... ""I was sitting
on this board with a whole bunch conservative businessmen and civic leaders
and he was one of the people who was on this board," Obama said of the
Annenberg Challenge, a nonprofit educational group [funded by Republican
billionaire Walter Annenberg]. "Ultimately I ended up learning about the
fact that he had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I
was eight years old at the time and I assumed that he had been rehabilitated.""
(1,
2)
-AP via -MSNBC
US
- Global
- Economic
- History
- 
Belgium
- 
"Ex-president
Carter slams Bush on market crisis." ... "Former
[Democratic] President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the "atrocious economic
policies" of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial
crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s." ... "Carter told reporters
on a stopover in Brussels [Belgium and EU's capital] that "profligate spending,"
massive borrowing and dramatic tax cuts since President George W. Bush
took office in 2001 were behind the market turmoil and economic crisis."
... "Eight years ago, the United States had a budget surplus, low inflation
and a stable, strong economy, he said." ... "Carter said he was astonished
that the United States now owed China "in the neighborhood of $1 trillion.""
... "Deregulation and what he called a withdrawal of supervision of Wall
Street had encouraged irresponsible elements in the U.S. financial system,
enabling banks to borrow 30 times their value." -By
Paul Taylor with contributions by Sami Aboudi
-Reuters
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Sarah
Palin - Terrorism
- Language
- Pennsylvania
-Illinois
- Politics
- 2008
Election
"McCain's
attacks fuel dangerous hatred." ... "2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain: If your campaign does not
stop equating [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois
Senator] Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and
portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding
the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore
of potentially instigating violence." ... "At a [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill
him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither
was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed
and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa. [Pennsylvania],
the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude
encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the
local Republican chairman." ... "Shame!" ... "John McCain: In 2000, as
a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W.
Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military
service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political
gain." ... "You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as
a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or
go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate."
... "Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch
mobs." ... "John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and
you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice,
to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing
this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history
of assassinations." -By Frank Schaeffer
-BaltimoreSun
Japan
- History
- US
- Real
Estate
"Nikkei
tumbles 9.6 percent on crisis fears." ... "Japan's
key stock index plunged a stunning 9.6 percent Friday to close out its
worst week in history as frantic investors worried about a global recession
dumped stocks after huge losses on Wall Street." ... "The benchmark Nikkei
225 index tumbled 881.06 points to 8,276.43, its lowest since May 2003.
It was its biggest one-day percentage loss since the stock market crash
of October 1987." ... "The index dropped by more than 11 percent at one
point but recovered modestly in the afternoon." ... "Since last Friday,
the Nikkei has lost nearly a quarter of its value." ... "Mid-sized insurer
Yamato Life Insurance Co. [Company] went bankrupt Friday, becoming the
first major Japanese financial company to collapse on the fallout from
the U.S. [United States] credit crisis. On Thursday, New City Investment
Corp.'s [Corporation's] bankruptcy filing made it Japan's first real-estate
investment trust to fail." -By Shino Yuasa
-AP via -Google
20081009
US
- History
- Global
"US
STOCKS-Recession fear plunders Wall St, Dow dives 678.91."
[DOW at 8,579.19] ... "U.S stocks plummeted for a seventh straight
session on Thursday as investors bet recent moves by authorities worldwide
to thaw frozen credit markets would not be enough to avert a global recession."
... "The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 678.91 points, or 7.33
percent, to 8,579.19, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX plummeted
75.02 points, or 7.62 percent, to 909.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC
sank 95.21 points, or 5.47 percent, to 1,645.12." ... "The steep declines
came on the anniversary of the Dow's all-time closing high above 14,000."
... "The Dow average has lost 2,271.47 points in the last seven trading
days -- the worst ever in such a period. Since its record closing high
a year ago today, the Dow has tumbled 5,585.34 points -- or almost 40 percent."
... "The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index .VIX, Wall Street's
preferred fear gauge, hit another all-time closing high -- jumping 11.11
percent to end at 63.92." (1, 2,
3)
-By Kristina Cooke with contributions by Leah Schnurr,
Ellis Mnyandu, and Jan Paschal -Reuters
20081008
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Terrorism- History
- Economy
- 
Tenn
- 2008
Election
"Obama:
McCain Scoring 'Cheap Political Points'." ... "[2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack
Obama says the personal attacks levied against him by the campaign of his
presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, particularly references to his association
with 1960s anti-war radical Bill Ayers, are an attempt to "score cheap
political points."" ... ""Why don't we just clear it up right now," Obama
told ABC News' Charlie Gibson in an exclusive interview for World News.
"I'll repeat again what I've said many times. This is a guy who engaged
in some despicable acts 40 years ago when I was eight years old. By the
time I met him, 10 or 15 years ago, he was a college professor of education
at the University of Illinois . . . And the notion that somehow he has
been involved in my campaign, that he is an adviser of mine, that . . .
I've 'palled around with a terrorist', all these statements are made simply
to try to score cheap political points."" ... "Obama said that the McCain
campaign is making personal attacks "the centerpiece of the discussion
in the closing weeks of a campaign where we are facing the worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression and we're in the middle of two wars.""
... ""I think that makes very little sense, not just to me but to the American
people," Obama said." ... "Obama said he believes the personal attacks
are an attempt to "change the subject" and draw attention away from the
issue at the front of most voters' minds: the
struggling economy." ... ""I mean, you've had their spokespeople over
the last couple of days say if we talk about the economic crisis, we lose.
I mean, you can't be much more blatant than that," he said." ... "Obama
also said he was surprised some of those attacks weren't
brought up by his opponent at the debate
Tuesday night at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn [Tennessee]."
... ""I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top
attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that
he wasn't willing to say it to my face. But I guess we've got one last
debate. So presumably, if he ends up feeling that he needs to, he will
raise it during the debate."" (1, 2,
3)
-By Katie Escherich and Lauren Sher
-ABCNEWS.com
John
McCain - Terrorism
- Women
- Abortion
- Clinics
- Federal
- Law
- Politics
- History
- Arizona
- Oregon
- 2008
Election
"Woman's
rights advocate: McCain sides with 'sympathizers and enablers of domestic
terrorism'." ... "The Arizona Senator [and 2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain] may not have directly consorted
with any clinic bombers, but his legislative record was certainly favorable
to them, and critics are hammering his association with sympathizers of
domestic terrorists who target abortion providers." ... "People For the
American Way encouraged McCain to "look in the mirror" after a RAW
STORY report revealed McCain's connection with Marylin Shannon, a Republican
official in Oregon who was a McCain delegate at this year's GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican (2008 election)] convention. The two appeared together
at a 1993 fundraiser for an ultra-conservative organization where Shannon
praised a woman who was later convicted of attempted murder in the shooting
of an abortion clinic doctor." ... "“When anti-choice extremists were terrorizing
American women and their doctors, John McCain had multiple opportunities
to make what should have been an easy choice,” PFAW president Kathryn Kolbert
said
Tuesday. “But he chose political expediency over law and order." ...
""He didn’t say a word when Marylin Shannon sympathized with an attempted
killer. He voted against the clinic access bill even as everyday Americans
were being assaulted and besieged by domestic terrorists," continued Kolbert,
a longtime women’s rights advocate who successfully argued a crucial abortion
rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. "As someone who faced
repeated threats for work on behalf of reproductive rights, I am deeply
disturbed by John McCain’s willingness to stand with and side with sympathizers
and enablers of domestic terrorism.”" ... "McCain and Shannon appeared
together at a fundraiser for the Oregon Citizens Alliance in 1993, a gathring
of Christian right extremists that even fellow Republicans advised McCain
not to attend because the group was so far outside the mainstream." ...
"Speaking before McCain, Shannon offered some kind words for Shelley Shannon,
who was accused and later convicted of shooting an abortion doctor: "I'm
not related to Shelly Shannon, but I think she's a fine lady," the vice
chairwoman of the state Republican Party said. McCain apparently said nothing
to contradict that judgement, and less than three months later he voted
against a bill that would make abortion clinic bombings a federal crime."
-By Nick Juliano -RawStory.com
20081007
Sarah
Palin - Terrorism
- Politics
- Alaska-
Iran
-
- History
- US
- Federal
- Law
-Enforcement
- Earth
- Environment
- 2008
Election
"The
Palins' un-American activities." ... ""My government
is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."" ...
"The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the
Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah] Palin, that's the
very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd [Palin], belonged to
for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier
this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless
you.")" ... "AIP chairwoman Lynette
Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's
Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."" ... "So who
are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin' around with?" ...
"Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed
insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried
a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats
come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets.
In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and
I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a
time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor.
That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful
means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope
we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property
rights, look out, we're ready to die."" ... "This quote is from "Coming
Into the Country," by John McPhee, who traipsed around Alaska's remote
gold mining country with Vogler for his 1991 book. The violent-tempered
secessionist vowed to McPhee that if any federal official tried to stop
him from polluting Alaska's rivers with his earth-moving equipment, he
would "run over him with a Cat and turn mosquitoes loose on him while he
dies."" ... "Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance
before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the
entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had
persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue."
... "That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American
hostages." ... "AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year
by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S.
before he could reach his U.N. platform." -By David
Talbot -Salon
McCain
- Terrorism
-Finance
- History
- Secret
- Government
- Intelligence
- Military
- Politics
- Iran
- 
Nicaragua
- Foreign
- Arizona
- US
-2008
Election
"McCain
linked to private group in Iran-Contra case." ...
"GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] presidential nominee John McCain
has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas
seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra
affair." ... "The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international
organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death
squads in Central America." ... "The council's founder, retired Army [Major
General] Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the
organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career
in Arizona." ... "Covert arms shipments to the rebels called Contras, financed
in part by secret arms sales to Iran, became known as the Iran-Contra affair.
They proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council." ... "In 1987, the
Internal Revenue Service withdrew the tax-exempt status of Singlaub's group
because of its activities on behalf of the Contras." ... "Elected to the
House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the board of Singlaub's council,
McCain was among Republicans on Capitol Hill expressing support for the
Contras, a CIA[Central Intelligence Agency]-organized guerrilla force in
Central America. In 1984, Congress cut off CIA funds for the Contras."
... "Months before the cutoff, top [Republican President] Reagan administration
officials ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network and put
National Security Council aide Oliver North in charge of running it. The
goal was to keep the Contras operational until Congress could be persuaded
to resume CIA funding." ... "Singlaub's private group became the public
cover for the White House operation." ... "Secretly, Singlaub worked with
North in an effort to raise millions of dollars from foreign governments."
-By Pete Yost -AP
via -Yahoo
20081006
John
McCain - Racist
- Terrorism
- Money
- History
- 2008
Election -Phoenix
- Arizona
- US
- Military
- Law
-Foreign
"Why
McCain's Time With Council Of World Freedom Matters."
... "Since Sunday, Democrats have been buzzing about the re-revelation
that during the 1980s, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain served on the board of a far-right
conservative organization that had supplied arms and funds to paramilitary
organizations in Latin America." ... "Democratic strategist Paul Begala
lit the fire when, during an appearance on Meet the Press, he warned that
this relatively obscure detail from McCain's past could draw him into a
guilt-by-association game he was bound to regret." ... ""John McCain sat
on the board of...the U.S. Council for World Freedom," said
Begala, "The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the
board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World
Anti-Communist League - the parent organization - which ADL said 'has increasingly
become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists
and anti-Semites.'"" ... "But McCain's involvement in the U.S. Council
for World Freedom, which extended from 1981 through, possibly, 1986 is
significant -- not merely because it ties him to unsavory characters but
because it firmly associates him with a foreign policy that was, at the
time and still, controversial." ... "The USCWF was founded in Phoenix,
Arizona in November 1981 as an offshoot of the World Anti-Communist League.
The group was, from the onset, saddled with the disreputable reputation
of its parent group. The WACL had ties to ultra-right figures and Latin
American death squads. Roger Pearson, the chairman of the WACL, was expelled
from the group in 1980 under allegations that he was a member of a neo-Nazi
organization." ... "It [The USCWF] claimed to support "pro-Democratic resistance
movements fighting communist totalitarianism." And during the 1980s it
became a vehicle for the [Republican President] Reagan administration to
prop up some of the more totalitarian, anti-communist efforts in Central
America." ... "The funders of the U.S World Council of Freedom read like
a who's who list of prominent conservative figures. Joe Coors, the Republican
Beer baron was reportedly a big donor. Time Magazine wrote that the Christian
Broadcasting Network was a backer as well. The Washington Times newspaper,
owned by the controversial Reverend Sun Myung Moon, started a fundraising
drive of its own." ... "Through it all, McCain was a member." ... "...
McCain's association with a group that reportedly circumvented law, financed
right-wing military institutions, and engaged in sometimes brutal anti-communist
tactics, could be telling for some voters." -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
20081004
Secret
- John
McCain -Terrorism
- History
- Money
- Politics
- 
Radio
- Federal- Law
- Enforcement
- 2008
Election - 
Clinton
- New
York -Arizona
"Why
is the NY Times continuing to ignore McCain's "own Bill Ayers"?"
... "... [The New York[ Times has yet to mention, let alone
devote an entire article to, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's relationship with radio host and
convicted Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy [Republican President Nixon
associate]." ... "As
Media Matters for America has noted,
Liddy served four and a half years in prison in connection with his conviction
for his role
in the Watergate break-in and the break-in at the office of the psychiatrist
of Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
Liddy has acknowledged
preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary";
plotting
to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting
with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating
with investigators; plotting
to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting
to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention
-- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed
from the Nazis. (The murder, firebombing, and kidnapping plots were never
carried out; the break-ins were.) During the 1990s, Liddy reportedly instructed
his radio audience on multiple occasions on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms agents and also reportedly said he had named his
shooting targets after [Democratic President] Bill and [New York Senator]
Hillary Clinton." ... "Liddy has donated
$5,000 to McCain's campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in February
2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show during
the presidential campaign, including as recently as May.
An online
video labeled "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07"
includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as
an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence
to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he
was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come
on your program."" ... "Additionally, in 1998, Liddy reportedly
held a fundraiser at his home for McCain. Liddy was reportedly scheduled
to speak at another fundraiser for McCain in 2000. The Charlotte Observer
reported on January 23, 2000, that McCain's campaign vouched for Liddy's
"character":"
"His
[McCain's] campaign officials said Liddy's character will appeal to many
voters because he was following orders from [Republican] President Nixon
and kept silent afterward."
""His
(Liddy's) judgment might be in question, but I don't think his character
is," said Ed Walker, the York County chairman of McCain's campaign. "He
was following orders just like any good soldier, and he didn't tell on
anybody. He felt like he was on a mission and kept his silence.""
"Liddy's
2000 speech was reportedly canceled due to bad weather." ... "In his May
4 [Chicago] Tribune column,
[columnist Steve] Chapman wrote:"
"What
McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers -- in the form
of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent
more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary.
That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret
White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him,
McCain has embraced him."
...
"Last
November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend,"
and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family,"
he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon,
and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles
and philosophies that keep our nation great.""
"Which
principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break
into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and
photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war
activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention?
The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an
unfriendly newspaper columnist?"
"Liddy
was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history --
and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has
no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner
of war.""
[Chicago
Tribune columnist Steve Chapman]
"
-By Jon Sime -MediaMatters.org
20080929
Giuliani
- 
Paulson
- Corporate
- Government
- Law
- Politics
- History
"The
Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore."
... "The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place
as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are
being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars
to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five
years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over
a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, [Republican President]
Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting
the U.S. [United States] Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are
swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door."
... "No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use,
they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order
to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just
read the first four paragraphs of the lead
story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the
real deal is:"
""Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of
the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from
it."
""Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments
covered, not just those related to mortgages."
""At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the
assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions,
a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees."
""Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets
of financial institutions.""
"Unbelievable.
Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to
clean up like bandits. Even [Republican] Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for
his firm to be hired
(and paid) to "consult" in the bailout." ... "The problem is, nobody
truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even [Republican President
Bush's] Treasury Secretary [Henry] Paulson admitted he doesn't know the
exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out
of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't
figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone. " -By
Michael
Moore
20080925
Jobs
- History
- Weather
- Disasters
- 
Louisiana
- Texas
"Jobless
claims soar near 7-year high: First economic report
since financial meltdown shows initial unemployment claims rose by 7%,
boosted by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike." ... "According to a study by the
Department of Labor, initial filings for state jobless benefits increased
by a seasonally adjusted 32,000 to 493,000 in the third week of September.
It was the highest number of weekly claims since Sept. 29, 2001, when unemployment
soared in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." ... "The Labor Department
said about 50,000 of the new claims were due to the effects of Hurricanes
Gustav and Ike. There were 18,400 more claims from the week before in Louisiana
alone, and Texas added 1,200." ... "Earlier this month, the government
reported that there were 84,000 jobs lost in August, bringing to 605,000
the number of jobs cut from payrolls by U.S. employers in the first eight
months of the year." ... "The unemployment rate surged to 6.1% last month,
a nearly five-year high and up from 5.7% in July. In the last recession,
unemployment reached a high of 6.3%." -By David Goldman
-CNN
20080924
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - Financial
- Crisis- Politics
- Government
-Law
- Alaska
- 2008
Election
"Palin:
US could face another Great Depression." ... "[2008
Election] Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Wednesday
that the United States could be headed for another Great Depression if
Congress doesn't act on the financial crisis." ... "Asked whether there's
a risk of another Great Depression if Congress doesn't approve a $700 billion
bailout package, Palin said, "Unfortunately, that is the road that America
may find itself on."" ... "Couric pressed Palin on examples of how McCain,
a 26-year congressional veteran, had led the charge for more oversight."
... "The Alaska governor cited [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
John] McCain's warnings about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago
as well as image as a maverick. Questioned again for examples, and reminded
that McCain had been chairman of the Commerce Committee, Palin said, "I'll
try to find you some and I'll bring them to you."" ... "McCain has insisted
Palin is ready to take over as president, but he made no mention of including
her in the meetings he wants in Washington to deal with the financial crisis."
-By Sara Kugler -AP
via -Yahoo
20080919
Henry
Paulson
- Corporate
- Government
- Illegal
-Accounting- Politics
- History
- US
- Global
"Can
you trust a Wall Street veteran with a Wall Street bailout?"
... "Making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows, [Republican President
Bush's] Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson repeatedly said today's financial
problems were long in the making. He should know. He was part of the Gold
Rush that has brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse."
... "Paulson presided over one of the most profitable runs on Wall Street
as chairman and chief executive officer of investment banking titan Goldman
Sachs & Co. from 1999 until [Republican] President Bush nominated him
on May 30, 2006 to take over the Treasury Department." ... "But with Paulson
now seeking virtually unfettered authority to administer the largest bailout
of the financial industry in U.S. [United States] history, many are wondering
whether Paulson also doesn't come with enormous potential conflicts of
interest." ... "Paulson has surrounded himself with former Goldman executives
as he tries to navigate the domino-like collapse of several parts of the
global financial market. And others have gone off to lead companies that
could be among those that receive a bailout." ... "The administration's
draft law also would preclude court review of steps Paulson might take,
something Joshua Rosner, managing director of economic researcher Graham
Fisher & Co. in New York, said could be used to mask previous illegal
activity." ... "The Treasury proposal sent to Congress also offers no process
to hire asset managers in an open and competitive process. That's particularly
questionable given that Wall Street players are now hiring Wall Street
players, Rosner said." ... ""This seems to invite a risk of collusion between
sellers and buyers to the detriment of the taxpayer," he wrote." ... "At
a minimum, there's irony in Paulson being in charge of so large a bailout."
... "In the last annual report at Goldman that Paulson signed off on in
November 2005, a year in which he received $38 million in compensation,
investors were clearly told that the federal government wouldn't be there
to save them from bad investments." ... "In 2002, Paulson received $12.1
million in compensation, including a $6.3 million bonus — an improvement
over the previous three years when Wall Street accounting scandals unsettled
investment banks, including a $1.5 billion settlement Goldman and other
banks paid for issuing overly bullish research reports that promoted deals
the banks themselves were involved in." ... "Published reports said Paulson
received $30 million in compensation and salary in 2003." -By
Kevin
G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
20080916
Money
- Politics
- Jobs
- Federal
- History
"Democrats
are better for the economy than Republicans." ...
"The figures below are all from the annual Economic
Report of the President, and the analysis is primitive. Nevertheless,
what these numbers show almost beyond doubt is that Democrats are better
at virtually every economic task that is important to Republicans." ...
"This exercise implicitly assumes that lower taxes are always good and
higher government spending is always bad. " ... "The only point is that
if you find the Republican mantra of lower taxes and smaller government
appealing, and if you care only about how fast the economy is growing,
not how that growth is shared, you should vote Democratic." ... "On average,
in years when the president is a Democrat, the economy grows faster; inflation
is lower; fewer people can't find a job; the federal government spends
a smaller share of GDP, whether or not you include defense spending; and
the deficit is lower (or—sweet [Democratic President] Clinton-years memory—the
surplus is higher)." -By Michael Kinsley
-Slate
Noteworthy
- Emergency
- Money
- Politics
- Legal
- History
- AIG
"U.S.
to Take Over AIG in $85 Billion Bailout; Central Banks Inject Cash as Credit
Dries Up: Emergency Loan Effectively Gives Government
Control of Insurer; Historic Move Would Cap 10 Days That Reshaped U.S.
[Unijted States] Finance." ... "[Under Republican President Bush] The U.S.
government seized control of American International Group Inc. -- one of
the world's biggest insurers -- in an $85 billion deal that signaled the
intensity of its concerns about the danger a collapse could pose to the
financial system." ... "The step marks a dramatic turnabout for the federal
government, which had been strongly resisting overtures from AIG for an
emergency loan or some intervention that would prevent the insurer from
falling into bankruptcy. Just last weekend, the government essentially
pulled the plug on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., allowing the big investment
bank to go under instead of giving it financial support. This time, the
government decided AIG truly was too big to fail." ... "Under terms hammered
out Tuesday night, the Fed will lend up to $85 billion to AIG, and the
U.S. government will effectively get a 79.9% equity stake in the insurer
in the form of warrants called equity participation notes. The two-year
loan will carry an interest rate of Libor plus 8.5 percentage points. (Libor,
the London interbank offered rate, is a common short-term lending benchmark.)"
... "The loan is secured by AIG's assets, including its profitable insurance
businesses, giving the Fed some protection even if markets continue to
sink. And if AIG rebounds, taxpayers could reap a big profit through the
government's equity stake." ... "It puts the government in control of a
private insurer -- a historic development, particularly considering that
AIG isn't directly regulated by the federal government. The Fed took the
highly unusual step using legal authority granted in the Federal Reserve
Act, which allows it to lend to nonbanks under "unusual and exigent" circumstances,
something it invoked when Bear Stearns Cos. was rescued in March." ...
"The U.S. on Sept. 6 took over mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac as they teetered near collapse." ... "In bailing out AIG, the Federal
Reserve appeared to be motivated in part by worries that Wall Street's
financial crisis could begin to spill over into seemingly safe investments
held by small investors, such as money-market funds that invest in AIG
debt." ... "Indeed, on Tuesday the $62 billion Primary Fund from the Reserve,
a New York money-market firm, said it "broke the buck" -- that is, its
net asset value fell below the $1-a-share level that funds like this must
maintain. Breaking the buck is an extremely rare occurrence. The fund was
pinched by investments in bonds issued by now collapsing Lehman Brothers."
... "Money-market funds are supposed to be among the safest investments
available. No fund in the $3.6 trillion money-market industry has lost
money since 1994, when Orange County, Calif., went bankrupt. A number of
money-market funds own securities issued by AIG. The firm is also a big
insurer of some money-market instruments." -By Matthew
Karnitschnig, Deborah Solomon, Liam Pleven and Jon E. Hilsenrath with contributions
by Diya Gullapalli, Serena Ng, Damian Paletta and Ashby Jones-WSJ.com
20080915
Federal
- Law
- Politics
- History
"Wall
Street crisis is culmination of 28 years of deregulation."
... "On Monday, one Wall Street bank, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy
protection and another, Merrill Lynch, sought comfort by selling itself
to Bank of America for $50 billion. Earlier this year, the government helped
enable the sale of faltering investment bank Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan
Chase, and more recently took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac." ... "Such troubles were supposed to have been prevented, or at least
mitigated, by regulatory systems that the nation began to put in place
after the banking system collapsed at the start of the Great Depression."
... "Many banks at the time were badly wounded by their personal and financial
ties to securities trading. The 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, and later the
1956 Bank Holding Company Act, mandated the separation of banks, insurance
companies and securities firms." ... "Those and many other federal laws
stabilized the banking and securities markets, but by the 1970s, a stumbling
U.S. [United States] economy led to a change in America's political-economic
values. [Republican President] Ronald Reagan led a movement that came to
power in 1980 proclaiming faith in free markets and mistrust of government.
That conservative philosophy has dominated America for the past 28 years."
... "Even after taxpayers had to rescue deregulated savings and loans,
or S&Ls, with a $200 billion bailout in the late 1980s, the push to
loosen regulation paused only briefly." ... "In 1999, [Democratic] President
Clinton signed the Financial Services Modernization Act, which tore down
Glass-Steagall's reforms by removing the walls separating banks, securities
firms and insurers." -By David
Lightman -McClatchyDC.com
20080912
John
McCain - William
Timmons - 
Rick
Davis - Corporate
- Government
- Political
- History
- Oil
-
-
-
- 
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Taps Lobbyist for Transition." ... "[2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain transition planner William]
Timmons is the chairman emeritus of Timmons and Company, a small but influential
lobbying firm he founded in 1975 shortly after leaving the [Republican
Nixon-Ford] White House. According to Senate records, he registered to
lobby in 2008 for a wide range of companies and trade groups, including
the American Petroleum Institute, the American Medical Association, Chrysler,
Freddie Mac, Visa USA and Anheuser-Busch." ... "His registrations include
work on a number of issues that have become flashpoints in the presidential
campaign. He has registered to work on bills that deal with the regulations
of troubled [home] mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, a bill
to provide farm subsidies and bills that regulate domestic oil-drilling."
... "By tapping Timmons, McCain has turned to one of Washington's steadiest
and most senior inside players to guide him in the event of a victory —
but also to someone who represents the antithesis of the kind of outside-of-Washington
change he has recently been promising. One Republican familiar with the
process said the decision to involve Timmons could become a political liability
for the campaign's reformist image, especially in the wake of the controversies
over the lobbying backgrounds of other McCain staffers, including campaign
manager Rick Davis. "It's one more blind spot for Rick Davis and John McCain,"
the person said." -By Michael Scherer
-TIME.com
20080910
Gordon
Smith - Illegal
- Immigration
- Business
- 
Food
- Workers
- Politics
- Agriculture
- Property
- History
- Oregon
- 
Md
- Hawaii
- 
Utah
- Wash
"Señor
Smith: Low-wage Latino workers keep [Oregon Republican
Senator] Sen. Gordon Smith’s family business humming. Not all of them are
legal." ... "Up on a hill overlooking this Eastern Oregon town of 701 people,
Smith Frozen Foods turns raw produce from the surrounding fields into ready-to-eat
products." ... "Smith’s goods appear in grocery stores under other brand
names. But in tiny Weston [Oregon], a water tank emblazoned with the capital
letters S-M-I-T-H sits like a sentry greeting travelers on nearby Highway
11." ... "Gordon Smith, a United States senator from Oregon and the only
Republican senator representing a West Coast state, has owned the plant
his grandfather founded in 1919 for nearly 30 years." ... "“Son,” father
Milan Smith once said, according to Gordon Smith’s 2006 memoir, “you can
sell ice to Eskimos and coals to Newcastle.”" ... "Today, Smith Frozen
Foods generates millions in income for the senator, according to Smith’s
2007 financial disclosure report." ... "And in this town, Smith’s wealth
looms large, even though the 56-year-old lawmaker seldom visits and calls
nearby Pendleton [Oregon] his home. According to the Center for Responsive
Politics, Smith is the 12th-richest member of the U.S. [United States]
Senate, with an estimated net worth between $8 million and $39 million—wealth
that’s allowed him to buy a $3.5 million mansion in Bethesda, Md. [Maryland],
property on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a Park City, Utah, condominium
and—more famously—four antique golf clubs worth $1.25 million." ... "The
workers at Smith Frozen Foods, who clean the machinery, monitor production
and pack upward of 50 million pounds of produce each year, earn about $80
a day, four or five days a week, 10 months a year—if they’re lucky." ...
"One other thing—some of them appear to be illegal immigrants." ... "WW
recently spent several days in Weston, and the nearby cities of Milton-Freewater
[Oregon] and Walla Walla, Wash. [Washington], where most of Smith’s employees
live. WW spoke to dozens of current and former Smith workers, Latino advocates,
court personnel, public defenders, educators, police administrators, church
officials, social service agents and business owners and determined that
some portion of Smith’s workforce comprises undocumented immigrants." ...
"It’s a revelation that may not be newsworthy around Weston, where most
people this reporter interviewed knew, or assumed, that the agricultural
processing plant hired illegal immigrants." ... "Additional interviews
and review of public records reveal that Smith’s company appears to have
employed illegal immigrants for decades, stretching back as far as the
1980s." -By
Beth
Slovic -WWeek.com
20080908
Karl
Rove - John
McCain - Palin
- 
SC
- Arizona
- 
Colorado
- Legislative
- History
- 2008
Election
"Eight
years after S.C., Karl Rove works with Sen. McCain’s camp."
... "Eight years after helping [Republican President] George Bush defeat
[Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain in a [2000 Election] bitter
primary, Karl Rove appears to be playing a significant role in helping
the Arizona Republican win the presidency." ... "Rove has downplayed his
contact with the McCain campaign, but the former adviser to President Bush
met with GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] delegates from Colorado last
Wednesday. Rove, who is now a Fox News analyst, told reporters after the
meeting that he has friends in the McCain organization who occasionally
seek his advice." ... "He said the campaign “carefully vetted” [2008 Election
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin, claiming it was aware
of all the revelations that have come out since she was announced as the
running mate." ... "“They knew all of it. … They weren’t bothered by it,”
Rove said." ... "A GOP operative said Rove has had a consistent, “medium”-sized
role with the McCain campaign." ... "[During the 2000 election] Rove said
of the Arizona senator, “You cannot become a leader of the United States
and hope to achieve things by, basically, irritating everybody around you.
… And his legislative accomplishments are few and far between because he
cannot work well and bring people together.”" (1, 2)
-By Jackie Kucinich and Bob Cusack with contributions
by Sam Youngman -TheHill.com
20080907
Henry
Paulson
- Government
-Money
- Housing
- Politics
- Historic
"U.S.
seizes Fannie and Freddie: Treasury chief Paulson
unveils historic government takeover of twin mortgage buyers. Top executives
are out." ... "Federal officials on Sunday unveiled an extraordinary takeover
of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, putting the government in charge of the
twin mortgage giants and the $5 trillion in home loans they back." ...
"The move, which extends as much as $200 billion in Treasury support to
the two companies, marks Washington's most dramatic attempt yet to shore
up the nation's housing market, which is suffering from record foreclosures
and falling prices." ... "The sweeping plan, announced by Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance
Agency, places the two companies into a "conservatorship" to be overseen
by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Under conservatorship, the government
would temporarily run Fannie and Freddie until they are on stronger footing."
... "Freddie CEO Richard Syron and Fannie CEO Daniel Mudd will no longer
run the agencies, while the FHFA will assume control of the boards." ...
"The government, in agreeing to backstop the firms, said it would receive
$1 billion in each company's senior preferred stock. The government will
also receive a quarterly dividend payment and the right to own 79.9% of
each company." ... "Fannie and Freddie have become virtually the only source
of funding for banks and other home lenders looking to make home loans.
Their ability to do so is crucial to the recovery of the battered home
market and the broader U.S. economy." ... "The two firms buy loans, attach
a guarantee, then sell securities backed by the loans' income stream. All
told, they own or back $5.4 trillion worth of home debt - half the mortgage
debt in the country." ... "The cost of the government intervention remains
unclear however. Experts argue that it will depend in large part on the
structure of the rescue, the direction of home prices and mortgage default
rates." ... "Still it seems almost certain it will run into the billions
and will most likely eclipse such other high-profile government bailouts
including than the Federal Reserve's $29 billion backing of Bear Stearns
assets when it was taken over by J.P. Morgan Chase." -By
David Ellis with contributions by Tami Luhby and Patricia Sellers
-CNN
20080904
Sarah
Palin - History
- Sports
- Journalism
- Television
- 
Idaho
- Alaska
- 2008
Election
"Republican
vice presidential nominee Palin changes colleges 6 times in 6 years."
... "Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched
colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University
of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987." ... "She majored in journalism
with an emphasis in broadcast news." ... "Despite her journalism degree,
she does not appear to have worked for the college newspaper or campus
television station, school officials said. She worked briefly as a sportscaster
for KTUU in Anchorage [Alaska] after she graduated college." -By
Nicholas K. Geranios -LAtimes
20080902
John
McCain - Military
- Politics
- Ads- US- Vietnam
- History
- 2008
Election
Watch
- "Former
POW says McCain is "not cut out to be President"."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain has
been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He
has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes
he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste
in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads.
But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining
loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country."
... "We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks,
but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the
truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr.
Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his
finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know—friends,
family members, coworkers, and especially those who don't share your political
views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking
sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that
has ever overplayed McCain's POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!"
... "The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing
his POW story. And it's cut across all political persuasions. * "Whether
he's deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute
to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card:
the Hanoi Hilton. — Edwin Chen, Bloomberg * "Noun, Verb, POW" — Andrew
Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly * "The McCain campaign's constant invocation
of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational..." — Ana
Marie Cox, TIME * "I think they are going to it way too many times." —
Howard Fineman, Newsweek" ... "Remember how Joe Biden got the press to
refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let's actually
take Andrew Sullivan's lead here and get the media to boil McCain down
to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the
McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn't that what they're already
doing?" -BraveNewPac
-BraveNewFilms.org
20080831
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - Ted
Stevens - Money
- Politics
-Government
- Alaska
- Transportation
- Construction
-History
- Ohio
- 2008
Election
"Palin
backed 'bridge to nowhere' in 2006." ... "In her
nationally televised speech accepting the job as [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain's running mate, Alaska [Republican
Governor] Gov. Sarah Palin said she "championed reform to end the abuses
of earmark spending by Congress" and opposed federal funding for a controversial
bridge to a sparsely populated island." ... "[However] While running for
governor in 2006, though, Palin backed federal funding for the infamous
bridge, which McCain helped make a symbol of pork barrel excess." ... "And
as mayor of the small town of Wasilla [Alaska] from 1996 to 2002, Palin
also hired a Washington lobbying firm that helped secure $8 million in
congressionally directed spending projects, known as earmarks, according
to public spending records compiled by the watchdog group Citizens Against
Government Waste and lobbying documents." ... "Wasilla's lobbying firm
was headed by Steven Silver — a former chief of staff to Alaska [Republican
Senator] Sen. Ted Stevens, a key proponent of the bridge project." ...
""We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are
on the table like the bridge, and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this
project or any other into something that's so negative," Palin said in
August 2006, according to the Ketchikan Daily News."" -By
Ken Dilanian -USATODAY
McCain
- Palin
- Alaska
- Newspaper
- History
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Camp Didn't Search Palin's Hometown Paper Archives."
... "The [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain
campaign has gone to great lengths to present the selection of [Alaska
Republican] Sarah Palin as one made after a careful, meticulous vetting
process. But evidence continues to suggest that the Arizona Republican
made his VP choice with surprising haste." ... "On Saturday, a Democrat
tasked with opposition research contacted the Huffington Post with this
piece of information: as of this weekend, the McCain campaign had not gone
through old newspaper articles from the Valley Frontiersman, Palin's hometown
newspaper." ... "How does he know? The paper's (massive) archives are not
online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the
first to inquire." ... ""No one else had requested access before," said
the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which
means the McCain camp didn't."" -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
John
McCain - 
Joe
Biden - Barack
Obama - Hillary
Clinton - Hurricane
Katrina - Weather
- Emergency
- Investigation
- Legislation
- Politics
-History
- Federal
- NY
- New
Orleans - Louisiana
- 
Communications-Funds
- Children
- Transportation
- 2008
Election
"McCain
To Katrina Victims In 2005: You're On Your Own."
... "It doesn’t really come as a surprise to those of us who have watched
[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain over the
years that he's about to make a campaign
stop in New Orleans [Louisiana] after Hurricane Gustav hits this week.
After all, he's been exploiting the troops for years, what's a few hurricane
victims after that?" ... "What does seem odd is that McCain thinks Gulf
Coast residents will forget how he, [Republican President] George W. Bush
and the then-Republican Congress turned their backs on them so many times
in the months after Katrina thundered ashore in 2005." ... "Too bad he
spent the months to follow leading the Republican charge against every
Senate bill that would have actually helped Katrina victims or mandated
investigations on how the Bush administration could have blown disaster
response so thoroughly." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic Vice Presidential
nominee Joe Biden jumped immediately to the aid of hurricane victims in
the week after the 2005 disaster, authoring S.Amdt.
1661 "…to provide emergency funding for victims of Hurricane Katrina.""
... "Biden's legislation would have provided many things including money
to purchase interoperable communications equipment to help first-responders
dealing with the disaster, $10 million "to find, unite, and transport children
impacted by Hurricane Katrina to their parents, legal guardian, or next
of kin" and funding to assist victims of domestic violence in affected
areas." ... "But with John McCain's help, the Republican-led Senate shot
down the funding on a 41-56
vote with McCain voting against, while Biden and Democratic Presidential
nominee Barack Obama voted for the funding." ... "When [New York Democratic]
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY[ Democratic-New York]) proposed the creation
of a Congressional Commission to "examine the Federal, State, and local
response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.. and make immediate
corrective measures to improve such responses in the future," John McCain
was once again exactly where [Republican President] George W. Bush wanted
him to be: On the "nay" side of a straight party-line vote (44-54)
that killed that legislation." ... "And lest you think it was McCain taking
a stand against what might become a Democratic witch hunt on the failures
of his bosses in the White House, the bill called for a wholly bipartisan
panel, stating
specifically of the 10-member group that "not more than 5 members of
the Commission shall be from the same political party."" ... "Unlike McCain,
Barack Obama was one of the cosponsors of that bill and both he and Biden
voted for immediate oversight on the bungled Katrina response." ... "But
that's not all." -By Bob
Geiger
20080829
John
McCain - Sarah
Palin - Science
- Education
- Politics
- Law
- History
- 2008
Election - Alaska
- Tennessee
"McCain's
VP Wants Creationism Taught in School." ... "[2008
Election] Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin wants creationism
taught in science classes." ... "In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, the soon-to-be
governor of Alaska said of evolution and creation education, "Teach both.
You know, don't be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important,
and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.""
... "Asked by the Anchorage
Daily News whether she believed in evolution, Palin declined to
answer, but said that "I don't think there should be a prohibition against
debate if it comes up in class."" ... ""I'm not going to pretend I know
how all this came to be," she said." ... "The battle between evolution
and creationism -- specifically, Christian creationism -- in U.S. classrooms
dates back to the 1925 Scopes trial, when a Tennessee court banned the
teaching of evolution. Since then, state and federal courts have repeatedly
rejected so-called creation science in public schools, calling it religion
rather than science." ... "The latest courtroom defeat came in the 2005
Kitzmiller
v. Dover case, when the superficially religion-neutral theory of intelligent
design was classified as religious creationism. The Supreme Court ruled
in 1987 that teaching creationism violated the separation of church and
state." ... "Nevertheless, pro-creationism education initiatives driven
by Christian conservatives have flourished, and defenders of evolution
-- and, more broadly, scientific integrity -- worry that Palin's pick will
give momentum to this church-over-state push." ... ""It's unfortunate McCain
would pick someone who shares those particular anti-science views, but
it's not a surprise," said Barbara Forrest, a Southeastern Lousiana University
philosophy professor and prominent critic of creationist science. "She's
a choice that pleases the religious right. And the religious right has
been the chief force against teaching evolution."" -By
Brandon Keim -Wired
John
McCain - Sarah
Palin - Science
- Politics
- Oil
- Money
- Wildlife
- History
- Global
- Climate
- Ice
- Law
- Alaska
- Arizona
-2008
Election - US
- 
Canada
"McCain
VP Pick No Friend to Polar Bears." ... "Alaska [Republican]
Governor Sarah Palin has ignored research showing that polar bear populations
are declining in the quest to plumb new sources of energy, according to
scientists, and environmental groups who fought to put the bears on the
endangered species list." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
to be his vice presidential candidate Friday. Palin is only the second
woman to be on a major party's ticket as VP -- the first was Geraldine
Ferraro, who ran with Democrati Walter Mondale in 1984." ... "The 44-year-old
Palin, a beauty pageant winner and former mayor of a small town in Alaska,
is an advocate of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
She has infuriated environmentalists for her support of the aerial
shooting of wolves as a way to build up herds of moose and caribou. She's
also sued the Interior Department for putting
polar bears on the endangered species list." ... "In the lawsuit, filed
this month in federal district court in the District of Columbia, Palin
argues that the government's move to list polar bears as endangered is
not based on sound science, and restricts oil and natural gas development.
The Interior Department had put the bears on the list in response to a
lawsuit filed by environmental groups, who argued that the bears are being
threatened by global warming." ... "In an interview on the conservative
CNN talk show hosted by Glenn Beck earlier this year, Palin said that she
was worried that environmentalists are using the Endangered Species Act
to block the extraction of oil and gas." ... ""In fact, the number of polar
bears has risen dramatically over the past 30 years," she said. "Our fear
(is) that extreme environmentalists will use this tool, the ESA, to eventually
curtail or halt the North Slope production of very rich resources that
America needs."" ... "But biologists who have studied polar bear populations
counter that the facts simply do not support Palin's assertion that polar
bear populations are on the rise." ... ""Polar bear populations have not
been increasing for the past 30 years, and that's a well-known fact," said
Ian Stirling, an emeritus scientist with Canada's Department of the Environment
and an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta in an interview.
Stirling has studied polar bears for 37 years -- the longest of anyone."
... "In fact, the polar bear population has actually declined by 20 percent
in Alaska's Southern Beaufort Sea since the mid-1980s, he says, referring
to peer-reviewed research that he's conducted with other scientists for
the US Geological Survey. The reason: Loss of their habitat in the form
of melting ice." -By Sarah Lai Stirland
-Wired
20080828
Global
- Climate
-Ice
- Science
- History
"Arctic
ice shrinks to second-lowest level ever." ... "Arctic
sea ice, which melts partly during each polar summer, has shrunk more this
year than in any on record except for 2007, the National Snow and Ice Data
Center has found." ... "Scientists said the data provided more ominous
indications that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to
be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is now at its
second lowest level in about 30 years." ... "With several weeks left of
the melting season, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported yesterday
that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles.
The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million
square miles, measured on Sept. [September] 16, 2007." ... "Declining ice
as a result of warmer temperatures in the air and ocean threatens to amplify
global warming because the sea is darker than ice and absorbs more sunlight."
-Newsday.com
20080826
Money
- History
"FDIC
Warns of More Bank Troubles: The Government Insures
Depositors When Banks Fail, But Does It Have Enough Cash?" ... "The health
of U.S. banks is quickly deteriorating, and the government fund set up
to protect depositors might not have enough money to insure everybody,
analysts told ABCNews.com." ... "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,
or FDIC, insures bank deposits of up to $100,000 at nearly 8,500 of the
nation's banks and also keeps a watch list of banks that it considers in
trouble." ... "At the beginning of the year, 90 banks were on the FDIC
watch list. There are now 117, FDIC chairwoman Sheila C. Bair announced
at a news conference this afternoon. That is the highest number in five
years, but some analysts expect the list to grow even more in coming months."
... ""I think there's going to be a steady drip, drip, drip of bad news,"
said Sean Ryan, a banking analyst with Sterne Agee. "We've only seen the
very tip of the iceberg in terms of bank failures."" ... "The FDIC, created
in 1933 during the Great Depression to help restore the public's confidence
in the nation's banking system, receives no federal tax dollars and is
funded through the institutions that it insures. Currently it has $50.2
billion set aside to cover bank failures, nearly 20 percent of which is
likely to be depleted in the IndyMac insurance payback alone." (1, 2,
3)
-By Scott Mayerowitz -ABCNEWS.com
20080825
WATCH
- 2008
Election - Politics
- Noteworthy- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Global
- Climate
-Environment
- Fiscal
- History
- 
Iowa
"Full
Text: Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach Speech to Democratic National Convention."
... [Speech by Iowa Republican Representative Jim Leach:] "In troubled
times, it was understood that country comes before party, that in perilous
moments mutual concern for the national interest must be the only factor
in political judgments. This does not mean that debate within and between
the political parties should not be vibrant. Yet what frustrates so many
citizens is the lack of bipartisanship in Washington and the way today’s
Republican Party has broken with its conservative heritage." ... "The party
that once emphasized individual rights has gravitated in recent years toward
regulating values. The party of military responsibility has taken us to
war with a country that did not attack us. The party that formerly led
the world in arms control has moved to undercut treaties crucial to the
defense of the earth. The party that prides itself on conservation has
abdicated its responsibilities in the face of global warming. And the party
historically anchored in fiscal restraint has nearly doubled the national
debt, squandering our precious resources in an undisciplined and unprecedented
effort to finance a war with tax cuts." ... "America has seldom faced more
critical choices: whether we should maintain an occupational force for
decades in a country and region that resents western intervention or elect
a leader who, in a carefully structured way, will bring our troops home
from Iraq as the heroes they are. Whether it is wise to continue to project
power largely alone with flickering support around the world or elect a
leader who will follow the model of General Eisenhower and this president’s
father and lead in concert with allies." ... "Whether it is prudent to
borrow from future generations to pay for today’s reckless fiscal policies
or elect a leader who will shore up our budgets and return to a strong
dollar. Whether it is preferable to continue the policies that have weakened
our position in the world, deepened our debt and widened social divisions
or elect a leader who will emulate John F. Kennedy and relight a lamp of
fairness at home and reassert an energizing mix of realism and idealism
abroad." ... "The portfolio of challenges passed on to the next president
will be as daunting as any since the Great Depression and World War II.
This is not a time for politics as usual or for run-of-the-mill politicians.
Little is riskier to the national interest than more of the same. America
needs new ideas, new energy and a new generation of leadership." ... "Hence,
I stand before you proud of my party’s contributions to American history
but, as a citizen, proud as well of the good judgment of good people in
this good party, in nominating a transcending candidate, an individual
whom I am convinced will recapture the American dream and be a truly great
president: the senator from Abraham Lincoln’s state—Barack Obama. Thank
you." -By Jim Leach via
-Clips&Comment
WATCH:
Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa at the Democratic National Convention
20080820
John
McCain - Family
- US
- 
Bangladesh- Vietnam
- History
- 2008
Election
"Watchdogs
make it harder for politicians to stretch the truth:
Cindy McCain's past is the latest to be questioned after errors were found."
... "The latest embellishments come from the [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate John] McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred
to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has
two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with
them." ... "The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother
Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991."
... "Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip."
... "In another instance, McCain told the Chicago Tribune earlier this
year that on one of her medical missions to Vietnam she was in “the very
hospital – and in the very room – where her husband was brought after being
shot down and then beaten by a mob during the war.”" ... "A 1992 Washington
Times story recounts a different version: “Mrs. McCain asked to see the
operating room and her husband’s cell, but was turned down. She took the
rejection philosophically. ‘It’s 27 years later. Let’s go on,’ Mrs. McCain
said.”" -By Alexandra Marks
-CSMonitor
20080819
Afghanistan
- 
French
-US
- Terrorism
- History
"Taliban
kill 10 French troops in Afghanistan." ... "Taliban
insurgents killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 in a major battle in
Afghanistan, the French president's office said on Tuesday, the biggest
single loss of foreign troops in combat there since 2001." ... "The Taliban
have gradually closed in on Kabul [Afghanistan's capital] in the past year,
making travel south, west or east of the capital extremely hazardous for
troops, aid workers and civilians and spreading fear among the population."
... "The battle that ensued lasted deep into the night and the mixed French,
Afghan and U.S. force summoned reinforcements and air support, General
Jean-Louis Georgelin, chief of the army general staff, told a news conference
in Paris." ... "France has 2,600 troops in Afghanistan, after Sarkozy sent
an extra 700 soldiers this year in response to a U.S. call for NATO allies
to provide more forces to check a surge in violence." ... "TALIBAN CLOSING
IN" ... "The Taliban have stepped up attacks in provinces bordering the
Afghan capital over the past year, closing in from the volatile south and
east, where the bulk of the fighting has occurred since militants relaunched
their insurgency in 2005." (1, 2,
3)
-By Sayed Salahuddin with contributions by James Mackenzie,
Elyas Wahdat in Khost, Jon Hemming, and Michael Winfrey
-Reuters
Prices
- History
- Energy
-Labor
"Wholesale
prices: Highest annual rate in 27 years: The Labor
Department reports that its Producer Price Index increased by 1.2% in July
and by 9.8% in the past year." ... "In another indication of growing inflation,
wholesale prices increased in July to the highest annual rate in 27 years,
according to a government report released Tuesday." ... "The annual Producer
Price Index for finished goods rose 9.8% in the 12 months that ended in
July." ... "The jump in wholesale prices is the fastest rate of increase
since a 10.4% bump-up in June 1981, according to Joseph Kowal, economist
at the Bureau of Labor Statistics." ... "The Labor Department also reported
that PPI rose 1.2% in July, after increasing 1.8% in June. Analysts polled
by Briefing.com had expected an increase of only 0.6%." ... "The surge
in producer prices is in large part due to higher energy prices, said Doug
Roberts, chief investment strategist for ChannelCapitalResearch.com."
-CNN
20080814
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - 
Ron
Paul - Military
-People
-Overseas
- Politics
- History
- Iraq
- US
- 2008
Election
"Troops
Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama." ... "During World
War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts
that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert,
some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside:
two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a
presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they
come home." ... "According to an analysis of campaign contributions by
the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] Democrat Barack
Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed
overseas at the time of their contributions than has [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] Republican John
McCain, and the fiercely anti-war [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate]
Ron
Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination
months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul." -By
Luke Rosiak -OpenSecrets.org
|
Recipient
|
Total
|
Obama, Barack
Paul, Ron
McCain, John
Huckabee, Mike
Thompson, Fred
Romney, Mitt
Clinton, Hillary |
$60,642
$45,512
$10,665
$7,950
$6,350
$5,550
$3,240
|
via: OpenSecrets.org
Michigan
- Economic
- History
-Auto
-Manufacturing
"[Michigan]State's
jobless rate is 8.5%: Unemployed number remains steady
as work force drops by 33,000. U.S. [United States] average is 5.7%." ...
"The state's unemployment rate remained stubbornly high at 8.5 percent
in July, the third consecutive month the jobless rate remained at a level
not seen since the recession of the early '90s." ... "The rate remained
steady not because the state stopped losing jobs -- a total of 29,000 positions
were cut by employers with few new jobs added -- but because the number
of people in the work force fell by 33,000." ... "Michigan's jobless rate
-- far higher than the national rate of 5.7 percent -- is another sign
the woes of the auto industry continue to grip the state. Since July 2007,
the number of unemployed workers in the state has increased by 65,000 or
18.4 percent." ... ""With somewhat more than half of the year already in
the books, it is pretty obvious that 2008 will be the fifth consecutive
year of recession for Michigan," said Dana Johnson, chief economist for
Comerica Inc." -By Louis Aguilar
-DetNews.com
20080813
Georgia
- Russia
- EU
- Belgium
- France
- Military
- History
"Georgia
Says Russian Troops Move Beyond Conflict Zone (Update2)."
... "Georgia accused Russia of sending troops beyond the South Ossetia
[Republic of Georgia region] conflict zone in violation of a cease-fire.
A Russian official denied the claim, saying the troops are eliminating
Georgia's ability to renew attacks." ... "Georgian Security Council chief
Kakha Lomaia said a column of Russian troops may be moving from the city
of Gori [Republic of Georgia] toward the Uplistsikhe military base, which
Georgian forces abandoned earlier in the conflict. The Russians are advancing
``well beyond the conflict zone,'' he said today." ... "The Russian troop
movements come one day after Georgia and Russia agreed to a European Union-brokered
peace plan to end five days of fighting. EU foreign ministers are meeting
in Brussels [the capital of Belgium and the European Union] to push the
peace deal forward. The 27-nation bloc may send military personnel to monitor
the cease-fire, said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country
brokered the accord." ... "Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said
Russian tanks continue to operate within Georgia, destroying ``infrastructure,''
as Russia said it was responding to sporadic attacks by Georgian snipers
while observing the terms of a cease-fire declared by [Russian] President
Dmitry Medvedev." ... "Medvedev ordered a halt to the military campaign,
which was sparked by fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia on Aug.
7. Saakashvili said Russia launched a ``well-planned invasion'' of Georgia
the next day. Nogovitsyn said Georgia planned its incursion into South
Ossetia in advance and expected to meet resistance only from Ossetian forces
and the 588 Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region." ... "South Ossetia
and Abkhazia broke away from Georgian control in wars in the early 1990s
and Russian forces have been stationed as peacekeepers in the regions under
a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate. Most people living in both
regions have Russian passports. Saakashvili yesterday said Georgia is quitting
the CIS, a loose association of all former Soviet republics except the
three Baltic states. " -By Henry Meyer and Lucian
Kim -Bloomberg
20080810
John
Edwards - John
McCain - Media
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Obama
- Family
- People
- Money
- History
"Catching
the Wrong John: Why Are the Media Talking about John Edwards' Infidelity
If They Aren't Going to Talk about John McCain's?"
... "If John Edwards' infidelity is news, and he's not a candidate for
anything, why isn't [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John
McCain's? He reportedly had numerous affairs in the years after returning
home from Vietnam to a beautiful wife who had been disfigured in a car
accident, and ultimately, by his own reports, he zeroed in like a laser
on beautiful a 25-year-old heiress upon meeting her one evening in 1979
while he was still married, promptly lied to her about his age, and almost
as promptly left his wife for her. We all extol John McCain for enduring
5 years of extreme hardship in Vietnam. But aren't his first wife's circumstances
much like Elizabeth Edwards'? After all, the first Mrs. McCain waited in
agony (and presumably fidelity) during those five long years for her beloved
husband to return from Vietnam, raising their children while he was away
and undergoing dozens of painful operations herself, only to be repaid
by a philandering husband who ultimately left her for a younger woman."
... "Now personally, I don't think anybody's sex life has any bearing on
a campaign, except to the extent that the candidate runs as a hypocrite,
extolling family values, fighting gays while fighting his own gay demons,
etc. But John McCain is increasingly making this campaign about character,
and his actions over many years suggest some worrisome patterns that fly
in the face of the entire story he tells about himself. Setting aside his
cheating on his first wife, what about his attending to something other
than the people's business as a member of the Keating Five (and ultimately
contributing to a bailout that cost middle class American taxpayers the
equivalent of nearly half a trillion in 2008 tax dollars -- imagine the
middle class tax break we could offer if we weren't still paying off the
principal and debt on that boondoggle); or hiring the most dishonest, amoral
campaign team money could buy in 2008; or generating one fabricated or
grossly misleading charge after another against [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama in the last three weeks (as in his
sleazy new tax ad where, for example, he says Obama would raise taxes on
small businesses when Obama has never proposed anything of the sort)? Like
[Republican] George W. Bush, he doesn't seem like a man who once was lost
but now is found. He [McCain] seems more like a man's whose principles
are soluble in self-interest." -By Drew Westen
-HuffingtonPost.com
20080805
Dick
Cheney - US
- Iraq
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Politics
-History
- Book
"Did
White House fake link between Saddam and Al Qaeda?"
... "First, former CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] Director George Tenet
told the president it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Then came efforts by the [Republican President] Bush White House to discredit
critics, like ambassador Joe Wilson, who questioned the wisdom of going
to war in Iraq." ... "Now comes a new book by author Ron Suskind claiming
that the [Republican President Bush] White House ordered the CIA to forge
and backdate a handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to
Saddam Hussein to link the Iraq regime to Al Qaeda. The White House calls
the assertion nonsense." ... "In “The Way of the World,” to be published
today, Suskind writes:"
"The
White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated
to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually
trained for his mission in Iraq –- thus showing, finally, that there was
an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the vice president’s
office [Republican Dick Cheney] had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11
as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link."
"Suskind
says the order to forge such a letter was written on “creamy White House
stationery” but gives no details about how it was created or how it was
delivered to Iraq." -By Johanna Neuman
-LAtimes
Political
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Crime
- Noteworthy
- Government
- Law
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- History
- Journalist
"Author
claims White House knew Iraq had no WMD: Journalist
Ron Suskind says [Republican President] Bush ordered forgery linking Saddam,
al-Qaeda." ... "President Bush committed an impeachable offense by ordering
the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] to to manufacture a false pretense
for the Iraq war in the form of a backdated, handwritten document linking
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, an explosive new book claims." ... "The charge
is made in “The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of
Extremism” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, released today."
... "Suskind says he spoke on the record with U.S. [United States] intelligence
officials who stated that Bush was informed unequivocally in January 2003
that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, his book relates,
Bush decided to invade Iraq three months later — with the forged letter
from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam bolstering the U.S. [United
States] rationale to go into war." ... "“It was a dark day for the CIA,”
Suskind told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Tuesday. “It was the kind
of thing where [the CIA] said, ‘Look, this is not our charge. We’re not
here to carry forth a political mandate — which is clearly what this was
— to solve a political problem in America.’ And it was a cause of great
grievance inside of the agency.”" ... "The author writes that Bush’s action
is “one of the greatest lies in modern American political history” and
suggests it is a crime of greater impact than Watergate." ... "The letter"
... "On page 371 of “The Way of the World,” Suskind describes the [Republican
President Bush's] White House’s concoction of a forged letter purportedly
from the hand of [Iraqi intelligence chief Tahir Jalil] Habbush to Saddam
Hussein to justify the United States’ decision to go to war." ... "CIA
officers [Bob] Richer and John Maguire, who oversaw the Iraq Operations
Group, are both on the record in Suskind’s book confirming the existence
of the fake Habbush letter." -By Bob Considine
-MSNBC
WATCH:
Ron Suskind interview on TODAY show.
Government
- Intelligence
- Secretly
- Marketing
- Media
- Opinion
- Noteworthy
- Military
- Terrorism
- Political
- History
- Book
- US
- Iraq
"Book
says White House ordered forgery." ... "A new book
by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the
head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein." ... "Suskind writes in “The
Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery –
adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link
between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war."
... "Suskind writes in his new book that the order to create the letter
was written on “creamy White House stationery.” The book suggests that
the letter was subsequently created by the CIA and delivered to Iraq, but
does not say how." ... "The author claims that such an operation, part
of “false pretenses” for war, would apparently constitute illegal White
House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable
offense." ... "Suskind writes that the White House had “ignored the Iraq
intelligence chief’s accurate disclosure that there were no weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time
to stop an invasion." ... "“They secretly resettled him in Jordan, paid
him $5 million – which one could argue was hush money – and then used his
captive status to help deceive the world about one of the era’s most crushing
truths: that America had gone to war under false pretenses,” the book says."
... "Suskind writes that the forgery “operation created by the White House
and passed to the CIA seems inconsistent with” a statute saying the CIA
may not conduct covert operations “intended to influence United States
political processes, public opinion, policies or media.”" ... "“It is not
the sort of offense, such as assault or burglary, that carries specific
penalties, for example, a fine or jail time,” Suskind writes. “It is much
broader than that. It pertains to the White House’s knowingly misusing
an arm of government, the sort of thing generally taken up in impeachment
proceedings.”" -By Mike Allen
-Politico.com
20080804
US_Debt
- Government
- Money
- Countrywide
Financial Corporation - Real
Estate - 
North
Carolina - New
York - US
- United
Kingdom
"Fewest
Treasury Traders Since 1960 Hit Taxpayers (Update4)."
... "For the first time since 1960, when it created the network of securities
firms obligated to buy and sell Treasury bonds, the U.S. government has
the fewest bond traders making markets in its debt and a bigger burden
for American taxpayers financing record federal deficits."
... "The number of so-called primary government securities dealers declined
to 19 last month when Bank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, North
Carolina, acquired the troubled Countrywide Financial Corp. The sale was
the climax of dozens of bank failures, triggered by the biggest decline
in residential real estate since the Great Depression and the seizing up
of credit markets from New York to London [United Kingdom's capital]. The
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the agent of the U.S. Treasury, plans
to shrink the dealers again when JPMorgan
Chase & Co. completes its takeover of Bear Stearns Cos." ...
"The paucity of primary dealers coincides with the largest borrowing requirement
in American history and the acknowledgment by the administration of [Republican]
President George W. Bush that the U.S. will finance a budget deficit totaling
a record $482 billion next year. When the dealer system began 48 years
ago with 18 firms, the U.S. had a $300 million surplus. The group has shrunk
from a peak of 46 in 1988. " -By Sandra Hernandez
-Bloomberg
20080729
US_Debt
- History
- Government
- Politics
-
SD
- SC
"Bush
to leave a record budget deficit of $482 billion:
[Republican President Bush] White House officials say the economy and a
bipartisan stimulus package caused the worsening picture for 2009, but
Democrats blame Bush's tax cuts and fiscal management." ... "Democrats
on Capitol Hill blamed the revised deficit figures on Bush's large tax
cuts and freewheeling spending." ... ""If we gave Olympic medals for fiscal
irresponsibility, President Bush would take the gold, the silver and the
bronze, because he's got the three highest record deficits ever," said
[South Dakota Democratic Senator] Sen. Kent Conrad (D-S.D.), chairman of
the Senate Budget Committee. "He sets records in every single category:
2009 would be the gold; 2004 the silver; 2008 the bronze."" ... "[South
Carolina Democratic Representative] Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.) noted
that Bush inherited a budget surplus from his Democratic predecessor, so
the blame for the poor fiscal performance rests with him." ... ""Mr. Bush
came to office with the biggest surpluses in history and he will leave
office with the biggest deficit in history. That's the bottom line," said
Spratt, chairman of the House Budget Committee." -By
Maura Reynolds -LAtimes
20080728
Jim
Adkisson - Jobless
- Politics
- Police
- Tennessee
- Church
- Gays
- Women's
- Rights
-Desegregation- History
"US
church 'killer' wrote of hate: A man accused of shooting
dead two people in a Tennessee church was motivated by hatred of liberals
and anger at being jobless, US police say." ... "The Tennessee Valley Unitarian
Universalist Church describes itself on its website as working for social
change since the 1950s, including desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages,
women's rights and gay rights." -BBC/News
20080715
John
McCain - 
Czech
Republic - 
Slovakia
- History
- US
- 2008
Election
"McCain
again cites current events in 'Czechoslovakia'."
... "For the second time in two days, [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] John McCain has referred to current events in “Czechoslovakia”
– a country that officially ceased to exist in January of 1993." ... "More
than fifteen years ago, Czechoslovakia officially split into two nations
– the Czech Republic and Slovakia." -By Rebecca Sinderbrand
-CNN
20080714
John
McCain - Czech
Republic - Slovakia
-EU
- History
- Poland
- Military
- US
- 2008
Election - Politics
"McCain
Again Refers To Czechoslovakia, A Non-Existent Country."
... "At his press avail today, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
John McCain referenced current relations between Russia and, um, a non-existent
country [Czechoslovakia]." ... "Around three months ago, McCain told Don
Imus that he would "work closely with Czechoslovakia and Poland and other
countries" to install the European Missile Defense System in Poland, according
to the Democratic National Committee. (The slip-up was referenced elsewhere,
too.)" ... "And during a GOP debate in October 2007, McCain said:
"The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense
system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don't care what his
objections are to it."" ... "We're nitpicking a bit here. But McCain is
running on his supposed foreign policy superiority. And the GOP and McCain
would hit Obama as a foreign policy greenhorn based on less than this."
-By Greg Sargent -TPMElectionCentral
.TalkingPointsMemo
From
The World Factbook: "The Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate
peacefully on 1 January 1993. Slovakia joined both NATO and the EU in the
spring of 2004."
John
McCain - Czech
Republic - Slovakia
- History
- Russia- Energy
- Military
- Phoenix
- Arizona
- US
- 2008
Election - Politics
"Note
to McCain: Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore."
... "This is almost certainly going to sound nitpicky, if not actually
petty, but bear with me. It’s not unreasonable to note that [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain continues to make references
to a country that doesn’t exist." ... "At a press conference in Phoenix
[Arizona] today, for example, McCain referenced Czechoslovakia. Again."
"“I
was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took
in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.
Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech’s agreement with us concerning
missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are
now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the
Cold War, is also a concern. So we see the tensions between Russia and
their neighbors, as well as Russia and the United States are somewhat increasing.”"
"On
first blush, this sounds like more antagonistic rhetoric towards Russia
— which McCain wants to kick out of the G8 — which isn’t especially helpful."
... "But more importantly, Russia can’t “reduce energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”
Czechoslovakia, of course, doesn’t exist. It split into two countries more
than 15 years ago. McCain has actually been to the Czech Republic and Slovakia
since they became independent countries, and he’s met with their leaders."
... "First, as Greg
Sargent noted, McCain has made this same mistake more than once during
the campaign. About three months ago, McCain vowed to “work closely with
Czechoslovakia” on missile defense. Last fall, during a Republican debate,
McCain said: “The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile
defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care
what his objections are to it.”" ... "Second, before Republicans condemn
Dems for being picky on this, let’s not forget that in the 2000 campaign,
when McCain also screwed up Czechoslovakia, it was none other than [Republican]
George W. Bush who said it deserved to be a campaign issue: “A guy gets
up and quizzes me [on world leaders] … but John McCain says something about
the ‘ambassador to Czechoslovakia.’ Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia
[there’s a Czech Republic and a Slovakia], but yet it didn’t make the nightly
national news." ... "But the raison d’etre of John McCain’s entire presidential
campaign is the notion that he’s an expert on foreign policy, thanks to
his decades of experience as a Washington insider. When the foreign policy
expert keeps referencing a non-existent country, it’s not unreasonable
to mention that maybe his expertise isn’t quite as impressive as his campaign
and the political media establishment would like us to believe." ... "McCain,
meanwhile, makes mistakes
like this all the time, almost always with no media scrutiny at all.”
-By Steve Benen -TheCarpetbaggerReport.com
20080715
Money
- Energy
"Wholesale
inflation is worst in 27 years." ... "Over the past
12 months, wholesale prices are up 9.2 percent, the largest year-over-year
surge since June 1981, another period when soaring energy costs were giving
the country inflation pains." -By Martin Crutsinger
-AP via -Google
20080707
Mitt
Romney - John
McCain - Lay-Offs
- Bain
Capital - Corporation
- History
- 
Massachusetts
- 2008
Election
"Romney,
McCain's `Logical' Choice, Must Overcome Primary Animus."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain, 71,
said in December that he doesn't understand economics ``as well as I should''
and his lack of comfort is apparent on the stump." ... "[McCain's 2000
Election communications director Dan] Schnur said [Republican Mitt] Romney's
apparent advantage on the economy may have a down side. During his unsuccessful
1994 run against incumbent [Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Democrat
Ted Kennedy for a Massachusetts Senate seat, Romney was criticized for
overseeing layoffs while working at Bain [Capital]." ... "``The Democrats
could have a heyday talking about downsizing and lay-offs,'' Schnur said.
``It's the type of thing that in a difficult economic climate could be
a real problem.''" -By Heidi Przybyla
-Bloomberg
Barack
Obama - Faith
- Civil
Liberties - Law
- Economics
- History
- US_Debt
- Iraq
- Military
- US
- 2008
Election
"Why
some conservatives are backing Obama." ... "The "Obamacans"
that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator]
Sen. Barack Obama used to joke about - Republican apostates who whispered
their support for his candidacy - have morphed into a new phenomenon, or
syndrome, as detractors like to call it: the Obamacons." ... "These are
conservatives who have publicly endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee,
dissidents from the brain trust of think tanks, ex-officials and policy
magazines that have fueled the Republican Party since the 1960s." ... ""The
untold story of the [Republican President] Bush administration is the deliberate
annihilation of the Reaganite, small-government wing of the Republican
Party," said Michael Greve, director of the Federalism Project at the American
Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "A lot of people are very
bitter about it."" ... "Many conservatives are aghast at the rise in spending
and debt under the Bush administration, its expansion of executive power,
and what they see as a trampling of civil liberties and a taste for empire."
... "Douglas Kmiec is former chief of the Office of Legal Counsel in the
[former Republican Presidents] Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations,
and now a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University and a devout
Catholic. Kmiec endorsed Obama earlier this year, despite his conviction
that Obama "believes in a pretty progressive agenda."" ... "Kmiec said
his support deepened after meeting with Obama and other faith leaders last
month, during which the busy candidate spent 2 1/2 in a freewheeling discussion
with people who differed with him." ... ""I think he's the right person
at the right time to re-establish principles of constitutional governance
that have been ill treated by the current administration, and to free us
from the tar paper that we know is Iraq," Kmiec said, adding that many
Republicans privately agree. "I think he's a man in the market for every
good idea he can find, and he doesn't care what label it comes with.""
... "David Friedman, the son of late conservative icon and Nobel economist
Milton Friedman, has also endorsed Obama." ... "[Conservative Bruce Bartlett:]
"People don't understand that there has always been a small but very significant
element of conservatives who have been against the war from day one and
who, like me, also hate George Bush and think he's the most incompetent
president in American history," said Bruce Bartlett, a supply-side economist
who coined the term Obamacons. "The few people who are slavishly pro-Republican,
live or die, slavishly pro-Bush like the Weekly Standard crowd, have gotten
lot more publicity than they deserve."" -By Carolyn
Lochhead -SFGate.com
20080702
Secret
- Torture
- War
Crimes - Prisons
- US
- Guantanamo
- Cuba
- Chinese
- Korean
-History
- Medical
- Science
- 
Psychological
- Military
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Investigators
"China
Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo." ...
"The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] in December
2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects
of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including
“sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”" ... "What
the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart
had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist
techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them
false, from American prisoners." ... "The recycled chart is the latest
and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that
the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations
both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by
the Central Intelligence Agency." ... "Some methods were used against a
small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress
banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized
by [Republican] President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative”
interrogation methods." ... "Several Guantánamo documents, including
the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed
Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came
to be employed." ... "But committee investigators were not aware of the
chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed
out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who
spoke on condition of anonymity." ... "The 1957 article from which the
chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions
From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist
then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed
American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed
by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities."
... "Those orchestrated confessions led to allegations that the American
prisoners had been “brainwashed,” and provoked the military to revamp its
training to give some military personnel a taste of the enemies’ harsh
methods to inoculate them against quick capitulation if captured." ...
"In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance,
Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and
the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical
amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware
that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions
by American prisoners." ... "The only change made in the chart presented
at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive
Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”" (1, 2)
-By Scott
Shane -NYTimes
PDF
Documents via NYTimes:
"Communist
Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From the Air Force Prisoners of War
(pdf) [September
1957 article by A. D. Biderman, Bull, N.Y. Acad. Med, Vol. 33, No.9, pp
616-625. 10 pages. NB: p. 4 (619), Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting
Individual Compliance]."
"Documents
Released at Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on SERE Tactics (pdf)."
20080701
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Military
- Politics
- History
-Illinois
- 2008
Election
"McCain
In 2003: ‘I Absolutely Don’t Believe’ Military Service Alone Qualifies
Somebody For President." ... "This Sunday, on CBS’s
Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer commented
that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator]
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL [Democratic-Illinois]) may not have the experience
to be president because he has not “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten
shot
down.” After having already expressed his
respect for McCain’s military record, [General] Gen. Wesley Clark responded
by arguing that “getting shot down is [not]
a qualification to be President.”" ... "Then, last night, on MSNBC’s
Veridct with Dan Abrams, Clark again reiterated that “this is an issue
about the qualifications to be President” and said, “I want to assure you
I would never, never diss someone’s service.”" ... "[Watch
Video of General Clark on McCain]" ... "Clark’s argument that military
service is not sufficient alone to be president is an argument that has
been made by
McCain himself:"
"-
During an interview with National Journal, John McCain was asked if “military
service inherently makes somebody better equipped to be commander-in-chief.”
McCain said, “Absolutely not…I absolutely don’t believe that it’s necessary.”
[National Journal, 2/15/2003]"
"-
I believe that military service is the most honorable endeavor an American
may undertake. But I’ve never believed that lack of military service
disqualifies one from occupying positions of political leadership or as
Commander and Chief. In America, the people are sovereign, and they
decide who is and is not qualified to lead us. [American Legion Speech,
9/7/1999]"
"-
Earlier this year at Washington’s Gridiron Club, where humor is the required
fare, McCain lay bare what underlies his candidacy. Wearing a jacket outlandishly
festooned with dozens of fake military medals, McCain said, “The question
I ask myself every morning while shaving in front of the mirror is: OK,
John, you’re an incredible war hero, an inspiration to all Americans. But
what qualifies you to be president of the United States?” [Minneapolis
Star Tribune, 11/7/1999]"
"In
fact, in an interview on NPR on May 1, 2004, McCain noted that “some of
our greatest presidents have not [had military experience]. … And all of
them turned out to be fine commanders in chief.” Thus, by his own admission,
McCain’s policies — not his military record — should determine if he is
qualified to be president." -ThinkProgress.org
20080630
John
McCain - 
Bud
Day - 2004
Election - Ads
- Military
- History
- Vietnam
- US
- Arizona
- Massachusetts
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Uses Swift Boat Vet Bud Day To Rebut Wesley Clark."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator]
Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad"
- a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks
on the Senator's military record." ... "In hopes of nipping any criticism
in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how
these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame [2004 Election
Presidential Candidate and Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Sen. John
Kerry's own Vietnam record." ... "On the conference call, Day - in addition
to the other participants - decried comments made by [General] Gen. Wesley
Clark over the weekend, in which he questioned whether McCain's war experience
really qualified him to be commander-in-chief. Defending McCain's service,
Day was quick to personalize his remarks, attacking Clark's military record
in the process." ... "That Day would politicize Vietnam in his defense
of McCain is not surprising. During the 2004 campaign, he said of Kerry:
"My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict
Arnold of 1971." And after appearing in a national advertisement for the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, Day formed the Vietnam Veterans
Legacy Foundation, an extension of the Swift Boat effort." ... "Not willing
to let the irony go unnoticed, Kerry
lashed out at McCain, on Monday, for using the same smear merchant
he once decried." ... ""Colonel Day's comments today only further highlight
the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics," said Kerry.
"John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain
should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else
connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who
served on swift boats in Vietnam."" -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
John
McCain - Bud
Day - Politics
- 2004
Election - Ads
-Military
- History
- Vietnam
- Belgium
- US
- Massachusetts
- Texas
- Missouri
-2008
Election
"Price
of Power: McCain accepts ex-Swift Boaters' donations."
... "Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain, who
four years ago condemned independent ads challenging Democrat[ic Senator
from Massachusetts and 2004 Election Presidential Candidate] John Kerry's
military record, has accepted nearly $70,000 for his presidential campaign
from the top donors of the group behind the attack ads and their relatives,
a USA TODAY analysis shows." ... "In 2004, the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth (later called SwiftVets and POWS for Truth) bankrolled ads charging
that Kerry had lied about the incidents in Vietnam that led to his military
decorations. The group included former members of the Navy who served in
the same kind of river patrol boats as Kerry. McCain, a former Vietnam
prisoner of war, called the group's advertising "dishonest and dishonorable.""
... "Bob Perry, a Texas builder who gave nearly $4.5 million to Swift Boat
Vets, and his wife, Doylene, each have given $4,400 to McCain's presidential
campaign, some of which went to an account for legal and accounting expenses,
records show." ... "Other donors include Sam Fox, a St. Louis [Missouri]
businessman who was named [United States] U.S. ambassador to Belgium last
year by President Bush." ... "On Monday, Kerry and national Democratic
Party officials sharply criticized McCain for including retired Air Force
colonel Bud Day in a conference call with reporters to defend McCain's
military service. Day had appeared in Swift Boat ads." -By
Fredreka Schouten -USATODAY
John
McCain - Bud
Day - Politics
-2008
Election - 2004
Election - Military
- History
"McCain’s
new Truth Squad has former member of Swift Boat Veterans."
... "Following the
lead of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama’s
campaign, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain
is establishing his own Truth Squad – an effort to “respond
to unfair attacks” on him military record. One of the members of McCain’s
new Truth Squad — Bud Day — was a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth, and appeared in an attack ad for the group in 2004. Day said of
[2004 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Kerry’s military
service: “My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the
Benedict Arnold of 1971.”" -ThinkProgress.org
20080627
Grover
Norquist
- 
Jack
Abramoff
- John
McCain - Racial
-Politics
- History
- Military
- People
- Economic
- Illinois
- 2008
Election - Obama
"Norquist
describes Obama as ‘John Kerry with a tan’." ...
"Grover Norquist has quite a history of being unhinged. He’s said the Estate
Tax is morally
equivalent to the Nazi Holocaust; he’s called WWII veterans “anti-American,”
and he’s called bipartisanship “another name for date
rape.”" ... "But this clown isn’t done pushing
the envelope."
"Norquist
dropped by The [Los Angeles] Times’ Washington bureau today and, as part
of his negative critique of Obama’s liberal stances on economic issues
and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee
“John Kerry with a tan.”" ... "Since Norquist isn’t running for anything,
he can get away with such remarks; we doubt McCain will be incorporating
the line into his speeches anytime soon."
"Greg
Sargent responded,
“Guess it could have been worse. He could have termed the Illinois Senator
‘John Kerry in blackface.’ Such admirable restraint on Norquist’s part!"
... "Now, the LAT’s Don Frederick noted that Norquist can “get
away with such remarks,” presumably because he’s not a candidate and
everyone expects lunacy from him anyway. He’ll “get away with” this, just
as Norquist got away with the other instances of insane rhetoric, not to
mention his role in the Abramoff scandal, which somehow seems to have been
largely forgotten." ... "But I’m going to go ahead and argue that this
probably should matter in the context of the presidential campaign, not
just because Norquist is using offensive racial language, but also because
he’s suddenly best buddies with [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] John McCain." -Steve Benen
-TheCarpetbaggerReport.com
20080625
McCain
- Bin
Laden - 
Chris
Shays - 
Charlie
Black - Terrorism
- Politics
- History
- 2004
Election - 2008
Election - 
Connecticut
- US
- Pakistan
"McCain
In 2004: "Bin Laden May Have Just Given Us A Little Boost"."
... "Back in 2004['s election], as [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate John] McCain was stumping in Connecticut on behalf of GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican Connecticut Representative] Rep. Chris Shays, McCain
said flatly that the recent release of an Osama Bin Laden tape had likely
given the GOP a "little boost."" ... "This is courtesy
of The Hour, a daily paper in Norwalk, Connecticut, in November of that
year [2004] (also verified in Nexis)..."
"But
as McCain greets two breakfast-eating business partners, one from Stamford
[Connecticut] and the other from Bridgeport [Connecticut], the topic turns
to the presidential race. The two men tell the senator they support [Republican]
President George W. Bush, and to that end, McCain says, "(Osama) Bin Laden
may have just given us a little boost. Amazing, huh?".... " ... "The two
men, who requested anonymity, nod their heads in agreement. Later, while
riding with Shays on an RV to a rally at the Stamford Government Center,
McCain further explains, "(The video) is helpful to President Bush because
it puts the focus on the war on terrorism.""
"The
reference was to a tape of Bin Laden that had emerged a few days earlier.
The McCain camp didn't immediately return an email." ... "[McCain's top
adviser Charlie] Black also said that the assassination of [Pakistan's
Presidential Candidate] Benazir Bhutto had also helped McCain, something
the McCain camp also disavowed. But back in December [2007], when the assassination
happened, he [McCain] said
it could "serve to enhance" his "credentials."" -By
Greg Sargent -TPMElectionCentral
.TalkingPointsMemo
20080621
Housing
- Market
- History
- "Rise
in Renters Erasing Gains for Ownership." ... "Driven
largely by the surge in foreclosures and an unsettled housing market, Americans
are renting apartments and houses at the highest level since President
Bush started a campaign to expand homeownership in 2002." ... "The percentage
of households headed by homeowners, which soared to a record 69.1 percent
in 2005, fell to 67.8 percent this year, the sharpest decline in 20 years,
according to census data through the end of March. By extension, the percentage
of households headed by renters increased to 32.2 percent, from 30.9 percent."
... "The figures, while seemingly modest, reflect a significant shift in
national housing trends, housing analysts say, with the notable gains in
homeownership achieved under Mr. Bush all but vanishing over the last two
years." ... "Many of the new renters, meanwhile, are struggling to get
into decent apartments as vacancies decline, rents rise and other renters
increasingly stay put. Some renters who want to buy homes are unable to
get mortgages as banks impose stricter standards. Others remain reluctant
to buy, anxious that housing prices will continue to fall." ... "The confluence
of factors has largely derailed what Mr. Bush called “the ownership society,”
his campaign to give millions of people — particularly minority and lower-income
families — a shot at homeownership by encouraging lenders to finance more
home purchases." ... "“We’re not going to see homeownership rates like
that for a generation,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s
Economy.com, a research company." (1, 2)
-By Rachel
L. Swarns -NYTimes
20080619
/ 
