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"News by Date" |
20090331 Tuesday
-
Pakistani -
Police -
Military -
Political -
History -
Soviet -
Afghanistan -
India
"Insurgent Threat Shifts in Pakistan: Assault on Police Academy Indicates Risk Has Moved Beyond Tribal Areas." ... "The brazen occupation of a Pakistani police academy Monday by heavily armed gunmen near the eastern mega-city of Lahore [Pakistan] was the latest indication that Islamist terrorism, once confined to Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, now threatens political stability nationwide." ... "The precisely orchestrated assault by a squad of young men, which left at least 11 people dead and took security forces nearly eight hours to quell, was also a likely sign that Islamist militant groups in Punjab province, once tolerated and even supported by the Pakistani state to fight in India and Afghanistan, have turned openly against the government." ... "Pakistan has been an incubator for Islamist militant groups for the past several decades. Until recently, they were focused on external conflicts, especially the dispute over Indian Kashmir, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s and the presence of [United States] U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001." ... "In the past several years, extremist groups along the Afghan border have turned inward, spreading violence and religious fanaticism among the ethnic Pashtun populace in Pakistan's northwest. Pakistan has tried to contain the problem through a combination of military offensives and political negotiations, which are underway in several conflicted border districts." -By Pamela Constable with contributions by Aoun Sahi -WashingtonPost
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Dick Cheney -
-
Government -
Intelligence -
Terrorism -
Videotapes -
Legal -
Book
"Bush's Torture Rationale Debunked." ... "Abu Zubaida was the alpha and omega of the [Republican President] Bush administration's argument for torture." ... "That's why Sunday's front-page Washington Post story by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick is such a blow to the last remaining torture apologists." ... "Finn and Warrick reported that "not a single significant plot was foiled" as a result of Zubaida's brutal treatment -- and that, quite to the contrary, his false confessions "triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms."" ... "Zubaida was the first detainee to be tortured at the direct instruction of the [Republican President Bush] White House. Then he was President George W. Bush's Exhibit A in defense of the "enhanced interrogation" procedures that constituted torture. And he continues to be held up as a justification for torture by its most ardent defenders." ... "But as author Ron Suskind reported almost three years ago -- and as The Post now confirms -- almost all the key assertions the Bush administration made about Zubaida were wrong." ... "Zubaida wasn't a major al Qaeda figure. He wasn't holding back critical information. His torture didn't produce valuable intelligence -- and it certainly didn't save lives." ... "All the calculations the Bush White House claims to have made in its decision to abandon long-held moral and legal strictures against abusive interrogation turn out to have been profoundly flawed, not just on a moral basis but on a coldly practical one as well." ... "Indeed, the Post article raises the even further disquieting possibility that intentional cruelty was part of the White House's motive." ... "There's no doubt that Zubaida's capture in spring 2002 was what sent the administration down the path to state-sanctioned torture. Last April, ABC News reported that starting right after his capture, top Bush aides including [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney micromanaged his interrogation from the White House basement. "The high-level discussions about these 'enhanced interrogation techniques' were so detailed," ABC's sources said, "some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic." Bush has acknowledged he was aware of those meetings at the time." ... "Techniques that created damage short of "the level of death, organ failure, or the permanent impairment of a significant body function" were later authorized in an August 2002 Justice Department memo, known as the Torture Memo." ... "Just two weeks ago, in a New York Review of Books article based on a confidential report from the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mark Danner described the techniques used on Zubaida in harrowing detail." ... "I've [Dan Froomkin] written extensively about Zubaida before, and about how the facts of his case as unearthed by [author of the book "The One Percent Doctrine" Ron] Suskind thoroughly undermine the Bush administration's arguments. See, for instance, my Dec. 18, 2007 column, Exhibit A for Torture, in which I suggested that "Bush's Exhibit A in defense of torture may in fact be an exhibit for the prosecution." We learned in December 2007 that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of its secret interrogations -- 92 in all, it turns out, 90 of them of Zubaida. In February 2008, I wrote about how the White House's torture argument had now officially become that the ends justify the means." ... "Over the years, I've made something of a point of debunking the Bush White House's unsupported assertions that any really useful information was gleaned from torture." -By Dan Froomkin -WashingtonPost
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John McCain -
Money -
Accounting -
Arizona
"Despite McCain's Comments, Senate GOP Not Offering Detailed Budget." ... "On Thursday, House Republicans did wind up offering the frame of an alternative budget -- but then they were widely panned for not releasing a more detailed alternative to the Democratic proposals." ... "That’s what made an exchange Sunday with [Arizona Republican Senator] Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” intriguing.""DAVID GREGORY: “Do you think that Republicans should provide a detailed budget alternative?”""So -- are they?" ... "Actually, no." -By Rick Klein -ABCNEWS.com"McCAIN: “Yes.”"
"GREGORY: “With numbers?”"
"McCAIN: “Yes.”"
"GREGORY: “Will that happen in the Senate?”"
"McCAIN: “We're working on it, working very hard on it.”"
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Barack Obama -
Auto -
Makers -
Workers -
Retirement -
"Wagoner's pension secure as GM's workers could be hit." ... "As the [Democratic President] Obama administration tries to rein in sky-high executive compensation at firms that are getting billions in taxpayer funds, ousted General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner is due to walk away with a pension and benefits that total $23 million." ... "Wagoner, whose company is on tap to get a nearly $30 billion bailout to help it restructure, is unaffected by the cap on compensation that's now levied on banks other financial firms and is expected to be extended to the automakers." ... "Wagoner's pension payments are being preserved even as those of rank-and-file GM [General Motors] workers are more at risk after President Barack Obama suggested that bankruptcy is a way to save the company." ... "According to GM's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he [Wagoner] earned $14.4 million in total compensation in 2007 and $5.4 million in 2008, even though most of his income was tied to the company's performance, which was dismal." -By Greg Gordon with contributions by Kevin G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
Norm Coleman -
John Cornyn -
Tim Pawlenty -
Minnesota -
Texas
"Cornyn: GOP [Republicans] Prepared To Fight ‘World War III’ To Keep Franken Out Of The Senate For ‘Years’." ... "Last week, the ongoing legal battle between [2008 Election Minnesota Senatorial Candidates] Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman officially became the “the longest recount in Minnesota history.” Though Franken leads Coleman in the current vote tally, according to the Minnesota Supreme Court, he can’t be certified until after election challenges have been decided in the state courts." ... "If Coleman loses in the state courts, he and his Republican backers are indicating that they may seek to bring it to the federal level, which could keep the Senate seat vacant for much longer. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman [and Texas Republican Senator] John Cornyn told Politico recently that the party is willing to keep the seat empty for “years“:""Texas [Republican Senator] Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts.""The threat of an empty Senate seat for years — which would hold the Democratic advantage in the Senate at 58-41 — does not appear to be a welcome concept to the people of Minnesota. The Star Tribune reported last week that “the prospect of a protracted battle irks some regardless of their political leanings.”" ... "Additionally, Minnesota [Republican Governor] Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R [Republican]) believes that only having one senator is hurting Minnesota. In February, Pawlenty told C-Span that “it has put Minnesota at a disadvantage when there’s only 100 senators total and you are missing one.”""Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance — even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration."
" -By Matt Corley -ThinkProgress.orgWATCH: Minnesota Republican Governor explain that having only one serving US Senator "has put Minnesota at a disadvantage...."
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Waterboarding -
Human -
US -
Osama bin Laden -
Globe
"Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots: Waterboarding, Rough Interrogation of Abu Zubaida Produced False Leads, Officials Say." ... "When CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the [Republican President Bush] White House to get those secrets out of him." ... "The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads." ... "In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said." ... "Moreover, within weeks of his capture, [United States] U.S. officials had gained evidence that made clear they had misjudged Abu Zubaida. President George W. Bush had publicly described him as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations," and other top officials called him a "trusted associate" of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a major figure in the planning of the [2001 September] Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. None of that was accurate, the new evidence showed." ... "Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al-Qaeda, according to a portrait of the man that emerges from court documents and interviews with current and former intelligence, law enforcement and military sources. Rather, he was a "fixer" for radical Muslim ideologues, and he ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 -- and that was because the United States stood ready to invade Afghanistan." ... "The application of techniques such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning that U.S. officials had previously deemed a crime -- prompted a sudden torrent of names and facts. Abu Zubaida began unspooling the details of various al-Qaeda plots, including plans to unleash weapons of mass destruction." ... "Abu Zubaida's revelations triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms. The interrogations led directly to the arrest of Jose Padilla, the man Abu Zubaida identified as heading an effort to explode a radiological "dirty bomb" in an American city. Padilla was held in a naval brig for 3 1/2 years on the allegation but was never charged in any such plot. Every other lead ultimately dissolved into smoke and shadow, according to high-ranking former U.S. officials with access to classified reports." ... ""We spent millions of dollars chasing false alarms," one former intelligence official said." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Peter Finn and Joby Warrick with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Health -
Computerized -
Web -
Psychology -
Drug -
Privacy -
"Insurers shun those taking certain meds: How health insurers secretly blacklist those with certain ailments." ... "Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it." ... "This confidential information on some insurers' practices is available on the Web -- if you know where to look." ... "What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs." ... "To make sure that applicants are not lying, insurers hire a data-gathering service -- Medical Information Bureau, Milliman's Intelliscript or Ingenix Medpoint." ... "Intelliscript and Medpoint do computerized searches of a person's drug use, gleaned from pharmacy benefits managers and other databases." ... "Last year, the Federal Trade Commission accused both companies of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not offering to provide consumers with information about them. The companies agreed to settlements in which they promised to let people see their personal information." (1, 2) -By John Dorschner -MiamiHerald
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China -
Media -
Tech -
Canada -
United Kingdom -
"UPDATE: Deep computer-spying network touched 103 countries: Analysts find spyware installed on servers belonging to foreign ministries, embassies, and private companies." ... "A 10-month cyberespionage investigation has found that 1,295 computers in 103 countries and belonging to international institutions have been spied on, with some circumstantial evidence suggesting China may be to blame." ... "The 53-page report, released on Sunday, provides some of the most compelling evidence and detail of the efforts of politically motivated hackers while raising questions about their ties with government-sanctioned cyberspying operations." ... "[See also: Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog]" ... "It describes a network which researchers have called GhostNet, which primarily uses a malicious software program called gh0st RAT (Remote Access Tool) to steal sensitive documents, control Web cams and completely control infected computers." ... ""GhostNet represents a network of compromised computers resident in high-value political, economic and media locations spread across numerous countries worldwide," said the report, written by analysts with the Information Warfare Monitor, a research project of the SecDev Group, a think tank, and the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto [Canada]. "At the time of writing, these organizations are almost certainly oblivious to the compromised situation in which they find themselves."" ... ""Attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or targeted intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading," the report said." ... "However, China has made a concerted effort since the 1990s to use cyberspace for military advantage "The Chinese focus on cyber capabilities as part of its strategy of national asymmetric warfare involves deliberately developing capabilities that circumvent [United States] U.S. superiority in command-and-control warfare," it said." ... "A second report [PDF], written by University of Cambridge [United Kingdom] researchers and published in conjunction with the University of Toronto paper, was less circumspect, saying that the attacks against the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (OHHDL) were launched by "agents of the Chinese government." The Cambridge team titled their report, "The Snooping Dragon."" (1, 2) -By Jeremy Kirk with contributions by Robert McMillan -IDG.net via -InfoWorld
"Rev. Moon Exemplifies Right Wing GOP Subsidy of Big Media to Frame Message." ... "[Reverend] Rev. Moon has adopted a relatively low-profile in recent years (if you don't count his bizarre "coronation" by elected officials in a Capitol Hill House of Representatives meeting room a couple years back), but that hasn't prevented the weird religious leader (and close ally of the Bush family) from pouring an estimated 1 - 2.5 billion dollars into subsidizing the Washington Times since 1982." ... "In 2002, Rev. Moon pronounced "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world." But the reality is that the Washington Times -- like the New York Post and Weekly Standard for Rupert Murdoch -- are investments in obtaining financial regulatory and other favors from Republican administrations in return for helping frame and market the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] talking points of tax cuts, cultural wars, and Wall Street gambling." ... "The Washington Times has only about 100,000 subscribers, but its newsboxes are next to the Washington Post throughout D.C. [America's capital], allowing it to appear as an equal -- and to have its banner headlines seen by tens of thousands of D.C. "influencers" every day. Then, it also gives a byline and title for its writers to appear as D.C. pundits on television (just as Bill Kristol is identified as editor of the chronically money losing "Weekly Standard" during his ubiquitous "pundit" appearances on the tube) -- as well as all television reporters need to quote it to provide "balance."" ... "In short, Moon, in essence, shells out hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to use the Washington Times as a public relations vehicle for "framing" the GOP perspective." ... "Meanwhile, wealthy liberal Democrats don't buy up or create large media outlets; they just support efforts to criticize the corporate press and the likes of Rev. Moon." ... "You can win elections, but you can't make dramatic change unless you own part of the major media." ... "Rev. Moon understands that. Why can't wealthy Democrats?" -By Mark Karlin -BuzzFlash.com
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Climate -
Earth -
Energy -
Emissions -
Plants -
Animals -
"World switches off to save planet in "Earth Hour"." ... "Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event designed to highlight the threat from climate change." ... "Organizers said the action showed millions of people wanted governments to work out a strong new [United Nations] U.N. deal to fight global warming by the end of 2009, even though the global economic crisis has raised worries about the costs." ... "The U.N. Climate Panel says greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and will lead to more floods, droughts, heatwaves, rising sea levels and animal and plant extinctions." ... "World emissions have risen by about 70 percent since the 1970s." -By Jon Boyle -Reuters
Alberto R Gonzales -
John C Yoo -
Douglas J Feith -
William J Haynes II -
Jay S Bybee -
David S Addington -
Cuba -
Chile -
Spain
"Spanish Court Weighs Inquiry on Torture for 6 Bush-Era Officials." ... "A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level [Republican President] Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said." ... "The case, against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others, was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by Baltasar Garzón, the crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The official said that it was “highly probable” that the case would go forward and that it could lead to arrest warrants." ... "The complaint under review also names John C. Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote secret legal opinions saying the president had the authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions, and Douglas J. Feith, the former under secretary of defense for policy." ... "Spain can claim jurisdiction in the case because five citizens or residents of Spain who were prisoners at Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] have said they were tortured there. The five had been indicted in Spain, but their cases were dismissed after the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained under torture was not admissible." ... "The 98-page complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, is based on the Geneva Conventions and the 1984 Convention Against Torture, which is binding on 145 countries, including Spain and the United States. Countries that are party to the torture convention have the authority to investigate torture cases, especially when a citizen has been abused." ... "Gonzalo Boye, the Madrid lawyer who filed the complaint, said that the six Americans cited had had well-documented roles in approving illegal interrogation techniques, redefining torture and abandoning the definition set by the 1984 Torture Convention." ... "Secret memorandums by Mr. Yoo and other top administration lawyers helped clear the way for aggressive policies like waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, which the [Central Intelligence Agency] C.I.A. director, the attorney general and other American officials have said amount to torture." ... "The other Americans named in the complaint were William J. Haynes II, former general counsel for the Department of Defense; Jay S. Bybee, Mr. Yoo’s former boss at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; and David S. Addington, who was the chief of staff and legal adviser to [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney." -By Marlise Simons with contributions by Scott Shane and Eric Schmitt -NYTimes
Brazil -
Homes -
Tourist -
Environment -
Construction -
"Brazil builds walls around Rio de Janeiro slums." ... "The government of Rio de Janeiro is building concrete walls to prevent sprawling slums from spreading farther into the picturesque hills of this world-famous tourist destination, an official said on Saturday." ... "Officials say the wall is to protect the remaining native forest but critics fear the move could be seen as discriminatory and become a blemish symbolizing Brazil's deep divisions between rich and poor." ... "By year-end the Rio de Janeiro state government wants to build almost 7 miles (11 km) of walls to contain 19 communities." -By Raymond Colitt with contributions by Bill Trott -Reuters
John Roberts -
Nevada
"Reid: Chief Justice Roberts "didn't tell us the truth"." ... "[United States] U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts "didn't tell us the truth" before his 2005 confirmation, Senate Majority Leader [and Nevada Democratic Senator] Harry Reid said Friday." -By David Lightman -McClatchyDC.com via -Yahoo
Iowa -
North Dakota
"Senators Get Nasty: "You're Good" ... "Your Wife Said The Same Thing" (VIDEO)." ... "Budget Committee Chairman [and North Dakota Democratic Senator] Kent Conrad (D-N.D. [Democratic-North Dakota]) was on the receiving end of this one, after telling [Iowa Republican Senator] Sen. Charles Grassley (R [Republican]-Iowa), "Oh, you are good."... [Chuck Grassley responded:] "Well, your wife said the same thing," Grassley responded. " -By Ryan Grim -HuffingtonPost.com
"GDP revision shows 6.3% decline in fourth quarter: Worst quarter in 26 years led by weak spending, investment, exports." ... "The U.S. economy experienced its most violent contraction in a generation during the fourth quarter, with real gross domestic product plunging at a 6.3% annualized seasonally adjusted rate, the Commerce Department reported Thursday in its third estimate of quarterly growth." ... " GDP hadn't fallen so much since the first quarter of 1982. It was the third largest decline in GDP in 50 years." ... "Economists believe the current quarter, which ends March 31, was nearly as bad. Current projections look for GDP to fall at a 5.1% annual pace. Since 1947, GDP has never fallen by more than 4% for two quarters in a row." ... "Some have a more extreme view: "The economy will contract by a staggering 7% to 8% in the first quarter, before the economy begins to stabilize,"wrote Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight." ... "The recession that began in December 2007 intensified in the fourth quarter following the government's rescue of several large financial institutions and the collapse of Lehman Bros. The ensuing credit squeeze has driven consumer and business confidence to generational lows, and cost 3 million Americans their jobs." ... "The slump in the economy in the fourth quarter was broad based, with declines in every major sector except the federal government. Corporate profits fell at the fastest pace since 1953." ... "Final sales to domestic purchasers -- domestic demand -- fell at a 5.8% annual rate, the biggest drop since the second quarter of 1980." -By Rex Nutting -MarketWatch
-
"U.S. ongoing jobless claims rise to record 5.56 million: First-time claims hit 652,000 for last week, underscoring lack of jobs." ... "Showing the labor market's considerable strain, the number of people collecting state unemployment benefits reached yet another new record, jumping 122,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.56 million, the Labor Department reported Thursday." ... "The four-week average of these claims rose 123,750 to stand at 5.33 million -- in itself a record high since the U.S. began compiling these statistics -- also as of the week ended March 14." ... "And for the week ended March 21, first-time claims for benefits rose 8,000 to 652,000, a level that's fully 78% higher than the same period in the prior year." ... "The insured unemployment rate, representing the proportion of covered workers who are receiving benefits, rose to 4.2% from 4.1%, reaching the highest level since May 1983." -By Ruth Mantell -MarketWatch
-
"Commercial Property Faces Crisis: Delinquency Rate at 1.8%, Near Peak of Last Recession; Parallels to S&L Debacle." ... "Commercial real-estate loans are going sour at an accelerating pace, threatening to cause tens of billions of dollars in losses to banks already hurt by the housing downturn." ... "The delinquency rate on about $700 billion in securitized loans backed by office buildings, hotels, stores and other investment property has more than doubled since September to 1.8% this month, according to data provided to The Wall Street Journal by Deutsche Bank AG. While that's low compared with the home-mortgage delinquency rate, it's just short of the highest rate during the last downturn early this decade." ... "Some experts say it now looks as if the current commercial real-estate slump will rival or even exceed the one in the early 1990s, when bad commercial-property debt played a big role in dragging the economy into a recession. Then, close to 1,000 U.S. banks and savings institutions failed. Lenders took about $48.5 billion in charges on commercial real-estate debt between 1990 and 1995, representing 7.9% of such debt outstanding." ... "Since late 2007, a total of 47 banks and savings institutions have failed, of which a dozen or so had unusually high commercial-mortgage exposure. Foresight Analytics in Oakland, Calif., estimates the U.S. banking sector could suffer as much as $250 billion in commercial real-estate losses in this downturn. The research firm projects that more than 700 banks could fail as a result of their exposure to commercial real estate." ... "The Real Estate Roundtable, a trade group, estimates that commercial real estate in the [United States] U.S. is worth $6.5 trillion and financed by about $3.1 trillion in debt." -By Lingling Wei with contributions by Maurice Tamman and Jon Hilsenrath -WSJ.com
Families -
California -
Tennessee -
Wash -
Fla
"U.S. cities deal with a surge in shanty towns." ... "Like a dozen or so other cities across the nation, Fresno [California] is dealing with an unhappy déjà vu: the arrival of modern-day Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns. At his news conference on Tuesday night, [Democratic] President Obama was asked directly about the tent cities and responded by saying that it was "not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours."" ... "While encampments and street living have always been a part of the landscape in big cities like Los Angeles [California] and New York, these new tent cities have taken root — or grown from smaller enclaves of the homeless as more people lose jobs and housing — in such disparate places as Nashville [Tennessee's capital], Olympia, Wash. [Washington's capital], and St. Petersburg, Fla. [Florida.]" ... "The problem in Fresno is different in that it is both chronic and largely outside the national limelight. Homelessness here has long been fed by the ups and downs in seasonal and subsistence jobs in agriculture, but now the recession has cast a wider net and drawn in hundreds of the newly homeless — from hitchhikers to truck drivers to electricians." ... ""These are able-bodied folks that did day labor, at minimum wage or better, who were previously able to house themselves based on their income," said Michael Stoops, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group based in Washington." (1, 2) -By Jesse Mckinley -IHT.com
"GOP [Republican] Budget Proposal: Massive Tax Cut For Wealthy." ... "House Republican leaders called a press conference Thursday to unveil their "alternative budget." While it was thin on specifics, it does include one major policy proposal: a huge tax cut for the wealthy." -By Ryan Grim -HuffingtonPost.com
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"Obama's Afghanistan plan calls for 4,000 more U.S. troops." ... "[Democratic] President Obama announced Friday a proposal to stem the worsening insurgency in Afghanistan by sending 4,000 more [United States] U.S. troops and additional civilian aid workers, while also increasing aid to neighboring Pakistan." ... "Obama said his objective is to suppress the spreading insurgency by placing more emphasis on building local governments, wooing the civilian population with aid and providing more help to the Afghan army instead of a deploying a large number of combat troops." ... "Check out Obama's address [PDF]" ... ""The situation is increasingly perilous," Obama said. "It has been more than seven years since the Taliban was removed from power, yet war rages on, and insurgents control parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan."" ... "Key elements of the plan include:" ... "• Sending the 4,000 new troops, who would train Afghan soldiers and police. The plan includes a goal of having 134,000 soldiers in the Afghan army, up from about 65,000 soldiers now. "That is how we will prepare Afghans to take responsibility for their security, and how we will ultimately be able to bring our troops home," Obama said." ... "Pakistan long sponsored the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan and harbored al-Qaeda terrorists until overthrown by U.S. forces in 2001. Many Taliban members remain in the mountainous border region between the two countries." -By David Jackson with contributions by Tom Vanden Brook and John Fritze -USATODAY
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"A GOP [Republican] budget with no hard numbers." ... ""House Republicans release a 19-page document [PDF] that contains no hard spending numbers or deficit projections. Per the AP, "One of the few hard bits of information is a promise to simplify the tax code and cut income tax rates to 10 percent for people making $100,000 or less down. They also promise to cut domestic spending below current levels but don't say whether they are exempting Social Security. It's impossible to determine the projected deficit based on their offering."" ... "Not surprisingly, the Democratic National Committee pounced on the GOP's [GOP's=Grand Old Party's=Republican's] budget -- or lack thereof. "After 27 days, the best House Republicans could come up with is a 19-page pamphlet that does not include a single real budget proposal or estimate," said DNC [Democratic National Committee] spokesman Hari Sevugan. "While there had been talk that House Republicans were overriding their Senate counterparts to offer a budget alternative, it's clear after this announcement that neither of them have anything to offer but criticism."" -By Mark Murray -AP -MSNBC
"Republican Budget Plan: ‘Undo’ The Stimulus, Cut Taxes For The Rich." ... "Today, House Republicans released their budget plan, entitled “The Republican Road To Recovery.” They claim the plan “curbs spending, creates jobs and lowers taxes, and controls the debt; and it will soon have our economy growing again.”" ... "For an “alternative budget,” however, it is very short on numbers, including no mention of deficit implications. And the plan for creating jobs and sparking economic growth is actually undoing the stimulus and then cutting additional spending[.]" ... "Of course, stimulus dollars are already on their way out the door, so it’s difficult to envision how one would “undo” the bill. But even if it could be done, it would be an act of neo-Hooverism that would make [Iowa Republican Senator] Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA [Republican-Iowa]) insane three-year spending freeze look wise and prudent." ... "As Matthew Yglesias noted, “It’s strange that the Republicans railing about long-term deficits seem to love long-term deficits when the point of the deficits is to further enrich the rich.”" -By Pat Garofalo -ThinkProgress.org/Wonk Room
IN -
MO
"Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama’s." ... "Yesterday, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and several other progressive groups began running ads urging “moderate” Democratic members of Congress to “get on board with the president’s budget.” The ads are, in part, a response to [Indiana Democratic Senator] Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN [Democratic-Indiana]) and 14 of his Democratic colleagues who are creating what they call a “moderate coalition that will meet regularly to shape public policy.” Bayh responded to the new ads late yesterday, telling Politico that his group of “moderates” should not be targeted because they have “no agenda”:""Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind. [Indiana]) is also unhappy with the friendly fire. Bayh…found himself targeted by an ad accusing him of “standing in the way of President Obama’s reforms.” “We literally have no agenda,” Bayh shot back. “How can they be threatened by a group that has taken no policy positions?”""Bayh’s claim that his group has no agenda is hard to believe. Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal explained yesterday, the group’s “stated goal is to…protect business interests.” Even before the group was officially formed, their efforts dampened a number of progressive policy proposals and they clearly have aspirations to expand their portfolio:""– Shrinking Economic Recovery: The group’s first significant “success” was “paring down the more than $900 billion economic stimulus bill to $787 billion,” reducing the government’s ability to spur economic recovery quickly. [Roll Call, 3/12/2009]""If Bayh is to be believed and his new group of moderates “literally have no agenda,” then what exactly are they doing? As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow explained last night, it appears that Bayh and his colleagues have found at least one niche to fill by helping Republicans obstruct the President’s agenda and deny voters the policies they endorsed last November:""– Preserving The [former Republican President] Bush Tax Cuts: Regarding [Democratic President] Obama’s plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, Bayh said, “I do think that before we raise revenue, we first should look to see if there are ways we can cut back on spending.” [Politico, 3/3/2009]"
"– Delaying Cap-and-Trade: Bayh coaltion member, [Missouri Democratic Senator] Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO [Democratic-Missouri]), explained that the group might “push for a more lenient phase-in period for a cap-and-trade system and revenue-raising offsets to pay for expensive mandates.” [CQ Politics, 3/9/2009]"
"– Weakening Bankruptcy Protection: Centrist Democrats “forced changes to a House bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify [home] mortgages, ensuring that the legislation better reflected the concerns of the financial-services industry.” [WSJ, 3/25/09]"
"Anyone voting against a Democratic agenda voted Republican. Those votes produced a very small Republican minority in Congress. A small minority that now has way more power than they otherwise would because of conservative Democrats deciding to give Republicans as much power as they can."" -By Ryan Powers -ThinkProgress.org
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Pennsylvania -
"Court overturns hundreds of cases in court scandal." ... "The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court said it would overturn the convictions of hundreds of juveniles sentenced in the midst of the Luzerne County kickback scheme." ... "Calling it a "first step," the court wielded a little- used proceeding to throw out and expunge the case records of first-time offenders convicted of minor crimes who appeared before Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. between 2003 and 2008." ... "In a report to the Court, a specially appointed judge, Arthur E. Grim, said his investigation uncovered "routine deprivation of children's constitutional rights to appear before an impartial tribunal and have an opportunity to be heard."" ... "Today's ruling, which authorizes Grim to overturn the cases, affects as many as 1,200 juveniles, he said. Their cases will be reviewed individually to determine if they meet the court's conditions." ... "Ciavarella and another former Luzerne County judge, Michael T. Conahan, have pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking $2.6 million in secret payments from the former owner of two juvenile detention centers." ... "The judges admitted that they helped the centers secure a county contract worth millions of dollars. Ciavarella routinely sentenced children to them." -By John Sullivan -Philly.com
"Geithner to Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight of Financial System." ... "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to propose today a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets and allowed participants to decide how much risk to take in the pursuit of profit." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration's plan, described by several sources, would extend federal regulation for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives and to companies including large hedge funds and major insurers such as American International Group. The administration also will seek to impose uniform standards on all large financial firms, including banks, an unprecedented step that would place significant limits on the scope and risk of their activities." ... "Most of these initiatives would require legislation." ... "In coming months, the administration plans to detail its strategy in three other areas: protecting consumers, eliminating flaws in existing regulations and enhancing international coordination." ... "The nation's financial regulations are largely an accumulation of responses to financial crises. Federal bank regulation was a product of the Civil War. The Federal Reserve was created early in the 20th century to mitigate a long series of monetary crises. The Great Depression delivered deposit insurance and a federally sponsored mortgage market. In the midst of a modern economic upheaval, the Obama administration is pitching the most significant regulatory expansion since that time." ... "The administration's signature proposal is to vest a single federal agency with the power to police risk across the entire financial system." (1, 2, 3) -By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho with contributions by Zachary A. Goldfarb -WashingtonPost
Italy -
Swiss -
France -
Austria
"Melting glaciers force Italy, Swiss to redraw border." ... "Melting glaciers in the Alps may prompt Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders near the Matterhorn, according to parliamentary draft legislation being readied in Rome [Italy's capital]." ... "The Italian Military Geographic Institute says climate change is responsible for the Alpine glaciers melting." ... ""This draft law is born out the necessity to revise and verify the frontiers given the changes in climate and atmosphere," [Italy's Democratic Party member Franco] Narducci said. "The 1941 convention between Italy and Switzerland established as criteria [for border revisions] the ridge [crest] of the glaciers. Following the withdrawal of the glaciers in the Alps, a new criterion has been proposed so that the new border coincides with the rock."" ... "Narducci said the same negotiation will be proposed to France and Austria[.]" -CNN
"Afghan Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides Say." ... "The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials." ... "The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements." ... "Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said. There is even evidence that ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections." ... "American officials have complained for more than a year about the ISI’s support to groups like the Taliban. But the new details reveal that the spy agency is aiding a broader array of militant networks with more diverse types of support than was previously known — even months after Pakistani officials said that the days of the ISI’s playing a “double game” had ended." ... "Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders publicly deny any government ties to militant groups, and American officials say it is unlikely that top officials in Islamabad [Pakistan's capital] are directly coordinating the clandestine efforts. American officials have also said that midlevel ISI operatives occasionally cultivate relationships that are not approved by their bosses." ... "The ISI helped create and nurture the Taliban movement in the 1990s to bring stability to a nation that had been devastated by years of civil war between rival warlords, and one Pakistani official explained that Islamabad needed to use groups like the Taliban as “proxy forces to preserve our interests.”" ... "Little is publicly known about the ISI’s S Wing, which officials say directs intelligence operations outside of Pakistan. American officials said that the S Wing provided direct support to three major groups carrying out attacks in Afghanistan: the Taliban based in Quetta, Pakistan, commanded by Mullah Muhammad Omar; the militant network run by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; and a different group run by the guerrilla leader Jalaluddin Haqqani." -By Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt -NYTimes
"Geithner to Outline Major Overhaul of Finance Rules." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration will detail on Thursday a wide-ranging plan to overhaul financial regulation by subjecting hedge funds and traders of exotic financial instruments, now among the biggest and most freewheeling players on Wall Street, to potentially strict new government supervision, officials said." ... "The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, will outline the broad revamping of the regulatory system, which goes further than expected, in a hearing on Thursday. He is expected to say that the new rules are necessary to prevent a repeat of the excesses that nearly wrecked the global financial system and plunged the economy into a recession." ... "The plan, which would require Congressional approval, would give the government vast new powers over “systemically important” banks and other financial institutions that are so big that their collapse would jeopardize the economy as a whole." ... "The government would have the power to peer into the inner workings of companies that currently escape most federal supervision — insurance companies like the American International Group, multibillion-dollar hedge funds like the Citadel Group and private equity firms like the Carlyle Group or Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts." ... "But the most striking new proposals, and the ones that may provoke the most heated opposition from the industry, would regulate so-called private pools of capital — hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds — and the gigantic market in financial derivatives, including instruments like credit-default swaps, the insurancelike instruments that allow investors to hedge against bond defaults. " -By Edmund L. Andrews and Louise Story -NYTimes
Hillary Clinton -
Poll -
"Poll: Clinton has high job approval." ... "Seventy-one percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday said they approve of how [Democratic President Obama's Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton is handling her job as America's top diplomat. Fewer than one in four disapprove." ... ""Nine in 10 Democrats approve of Clinton -- that's no surprise," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. "But by a 50 percent to 43 percent margin, Republicans also think she is doing a good job at the State Department. That's an interesting result for a polarizing figure like Clinton."" ... "Clinton was met by large crowds and warmly received by world leaders on both trips, although "she met some criticism in Beijing [China's capital], where she was criticized for a lower-key approach that seemed to downplay the importance of human rights in the overall relationship with China," Labott said." ... ""Her aides said she wanted a new approach to dealing with China's human rights record, including less public criticism and more private discussions, which may prove more productive in changing Chinese behavior."" -By Paul Steinhauser -CNN
Mexico -
"Clinton: U.S. drug habits fuel border violence: Secretary of state in Mexico to bolster anti-narcotics cooperation." ... "[United States] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday pledged to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Mexico in its violent struggle against drug cartels, and acknowledged the U.S. shares blame because of its demand for drugs and supply of weapons." ... "She said the United States shares responsibility with Mexico for dealing with violence now spilling across the border and promised cooperation to improve security on both sides." ... ""The criminals and kingpins spreading violence are trying to corrode the foundations of law, order, friendship and trust between us that support our continent. They will fail," she told Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa. "We will stand shoulder to shoulder with you."" -AP via -MSNBC
Colombia
"Clinton: U.S. Drug Policies Failed, Fueled Mexico's Drug War." ... "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday with a blunt mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies have been a failure and have contributed to the explosion of drug violence south of the border." ... ""Clearly what we've been doing has not worked," Clinton told reporters on her plane at the start of her two-day trip, saying that [United States] U.S. policies on curbing drug use, narcotics shipments and the flow of guns have been ineffective." ... ""Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," she added. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians."" ... "More than 7,000 Mexicans have been killed in the bloodletting since January 2008, with the gangs battling authorities and one another for supremacy." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is sending hundreds more agents and extra high-tech gear to the border to intercept weapons and drug proceeds heading south." ... "Last month, former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico called on the United States in a report to consider legalizing marijuana use and focusing more on treatment for drug users. Obama has emphasized his support for expanded treatment facilities, although not for allowing marijuana use. " (1, 2) -By Mary Beth Sheridan -WashingtonPost
Israel -
"Netanyahu, Lieberman 'struck secret deal for West Bank construction'" ... "Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a secret deal with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for highly contentious construction on West Bank land [Palestine] known as E1, Army Radio reported Wednesday." ... "The plan is for the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim to build 3000 new housing units on the territory, which stretches between it and Jerusalem [Israel's capital], the source was quoted as saying." ... "Construction in the area is particularly sensitive because it would create contiguity between the settlement and the capital, which in turn would prevent Palestinian construction between East Jerusalem and Ramallah [administrative capital of Palestine]." ... "This would also make it difficult to reach agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the question of permanent borders." -Haaretz.com
"Israelis told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza." ... "Many Israeli troops had the sense of fighting a "religious war" against Gentiles during the 22-day offensive in Gaza [Palestinian territory], according to a soldier who has highlighted the martial role of military rabbis during the operation." ... "The soldier testified that the "clear" message of literature distributed to troops by the rabbinate was: "We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."" ... "After the offensive, Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group called for the dismissal of the military's head chaplain, Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, a brigadier general. It said that he had distributed to troops a booklet saying that it was "terribly immoral" to show mercy to a "cruel enemy" and that the soldiers were fighting "murderers"." ... "The longer transcript conveys a fuller sense of the debate involving graduates from the Yitzhak Rabin military preparatory course." ... "The latest casualty figures published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights list the names of 1,434 dead of whom they say 926 were civilians, 236 fighters and 255 police officers." -By Donald Macintyre -Independent.co.uk
-
"Israeli Soldier Says Military Rabbis Framed Gaza Mission as Religious." ... "A soldier involved in Israel's recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip [Palestinian territory] said in published reports Friday that the military's rabbinical staff distributed material characterizing the operation as a religious mission to "get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land."" ... "In the second day of published accounts from soldiers critical of the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, the daily Maariv ran excerpts of an interview with a squad commander in Israel's Givati Brigade. He was identified only by his first name, given as Rahm." ... "The daily quoted him as saying that the Gaza operation from the beginning had "the feeling of almost a religious mission."" ... ""The military rabbinate brought many magazines and articles with a very clear message: 'We are the Jewish people, a miracle brought us to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, and now we have to struggle so as to get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land.' All the feeling throughout all this operation of many of the soldiers was of a war of religions," he said. "As a commander, I tried to explain that the war is not a war of Kiddush Hashem [the sanctification of God's name, including through martyrdom] but over the stopping of the launching of the Qassam rockets."" ... "The soldiers' accounts were elicited by the head of a training school for future military recruits. At a recent gathering, graduates of the school described how the realities of military life clashed with the values taught in the school's curriculum." ... "The school is named in honor Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli leader who signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians and who was assassinated by an Israeli who opposed the agreements. The school is secular in nature and its graduates would likely be sensitive to the intrusion of religious politics into the conduct of a military operation, said retired Brig. Gen. Meir Elran, a security analyst with the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University." ... "Given that one of Israel's chief struggles is against organizations, such as Hamas, that entwine religion and violence, the presence of similar material among Israeli soldiers is disturbing, Elran said. " -By Howard Schneider -WashingtonPost
"Despair over financial policy." ... "The [Democratic President Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim] Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It’s exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won." ... "In effect, Treasury will be creating — deliberately! — the functional equivalent of Texas S&Ls in the 1980s: financial operations with very little capital but lots of government-guaranteed liabilities. For the private investors, this is an open invitation to play heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose. So sure, these investors will be ready to pay high prices for toxic waste. After all, the stuff might be worth something; and if it isn’t, that’s someone else’s problem." ... "Or to put it another way, Treasury has decided that what we have is nothing but a confidence problem, which it proposes to cure by creating massive moral hazard." -By Paul Krugman/Blog -NYTimes
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Genetics -
"Alzheimer's study finds parental link: Patients' offspring have memory loss." ... "Children of parents with Alzheimer's disease can develop memory problems in their 50s or even younger - much earlier than previously thought - according to a large study released yesterday by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine." ... "The study subjects, who carried a gene strongly linked to Alzheimer's, performed worse in memory tests, on average, than other middle-aged people who had the same gene but did not have a parent diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The difference in memory between the two groups was equivalent to approximately 15 years of brain aging, researchers found." ... "The BU findings do not suggest that everyone with the gene, known as APOE-e4, will develop Alzheimer's, said Seshadri. The gene is believed to play a role in about 50 percent of Alzheimer's cases. The study also did not address whether the people showing early memory impairment were destined to develop Alzheimer's." ... "[T]he study has not yet gone through the traditional scientific vetting process, which includes other scientists reviewing the data before it is published in a journal." ... ""I wonder about genetic discrimination," said Dr. Rudy Tanzi, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School who co-discovered three other genes that have been linked to early-onset Alzheimer's, a more rare form of the disease that typically strikes before 65." ... ""If it's out there that my parents have APOE-e4, there is a chance my employer might know and wonder, 'Should I promote this guy?' " Tanzi said." ... "The BU findings, he added, increase the urgency for stronger genetic nondiscrimination laws. Tanzi said that even though a federal law - The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, enacted last year - protects against employment discrimination, he worries about subtle discrimination in the workplace." -By Kay Lazar -BostonGlobe
Don Young -
Education -
Alaska
"GOP [Republicans] Fighting For Money From Stimulus They Opposed." ... "House Republicans, as a group, may take great pride in the goose egg [zero votes] they offered [Democratic] President Obama's stimulus package. But now the unanimous opposition is struggling to bring that money home." ... "Republicans will be working hard to make sure the money they opposed ends up benefiting their home districts, highlighting the political tightrope they walk in this economic crisis." ... "Back in his home district, [Missouri Republican Representative] Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO [Republican-Missouri]) [who voted against the stimulus plane] found some nice things to say about the plan." ... ""Within the stimulus package there is some Pell Grant money, which is a good thing. It helps students be able to pay for their education and that's kind of a long term stimulus effect there. I mean obviously that's not gonna provide a job in the next 120, 180 days, but the ability of someone to get an education is an economic development tool," Luetkemeyer said at a local college. He was there, in another inside-outside Washington twist, to celebrate an earmark for a college building." ... "[Alaska Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young (R-AK [Republican-Alaska]) [who voted against the stimulus plane] put out a press release saying that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."" -By Ryan Grim -HuffingtonPost.com
Michael Steele -
Pete Hoekstra -
Lindsey Graham -
Ken Calvert -
SC -
MI -
NJ -
"Kit Bond Touts Effects Of Stimulus Bill He Voted Against." ... "[Missouri Republican Senator Kit Bond voted against the stimulus bill asserting:} “Unfortunately, this bill stimulates the debt, it stimulates the growth of government, but it doesn’t stimulate jobs,” Bond insisted." ... "However, today Bond is touring Missouri to tout the very stimulus plan he railed against. In a press release, Bond boasted about an amendment he included in the bill to provide more funding for affordable housing — and that will create jobs:""Last week, Bond led a bipartisan group of Senators in introducing an amendment to help provide needy families affordable housing. Bond’s amendment provides $2 billion to fund low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects that have been stalled by the financial credit crisis. As part of the Democrats’ spending bill now signed into law, the Senate unanimously accepted Bond’s provision. […]""“This is the type of emergency stimulus spending we should be supporting — programs that will create jobs now and help families,” Bond said." ... "Bond’s “I was against it before I was for it” maneuver at least has local media fooled. Just 24 hours after noting his opposition to the stimulus bill, local news this morning reported that Bond would be touring the state “pushing his plan to create 3,000 jobs in the state and build more than 700 affordable housing units.” Watch the local CBS channel try to keep up with Bond’s flip-flops:""This provision will have a real impact in Missouri, especially for low-income, working families in need of safe and affordable housing. … Bond’s amendment will save more than 700 housing units and create 3,000 new jobs in Missouri."
"Bond is not alone in trying to reap the political benefits both from voting against the bill and from bringing much needed funding to his district:""– [Minnesota Republican Governor] Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who complained that the “federal government is spending money they don’t have,” told Rachel Maddow he would nevertheless accept funds for Minnesota: “Our view is, if you buy the pizza, it’s OK if you have a slice.”""No wonder RNC [Republican National Committee] Chairman Michael Steele declared recently, “You have absolutely no reason — none — to trust our word or our actions at this point.”""– [South Carolina Republican Senator] Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who also campaigned ardently against the bill, said he would nevertheless gladly accept its funds for his state. “You don’t want to be crazy here,” he said."
"– [Florida Republican Representative] Rep. John Mica (R-FL) gushed over the bill, which he, too, voted against. “I applaud [Democratic] President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future,” he said in a press release."
"– [Alaska Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young (R-AK) boasted that he “won a victory for…Alaska small business owners” in the recovery bill he refused to vote for."
"Update [Missouri Republican Representative] Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) boasted about the educational benefits of the recovery act, while [California Republican Representative] Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) said his office "will do what we can to direct as much money as we can." Neither voted for the bill."
"Update [Michgan Republican Representative] Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) joins in, praising the stimulus' "generous" incentives for home buyers on his Twitter feed:""petehoekstra If you know of someone thinking of buying first home, now may be the time.Stimulus incentive is very generous!Up to 8k!Check it out.""UpdateBlueJersey notes adds [New Jersey Republican Representative] Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) to the growing list. After insisting last Friday that the recovery bill "would have exploded our national debt without providing meaningful job growth," Lance toured construction sites in his district yesterday, touting funds that would come from the stimulus bill. "This is a classic example of a "shovel-ready' project," Lance said after the tour." -By Ali Frick -ThinkProgress.org
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"Media often fail in their global warming coverage, says climate researcher." ... ""Business managers of media organizations: You are screwing up your responsibility by firing science and environment reporters, who are frankly the only ones competent to do this," said climate researcher and policy analyst Stephen Schneider, in assessing the current state of media coverage of global warming and related issues." ... "Schneider, a coordinating lead author of Chapter 19 in the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2007, is calling for the news media to employ trained reporters in covering global warming. He discussed this and other issues [2009 February] Feb. 13 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago [Illinois]." ... ""Science is not politics. You can't just get two opposing viewpoints and think you've done due diligence. You've got to cover the multiple views and the relative credibility of each view," said Schneider, the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford [Universtiy in California], in an interview before the annual meeting. "But that is not usually the problem of the well-trained reporters, who understand what is credible." ... ""The problem is CNN just fired their science team. Why didn't they fire their economics team or their sports team? Why don't they send their general assignment reporters out to cover the Super Bowl?" Schneider said." ... "In addition, researchers have to do their part by clearly explaining issues to reporters in succinct terms, he said." ... ""You have to have your elevator statement or people won't listen to you," Schneider said." ... ""What I always suggest is that scientists find metaphors that convey both urgency and uncertainty, so that you can get people's attention while at the same time not overstating the case," he said. "Then you have websites and backup articles and books where you can give the full story, but you have to have your sound bite and your op-ed piece."" -By Louis Bergeron -StanfordNewsService
"The New Deal and right-wing revisionism." ... "The best regarded data excluding public-works employees traces a steady decline in joblessness through the first five years of the New Deal, from 25 percent when [Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt] FDR took office to 14.3 percent in 1937. Then, however, joblessness rose, hitting 19.1 percent in 1938 before dropping back to 14.6 percent in 1940 and 9.9 percent in 1941." ... "Include work-relief employees, and unemployment declined more steeply, falling to 9.2 percent in 1937. It then rose to 12.5 percent in 1938 before dropping back to 6 percent in 1941." ... "Why did Roosevelt's recovery falter?" ... "Unfortunately for conservatives, the evidence cuts against their conclusions. The rise in unemployment followed FDR's cutback in government spending in 1937. The resulting spike in unemployment prompted him to shift courses and expand spending again, whereupon unemployment again fell." ... "Gross Domestic Product tracks the same way, notes economist Dean Baker, who has matched the increase in federal spending during each Depression year with the following year's growth in GDP. A 23.7 percent increase in federal spending in 1933 was followed by a 10.8 percent increase in GDP in 1934, for example, while a 34.2 percent increase in 1934 was followed by an 8.9 percent GDP increase in 1935. But when FDR retrenched and spending fell by 10 percent in 1937, the next year's GDP shrank by 3.4 percent." ... "There's virtually no disagreement that World War II gave the country the strong final tug out of the Depression. Yet that reality also argues for the efficacy of Keynesian remedies; economically, the war constituted a huge government stimulus, financed by massive deficit spending." -By Scott Lehigh -BostonGlobe
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"Republicans Prep the Portals of Online Organizing." ... "One of the key’s to [Democratic President] Obama’s victory, Republican strategist David All said, was the Web-based social network My BarackObama .com, which allowed supporters “to self-organize, track tasks, recruit friends and volunteers, train, connect, raise money, and turn out the vote on Election Day.”" ... "Added Michigan Republican Party Chairman, Saul Anuzis, “Obama did not create anything new, he took advantage of the latest technologies and integrated them into his campaign.”" ... "Anuzis, who is serving on [Republican Party Chairman Michael] Steele’s transition RNC [Republican National Committee] team and is a leading technology evangelist in the party, lamented that Republicans have failed to adopt these same techniques because it goes against their nature." ... "“We move slowly, we are methodical, we’re careful,” he said. “The idea of an open source, open to the public, open to the press technology summit . . . is unfathomable to many.”" (1, 2) -By Emily Cadei -CQPolitics.com
"The Far Right's All Out Offensive Against Medical Research." ... "Opponents of fixing our broken health care system are at it again, attempting to use their same old scare tactics and falsehoods to kill a common-sense health care provision [in] the economic recovery package. Fortunately Congressional leaders have recognized these tactics for what they are and have wisely kept this provision in the legislation." ... "At issue is something called "Comparative Effectiveness Research" which basically means giving your doctor access to the latest research on what treatments and therapies work and which don't. This also helps doctors know which treatments are more expensive than others, and helps both patients and doctors decide if there is a cheaper treatment that is just as effective. As a doctor and the husband of a doctor, I know how important it is to have solid scientific research to make critical decisions for my patients." ... "When I was practicing medicine, having greater access to scientific evidenced-based research would have been truly helpful in guiding me to make the best medical decisions for my patients." ... "If an inexpensive pill that has been around a long time works substantially better than a brand new, highly-advertised and thus far more expensive pill - doctors should have that information at hand when we prescribe medications to our patients. When I do something for a patient, I want the scientific research that tells me its the best course for my patient. But the far right, led by people like Rush Limabaugh, hopes to somehow convince Americans that more and better research is a bad thing." ... "This claptrap is really about the far right laying the ground work for a far greater and more sustained attack on the Democrats' attempt to fix our health care system. As we move forward with the American people to finally fulfill the promise of Harry Truman, who over sixty years ago suggested that every American ought to have a reasonable health care plan, we will rely on the voters to remind the right wing that change is what we promised, and change is what we will deliver." -By Howard Dean -HuffingtonPost.com
"The death of the news: If reporting vanishes, the world will get darker and uglier. Subsidizing newspapers may be the only answer." ... "Journalism as we know it is in crisis. Daily newspapers are going out of business at an unprecedented rate, and the survivors are slashing their budgets. Thousands of reporters and editors have lost their jobs. No print publication is immune, including the mighty New York Times. As analyst Allan Mutter noted, 2008 was the worst year in history for newspaper publishers, with shares dropping a stunning 83 percent on average. Newspapers lost $64.5 billion in market value in 12 months." ... "But the real problem isn't that newspapers may be doomed." ... "As Nation columnist Eric Alterman recently argued, the real problem isn't the impending death of newspapers, but the impending death of news -- at least news as we know it." ... "What is really threatened by the decline of newspapers and the related rise of online media is reporting -- on-the-ground reporting by trained journalists who know the subject, have developed sources on all sides, strive for objectivity and are working with editors who check their facts, steer them in the right direction and are a further check against unwarranted assumptions, sloppy thinking and reporting, and conscious or unconscious bias." ... "If newspapers die, so does reporting. That's because the majority of reporting originates at newspapers. Online journalism is essentially parasitic. Like most TV news, it derives or follows up on stories that first appeared in print." ... "Currently there is no business model that makes online reporting financially viable." ... "There is no substitute for field reporting, in which a real live human being observes an event while it is happening and talks to other real, live human beings." ... "If field reporting dies out, the world will become a less known place." ... "Without reporting, dirty little wars would be invisible dirty little wars." (1, 2, 3) -By Gary Kamiya -Salon
"West Bank settlement gets green light for major expansion." ... "" -By Nadav Shragai -Haaretz.com
"Israel Grabs More Palestinian Land, Sets Stage for Further Illegal Colonization of Palestinian Territory." ... "Meanwhile, in the Middle East’s only democracy, settlements continue to grow:""Some 1,700 dunams of land in the northern part of Efrat were declared state land last week, paving the way for the West Bank settlement to start the process of seeking government approval to build there."... "Opposition to settlements has long been official United States policy, but the overwhelming tendency has been for [United States] U.S. administrations to turn a blind eye to settlement expansion. The expansion itself is an impediment to peace, and American unwillingness to stand behind our own policy commitments is devastating to our credibility in the region. " -By Matthew Yglesias -ThinkProgress.org"The Civil Administration issued the declaration after rejecting eight appeals by Palestinians against the move. A ninth appeal was accepted, and the land covered by this appeal was consequently removed from Efrat’s jurisdiction."
"Livni: Give up parts of 'Land of Israel'." ... "Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister-designate, said Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu." ... "She told a convention of American Jewish leaders, "we need to give up parts of the Land of Israel," using a term that refers to biblical borders that include today's Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, repeating her well-known view that pulling out of Palestinian areas would be for the good of Israel, to maintain it as a Jewish state." ... "Livni's centrist Kadima Party won one more seat than the hawkish Likud, led by Netanyahu. He opposes large-scale territorial concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians." -By Aron Heller -AP via -Yahoo
"Liberals not pleased with go-slow approach by Obama." ... "Union leaders were taken aback this month when [Democratic President Barack] Obama, during television appearances discussing the stimulus legislation, spoke skeptically of "Buy American" provisions in the bill giving [United States] U.S. makers of steel and other materials an advantage in bidding for contracts." ... "Obama told Fox News that the U.S. "can't send a protectionist message," and he cautioned on ABC News that the requirements could be a "potential source of trade wars that we can't afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe."" ... "Now, some labor advocates worry about how aggressively the new president will push to fulfill other key campaign promises, such as passage of the so-called card check legislation that would make it easier to form labor unions." ... "At the ACLU, Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said his group's disappointment was "deep and unparalleled" after the Justice Department decided to keep in place one of the most controversial legal tactics of the [Republican President] Bush anti-terrorism arsenal: using the "state secrets" doctrine to block lawsuits by detainees." ... "The Justice Department invoked the privilege last week in arguing that a case should not proceed because it might lead to the disclosure of state secrets." ... "As a candidate, Obama had attacked Bush for using the tactic and had pledged to reverse such policies." -By Peter Wallsten -LAtimes
"Former Gitmo Guard Tells All." ... "Army Private Brandon Neely served as a prison guard at Guantánamo [US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba] in the first years the facility was in operation. With the [Republican President] Bush Administration, and thus the threat of retaliation against him, now gone, Neely decided to step forward and tell his story. “The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong,” he told the Associated Press. Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, an isolation regime that was put in place for child-detainees, and his conversations with prisoners David Hicks and Rhuhel Ahmed. It makes for fascinating reading." ... "Neely’s comprehensive account runs to roughly 15,000 words. It was compiled by law students at the University of California at Davis and can be accessed here." ... "... Neely and other guards had been trained to the U.S. military’s traditional application of the Geneva Convention rules. They were put under great pressure to get rough with the prisoners and to violate the standards they learned. This placed the prison guards under unjustifiable mental stress and anxiety, and, as any person familiar with the vast psychological literature in the area (think of the Stanford Prison Experiment, for instance) would have anticipated produced abuses. Neely discusses at some length the notion of IRF (initial reaction force), a technique devised to brutalize or physically beat a detainee under the pretense that he required being physically subdued. The IRF approach was devised to use a perceived legal loophole in the prohibition on torture. Neely’s testimony makes clear that IRF was understood by everyone, including the prison guards who applied it, as a subterfuge for beating and mistreating prisoners—and that it had nothing to do with the need to preserve discipline and order in the prison." ... "[Neely] describes body searches undertaken for no legitimate security purpose, simply to sexually invade and humiliate the prisoners. This was a standardized [Republican President] Bush Administration tactic–the importance of which became apparent to me when I participated in some Capitol Hill negotiations with White House representatives relating to legislation creating criminal law accountability for contractors. The Bush White House vehemently objected to provisions of the law dealing with rape by instrumentality. When House negotiators pressed to know why, they were met first with silence and then an embarrassed acknowledgement that a key part of the Bush program included invasion of the bodies of prisoners in a way that might be deemed rape by instrumentality under existing federal and state criminal statutes. While these techniques have long been known, the role of health care professionals in implementing them is shocking." ... "Neely’s account demonstrates once more how much the Bush team kept secret and how little we still know about their comprehensive program of official cruelty and torture." -By Scott Horton -Harpers.org
"Testimony of Spc. Brandon Neely." via "The Guantánamo Testimonials Project." ... "Testimonies of Military Guards." via humanrights.ucdavis.edu
"Dems Fed Up With McCain: "Angry Old Defeated Candidate"." ... ""He is bitter and really angry," Bob Shrum said of [Arizona Republican Senator John] McCain in an interview on Friday. "He is angry at the press, which he thinks is unfair. He is angry at [Democratic President] Obama and angry at the voters. He has gone from being an angry old candidate to being an angry old defeated candidate."" ... ""On Sunday, McCain wouldn't let the fight die, even with the [economic stimulus] legislation through Congress. Appearing on CNN, he described the $787 billion measure as "generational theft" and said that the bill's authors should "start over now and sit down together."" ... ""[A]s other observers pointed out, McCain isn't being entirely consistent." ... """During the Senate debate, 36 of the Senate Republicans voted for an alternative that would have cut taxes over the next decade by $2.5 trillion, [and] reduced the top marginal race to 25 percent," said the Atlantic's Ron Brownstein on "Meet the Press." "For John McCain -- who voted for that alternative of a $2.5 trillion tax cut over the next decade -- to talk about generational theft, I mean, pot meet kettle." -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
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"Galaxy has 'billions of Earths': There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard." ... "So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System." -BBC/News
"Former Gitmo guard recalls abuse, climate of fear." ... "Army Pvt. [Private] Brandon Neely was scared when he took Guantanamo's first shackled detainees off a bus. Told to expect vicious terrorists, he grabbed a trembling, elderly detainee and ground his face into the cement — the first of a range of humiliations he says he participated in and witnessed as the prison was opening for business." ... "Neely has now come forward in this final year of the detention center's existence, saying he wants to publicly air his feelings of guilt and shame about how some soldiers behaved as the military scrambled to handle the first alleged al-Qaida and Taliban members arriving at the isolated [United States] U.S. Navy base." ... "His account, one of the first by a former guard describing abuses at Guantanamo, describes a chaotic time when soldiers lacked clear rules for dealing with detainees who were denied many basic comforts. He says the circumstances changed quickly once monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived." ... "Neely, [now] 28, describes a litany of cruel treatment by his fellow soldiers, including beatings and humiliations he said were intended only to deliver physical or psychological pain." ... "Only months had passed since the [2001 September] Sept. 11 attacks, and Neely said many of the guards wanted revenge. Especially before the first Red Cross visit, he said guards were seizing on any apparent infractions to "get some" by hurting the detainees. The soldiers' behavior seemed justified at the time, he said, because they were told "these are the worst terrorists in the world."" ... "He said one medic punched a handcuffed prisoner in the face for refusing to swallow a liquid nutritional supplement, and another bragged about cruelly stretching a prisoner's torn muscles during what was supposed to be physical therapy treatments." ... "He said detainees were forced to submit to take showers and defecate into buckets in full view of female soldiers, against Islamic customs. When a detainee yelled an expletive at a female guard, he said a crew of soldiers beat the man up and held him down so that the woman could repeatedly strike him in the face. " -By Mike Melia -AP via -Yahoo
"The Guantánamo Testimonials Project." via humanrights.ucdavis.edu
Steven Bradbury -
"A Torture Report Could Spell Big Trouble For Bush Lawyers." ... "An internal Justice Department report on the conduct of senior lawyers who approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics is causing anxiety among former [Republican President] Bush administration officials. H. Marshall Jarrett, chief of the department's ethics watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), confirmed last year he was investigating whether the legal advice in crucial interrogation memos "was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys." According to two knowledgeable sources who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters, a draft of the report was submitted in the final weeks of the Bush administration. It sharply criticized the legal work of two former top officials—Jay Bybee and John Yoo—as well as that of Steven Bradbury, who was chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the time the report was submitted, the sources said." ... "[T[he OPR probe began after Jack Goldsmith, a Bush appointee who took over OLC in 2003, protested the legal arguments made in the memos. Goldsmith resigned the following year after withdrawing the memos, and later wrote that he was "astonished" by the "deeply flawed" and "sloppily reasoned" legal analysis in the memos by Yoo and Bybee, including their assertion (challenged by many scholars) that the president could unilaterally disregard a law passed by Congress banning torture." ... "OPR investigators focused on whether the memo's authors deliberately slanted their legal advice to provide the [Republican President Bush] White House with the conclusions it wanted, according to three former Bush lawyers who asked not to be identified discussing an ongoing probe." -By Michael Isikoff -Newsweek
West Virginia
"Case May Alter Judge Elections Across Country." ... "Don L. Blankenship, the chief executive of the nation’s fourth-biggest coal mining company, is not shy about putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to West Virginia politics." ... "In 2004, he spent $3 million on tough [television] advertisements attacking a justice of the State Supreme Court who was seeking re-election. Some of the advertisements said the justice had agreed to free a sex offender." ... "Brent D. Benjamin won that election and went on to join the 3-to-2 majority that threw out a $50 million jury verdict against Mr. Blankenship’s company, Massey Energy." ... "The question of whether Justice Benjamin should have disqualified himself is now before the United States Supreme Court." ... "The case, one of the most important of the term, has the potential to change the way judicial elections are conducted and the way cases are heard in the 39 states that elect at least some of their judges." ... "Mr. Blankenship’s advertisements, which said Justice McGraw had released a pedophile, were rough and arguably misleading. They concerned a youth who had been sexually abused from the age of 7 by two adult family members and a teacher before going on, at the age of 14, to abuse a younger half-brother. The youth was released on probation soon after he turned 18." ... "“I’m just a West Virginia country lawyer running for office,” Justice McGraw said. Of the advertisements, he said: “They say our court set a child molester loose in our schools. It’s absolutely untrue. I’m embarrassed to go out in public. They’ve absolutely destroyed me.”" ... "Mr. Blankenship cheerfully conceded that his real objection was to Justice McGraw’s rulings against corporate defendants. “Being the street fighter that I am,” he said, he had instructed his aides to find a decision that would enrage the public." ... "When they returned with an unsigned opinion in the sex abuse case, which Justice McGraw had joined, Mr. Blankenship said he knew he had hit pay dirt. “That killed him,” Mr. Blankenship said of Justice McGraw, smiling." (1, 2) -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes
"Business the big winner in California budget plan: Firms would get nearly $1 billion in breaks, while the average person would pay higher taxes five ways. Republicans say the plan would create jobs, but others dispute the claim." ... "Reporting from Sacramento [California's capital] -- The average Californian's taxes would shoot up five different ways in the state budget blueprint that lawmakers hope to vote on this weekend. But the bipartisan plan for wiping out the state's giant deficit isn't so bad for large corporations, many of which would receive a permanent windfall." ... "About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks -- directed mostly at multi-state and multinational companies -- is tucked into the proposal. Opponents say the breaks will do nothing to create jobs, and the Legislature has rejected such moves repeatedly in the past. But now, to secure enough Republican votes to pass a budget that would raise taxes on everyone else, the Legislature is poised to write them into law with no public hearings at a time when the state treasury is almost out of cash." ... "The tax breaks were inserted into the spending plan during private meetings between legislative leaders and [California Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Less than 24 hours before today's scheduled vote, the proposals had not yet been printed in bills and made available to the public, but legislative leaders acknowledged them. " -By Evan Halper with contributions by Patrick McGreevy -LAtimes
"Large U.S. banks on edge of insolvency, experts say." ... "Some of the large banks in the United States, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking." ... "A sober assessment of the growing mountain of losses from bad bets, measured in today's marketplace, would overwhelm the value of the banks' assets, they say. The banks, in their view, are insolvent." ... "None of the experts' research focuses on individual banks, and there are certainly exceptions among the 50 largest banks in the country. Nor do consumers and businesses need to fret about their deposits, which are insured by the [United States] U.S. government. And even banks that might technically be insolvent can continue operating for a long time, and could recover their financial health when the economy improves." ... "But without a cure for the problem of bad assets, the credit crisis that is dragging down the economy will linger, as banks cannot resume the ample lending needed to restart the wheels of commerce. The answer, say the economists and experts, is a larger, more direct government role than in the Treasury Department's plan outlined this week." ... "The Treasury program leans heavily on a sketchy public-private investment fund to buy up the troubled mortgage-backed securities held by the banks. Instead, the experts say, the government needs to plunge in, weed out the weakest banks, pour capital into the surviving banks and sell off the bad assets." ... "It is the basic blueprint that has proved successful, they say, in resolving major financial crises in recent years." (1, 2) -By Steve Lohr with contributions by Eric Dash -IHT.com
"Science Journalism’s Hope and Despair: ‘Niche’ pubs growing as MSM circles the drain." (1, 2) -By Curtis Brainard -CJR.org
"The Economists Who Missed the Housing Bubble Are Coming After Your Social Security." ... "Word has it that [Democratic] President Obama intends to appoint a task force the week after next which will be charged with "reforming" Social Security. According to inside gossip, the task force will be led entirely by economists who were not able to see the $8 trillion housing bubble, the collapse of which is giving the country its sharpest downturn since the Great Depression." ... "This effort is bizarre for several reasons. First, the economy is sinking rapidly. While President Obama's stimulus package is a good first step towards counteracting the decline, there is probably not a single economists in the country who believes that is adequate to the task. President Obama would be advised to focus his attention on getting the economy back in order instead of attacking the country's most important social program." ... "The second reason why this task force is strange is that Social Security doesn't need reforming. According to the Congressional Budget Office [PDF], it can pay all scheduled benefits for the next 40 years with no changes whatsoever." ... "The third reason that this effort is pernicious is that this talk of reform is occurring with the baby boomers just as the cusp of retirement. Due to the reckless policies of the Rubin-Greenspan-[ Republican]Bush clique, this cohort has just seen their housing equity wiped out with the collapse of the housing bubble. Tens of millions of baby boomers who might have felt reasonably secure three years ago are now approaching retirement with little or no equity in their homes." ... "Similarly, if they had been fortunate enough to accumulate any substantial amount of savings in a 401(k) account, they just saw much of this wealth vanish with the plunge in the stock market." -By Dean Baker -CEPR.net
Mitch McConnell -
Reference -
Kentucky
"Revisionists' blind view of New Deal." ... "[N]early eight decades after [Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt] FDR launched the New Deal, amid possibly the greatest economic emergency since the 1930s, it’s important to understand that the most sophisticated arguments seeking to demolish the New Deal are based on a misreading of the bulk of the historical evidence. University of California, Davis historian Eric Rauchway, the author of “The Great Depression & The New Deal: A Very Short Introduction,” dismantled Shlaes’ argument in a 2007 review in Slate. He showed how [right wing writer Amity] Shlaes had tried to diminish the nation’s economic growth during the 1930s using the narrow gauge of the Dow Jones Industrial Average as opposed to the gross domestic product." ... "Shlaes cited unemployment figures that excluded Americans who had New Deal-generated jobs, and she virtually ignored what Rauchway calls “the authoritative reference work Historical Statistics of the United States.” That reference book shows that during FDR’s first term, the real GDP grew by some 9 percent annually; and after the 1937-38 recession, the economy grew at an annual clip of 11 percent. By the fall of 1934, another New Deal historian, William E. Leuchtenburg, explains, “the ranks of the unemployed had been reduced by over 2 million and national income stood almost a quarter higher than in 1933.”" ... "The Shlaes-[ Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch] McConnell anti-New Deal critics tend to minimize the enduring contribution of laws such as the Wagner Act, which established workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, and the Social Security Act of 1935 that provided for unemployment as well as old-age insurance. They highlight, instead, the failure of the National Industrial Recovery Act to fuel economic growth, overlook the ways in which the New Deal alleviated people’s misery and rarely acknowledge that World War II lifted the economy and ultimately ended the Depression because the national government joined closely with the private sector to provide a massive stimulus in the form of federal wartime spending." ... "FDR’s New Deal had its share of failures, setbacks and problems. But to argue that it harmed the American people, “failed abysmally” (Shlaes’ words) to reduce unemployment, and retarded economic growth is to twist the historical evidence beyond all reasonable recognition. Such arguments are forms of revisionism that are misleading, polemical and riddled with distortions of the overwhelming facts at hand about the New Deal’s achievements as well as its real shortcomings. " -By Matthew Dallek -Politico.com
Judd Gregg -
New Hampshire
"Sen. Gregg: Obama on the Right Economic Track." ... "[New Hampshire Republican Senator] Judd Gregg, the Republican senator who suddenly withdrew himself as a nominee for Commerce Secretary, "feels very strongly" that [Democratic] President Obama is on the right economic track." ... ""He's going to be a very strong President, in my opinion," he said in an interview on CNBC Friday." ... "Responding to assertions that he originally sought out the position, Gregg did not "campaign" for the job, he said." -CNBC
"Out of Work and Challenged on Benefits, Too: In Record Numbers, Employers Move to Block Unemployment Payouts." ... "It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of [United States] U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits." ... "More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers." ... "The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute." ... "Under state and federal laws, employees who are fired for misbehavior or quit voluntarily are ineligible for unemployment compensation. When jobless claims are blocked, employers save money because their unemployment insurance rates are based on the amount of the benefits their workers collect." ... "As unemployment rolls swell in the recession, many workers seem surprised to find their benefits challenged, their former bosses providing testimony against them." (1, 2) -By Peter Whoriskey -WashingtonPost
"Home Prices in U.S. Slid 12% in Fourth Quarter, Most on Record." ... "Home prices dropped the most on record in the fourth quarter as foreclosures dragged down values and the recession pushed buyers out of the market." ... "The median price of a [United States] U.S. home declined 12 percent to $180,100 from a year earlier and sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for 45 percent of all transactions, the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors said today. Prices declined in almost nine out of every 10 cities." ... "The worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression is deepening as foreclosures drain value from neighboring homes and the economic recession worsens. The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits rose to a record 4.81 million in the last week of January as companies such as Caterpillar Inc. [Incorporated] and Home Depot Inc. slashed jobs. The U.S. lost 2.6 million jobs last year in the biggest workforce reduction since 1945." -By Kathleen M. Howley -Bloomberg
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Nuclear -
New Mexico
"67 computers missing from nuclear weapons lab." ... "The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico is missing 67 computers, including 13 that were lost or stolen in the past year. Officials say no classified information has been lost." -By Joan Lowy -AP via -Yahoo
"Vaccines don't cause autism, special court says." ... "The special masters who decided the case expressed sympathy for the families, some of whom have made emotional pleas describing their children's conditions, but the rulings were blunt: There's little if any evidence to support claims of a vaccine-autism link." ... "The evidence "is weak, contradictory and unpersuasive," concluded Special Master Denise Vowell. "Sadly, the petitioners in this litigation have been the victims of bad science conducted to support litigation rather than to advance medical and scientific understanding" of autism." ... "Science years ago reached the conclusion that there's no connection, but Thursday's rulings in a trio of cases still have far-reaching implications — offering reassurance to parents scared about vaccinating their babies because of a small but vocal anti-vaccine movement. Some vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, are on the rise, and last fall a Minnesota baby who hadn't been vaccinated against meningitis died of that disease." -By Kevin Freking and Lauran Neergaard -AP via -Yahoo
"Latin American Panel Calls U.S. Drug War a Failure." ... "As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by three former Latin American heads of state blasted the [United States] U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies to the breaking point." ... ""The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war," said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]. "We have to move from this approach to another one."" ... "The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana." ... "The report, by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, is the latest to question the U.S.'s emphasis on punitive measures to deal with illegal drug use and the criminal violence that accompanies it. A recent Brookings Institution study concluded that despite interdiction and eradication efforts, the world's governments haven't been able to significantly decrease the supply of drugs, while punitive methods haven't succeeded in lowering drug use." ... "The three former presidents who head the commission are political conservatives who have confronted in their home countries the violence and corruption that accompany drug trafficking." ... "The report warned that the U.S.-style antidrug strategy was putting the region's fragile democratic institutions at risk and corrupting "judicial systems, governments, the political system and especially the police forces."" ... "Latin America, he [former President of Colombia César Gaviria] said, should adapt a more European approach, based on treating drug addiction as a health problem." -By José de Córdoba with contributions by David Luhnow, Louise Radnofsky and Evan Perez -WSJ.com
"BIGGEST. TAX CUT. EVER." ... "A few weeks ago, when the House approved the economic stimulus bill without any Republican votes, David Weigel noted that he literally couldn't remember "a time when the entire Republican conference in either house voted against tax cuts."" ... "That's true, but let's go a little further. The compromise plan announced last night includes $282 billion in tax cuts over two years. With that in mind, Steven Waldman argues, persuasively, that when the vast majority of congressional Republicans oppose the package, they'll be voting against the biggest tax cut "in history."""According to the Wall Street Journal, [Republican President] Bush's first two years of tax cuts amounted to $174 billion. A second batch in 2004 and 2005 cost $231. And those were thought to be bigger than the tax cuts offered by Reagan, Kennedy or others.""True. Waldman also notes that this is also an example of a liberal Democrat delivering early on a tax cut he promised during the campaign, a pledge "few Republican thought he'd keep."" ... "[Democratic President] Obama's tax cuts, meanwhile, are short-term refunds paid directly to working and middle class families (some of which Republicans have denounced as "welfare")." ... "As such, GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] lawmakers are going to reject one of the largest, if not the largest, tax cut ever proposed by a president -- which just so happens to be targeted at the working and middle class families Obama vowed to look out for." -By Steve Benen -WashingtonMonthly.com"Now, perhaps some new analysis will show that the tax cuts end up not quite being the largest in history by this measure or that. But it's clear they're massive."
"I'm ducking the debate on whether this is economically a good or bad -- but surely it ought to be a big story."
"Poll: Most want inquiry into anti-terror tactics." ... "Even as Americans struggle with two wars and an economy in tatters, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds majorities in favor of investigating some of the thorniest unfinished business from the [Republican President] Bush administration: Whether its tactics in the "war on terror" broke the law." ... "Close to two-thirds of those surveyed said there should be investigations into allegations that the Bush team used torture to interrogate terrorism suspects and its program of wiretapping [United States] U.S. citizens without getting warrants. Almost four in 10 favor criminal investigations and about a quarter want investigations without criminal charges. One-third said they want nothing to be done." ... "Even reversed, Bush policies divide" ... "Even more people want action on alleged attempts by the Bush team to use the Justice Department for political purposes. Four in 10 favored a criminal probe, three in 10 an independent panel, and 25% neither." -By Jill Lawrence -USATODAY
Sports -
Entertainment -
New York
"Unapologetic CEOs: What Did the Banks Do With Your Cash? Bank CEOs [Chief Executive Officer], With $125 Billion in Taxpayer Money in Hand, Testify and Defend Before Congress." ... "The heads of eight major banks that received $125 billion in taxpayer bailout funds were largely unapologetic for their role in helping to create the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression as they testified before Congress this morning." ... "The CEOs said they are trying to lend out more money and pledged to return to profit, be more transparent and repay taxpayers as soon as possible." ... "But for the most part, the CEOs in their prepared testimony shrugged off recent criticism about the high level of pay within their firms, the use of luxury jets and posh trips to Las Vegas or Monte Carlo [Monaco]." ... "Bank of America took heat recently for sponsoring a five-day carnival-like affair outside the Super Bowl. The event -- known as the "NFL experience" -- included 850,000 square feet of sports games and interactive entertainment attractions for football fans and was blanketed in Bank of America logos and marketing calls to sign up for football-themed banking products." ... "The eight financial firms received a combined total of $125 billion since October through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as TARP." ... "Lawmakers have expressed outrage that the funds are not fulfilling their purpose of increasing the flow of credit to consumers. They point to a report released last month by the New York state comptroller that said Wall Street firms had handed out $18 billion in bonuses last year." ... "That news led [Democratic] President Obama to impose new restrictions on executive compensation for banks that receive money through the TARP in the future." ... "In the face of pressure from Washington, Citigroup recently scrapped plans to purchase a $50 million luxury jet." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Matthew Jaffe and Scott Mayerowitz -ABCNEWS.com
"Bailed-Out Firms Distributing Cash Rewards: "Please Do Not Call It A Bonus"." ... "Two Wall Street firms that received at least $60 billion in government bailout funds will be rewarding their financial advisers with controversial retention payments, the terms of which one senior executive described as "very generous" in audio obtained by the Huffington Post." ... "The soon-to-be-merged financial giants -- Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney -- announced the payments during an internal conference call last week, but warned advisers against describing them in terms that would cause PR headaches." ... ""There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus," said James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley. "It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration."" ... "The payments, Gorman said, will be calculated based on performance numbers from 2008 instead of 2009, when the merger is expected to be completed. That decision virtually guarantees an increase in the size of the awards. While 2008 was challenging for the firms -- Morgan Stanley's client assets in fee-based accounts dropped 25 percent in the fourth quarter, and a round of lay-offs is expected -- 2009 is expected to be substantially weaker." ... ""I think I can hear you clapping from here in New York," Gorman joked during the call, after announcing that the payments would be linked to '08 performance. "You should be clapping because frankly that is a very generous and thoughtful decision that we have made. We spent a lot of time kicking this around. We could easily have done it from the point of closing, which is obviously going to be somewhere in the latter half of this year or around the middle of the year. But we just decided... that it was right thing to do, to give you that certainty that it would be based off '08. '09 is a very difficult year... So that degree of anxiety, which many, many of you have emailed me about... is now off the table."" ... "Audio of the conference call was provided by a reader who responded to the Huffington Post's call for information about wasteful or extravagant spending by bailout recipients. " -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
"Bank CEOs: The Men Behind the Billions: From Seven-Figure Paydays to Billion-Dollar Losses: Meet the Bankers Getting Grilled." ... "The eight bank chief executives who will testify before Congress today will explain how they have used money from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP." ... "Compensation totals, which are courtesy of James F. Reda and Associates, do not include retirement investments and other deferred compensation." ..."John J. Mack, chairman and chief executive officer, Morgan Stanley"" -By Alice Gomstyn and Russell Goldman with contributions by Matt Jaffe and Reynolds Holding -ABCNEWS.com
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $800,000 plus $40.2 million in stock awards."
"Morgan Stanley TARP Funding: $10 billion" ...
"Morgan Stanley was once a part of the powerhouse quintet that included the country's four other top brokerage firms: Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Of the five, Morgan and Goldman were the only firms to avoid bankruptcy or a buyout, but barely -- both became bank-holding companies in the fall in order to qualify for TARP funds." ...
"John Stumpf, president and chief executive officer, Wells Fargo & Co."
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $749,615 plus a $4.2 million bonus and $11.6 million in stock awards."
"Wells Fargo TARP Funding: $25 billion" ...
"Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer, Citigroup"
"Compensation: Pandit became Citigroup's chief in late 2007. He received $44.4 million in stock awards in January, 2008."
"Citigroup TARP Funding: $45 billion" ...
"Ken Lewis, chairman and chief executive officer, Bank of America"
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $1.5 million plus a nearly $4.3 million bonus and $21.2 million in stock awards."
"Bank of America TARP Funding: $45 billion, including $10 billion allocated to Merrill Lynch." ...
"James Dimon, chief executive officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co."
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $1 million plus $14.5 million bonus and $13 million in stock awards."
"JPMorgan TARP Funding: $25 billion" ...
"Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive officer and chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co."
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $600,000 plus $27 million bonus and $26 million in stock awards."
"Goldman Sachs TARP Funding: $10 billion" ...
"Robert P. Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer, Bank of New York Mellon"
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $975,000 plus $7.5 million bonus and $10.4 million in stock awards."
"Bank of New York Mellon TARP Funding: $3 billion" ...
"Ronald E. Logue, chairman and chief executive officer, State Street Corp."
"2007 Compensation: Salary of $1 million plus nearly $3.8 million bonus and $22.7 million in stock awards."
"State Street Corp. TARP Funding: $2 billion" ...
Maine
"Source: Collins Strips Stim Bill Of Whistleblower Protections." ... "The House stimulus bill contained a provision designed to protect federal whistleblowers. Currently, those protections are shockingly weak. According to the Project On Government Oversight, whistleblowers who are fired or demoted can file a complaint with a government board -- but over the last eight years, that board has ruled in favor of whistleblowers only twice in 55 cases." ... "More to the point, the protections were designed to encourage federal workers to point out cases where taxpayer money is subject to waste, fraud, or abuse -- a legitimate concern when Congress spends $800 billion, and one that centrists and Republicans have been particularly exercised about." ... "Yesterday, 20 members of the House, from both parties, sent a letter to House negotiators urging them to ensure that the protections remained." ... "But, according to a person following the bill closely, Collins used today's conference committee to drastically water down the measure, citing national security concerns as the reason for her opposition. In the end, the protections were so weakened that House negotiators balked, and the result was that the entire amendment was removed." ... "According to the person following the bill, [Maine Republican Senator Susan] Collins was the "central roadblock" to passing the protections." ... "So when, in the coming months, conservatives start jumping up and down over the fact that money from the stimulus bill is being wasted, as they surely will, it's worth remember that a key measure designed to help expose that waste was removed from the bill -- and by a senator said to be a champion of fiscal discipline." -By Zachary Roth -TPMMuckracker .TalkingPointsMemo
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Food -
Safety -
Ga
"Salmonella found at Ga. plant as early as 2006: Owner Stewart Parnell refused to testify at hearing; 9 have now died." ... "See the jar, the congressman challenged Stewart Parnell, holding up a container of the peanut seller's products and asking if he'd dare eat them. Parnell pleaded the Fifth." ... "The owner of the peanut company at the heart of the massive salmonella recall refused to answer the lawmaker's questions — or any others — Wednesday about the bacteria-tainted products he defiantly told employees to ship to some 50 manufacturers of cookies, crackers and ice cream." ... ""Turn them loose," Parnell had told his plant manager in an internal e-mail disclosed at the House hearing." ... "Shortly after Parnell's appearance, a lab tester told the panel that the company discovered salmonella at its Blakely, Ga. [Georgia], plant as far back as 2006. Food and Drug Administration officials told lawmakers more federal inspections could have helped prevent the outbreak." -AP -MSNBC
"Kidnapping Capital of the U.S.A.: Washington Too Concerned With al Qaeda Terrorists to Care, Officials Say." ... "In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, [Arizona's capital] Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City [Mexico's capital] and over 370 cases last year alone. But local authorities say Washington, DC
