2968 QuickLinks

Sunday, July 5, 2009
From Beyond the Grave, Saddam Reveals all (Nearly)
Under questioning by the FBI during 20 formal interviews and at least five "casual conversations" over a four-month period from February to May 2004 after his capture by US troops in December 2003, Saddam said he had made a mistake in destroying Baghdad's stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) without independent verification from UN inspectors.

Sunday, July 5, 2009
OAS Without Dissent Suspends Honduras over Zelaya Ouster
The Organization of American States voted late Saturday to suspend Honduras from the group over the military ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, who minutes later vowed to return to his country Sunday despite warnings it would be too dangerous. The group voted 33 to 0 just before midnight to bar Honduras immediately, saying the ouster of Zelaya had created an "unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order.

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Book Review: 'The Waxman Report' by Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman is to Congress what Ted Williams was to baseball,a natural. As you read this nicely proportioned, fast- paced book, you realize that Waxman was born to be a member of the House, ideally the chairman of an important committee. He's just five-feet-five, he's woefully short of hair, he's neither charming nor funny, but none of that has mattered. Waxman has been one of the most effective members of Congress for 35 yrs

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Who Can Possibly Govern California?
(1 comments) San Francisco mayor wants to be governor. By MARK LEIBOVICH Published: July 5, 2009 Budget shortfalls, perennial legislative gridlock and endless voter initiatives - who would want the job?

Saturday, July 4, 2009
President Obama's Five-Day Promise - Video Library
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised to post bills online for five days after they passed Congress and to give the public a chance to comment on them. He hasn't. Why has the pledge been so hard to keep?

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Fears for the World's Poor Countries as the Rich Grab Land to Grow Food
As world population approaches 7 billion, the amount of productive land decreases. Presently the amount of productive land is estimated at roughly 8.5 billion hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres). It is estimated that one hectare of productive land is lost every 7.67 seconds.Today it emerged that world leaders are to discuss what is being described as "land grabbing" or "neo-colonialism" at the G8 meeting next week.

Friday, July 3, 2009
Spending $102 Billion a Year on 800 Worldwide Military Bases Is Bankrupting the Country
The U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur.

Friday, July 3, 2009
Group Open to Government-Funded Insurance
The new president of the American Medical Association, which represents the interests of the nation's doctors, said Wednesday the group is open to a government-funded health insurance option for people without coverage.

Friday, July 3, 2009
A Pentagon Trailblazer, Rethinking U.S. Defense
The Saturday Profile By ELISABETH BUMILLER Published: July 4, 2009 Michèle A. Flournoy, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, is considered the "brains" of the Pentagon building.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Fed Botched Banking Regulation Once Already
Advice from Eliot Spitzer to the Banking Committee. Is the N.Y. Fed willing to release minutes and attendance records of the past five years, even if redacted to avoid company-specific information? How can the public be assured that this powerful institution is focusing on the right issues? How does the Fed plan to limit the interconnectedness of the major institutions to prevent the risk of dominoes falling sequentially?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Court Upholds Ban on Monsanto's GE Alfalfa
(2 comments) A federal appeals court upheld a 2-year-old ban on Monsanto Co.'s genetically modified alfalfa in a case a biotech food opponent calls a "turning point" in the regulation of such crops. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday leaves Creve Coeur-based Monsanto with two options. It can appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or hope for regulatory approval after the Agriculture Department studies

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Treasury Details New Consumer Agency, and Banks Cry Foul
The proposed legislation would give the new agency powers to set and enforce standards for things such as mortgage and credit card disclosure statements. For ordinary Americans, the most important feature is that the agency would have the sole mission of consumer protection. One lesson of the financial crisis is that several agencies shared that responsibility, but made it a lower priority than their other missions

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
No Compromise on the Public Plan!: Why Weakening the Public Option Would Weaken the Party Responsible
(1 comments) Happily, the public needs little convincing. The poll numbers are astounding. This should be the biggest political home-run of a generation.72% support a government-administered public plan, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll. ...a group funded by the likes of JPMorganChase, Wal-Mart, General Dynamics, Morgan Stanley, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CIGNA, and United Health found 83% in support of the public plan

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Franken Declared Winner in Minnesota
From a McClatchey blog. They point to Minneapolis paper but it will not allow QuickLinks.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Voices from Vermont and America - Senator Sanders
Healthcare reform, energy, and new rules for financial community among other items in this blog.

Monday, June 29, 2009
Churches Transform Their Buildings into Bedrooms for Homeless
(5 comments) But thirteen Blount County churches are turning their buildings into bedrooms for local residents who have lost their homes. On Saturday, Sycamore Tree United Methodist Church served breakfast to a family who's been sleeping in their church for week. On Sunday, that family's beds rolled into St. Andrews Episcopal Church.

Sunday, June 28, 2009
Lewis and Clark in Murder Mystery
Meriwether Lewis, one half of the Lewis and Clark explorer duo who first reached the Pacific by land, may have been murdered, say descendants who want his body exhumed. Now, as the 200th anniversary of his death approaches

Sunday, June 28, 2009
Laura Bush - Do Not Forget Burma
For two weeks, the world has been transfixed by images of Iranians taking to the streets to demand the most basic human freedoms and rights. Watching these courageous men and women, I am reminded of a similar scene nearly two years ago in Burma, when tens of thousands of Buddhist monks peacefully marched through their nation's streets

Sunday, June 28, 2009
Health-Care Activists Are Targeting Democrats Who Are Usually Allies
(1 comments) The rising tensions between Democratic legislators and constituencies that would typically be their natural allies underscore the high hurdles for Obama as he tries to hold together a diverse, fragile coalition. Activists say they are simply pressing for quick delivery of "true health reform," but the intraparty rift runs the risk of alienating centrist Democrats who will be needed to pass a bill.

Sunday, June 28, 2009
Congress Members Grabbed or Dumped Stocks as Market Crashed
(1 comments) As financial markets tumbled and the government worked to stave off panic by pumping billions of dollars into banks last fall, several members of Congress who oversee the banking industry were grabbing up or dumping bank stocks.

Sunday, June 28, 2009
Obama's First Coup D'etat
Note: As of 11:15am, Caracas time, President Zelaya is speaking live on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers entered his residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go with the soldiers who took him to the air base and flew him to Costa Rica. He has requested the U.S. Government make a public statement

Sunday, June 28, 2009
Honduran Military Ousts President Ahead of Vote
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Soldiers seized the national palace and flew President Manuel Zelaya into exile Sunday, hours before a disputed constitutional referendum. Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said he was victim of a coup.

Saturday, June 27, 2009
Congress Suspends Health Care Debate as Crowds Rally for Plan
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said at a roundtable Thursday that he thought that Congress was still on track to pass an overhaul this year. He indicated that the administration wants to drill two trends into Americans' minds: that 14,000 people lose health care coverage each day, and that health care cost inflation is roughly 10 percent a year

Saturday, June 27, 2009
Most Recent College Grads Working Low-Skill Jobs
New monthly survey data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that during the first four months of 2009, less than half of the nation's 4 million college graduates age 25 and under were working in jobs that required a college degree. That's down from 54 percent for same period last year.

Saturday, June 27, 2009
States Move Quickly to Put Highway Stimulus Funds to Work
Every state and five U.S. territories have declared ahead of a June 29 deadline how they'll spend at least half the highway funds set aside for them in the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year.

Saturday, June 27, 2009
Debate Joined Over New Consumer Financial Protection Agency
With Video. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency would change that. The concept of the panel came from Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren, who now heads the Congressional Oversight Panel, which is charged with watching how Wall Street bailout money is being spent.The proposal would put the regulatory powers that are spread across several agencies in one place, under one supervisory panel, which would write

Friday, June 26, 2009
GM picks Orion Twp. to build small cars
General Motors Corp. has picked its Orion Township assembly plant over factories in Tennessee and Wisconsin to be restarted for building the new small, fuel-efficient vehicles, a person familiar with the decision-making said Thursday. The move caps weeks of hard lobbying by all three states to save their factory jobs. GM has said it would use an idled U.S. plant to build up to 160,000 small vehicles.

Friday, June 26, 2009
I Got The "Make Them Do It" Blues
In a validation of the progressive primary challenge strategy, Arlen Specter today reversed his position on a public health care option. Specter's flip-flop simply must be the result of the increasing pressure he is feeling from Sestak. As such, progressive activists should be happy that our strategy of pressuring Democrats through primaries is validated

Friday, June 26, 2009
Working Families Win - Home
Working Families Win, a project of Americans for Democratic Action and the ADA Education Fund, is empowering working families around the country. We are working in across the country to engage citizens in making a difference. To get involved, contact our organizer in your state.

Friday, June 26, 2009
Monica Conyers pleads guilty to conspiracy
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty this morning to conspiring to commit bribery and is free on personal bond. She has long been under suspicion in the Synagro Technologies bribery probe, not least because she had been a vocal opponent of the contract before suddenly switching her sentiments. She became the deciding voice in the city council's 5-4 vote to approve the sludge-hauling deal in Nov

Friday, June 26, 2009
A Health Insurance Insider Blows the Whistle on the Industry's Abusive Practices
With that powerful indictment, Mr. Potter began his testimony on "Consumer Choices and Transparency in the Health Insurance Industry" before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on June 24, 2009. Quote: an insurance company's bottom line is always its most important consideration:

Friday, June 26, 2009
Holding Firm Against Plots by Evildoers
By DAN BARRY Published: June 26, 2009 The John Birch Society, right-wing relic of the '60s, remains ever-vigilant to protect the United States and the world from an amorphous, amoral group of bad people. *** Just another remembrance of VietNam peace movement!

Friday, June 26, 2009
Healthcare industry spending $1.4 million - a day - on lobbyists
(1 comments) The healthcare industry is spending upwards of $1.4 million each day on average to lobby members of Congress on health care legislation, a report issued by Common Cause this week reveals. Industry spending has nearly doubled since 2000. Healthcare interests contributed $94 million to Congress members during the 2008 election cycle alone - up from $40 million in 2000.

Friday, June 26, 2009
Dozens of Journalists among Jailed in Iran
More than two dozen Iranian journalists are among the hundreds of people being imprisoned by the hardline government in Tehran as part of the violent post-election crackdown, according to Amnesty International.Foreign news journalists have been banned from the streets, and some foreign reporters have been expelled from the country. Two journalists reporting for foreign news outlets have also been arrested, according to Amn

Thursday, June 25, 2009
Iran Arrests 70 Professors Who Met with Mousavi
The Associated Press – citing a web site close to Mir Hussein Mousavi, the centrist presidential candidate who observers both inside and outside Iran say had the country's June 12 election stolen from him – reported that the professors were arrested shortly after attending a meeting with Mr. Mousavi.

Thursday, June 25, 2009
New Program Could Reduce Student Loan Payments
The new program sets monthly payments based on adjusted gross income and family size. Unpaid principal and interest is generally added to your loan amount. Any debt remaining is wiped out after 25 years - or after 10 years if you work in the public or nonprofit sector. If you are unemployed, low-income or have a very large debt, you could qualify.

Thursday, June 25, 2009
How Unions Gave My Redneck Family a Chance at the American Dream
In looking back on growing up, I always remember 1957 and 1958 as "the two good years." The new reality is here, and has been since 1973, the last year American workers made a wage gain in real dollars. Hell, it's been here so long, we accept it as part of America's cultural furniture. Only about 12 percent of American workers are unionized,

Thursday, June 25, 2009
Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears
By JAMES GLANZ Published: June 24, 2009 AltaRock Energy will drill near San Francisco using a method that has caused earthquakes elsewhere. Basel Switzerland had experience!

Thursday, June 25, 2009
Neo-Nazi Hal Turner Arrested Again | Hatewatch
Turner's arrest comes three weeks after he was taken into custody in New Jersey on charges that he [1] incited violence against two Connecticut legislators. He had been freed on $25,000 bond and wasn't scheduled to return to court until July. But the FBI - an agency for which he once may have worked as a [2] paid informant - arrested Turner on Wednesday after going to his home in North Bergen, N.J., to execute a search warr

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Harkin Attends Progressive States Network Press Conference
A video (8 min) provided by the Progressive States Network, where a delegation of state legislators came to present petitions for a public plan in Washington, DC. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) held a press conference with Iowa State Senator Jack Hatch and a delegation of his peers telling them that such efforts were helpful.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
75% Don't Believe CEOs and CFOs Give True Picture
Half of Americans favor a focus on high-tech and service-sector jobs moving forward, while just 28% believe America should stick with more traditional jobs in manufacturing and other long-standing industries. More than one in three Americans (36%) believe the U.S. will experience a year-long recession, but that markets are stabilizing. Others view American's economic downturn as much more serious.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Ending Mountaintop Removal Mining is AlterNet's Top Take Action Campaign of The Week
In all, ten items. Political prisoners, health care, and better food production also rank.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Another Window Opens on Nixon Presidency
Materials released by the Nixon Presidential Library on Tuesday show aides trying to head off a constitutional crisis and save a presidency after Nixon fired the Watergate special prosecutor and forced out the two top Justice Department officials in October 1973. Also known as the Saturday Night Massacre.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Ideas Online, Yes, but Some Not So Presidential
By SAUL HANSELL Published: June 23, 2009 When the White House asked people to post ideas on open government on a new Web site, it heard about U.F.O.'s, marijuana and the president's birth certificate.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Why Healthcare Reform is Still Alive, Despite Initial Cost Estimates
But the reality, budget experts say, is that healthcare reform is not dead – it's just getting started. In fact, the White House has not even put out its own health reform proposal yet. The cost estimates that senators have been reacting to are not official. They're preliminary estimates based on legislation as drafted. And one estimate – the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring of legislation from the Senate Committee..

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Lingering Unemployment Likely to Challenge Obama and the Nation
The likelihood of severe unemployment extending into the 2010 midterm elections and beyond poses a significant political hurdle to President Obama and congressional Democrats, who are already under fire for what critics label profligate spending. Continuing high unemployment rates would undercut the fundamental argument behind much of that spending: the promise that it will create new jobs - Now 14 states over 10% unemployed

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Reckoning Looks at the International Criminal Court's First Years
The End of Impunity? An upcoming PBS documentary shows how the International Criminal Court is changing the world's approach to crimes against humanity.These courageous baby steps are chronicled in Pamela Yates' documentary The Reckoning, which will be broadcast July 14 on PBS as part of the P.O.V. series.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Startup' Prefab Homes Aim for Zero Energy Bills
Energy-saving features include extra-thick windows, dense insulation, efficient appliances and a monitoring system that manages temperature and ventilation and tracks electricity use. Warmth in the house is used to heat incoming air, and recovered hot wastewater helps warm shower and sink water. Solar panels generate new energy.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Oakland Green Job Corps Grads Get to Work
The graduates, who include low-income residents, ex-convicts and people who tested below an eighth-grade education level, are now headed for jobs as solar installers, energy auditors, carpenters and other entry-level posts in the booming green economy. Most of the jobs start at about $15 a hour, but graduates can expect to earn more as the industry matures.

Monday, June 22, 2009
A Rare Attack on Bagram Air Field
The rocket attack that killed two American soldiers in Afghanistan Sunday struck the most heavily fortified base in the country, ­ an enormous expanse of scrub and prefabricated buildings that is the closest thing to home that Americans know while posted in the Hindu Kush. News reports suggest that perhaps as many as three rockets struck Bagram Air Field north of Kabul in the early hours of the morning, killing two and injur

Monday, June 22, 2009
Rumsfeld Unapologetic About Iraq
In my own early contacts with him as I began work on a biography, Rumsfeld wanted to be sure I saw the many letters of praise and kind words he had received following the announcement of his resignation. He had sorted the letters according to source - members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, U.S. military personnel, former associates, friends - and filed them in large, three-ring binders.

Monday, June 22, 2009
Evidence Indicates Manioc was a Major Maya Crop
Manioc tubers, also known as cassava, can grow to as much as 3 feet long and as thick as a man's arm. They produce the highest food energy yield of any cultivated crop, about eight to 10 times as much as corn. They can also be grown in infertile soils and require little or no irrigation. The flour can be used in soups and stews to increase carbohydrate content and also to make tortillas and tamales

Monday, June 22, 2009
Elements of 1960 Intelligence Estimate Still Relevant Today
"We do not believe that Israel will embark on the development of nuclear weapons with the aim of actually starting a nuclear war," reads the declassified 48-year-old CIA Special National Intelligence Estimate. The estimate, publicly released June 5 by George Washington University's National Security Archives, continues, "Possession of a nuclear weapon capability, or even the prospect of achieving it, would clearly give Israel

Monday, June 22, 2009
One billion Suffer from World Hunger
Compared with last year, there are 100 million more people who are hungry, meaning they consume fewer than 1,800 calories a day, the FAO said. Asia and the Pacific, the world's most populous region, has the largest number of hungry people, at 642 million.Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of hunger, with 265 million undernourished representing 32 per cent of the region's population.

Monday, June 22, 2009
Atlanta Is Making Way for New Public Housing
By ROBBIE BROWN Published: June 21, 2009 Officials plan to demolish the city's remaining housing projects, hoping to reduce poverty by decentralizing it.

Monday, June 22, 2009
Kim McMillan for Tennessee Governor
Political Information: Governor Bresesen (D) is completing his last term,mandatory law. This woman seems to have good talking points. The Republicans are champing at the bit to regain the state house. Best I know, no one has announced yet. Election will be 2010.

Monday, June 22, 2009
Americans for Democratic Action - SCOTUS Voting Rights
In Justice Roberts's opinion, the historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are deemed "undeniable", as the narrow ruling ensures that the Voting Rights Act, vital to a country still plagued by discrimination, will continue to protect the democratic rights of each and every one of us. As the Court noted much of the evidence amassed by Congress proved that there is still rampant disenfranchisement in the jurisdictions

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Super Barack to Everyone's Rescue
JibJab and making supermen/women heroes. Just fun. Enjoy.

Saturday, June 20, 2009
Worse Than Subprime? Other Mortgages Imploding Slowly
The mortgages in question are $230 billion of option adjustable-rate mortgages, creative lending products that flourished at the height of the housing boom. In an option ARM, a borrower can opt to pay less than his or her monthly balance due, and the difference is tacked onto the outstanding loan balance.

Friday, June 19, 2009
How India and Pakistan can Resolve Kashmir Now
On Tuesday, the leaders of India and Pakistan met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Russia. It was their first face-to-face meeting since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) last November, when Pakistani-based militants murdered nearly 160 civilians. India's recently re-elected Manmohan Singh, arrived at the summit buoyed by his Congress Party's sweeping victory in India's May elections. Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardar

Friday, June 19, 2009
Why Patch-and-Fill Won't Do
For starters, candidate Barack Obama never ran on a platform to provide universal coverage. Of course he always said-then and now-that his goal was to cover everyone. But he has never put forward a concrete proposal for doing so, and hasn't endorsed a firm mandate that everyone purchase insurance. Remember those primary-season debates in which rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards criticized him for this?

Friday, June 19, 2009
The AMA's Unhealthy Obsession
(2 comments) Campaigning to build the widest possible consensus for reform of the nation's health care system, Barack Obama told the delegates of the American Medical Association that he wants their support, too. Persuasive and always polite, the president did not mention the embarrassing truth about his hosts-namely, that the AMA has undermined universal care with mindless zeal for more than 70 years.

Friday, June 19, 2009
The Bipartisanship of Fools
On health care, the two parties are far apart on the fundamentals. Most Democrats believe that fixing the system will require increased government intervention to guarantee universal coverage and to contain costs. Most Republicans oppose an expansion of government's role and believe an even more market-oriented system would pave the way to health care nirvana. Trying to achieve full bipartisanship by squaring those t

Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuning a Culture to a "˜Calling'
So the president began this week speaking to the workers in the system: doctors. At the meeting of the American Medical Association, Barack Obama tackled the model "that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession-a calling-to a business." He reminded doctors: "You didn't enter this profession to become bean counters and paper pushers. You entered this profession to be healers. And that's what our health care system

Friday, June 19, 2009
Watch President Obama stand up for Walmart Workers
There are two videos. One is from the workers and they come in loud and clear. The other is a video of Barrack Obama in campaign mode. I couldn't get the the sound to work. Maybe others can.

Friday, June 19, 2009
AlterNet: How Faith-Based Labor Movements Plan to Stop Corporate America's Billion-Dollar Theft
"I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain, common workingmen," recalled Frances Perkins. And so she did. From 1933 to 1945, Perkins helped create the core features of the New Deal state: minimum wage and maximum hours laws, legal guarantees for workers' rights to organize and join unions, prohibition of child labor, Social Security, unemployment compensation, and fair labor standards.

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Navy Pursues N. Korea Ship; Tensions Rise
(1 comments) The cargo ship Kang Nam may not look like much, but it is suddenly attracting a lot of attention from the U.S. military. It is the first North Korean ship to set sail since the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on the U.S. and other navies to intercept North Korean vessels believed to be carrying arms.

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Iran: Who's Diddling Democracy?
(1 comments) Watching the protesters in Tehran, many Americans feel a strong sense of empathy, exhilaration and hope. I strongly share those feelings, especially since I know firsthand the danger the protesters face from government thugs on motorcycles, provocateurs and the secret police. But none of this should blind us to the likelihood that our own government is dangerously meddling in Iran's internal affairs and playing with lives

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bush-Era Lawyer Could Stand Trial for Penning 'Torture Memos'
The debate over what should happen to Bush administration lawyers who drafted the so-called "torture memos" has taken a new turn. A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday a former Justice Department legal adviser can be held personally responsible for the indefinite military detention and alleged torture of an American citizen who was suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Home Loan Scamming Is Still Going Strong -- and Now You're Paying for It
Nowhere is this more obvious than in Victorville, Calif., an exurb of Los Angeles situated in the high desert where housing bubbled up higher than just about anywhere at the peak of the subprime-lending craze and is still in free fall today. Right now, the FHA is in essence giving out no-money-down loans to anyone who doesn't already own a house, regardless of credit history.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Intriguing Plan in Michael Moore's Home Town: Bulldoze the Ghost 'Burbs
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 percent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Public Debt: The Biggest Bill in History
(1 comments) Across the rich world governments are borrowing vast amounts as the recession reduces tax revenue and spending mounts-on bail-outs, unemployment benefits and stimulus plans. New figures from economists at the IMF suggest that the public debt of the ten leading rich countries will rise from 78% of GDP in 2007 to 114% by 2014. These governments will then owe around $50,000 for every one of their citizens.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Blue Cross Praised Employees Who Dropped Sick Policyholders, Lawmaker Says
WellPoint's Blue Cross of California subsidiary and two other insurers saved more than $300 million in medical claims by canceling more than 20,000 sick policyholders over a five-year period, the House committee said. "When times are good, the insurance company is happy to sign you up and take your money in the form of premiums," Stupak said. "But when times are bad, and you are afflicted with cancer or some other life-threat

Monday, June 15, 2009
As U.S. Overhauls the Banking System, 2 Top Regulators Feud
By STEPHEN LABATON and EDMUND L. ANDREWS Published: June 14, 2009 The personal feud between two bank regulators is shaping the president's attempt to revamp financial regulation.

Monday, June 15, 2009
Following the Money in the Health Care Debate
The nation spends roughly $2.5 trillion every year on health care, nearly a fifth of the American economy. What all of the interest groups reliably support is any new program that would expand coverage to the uninsured. Such a program would translate into tens of millions of new, paying customers for hospitals, doctors, insurers and drug makers.

Monday, June 15, 2009
Obama's Health Plan: Battle Lines Become Clearer
The president feels that having a public option side by side, same playing field, same rules, will give Americans choice and will help lower costs for everybody," said Secretary Sebelius, who was governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009. But also on CNN, Sen. Kent Conrad (D) of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said that in his opinion the Senate would not pass Obama's government health program option.

Monday, June 15, 2009
Hatred, Chaos and Savage Beatings in Tehran
Moussavi's backers are calling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory a sham. They're demanding the vote be annulled. The government's response has been a ruthless and violent crackdown.

Monday, June 15, 2009
Neo-Nazis Are in the Army Now
Interview of a skinhead: "I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I've served over there and seen how they live." "They're just a backward people. Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I'm concerned. Their customs, everything to do with the Middle East, is just repugnant to me." Because of his tattoos and his racist comments, most of his buddies and his commanding officers were aware of his Nazism

Sunday, June 14, 2009
Informed Comment: Stealing the Iranian Election
(2 comments) Juan Cole:6 of 6.The Electoral Commission is supposed to wait three days before certifying the results of the election, at which point they are to inform Khamenei of the results, and he signs off on the process. The three-day delay is intended to allow charges of irregularities to be adjudicated. In this case, Khamenei immediately approved the alleged results.

Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Soldier Blood on Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham's Hands
A fairly reliable rule of thumb in our political debates is that those who most frequently invoke The Troops to justify their policy views are the ones who care least about the troops, who see them as nothing but props to exploit for political manipulation. For the last week, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham have been running around accusing anyone who opposes their photo suppression amendment of indifference to the lives

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Protests Roil Iran's Capital as Opposition Disputes Vote
(1 comments) By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI Published: June 14, 2009 Tehran's streets erupted in the most intense protests in a decade as the police clashed with demonstrators who claimed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had stolen the election

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Ahmadinejad Defiant on 'Free' Iran Poll
John Simpson (BBC) Reporting from Tehran A crowd of about 3,000 attacked the police, some of whom were on motorbikes, which they set on fire. The sky was thick with black smoke. Police attacked the crowd with sticks and maybe teargas. I didn't expect to see people turning on the secret police. We were filming when we were surrounded by angry secret policemen. The crowd turned on them and chased them off.

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Ahmadinejad Reelected in Iran as Demonstrators Protest Result
Announcement of the results triggered protests throughout the day. Families lined the streets in the middle-class neighborhood of Saadat Abad, cheering on the demonstration and shouting, "Death to the dictator!" Good collection of slides.

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Clinton Says U.S. Questions Iranian Election Results
Updated: 06/13/09 07:45 PM NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton touched on Iran and North Korea during a joint-appearance news conference today with Canada's foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon at the Rainbow Bridge. The U.S., she said, refuses to accept hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim of a landslide re-election victory in Iran and said it was looking into allegations

Friday, June 12, 2009
Why I Say "No" to a Regional Wilderness Bill "
[No]reasonable person in Wyoming would take thousands of Wyoming families off the lands where they hunt, fish, camp, ride and hike. That simply isn't right. What's more, it isn't smart. At a time when we need more supporters for the future of wildlife and wild lands, it turns these families into opponents of the idea. If there was ever a time when wilderness buffs like me and folks who just want to be able to park trailers

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Six Weeks into the Single-payer Surge
[R]emarkable advances for the single-payer solution, in large part because of the work of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC, Healthcare-NOW!, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), and other members of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Stop Being Distracted by Loudmouths Like Limbaugh: The Real Problem Is Lousy Democrats Like Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson
Chris Bowers: Until a public option is passed, I don't want to hear about the latest hate and idiocy spewing from Limbaugh, or Tancredo, or Palin, or Gingrich, or whoever. And to tell you the truth, I don't want to attack them for it, either. Because, right now, Republicans are not the obstacle to progressive governance. Instead, Democrats who refuse to support a public option are the obstacle.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
In Obama Era: Can We Think Big and Make the Changes We Really Need?
Martin Luther King didn't say, "I have a complaint." I've had a few of my progressive friends say to me, "You know Keith, I'm not that happy about the president not really going after those quirks in the Bush administration, I'm not that pleased that we haven't heard as much as we want to hear about a public option. Are you willing to make Obama give us that public option, give us that single-payer system?

Thursday, June 11, 2009
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Given More Leeway
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT Published: June 11, 2009 Gen. Stanley McChrystal has a wide berth to pick a dream team of subordinates as he moves to carry out a new strategy for combating the Taliban.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
10 Large Banks Allowed to Exit U.S. Aid Program
By ERIC DASH Published: June 10, 2009 Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and eight other large banks were deemed strong enough by federal regulators to return more than $68 billion in taxpayer aid.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
A Panic Attack over Healthcare Tab
President Obama and his congressional allies -- who are also struggling to hold down the national debt after years of deficit spending and new outlays to combat the recession -- have pledged to raise more than $1 trillion over the next decade to offset the costs of what would be the biggest health overhaul in generations."Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree."

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Obama to address AMA Delegates in Chicago
The national doctors group represents about a quarter of a million doctors across the country and its support of any effort to cover the more than 46 million uninsured Americans is seen as critical.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Obama's Visit Puts Health Care, Green Bay in Spotlight
The White House chose the event at Green Bay Southwest High School - scheduled from 12:10 to 1:25 p.m. - to be Obama's first exchange with people on health care since he was elected more than seven months ago. Scheduled to be in Northeastern Wisconsin for a little more than two hours, Obama is ramping up his public attention to this domestic issue after a week of intense focus on world matters.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Brainy Echidna Proves Looks Aren't Everything
(5 comments) Published: June 9, 2009 The long-beaked echidna is one of the oldest, rarest, shyest, silliest-looking yet potentially most illuminating mammals on earth.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Decision Makers Differ on How to Reshape Nation's Medical Services
Bright young physicians trained at prestigious and expensive universities enter a profession built on perverse financial rewards. They, like assembly-line workers of the past, are paid on a piecemeal basis, earning more money not by doing better but simply by doing more.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
HCAN New Report: Private Insurance Mergers Lead to Near-Monopolies
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) joined Health Care for America Now (HCAN) – the nation's largest health care campaign – in releasing a new report today that shows extreme health insurance industry consolidation has resulted in a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
One Tough Sell: Paying for Health Care Overhaul
(2 comments) About 70% of Americans who have health insurance get it through their employers. Typically, the cost of the premiums are split between worker and employer, and the portion paid by the worker is excluded from taxable income. To pay for the changes Obama is calling for, Senate Finance Committee members are exploring taxing the coverage of single taxpayers who earn more than $100,000 or married couples who make more than 200,000

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Pakistan: Massive Hotel Bomb Further Erodes Security
Militants have also warned nurses at hospitals and medical centers to wear veils. Following the threats, many girls have started wearing veils and burqas to school. Adding to the sense of insecurity among residents here is that the Taliban have a presence on three sides of the city: In the town of Darra Adam Khel to the south and the Bara area of Khyber tribal agency to the southwest; in the Jamrud area of Khyber to the west

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Making College More Affordable for Poor Americans
Obama proposes paying for this come-rain-or-come-shine funding by no longer subsidizing the vast private business of student loans(instead the federal government would directly make those loans). Congressional Budget Office estimates this move can save $94 billion over 10 years – just about covering the increased cost of a Pell entitlement. But estimates can be fallible and Congress will need to impose firm budget restraints

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A Republican to Save Us - Sheila Bair
But, he added ominously: "Bair's hardball tactics aren't just irritating bankers, though. She's also making enemies of career bureaucrats and Wall Street sympathizers. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - reportedly tried to push out Bair before he took office in December."Rest assured, if Bair loses out and Geithner has his way, Citigroup's CEO and the other Wall Street moguls will be thrilled. But the public will have lost

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Health Insurance Nightmares Shared By Our Readers
We finally have a realistic chance to fix the system. Both the House and Senate will likely vote on sweeping health care reform legislation during the last two weeks of July. There will be a series of votes on amendments that will determine whether we get real reform-whether the people or the special interests will win. And there will be a relatively small number of lawmakers-mostly "moderate" Democrats in the Senate-who....

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Health Reform for Beginners: The Difference Between Socialized Medicine, Single-Payer Health Care, and What We'll Be Get
With public opinion polls, and a lively comment section. Covers single payer, HMOs, the VA, and tackles "socialism".

Monday, June 8, 2009
Barbara Ehrenreich: Welcome to a Dying Industry, J-School Grads
(1 comments) Which brings me back to the subject of journalism as a profession. We are not part of an elite. We are part of the working class, which is exactly how journalists have seen themselves through most of American history -- as working stiffs. We can be underpaid, we can be jerked around, we can be laid off arbitrarily -- just like any autoworker or mechanic or hotel housekeeper or flight attendant.

Monday, June 8, 2009
Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care
(1 comments) Listen up! It's your body! Healthcare insurance reform is this week's question. WSJ's Harwood interviews Senators Baucus and Grassley, both determined to have a bill soon--28 min. of video. Lots of talk about cutting waste, some idea that doctors will be looked at differently, but now I wonder what will happen to Medicare. Obama administration is making a push this week. And so should we!

Monday, June 8, 2009
Florida Stands to Lose $1 Billion Because of Lehman Brothers' Bankruptcy
A price tag is now emerging for what last year's collapse of investment giant Lehman Brothers could cost the state of Florida: more than $1 billion.The losses could make Florida and its citizens among the biggest casualties in the biggest bankruptcy ever.More than $440 million disappeared from the pension fund that pays benefits for some 1 million retirees and public employees. Counties, cities and school districts lost 300m

Monday, June 8, 2009
Michigan Meets Recovery Act Highway Funding Deadline Three Weeks Ahead of Schedule
Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle today announced that the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has obligated $296.5 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) projects three weeks ahead of the June 29, 2009, deadline imposed by federal legislation. Michigan is now eligible to receive any Recovery Act funding redistributed from other states

Saturday, June 6, 2009
A Brief History of the Radical, Violent Right: How Racist Hate Groups Joined Up with Abortion Terrorists
In 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after sheriff deputies stopped his car because it had no license plate. Instead, the Star reported, "it bore a tag declaring him a 'sovereign' and immune from state law. In the trunk, deputies found materials that could be assembled into a bomb." Roeder was convicted, sentenced to two years probation, and told to stay away from far-right groups.

Saturday, June 6, 2009
California's Water Woes Threaten the Entire Country's Food Supply
(5 comments) California's agricultural sector grows approximately one-third of the nation's food supply and is nourished by diverted rivers and streams filled yearly by runoff from its prodigious Sierra Nevada snowpack, as well as groundwater pumping and other less-reliable methods. That snowpack -- which once sparked the first, but not the last, water war that helped transform a semi-arid Los Angeles into an unsustainable oasis

Saturday, June 6, 2009
If We Don't Stop Wall Street's Colossal Theft Now, Where Will This Country Be Next Year?
(3 comments) A New Way Forward is a pact we're making as citizens to not continue to let Wall Street act like our masters. The point is that winning the battle with the banks can change politics as usual. I truly believe this is a fight that can reset our political process, restoring it for the public.

Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Secrecy Court of Last Resort: New Declassification Releases by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel
George Washington Univ: Washington, D.C., June 5, 2009 - Now that President Obama has announced a review of U.S. secrecy policy, critics of secrecy policy and declassification requesters alike can only hope that those who carry it out understand the serious failings of the secrecy system as it currently exists. ISCAP acts as the court of last resort for mandatory declassification review requests.

Saturday, June 6, 2009
20 Years Later, Former House Speaker Jim Wright Reflects
In an hour long interview from his office at Texas Christian University, Wright, 86, says simply, "Gosh, I feel good for an old geezer. I'm a lucky man." Wright, who relinquished the post under pressure from a year-long ethics investigation, says he remembers exactly the day he resigned and how he cast his last House vote on June 6 for the man, Rep. Tom Foley, D-Wash., who would replace him.

Saturday, June 6, 2009
For Obama, the Hardest Part is Yet to Come
How hard was it, after all, for President Barack Obama to get a Democratic Congress to spend gobs of money? Now come the first real political tests of his presidency, a summer of mounting challenges that will be much more difficult than anything he's faced and that will force him to navigate through pressures from both right and left.

Friday, June 5, 2009
Economic Fallout Has Spurred an Epidemic of Murder and Suicide
(11 comments) A long list of murder/suicide events leads to up close and personal "depression" stories. Methinks: important as it is to look at this reality, it is also necessary to find/write stories of coping--what might be called human interest, as in "people who need people are the happiest people in the world."

Friday, June 5, 2009
Europe Agrees How to Open Door to dDozens of Guantanamo Detainees
The Europeans and the Americans are now expected to coordinate their counter-terrorism strategies by issuing a joint statement next month, following which the Americans will ask specific countries to take in certain individuals and also supply intelligence on their cases. The Americans want the problem solved by next January.

Friday, June 5, 2009
Judge Tosses Warrantless Wiretap Cases
(2 comments) A federal judge in San Francisco has thrown out more than 30 lawsuits against AT&T and other phone companies. The suits claimed the telecoms illegally cooperated with the Bush administration's anti-terrorist surveillance program. But the same judge kept alive similar lawsuits against the government. Al Haramain v. Obama is before the court Sept 1. A video included.

Friday, June 5, 2009
U.S. Charges Couple With Spying for Cuba
By ERIC LICHTBLAU Published: June 6, 2009 The Justice Department charged that a former State Department analyst and his wife were spies for decades.

Thursday, June 4, 2009
Justice Dept. Looks at High-Tech Firms' Hiring
Justice Department investigators are examining the hiring practices of major technology companies including Yahoo, Google and Genentech to see whether they violate antitrust laws, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry, which is in the early stages, is focused on whether the companies have illegally agreed to refrain from poaching one another's workers. Such collusion could help keep employee salaries lower

Thursday, June 4, 2009
Feinstein, Carmakers Clash on Cash for Clunkers
(1 comments) The cash-for-clunkers concept involves paying people, with public funds, to scrap gas guzzlers and buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. In January, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill, S247, that would give vouchers to people who turn in a car or truck that gets 15 or fewer miles per gallon to a dealer that scraps it.

Thursday, June 4, 2009
Digging up an Advertising Strategy
(1 comments) Digg.com, the social news site built around the idea that readers vote on whether stories are important, will soon do the same with advertising. "We're democratizing content," said Mike Maser, chief strategy officer for the San Francisco company. "Why not let them have some control over the advertising experience?"

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
How Does Sonia Sotomayor Really Feel About Nunchakus?
And now, another question for Judge Sonia Sotomayor: How do you feel about the constitutional right to keep and bear nunchakus? Her answer could draw new opposition to her nomination to sit on the Supreme Court.In a legal sense, gun rights advocates see no difference between a firearm and martial arts weapon that consists of two small clubs joined with a short length of chain. Video demo.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Inside the Obama White House
NBC short video advertising Bryan Williams' documentary of "Inside the White House." Begins June 3.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Energy Secretary: Release of Y-12 Info 'of Great Concern'
In my own backyard: However, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, questioned about the disclosure at a House hearing, expressed concern with respect to a uranium storage facility at the Y-12 complex. The facility holds large quantities of highly enriched uranium, which if obtained can be used to fashion a nuclear weapon."That's of great concern," said Chu, referring to the Y-12 site.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
"CQ HealthBeat Policy Preview Conference" online June 3
The CQ HealthBeat Policy Preview Conference includes some of the country's top health-care policy analysts. Speakers include: former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle; Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House Office for Health Reform; DeAnn Friedholm, Consumers Union; Dr. Arthur Garson Jr., University of Virginia; Dr. Nancy Nielsen, American Medical Association; Ron Pollack, Families USA; John Rother, AARP; Dr. Reed V. Tuckson, UnitedHealth Group.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
California's Unemployment Fund Short by Billions
(1 comments) California is paying out so much for jobless benefits and collecting so little in payroll taxes that its unemployment insurance fund could be $17.8 billion in debt by the end of 2010, according to a new report from the state Employment Development Department. This latest fiscal crisis won't immediately affect the 1.1 million Californians now collecting benefits because the state is using an interest-free federal loan to cover

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Obama Has 250,000 'Contractors' Deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan
(2 comments) According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number of "Private Security Contractors" working for the Department of Defense in Iraq in the second quarter of 2009 and a 29% increase in Afghanistan, which "correlates to the build up of forces" in the country. These numbers relate explicitly to DoD security contractors.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Progressives Have the Troops and a Massive War Chest for Health Care Reform
...in a press conference next to my AlterNet colleague Joshua Holland. We're watching progressive heavyweights Bob Borosage, Howard Dean and labor leader Anna Burger discuss the prospects for health care reform in Congress this summer. The topic is the major pile of dough -- $82 million--and number of grassroots and advocacy groups--1,000--and their members--30 million--that are pushing hard for the Health Care for America Now

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Free the SF8 - Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
Eight former Black community activists – Black Panthers and others – were arrested January 23, 2007 in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973

Monday, June 1, 2009
Governor Announces Iowa Railroads Receive More Than $9 Million In Disaster Aid
Despite the devastating damage that was caused by last year's floods, Iowa's railroads have worked tirelessly to repair and restore services to pre-flood levels. These grants to pay for repairs will go a long way toward recovery," said Nicholson. * Flood damage restoration to rebuild a bridge and repair signals on the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway - $6,965,163

Monday, June 1, 2009
PA Governor Rendell Announces $76 Million To Create Green Jobs, Sustainable Communities
Smart transportation and safe routes to schools offer travel options that help reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Regionally, PennDOT will invest $14.8 million in the Greater Pittsburgh region; $18.5 million in the Greater Philadelphia region; $17.5 million in the Susquehanna Valley; $10.6 million in the Northwestern region; $5.5 million in the Lehigh Valley; $5 million in the Northeast; and $4 million in the Central region

Monday, June 1, 2009
G.M. Designates 14 Plants for Closing
y NICK BUNKLEY Published: June 2, 2009 The plants being closed include an engine factory in Ypsilanti, Mich., where workers built B-24 bombers during World War II, and the former Saturn assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.

Monday, June 1, 2009
In Cox Years at the SEC, Policies Undercut Enforcement Efforts
...when SEC lawyers were ready to ask the commission to authorize lawsuits or approve settlements, Cox postponed the decisions at the last minute, leaving cases unresolved for months, the sources said. At times, as in the Biovail case, the commission eventually weakened the sanctions sought by the enforcement division. This is the legacy Mary Schapiro inherited when she replaced Cox as chairman this year.

Monday, June 1, 2009
Potential Conflicts Abound in Government Role
Chief among potential conflicts is the environmental arena, in which the federal government will be GM's largest shareholder and the chief regulator of vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. GM is one of the biggest sellers of full-size trucks and sport-utility vehicles in the world -- vehicles that are notorious for fuel inefficiency -- and will continue to be even after bankruptcy.

Sunday, May 31, 2009
Politics Can Wait: The President Has a Date
By JULIE BOSMAN Published: May 31, 2009 President Obama and the first lady flew into New York City for dinner and to see a Broadway play.

Sunday, May 31, 2009
Who Will Pay for Universal Health Care? Blue States More Than Red
(1 comments) Are we fighting old battles here? WashPost:It would not be the first time that the historically more affluent part of the country has subsidized the less prosperous one. Long before jobs flowed to Mexico and China, they flowed from Massachusetts and Michigan to North Carolina and Tennessee, where unions were weaker and employers could pay less and provide fewer benefits.value of employer-provided benefits.

Sunday, May 31, 2009
Barack Obama's Great Uncle Criticises Him over Buchenwald Visit
Barack Obama faced unprecedented public criticism from a member of his own family when his great uncle said he was only visiting a concentration camp next week for 'political reasons'. Charles Payne, 84, was among the American infantrymen who liberated Ohrdruf, a subdivision of the Buchenwald camp, in April 1945.

Sunday, May 31, 2009
President Obama Outraged by Slaying of Abortion Provider George Tiller
President Obama said this afternoon that he was "shocked and outraged" by the killing of abortion doctor George Tiller, who was shot while attending church in east Wichita. The suspect, a 51-year-old male, was arrested without incident on I-35 in Johnson County about three hours after the shooting, Tiller, 67, was shot once just after 10 a.m. in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th St., where he was a memb

Saturday, May 30, 2009
US Army Base Shuts down after Rise in Suicides
The commander of Fort Campbell army base in Kentucky has ordered a three-day suspension of regular duties to focus on a spike in suicides among his troops amid concern over a wider trend across the armed services The "stand-down" on Friday entered its third day at Fort Campbell, which is home to the famed 101st Airborne Division and has recorded the highest rate of suicide in the army, with at least 11 confirmed or suspecte

Saturday, May 30, 2009
Everyone Should See "Torturing Democracy"
Moyers Journal showed clips. Is it possible the press will spend more time showing torture and less of how to find the head instigators?

Saturday, May 30, 2009
Why the Pentagon Is Probably Lying About its Supressed Sodomy and Rape Photos
The Telegraph of London broke the news -- because the U.S. press is in a drugged stupor - -- that the photos President Barack Obama is refusing to release of detainee abuse depict, among other sexual tortures, an American soldier raping a female detainee and a male translator raping a male prisoner. The paper claims the photos also show anal rape of prisoners with foreign objects such as wires and lightsticks.

Saturday, May 30, 2009
Why Does Bush's Top Florida 2000 Election Lawyer Want to Lead Gay Marriage Fight to Supreme Court?
Former solicitor general and ultraconservative lawyer Ted Olson is a rock star of the US Supreme Court bar. He's argued more than 50 cases before the high court during his career and won more than three-fourths of them. So on Wednesday, when he signed on to a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, he looked like the great white hope....

Friday, May 29, 2009
Is Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks From the Banks He's Bailing Out?
The fact that the banks invested in the company just a few months after Summers resigned suggests the appearance of corruption, because it suggests to other firms that if you hire Larry Summers onto your board, large banks will want to invest as a favor to a politically-connected director.

Friday, May 29, 2009
How Much Has Changed? Obama Administration Deals Series of Anti-Environmental Blows
With little more than 100 days in office, the Democrats, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, have unleashed a slew of anti-environmental policies that would have enraged any reasonable conservationist during the Bush years. The list of grievances is long.

Friday, May 29, 2009
The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton
By PETER BAKER Published: May 31, 2009 The advent of a new Democratic administration, with his wife in the top cabinet slot, has opened a new chapter in the eventful life of the nation's 42nd president.

Friday, May 29, 2009
Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act,
(2 comments) Video and opportunity to sign petition. TRADE act,sponsored by fair trade champions Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), was first introduced last year and eventually gained 80 House and Senate cosponsors and sets forth in concrete, detailed terms a progressive vision for good trade agreements in the future and criteria to renegotiate existing failed pacts like NAFTA and the WTO.

Friday, May 29, 2009
Obama to Announce 'Cyber Czar' for Digital Security
President Barack Obama is set to announce Friday the creation of a "cyber czar" post to oversee the safety of US computer networks as the Pentagon plans to create a new military command dedicated to computer warfare. Both developments are part of the Obama administration's effort to better protect the nation's digital security in the age of cyberwarfare.

Friday, May 29, 2009
Resurgence on the Right
Editorial from SPLC's Intelligence Report: As the first months of the Obama Administration unfold, a growing consensus is emerging that a resurgence of right-wing hate groups and radical ideas is spreading across the United States. Law enforcement officials, civil rights groups, and many others have all expressed worries about this troubling trend

Thursday, May 28, 2009
The 10 Most Popular Conspiracy Theories
(14 comments) We crave deeper reason and meaning and when that isn't given to us, sometimes we create our own. This is how conspiracy theories are often born -- someone doesn't like the official account of a major event and challenges it with a different version. Conspiracy theories can attract a wide array of people, from vehement supporters to those who just like a good story.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
10 Sleazy Ways That Goldman Sachs Distracted Us While Pocketing Billions from the Treasury
The best illusionists deflect audience focus away from the heart of the trick until the final moment of revelation. The way Goldman Sachs has worked its multi-prong bailout is like that. During last week's chatter about submitting their TARP payback application, the firm deftly diverted attention away from all the real money they took from the public.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Rep. Donna Edwards: Why Obama Needs Tough Love from the Left
(1 comments) A video dated at 100 Days of Presidency. It's something which will serve henceforth. Representative Donna Edwards provides a look into the Congressional Progressive Caucus and urges progressives to speak up and challenge the Obama presidency to deliver innovative and powerful legislation.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Colonizing Culture (Iraq)
The geo-strategic expansion of the American empire is an accepted fact of contemporary history. I have been writing in these columns about the impact of the US occupation on the people of Iraq in the wake of the "hard" colonization via F-16s, tanks, 2,000-pound bombs, white phosphorous and cluster bombs. Here I offer a brief glimpse into the less obvious but far more insidious phenomenon of "soft" colonization.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Stimulus-Funded Bridge Project gets Under Way in Beaver County
Gov. Ed Rendell speaks with reporters and local officials after a press conference beneath the Beaver-Rochester Bridge, where he announced the start of a $10 million rehabilitation of the span, which carries Route 51 over the Beaver River. The project is expected to employ 40 people and five Pennsylvania companies. PennDOT quickly designed a rehabilitation project, making the project "shovel-ready" to qualify for stimulus

Thursday, May 28, 2009
How Big aTthreat is North Korea?
North Korea has raised the stakes on the Korean peninsula by conducting an underground nuclear weapon test Monday and subsequently test-firing half a dozen short-range missiles. The rapid sequence of events is creating a new sense of crisis in Asia and fresh concerns about the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology. North Korea has sold its missile technology to Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan...

Thursday, May 28, 2009
PDA's Tim Carpenter Appears on Fox News for Single-Payer Healthcare
A very good video to watch. Earlier today, Tim Carpenter appeared on Fox News in a segment with Megyn Kelly on single-payer healthcare. Fox typically shades its reporting through the lens of racism, hate, and fear-mongering to promote far right ideology over the actual news. Tim was relentless!

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record High in Q1
A record 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the housing crisis spreads to borrowers with good credit. ...the wave of foreclosures isn't expected to crest until the end of next year, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. President Obama's recent loan modification and refinancing plan might stem some foreclosures, but not enough to significantly alter the crisis

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Pointed Exchanges at Chevron Annual Meeting
(1 comments) Activists took aim at Chevron Corp.'s human rights record Wednesday during the oil company's annual shareholder meeting - and Chief Executive Officer David O'Reilly fired right back. In a series of cordial but tense exchanges, critics accused Chevron of fouling the environment, endangering human health and supporting repressive governments, while O'Reilly repeatedly came to the company's defense.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Need-based Student Aid in Jeopardy
(6 comments) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's draconian plan to phase out the state-funded Cal Grant program for lower-income college students starting this fall has students, schools and financial aid advocates in shock.Although the governor has attempted to trim the Cal Grant program in the past, this is the first time he has proposed dismantling it.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Court Officials Turn to Guards, Identity Shields, Weapons to Handle New Threats
Threats against the nation's judges and prosecutors have sharply increased, prompting hundreds to get 24-hour protection from armed U.S. marshals. Many federal judges are altering their routes to work, installing security systems at home, shielding their addresses by paying bills at the courthouse or refraining from registering to vote. Some even pack weapons on the bench.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Sotomayor, a Trailblazer and a Dreamer
Interviews with friends and associates of the nominee add depth to her story. By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: May 27, 2009 Judge Sotomayor's up-by-the-bootstraps tale, which in many ways mirrors President Obama's, is one reason for her selection.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Suicide Bomb in Pakistan Kills 30
Until recently, Pakistan's eastern border near India had largely remained outside the theater of conflict. Most attacks have taken place in the West, just a few miles from the Afghan border, in regions like Swat, Buner, and Waziristan, where Pakistan's military has been battling militants for the last several months.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Emptiness of Obama's Pragmatism
Pragmatism, planning, and expertise are necessary. Abstract moral arguments alone won't lift America. Relying entirely on Pragmatism 1 to justify one's policies, however, is disingenuous and short-sighted. Policy devoid of clear ethical theory creates a nation without principle, and a nation without principle is a nation on stilts.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Brazil Floods Displace Thousands
The Brazilian authorities say almost 408,000 people still cannot return home because of floods that began last month in the north of the country. There is a video (no sound) and then links to ND and Australia where floods are also occurring.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Signs of More Trouble Ahead for Housing Market
(1 comments) On the demand side, the surge in joblessness, still-high home prices, the credit crunch and a dearth of move-up buyers cut into the pool of potential home buyers. On the supply side, an assortment of factors seems poised to trigger new waves of foreclosures that will continue to bloat inventory.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
FRONTLINE/World: Conflict Zones: Pakistan and Afghanistan
(2 comments) An hour on PBS Frontline World will be seen in segments of videos. One was of Sharmeed-Obaid-Chinoy who in April made a documentary where she interviewed children, mainly, in Swat. The program seemed very connected. This link should allow the best starting point.

Monday, May 25, 2009
Healing & Support | National Memorial Day Concert
"Reaching Out and Finding Support" was the topic of a speech given by Colin Powell at the Memorial program on May 24,2009, at the Capitol. A short video is included.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Whose side is Max Baucus on?
(2 comments) Even Montana's other Democratic Senator, Jon Tester, is open to at least considering the public option. "The devil's in the detail on all this stuff. My key is accessibility and affordability. Those are the two things, but I think everything should be on the table," Baucus: "Some people say 'kick the public option off the table.' The public option might be off to the side a little bit, but it's still on the table."

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Olbermann: Make Karen Ignagni (AHIP)Your Worst Person
Video and opportunity to petition Keith Olbermann to make Karen Ignagni "Worst Person" award. Details of why this is appropriate. (Donna Smith is featured in the video)

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Single Payer Healthcare (Video and Text from 5/22/09)
Bill Moyers speaks with advocate Donna Smith about how our broken system is hurting ordinary Americans. The White House and Congress have kept the lid on one of the most controversial but popular options, known as single-payer. "It's a story the mainstream press has largely ignored and that's why we are covering it in this broadcast."

Sunday, May 24, 2009
We Need a Single-Payer Health-Care System; A Plan That Works
(1 comments) PLEASE NOTE DATE: Published: August 13, 1991 To the Editor: Re your July 22 editorial extolling the virtues of "managed competition" in health care:

Sunday, May 24, 2009
War Criminals Map
Interactive map showing which city is residence to persons included on the list.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Former Intern to Tell of Affair with John F. Kennedy
(3 comments) A former White House intern who had a 17-month affair with President John F Kennedy is to tell her story for the first time. That book revealed that he began an affair in June 1962 with Mimi Beardsley.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Former S. Korean President Roh Commits Suicide
Prosecutors were investigating the former president for allegedly receiving $6 million in bribes from a South Korean businessman while in office. Roh's wife was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors Saturday, and Roh was planning to answer a second round of questions next week.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Palin's Rejection of Federal Funds a Setback For Alaska's Energy Future
By Rep. Les Gara Alaska has the highest energy prices in the nation. The solution to the problem isn't rejecting funds that could (if we choose) be dedicated to build wind, hydro and other renewable energy production. Urban Alaska is facing a dangerous short-term shortage of natural gas. Rep. Les Gara is a Democratic member of the Alaska House of Representatives, representing the 23rd District since 2003.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
With Health-Care Bill, Baucus May Define His Career and His Party
In the 1994 health-care debate, Baucus sided with the National Federation of Independent Business over Clinton's proposal on employer mandates and said proposed regional insurance cooperatives "smack of excess government and the smell of socialism." And yet Baucus remains nervous that Democratic leaders and the White House will jump out ahead of him. His worries are not unwarranted:health bill with a simple 51-vote majority

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Max Baucus: Campaign Finance/Money
(2 comments) OpenSecrets data includes 2008 contributions and the big spike in current session from the healthcare "industry" plus how things were over the 30 years of his Congressional career.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
US and Pakistan's Aerial Bombing Will Kill Civilians and Make More Terrorists
From a PakistaniAmerican journalist: During the last thirty years of wars in Afghanistan, Afghan civilians have had one safe place to escape to: Pakistan. Whomever I talk to among Pakistanis, it seems, there is an emerging consensus. They hate both the Taliban who blast schools and the Americans who bomb Madrasahs. Both kill civilians.

Saturday, May 23, 2009
Once Again, the Religious Right Lies About Hate Crimes Law
A proposed new federal hate crimes law would allow prosecution of crimes motivated by bias against homosexuality or "gender identity," Anti-gay groups have seized upon the act's language protecting Americans of all "sexual orientations" to claim that it's all a stealth operation aimed at legally protecting people with deviant sexual fetishes, including necrophilia and bestiality.

Saturday, May 23, 2009
The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme-University of Copenhagen
(1 comments) Picture of a State of the Art transmission center being built in Denmark. The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme at the University of Copenhagen maps and analyses how new media such as satellite TV and the Internet are changing Islamic norms, politics and identity in the contemporary Middle East

Friday, May 22, 2009
Autism Society Expands Partnership with Education.com
The Autism Society has been contributing content to Education.com, a leading web destination for parents of school-aged children, for the past couple of years. This year, however, in addition to contributing new and updated articles and information to the site, the Autism Society is also serving as Guest Editor of an upcoming Education.com Special Edition on Asperger's Syndrome.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Comprehensive Autism Legislation Introduced in U.S. House
On May 14, the Co-Chairs of the Coalition on Autism Research and Education, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), along with Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) introduced the Autism Treatment and Acceleration Act of 2009 (ATAA). The Autism Society applauds this comprehensive autism legislation focused around enhancing the quality of life for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families

Friday, May 22, 2009
Pelosi Returns to Home Stage
Pelosi, speaking at commencement ceremonies for the Johns Hopkins University's arts and sciences and engineering graduates, called climate change a national security, economic, environmental health and moral issue. "Thanks to your voices, votes and values, America has awakened to the crisis after years of delay and is now moving in a new direction," she said.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Obama Set to Approve New Rules for Credit Cards
President Obama this afternoon will sign into law a bill that prevents credit card companies from raising interest rates arbitrarily and limits the fees they can charge, meeting his own deadline of enacting the bill before Memorial Day. The bill will take effect nine months after it is signed.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Senate O.K.'s $91 Billion in War Funds
(1 comments) The Senate approved $91 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan yesterday, with all senators but three voting for the bill. This, along with a House vote last week in favor of $97 billion, seals the deal for the Obama administration's first supplemental war spending request. The no-strings-attached legislation comes as a deep disappointment to progressive members of Congress,

Friday, May 22, 2009
National Security-Related Hard Drive Missing
A massive amount of sensitive, national security-related information from the Clinton administration has gone missing from the national archives. That hard drive includes information on Secret Service operating procedures, event logs, and other "highly sensitive information," according to the office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) Issa is calling for a hearing on the matter

Friday, May 22, 2009
Renewed Fight over History in Russia
The Kremlin Web site posted a decree Tuesday signed by President Dimitry Medvedev on May 15 that authorizes the establishment of a presidential commission to counter what are described as attempts to falsify history. Writing on his Internet blog on May 7, Mr. Medvedev said Russia is being increasingly confronted with determined, malicious and aggressive historical falsifications.

Friday, May 22, 2009
The March of Folly, Continued
To understand what's up with President Obama as he escalates the war in Afghanistan, there may be no better place to look than a book published 25 years ago. "The March of Folly," by historian Barbara Tuchman, "Although the doctrine emphasized political measures, counterinsurgency in practice was military," Tuchman writes, an observation that applies all too well to the emerging Obama enthusiasm for counterinsurgency.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Rx and the Single Payer ALERT
(4 comments) Friday, May 22,2009, Moyers Journal will feature Single Payer. Michael Winship co-wrote this article. Bill Moyers is managing editor and Michael Winship is senior writer of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS. Check local airtimes or comment at The Moyers Blog at www.pbs.org/moyers.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Democrats Mount Impassioned Defense of Pelosi
(2 comments) Democrats on Capitol Hill Thursday rallied to beat back calls for a bipartisan investigation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that the Central Intelligence Agency lied to her in a September 2002 briefing. The furor over her criticism of the CIA, they said, points to a truth of post-9/11 Washington: It has become politically risky to at throw stones the nation's security apparatus.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Why Goldman Sachs Is the Greediest and Most Dastardly of the Wall Street Pigs
So, while these golden ones are loudly repudiating the $10 billion public subsidy they took from us, they are coyly retaining at least 40 billion of our dollars to stay afloat -- a tidy sum that does not include any restrictions on pay levels. Coincidentally, Goldman has since announced that it is setting aside nearly $5 billion to be distributed at the end of the year as compensation for its executives, including bonuses

Friday, May 22, 2009
The 13 Bush Officials Who Made Torture Possible
Between 9/11 and the end of 2002, the Torture 13 decided to torture, then reverse-engineered the techniques,and then crafted the legal cover. Here's who they are and what they did:Cheney, Addington, Gonzales, James Mitchell, Tenet, Rice, Yoo, Bybee, Haynes, Rumsfeld, Rizzo, Bradbury, George W. Bush

Friday, May 22, 2009
Gen. McChrystal, Grim Reaper: Obama's New Afghan Commander Will Send Death Toll Soaring
Yes, Stanley McChrystal is the general from the dark side (and proud of it). So the recent sacking of Afghan commander General David McKiernan after less than a year in the field and McChrystal's appointment as the man to run the Afghan War seems to signal that the Obama administration is going for broke. It's heading straight into what, in the Vietnam era, was known as "the big muddy."

Thursday, May 21, 2009
American Amnesia: We Forget Our Atrocities Almost As Soon as We Commit Them
Chomsky: "The Great Seal is, in fact, a graphic representation of "the idea of America," from its birth. It should be exhumed from the depths of the psyche and displayed on the walls of every classroom. It should certainly appear in the background of all of the Kim Il-Sung-style worship of that savage murderer and torturer Ronald Reagan...."

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Is Obama's New Afghan Commander a Violator of the Geneva Conventions?
In announcing the extraordinary firing of General David McKiernan and the nomination of McChrystal to replace him, Gates said that the mission in Afghanistan "requires new thinking and new approaches by our military leaders" and praised McChrystal for his "unique skill set in counter-insurgency".

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Organizing for a Public Health Option
Video with Roger Hickey: "I'm not going to sit and wait for Obama to fight for this thing [a public option]," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign For America's Future. "I'm organizing a movement to fight for this thing. So we can sit here and speculate about how strong Obama is going to be in the clutch. I hope he's strong. But the way to influence every politician is to get out there where the votes are."

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Chairman Miller Statement at Committee Hearing On Examining the Abusive and Deadly Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Sch
U.S. Rep. George Miller (DCA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, for a committee hearing on "Examining the Abusive and Deadly Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Schools."---In January, I asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether allegations of deadly and abusive seclusion and restraint in the schools are founded and widespread. What they found is alarming, eye opening and...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
India's Surprise is the World's Hope
In the race between China and India to become the next global economic superpower, chalk one up for India. Its 712 million voters just gave a surprise win to a party that transformed itself from its quasi-socialist roots to bring about both high market growth and a boost to the lowliest, "slumdog" Indian

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Without Foreign Coverage, we Miss More Than News
The first is Somalia, where Western news coverage, particularly in the United States, has been extraordinarily shallow during the past two decades Yet, few seemed to grasp the most basic fact of the story: Piracy is a symptom, not the disease,

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Another 6,400 Workers to Lose Jobs at HP
Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday it plans to cut 6,400 more workers - or 2 percent of the company's total work force. The cuts are on top of the 24,600 layoffs HP is doing as part of its huge acquisition of technology services provider Electronic Data Systems, and will come from its product businesses.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
McClatchy CEO Sees Good News Ahead for Publisher
McClatchy Co. may look feeble now, but its chief executive believes the newspaper publisher will emerge from the recession in better shape than most investors believe. Like many other newspaper publishers, McClatchy has been struggling with a sharp drop in its main source of revenue - advertising.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
FEC Dismisses Claims Against Wal-Mart
In a ruling issued Tuesday, FEC commissioners say they found no evidence to support claims that Wal-Mart broke election law by telling employees that Democrats such as Barack Obama would support a bill to make it easier for workers to unionize.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Interns Help Companies Cut Energy Use
The Environmental Defense Fund has a history of partnering with businesses to tackle environmental problems. The internship, now in its second year, is the latest extension of that approach. Last year's class of seven interns found enough savings to cut their host companies' energy bills by $35 million over five years.

Monday, May 18, 2009
Culver Signs Bill Giving UI $100M
From Iowa City - "One year ago, Iowans watched as this world-class institution was inundated by the worst natural disaster in our state's history," Culver said. "We made a commitment at that time to do everything we can to rebuild this world-class institution, and today we make good on that promise."

Monday, May 18, 2009
Distorting Public Opinion on Torture Investigations
Greenwald: That poll was from February, and while some subsequent polls have produced different results, all polls - even the most recent ones with the most anti-investigation findings - find that, at minimum, roughly 40% of Americans believe there must be some form of investigations in Bush crimes. That's a lot of people to be dismissing away as "nobody." This happens all the time in our political debates.

Monday, May 18, 2009
Cheney's Chief Assassin Is Now Obama's Commander in Afghanistan
(2 comments) "The Deltas are psychos...You have to be a certified psychopath to join the Delta Force...", a US Army colonel from Fort Bragg once told me back in the 1980s. Now President Obama has elevated the most notorious of the psychopaths, General Stanley McChrystal, to head the US and NATO military command in Afghanistan.

Monday, May 18, 2009
Change We Can Believe In for U.S.-Israeli Relations?
(1 comments) Obama, who has strongly supported the idea of a two-state solution since his campaign, has yet to articulate whether or not he is actually prepared to spend some of his massive political capital to exert serious pressure on Israel towards that end...by conditioning (even some) of the currently committed $30 billion in U.S. military aid to a complete Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank

Monday, May 18, 2009
That Didn't Take Long: Insurance Industry Breaks Promise to President Obama
Just four days after standing next to President Obama and declaring their commitment to control health care costs to the tune of $2 trillion over 10 years, the insurance industry, drug and medical device makers, and hospital groups are backing off their promise: "Hospitals and insurance companies said Thursday that President Obama had substantially overstated their promise earlier this week...."

Monday, May 18, 2009
Rangoon Locked Down Ahead of Aung San Suu Kyi Trial
Squads of pro-government paramilitaries were sent to the area around Insein prison in Rangoon and shops were ordered to close as the authorities acted to pre-empt public anger before today's trial of the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Monday, May 18, 2009
ABC Reports on Missing Rip-Off Investor R. Allen Stanford
Video from a February 2009 program. It reveals how the money stashed in Antiga was about to be hidden. The original source which pointed to this archival story came from Americans for Democratic Action. Considered "bigger than Madoff."

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Obama to Visit Russia and Ghana
US President Barack Obama is to make a week-long foreign tour in July that will include Russia, Italy and Ghana, the White House says. Correspondents say that Mr Obama, preoccupied with foreign policy challenges elsewhere in the world, has not yet articulated a detailed policy for Africa.

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Among 5 Killed, a Mender of Heartache and a Struggling Private
By JAMES DAO and PAUL von ZIELBAUER Published: May 17, 2009 The shootings at a military clinic in Iraq on Monday underscored how stressful the nation's two wars have become for its stretched military forces.

Sunday, May 17, 2009
A 'Psychic Thrill' for US Empire
Video: Bruce Fein, who worked in Ronald Reagan's adminstration, says the momentum toward Empire has accelerated over the past few decades as the United States established more and more overseas military bases and Americans were sold on the quixotic notion that they could shield themselves from risk.

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Americans for Democratic Action - Voting Records
How Liberal Are You? Compare yourself to current lawmakers! Just answer 20 questions to discover where you stand.

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Obama Names Huntsman to China Post
(2 comments) Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. was named Saturday by President Barack Obama to be U.S. ambassador to China. Huntsman speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese learned for an LDS Church mission to Taiwan. He and his wife, Mary Kaye, adopted a daughter from China. The governor, 49, has served as U.S. ambassador to Singapore, and was on a short list to fill the same role in China under President George W. Bush.

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Minorities Affected Most as New York Foreclosures Rise
(1 comments) By MICHAEL POWELL and JANET ROBERTS Published: May 16, 2009 Defaults occur three times as often in predominantly minority areas of the region as in mostly white ones, a New York Times analysis finds, with the black middle class hit hardest. It now touches every corner of the region, from estates along the Connecticut Gold Coast to the suburban tracts of Long Island....

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Obama Chooses NYC Health Chief to Head CDC
In a statement, Obama called Frieden, 48, "an expert in preparedness and response to health emergencies" who in seven years as the city health commissioner has "been at the forefront of the fight against heart disease, cancer and obesity, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS, and in the establishment of electronic health records."

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Bill Moyers Journal . Shahan Mufti and Juan Cole
The situation is more complicated than that, say historian Juan Cole and journalist Shahan Mufti on BILL MOYERS JOURNAL. And while both agree that the insurgency in the north is a serious problem Pakistan must address, neither believes Pakistan is in immediate danger of becoming a failed state.

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Was It the National Security Bureaucrats Who Forced Obama to Hold on to the Torture Photos
President Obama was, in fact, speaking for the national security bureaucracy in announcing his change of mind. I knew it would happen at some point. Although his first instinct had been to release the pictures, as he had released the new Justice Department torture memos, it was clear he had been turned around, and I was certain it was the work of the national security bureaucracy.

Saturday, May 16, 2009
The Case of the Missing H-Bomb: The Pentagon Has Lost the Mother of All Weapons
Pentagon has lost track of the mother of all weapons, a hydrogen bomb. The thermonuclear weapon, designed to incinerate Moscow, has been sitting somewhere off the coast of Savannah, Georgia for the past 40 years. The Air Force has gone to greater lengths to conceal the mishap than to locate the bomb and secure it.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Baucus' Raucous Caucus
Still absent from the debate are advocates for single-payer, often referred to as the "Canadian-style" health care. Single-payer health care is not "socialized medicine." According to Physicians for a National Health Program, single-payer means "the government pays for care that is delivered in the private sector." A February CBS News poll found that 59 percent in the U.S. say the government should pro

Friday, May 15, 2009
Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
Scahill: As the Obama administration continues to fight the release of some 2,000 photos that graphically document U.S. military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, an ongoing Spanish investigation is adding harrowing details to the ever-emerging portrait of the torture inside and outside Guantánamo.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Why Didn't Pelosi Speak Out Against Torture?
(1 comments) Robert Sheer: If the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and later House Democratic leader, lacked the authority to publicly question a policy of torture, then how can we condemn, indeed imprison, ordinary soldiers who thought it their duty to follow orders?

Friday, May 15, 2009
Democratic Senator's Health Care 'Fix': Arrest Doctors, Nurses
A video: At the first Finance Committee session last week, Dr. Margaret Flowers and seven others were taken into custody when they urged Baucus to include witnesses who support single-payer. Flowers discussed her arrest on Ed Schultz's MSNBC show, explaining that physicians, nurses and reform groups representing more than 20 million Americans had repeatedly asked to be heard by Baucus and his colleagues.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Opinion: State Employee Cuts do More Harm than Good
A civil engineer for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. In the continuing fiscal crisis, magical thinking afflicts the State Capitol. Gov. Jim Doyle is again busy pushing -- and some legislators are buying into -- the politically handy myth that laying off public employees and cutting their wages are effective in helping ease the state's multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Not even close.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Insurers get Preliminary OK for Treasury Funds - TARP
The federal government has agreed to extend billions in bailout funds to six major life insurers, helping them shore up their capital positions in the wake of major investment losses. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said Thursday that it had been notified by the Treasury Department that it was eligible for $3.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Others are listed.

Friday, May 15, 2009
Prosecutor, Rove End Session on Fired US Attorneys
In Friday's session, Rove and the prosecutor who interviewed him, acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, declined to comment as they left the offices of Rove's lawyer separately. It is conceivable Rove may have to undergo further questioning. A Justice Department inquiry that wrapped up in late 2008 concluded that political considerations played a role in the firings of as many as four of the U.S. attorneys.

Thursday, May 14, 2009
BofA Sells $7.3B Stake in China Construction Bank
Bank of America Corp. sold part of its stake in China Construction Bank for some $7.3 billion as the U.S. lender seeks to raise billions more to help withstand the recession. Bank of America unloaded more than 13.5 billion shares, or a nearly 6 percent stake, in China Construction

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Burma Opposition Leader Suu Kyi Faces Trial after Visit by Uninvited American
(3 comments) A court in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) has ordered detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stand trial after an American man – reportedly a Vietnam vet – swam across a lake and sneaked into the house where she is held. Ms. Suu Kyi, whose political party won a 1990 election that the military refused to accept, is accused of violating the terms of her six-year house arrest.

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Is Cheney Helping or Hurting the GOP?
Only Cheney can explain his motivations. But there's no shortage of opinion among political players and pundits on the impact the former veep is having – on the Republican Party, on the Obama administration, and on his own legacy.

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Only 3 Percent of Stimulus Spent So Far
Eventually, the stimulus bill may pump an estimated $787 billion into the US economy. But that will take time. So far, Washington has laid out only about $28 billion – less than 3 percent – of the outlays authorized by the legislation.Of that money, about $16 billion has gone for one activity, medical assistance to states, according to the just-released first quarterly report to President Obama on the progress of the ARRA

Thursday, May 14, 2009
McChrystal Clear
One more article on General McCrystal and JSOC. From Columbia Journalism Review comes this piece. Author writes: ....it's exceedingly rare to replace a four-star commander in a war zone-it hasn't happened since Truman recalled MacArthur during the Korean War.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Congress's Torture Bubble
Vicki Divoll, a former deputy counsel to the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, was the general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003. "Even if the results had been the same, we would now at least have the cold comfort of knowing that our constitutional system of checks and balances had been put into play before a program that risked our fundamental values was carried out on our behalf."

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Stimulus Aid Trickles Out, but States Seek Quicker Relief
By MICHAEL COOPER Published: May 13, 2009 The federal government has paid out less than 6 percent of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, largely in the form of social service payments to states.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Jimmy Carter Testifies before John Kerry's Energy Committee
Dana Milbank writes: But the 84-year-old elder statesman showed up in a pinstriped business suit, and even the Republicans were deferential as a former president sat before a congressional committee for the first time in 15 years. In case the lawmakers weren't aware of the honor, Carter reminded them that he was "the fifth president ever to testify before a Senate committee and the first one since Harry Truman."

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Actual Bailout May Exceed $10 Trillion
(3 comments) The current block of taxpayer money that has been pledged by the US government and the Federal Reserve to prevent the system from collapsing, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News, is roughly $12.8 trillion as of March 31. This money has been lent, spent or guaranteed to prevent a systemic collapse.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
US 'Afpak' Strategy Troubles Some in US and Pakistan
There's a growing sense that Pakistan may finally be taking on the Taliban, as Washington has pressed it to do for months. But how Washington itself will conduct the war against the extremists seems increasingly unclear: concerns are mounting in Washington, Islamabad, and Kabul over command, long-term strategy, and the controversial use of Predator drones.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Why the Press Is on Suicide Watch
At the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Stephen Colbert delivered a monologue accusing his hosts of being stenographers who had, in essence, let the Bush White House get away with murder (or at least the war in Iraq). To prove the point, the partying journalists in the Washington Hilton ballroom could be seen (courtesy of C-Span) fawning over government potentates

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Postville Decimated by Immigration Raid One Year Ago
The word he uses to describe the litter sounds incongruous coming from a learned member of the town's Orthodox Jewish community, but Menahem can hardly be blamed for letting slip the occasional epithet. He's lost a fortune in the year since federal agents raided kosher meatpacker Agriprocessors Inc.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Governor Schweitzer: Montana has Great Opportunities in Biomass
"Biomass is one more leg under the table of our energy future. We will continue to find ways to use this valuable resource as we manage forests near our towns and reduce the fire threat presented by red trees," said Governor Brian Schweitzer, who will take over as Chair of the Western Governors Association in June

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Granholm Says Renewable Energy Sector Will Help Grow Michigan Economy
Michigan defines green jobs as jobs directly involved in generating or supporting a firm's green-related products or services. The state's green economy is defined as being comprised of industries that provide products or services in five areas: agriculture and natural resource conservation, clean transportation and fuels, increased energy efficiency, pollution prevention or environmental cleanup, and renewable energy product

Monday, May 11, 2009
5 U.S. Soldiers Are Killed on Military Base in Iraq
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS Published: May 12, 2009 At least one news agency said that the killer was an American soldier who had opened fire on fellow troops.

Monday, May 11, 2009
Insurers Offer Obama $2 Trillion in Healthcare Cost Savings
In a move with major implications for the economy, some of America's largest private healthcare providers plan to tell President Obama they will reduce the spending growth rate of healthcare by 1.5 percentage points per year. SC monitor and other sites headlining this. Why, I ask?

Monday, May 11, 2009
Phosphorus Claim after Fatal Air Strikes in Afghanistan
Nader Nadery, a senior officer at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said the organisation was concerned that the chemical, which can cause severe burns, might have been used in the firefight in Bala Baluk, a district in the western province of Farah.

Sunday, May 10, 2009
It's Time for Obama to Listen to his Mama
Bill Clinton misread the American public on religion. So did George W. Bush, who never convinced anyone that he was a man of faith, but did eventually manage to convince everyone except evangelical Christians that they should leave the GOP. Obama is making the same kind of miscalculation. Find a church to worship in on Sundays, Mr. President, but get sectarian religious values out of the White House.

Sunday, May 10, 2009
Keynote: Col. Ann Wright - Issues of War & Peace--video
An hour well spent. Shortly after the Obama inauguration, a careful explanation of the Bush administration's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now how Obama has the task of disengaging by bringing home both military and civilian populations from Iraq. Also what Afghan history should teach about chances for peace there.

Friday, May 8, 2009
"They Frankly Own the Place"
(2 comments) "Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America", a 231-page report debuted in March by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation, details the lobbying and campaign spending by the financial industry and the legislation they got in return. The defeat of the mortgage "cram down" amendment was just the latest win for the banks. The report lists numerous anti-regulation steps taken by politicians

Friday, May 8, 2009
Government Could Destroy Records in Hundreds of Guantanamo Cases
(1 comments) Leftover Bush ruling needs attention. A stockpile of documents about hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees, some written by the prisoners themselves, could be destroyed under a little-known provision of a federal court order the Bush administration obtained in 2004.

Friday, May 8, 2009
Little Search Engines that Could
(1 comments) But Google isn't perfect. While some call it simple, quick, and effective, others describe the site as incomplete, dull, and a lowest common denominator. Here are four search alternatives to cut through the Web and find what you're looking for.

Friday, May 8, 2009
Security Blanket: How Social Security Can Save Us All
But the elderly tend to live off their assets. These include homes, already down by nearly 30 percent nationally and much more in certain parts of the country. They include corporate stocks, often in 401(k) accounts, down by 50 percent or so, so far. They include cash and bonds, which earn the interest rate-enough said. And there's not much else. A sharp decline in any one of these would be a problem; the simultaneous crash

Friday, May 8, 2009
The Secret Right-Wing Strategy on Health Care--Exposed! | OurFuture.org
First, progressive pollsters have been entirely right about health care. Conservatives who oppose reform have very little public support. Progressives have conducted a great deal of survey research on health care over the past two years, much of it by top pollster Celinda Lake working with the Herndon Alliance, FamiliesUSA, AFL-CIO, and Health Care for America Now. Lake makes it clear that Americans strongly support progress

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Political Economy: Promises, Promises & Blue Dogs
No doubt, the fact that Congress is essentially giving the president everything he asked for explains 16 of the 17 Democratic nay votes on the budget, 13 of which were cast by Blue Dogs. (One of the others came from Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, who probably thought the president should have gotten more than he requested.)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Pete Seeger Carries Us On
Amy Goodman: The legendary folk singer is a living history of the 20th century's grass-roots struggles for worker rights, civil rights, the environment and peace. Powerful, passionate performances and tributes rang out from the stage, highlighting Seeger's enduring imprint on our society.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Economist Richard Wolff of the New School on Workers
A video: "....even if the auto unions get some seats on the boards of Chrysler and General Motors, the pressure will be immense to reduce wage levels dramatically, thus setting lower pay standards for other parts of the industrial sector."

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Someone Needs to Give Jane Harman an Award for This
Greenwald: "Former OLC official James Hirschhorn and former New Jersey Attorney General and state Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero wrote as explicit an endorsement of presidential lawlessness as can be imagined, entitled "Torture memos and the Bush administration: Time to move on." I asked that they be interviewed. Their reply:"Mr. Verniero and I believe that the piece speaks for itself and will have to decline"

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Why Presidents Need Contrarians
On the night of April 27,the president invited to the White House some of his administration's sharpest critics on the economy, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz. Over a roast-beef dinner, Obama listened and questioned while Krugman and Stiglitz, both Nobel Prize winners, pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the banking system.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Pakistan Expects up to 500,000 Refugees from Swat
Fighting between Taliban militants and troops in a northwestern valley triggered an exodus the government said Tuesday could see 500,000 people flee and signaled the end of a peace deal in the area widely criticized as a surrender to the extremists. Hundreds have already fled the Swat Valley, adding to the hundreds of thousands of existing refugees driven from other regions in the northwest over the last year of fighting....

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Deadly Games
An article by a man who "studies war no more." This describes the Army games for boys in Philadelphia, recentlly described on OpEdNews. Camillo "Mac" Bica, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His focus is in ethics, particularly as it applies to war and warriors.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Pakistani Army Flattening Villages as It Battles Taliban
Chinglai, Pakistan - The Pakistani army's assault against Islamic militants in Buner, in northwest Pakistan, is flattening villages, killing civilians and sending thousands of farmers and villagers fleeing from their homes, residents escaping the fighting said Monday.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Analyzing Obama's War Budget Numbers
. If Congress enacts Obama's request, total war spending will come to $144.6 billion for Fiscal Year 2009 (which ends on September 30, with Fiscal Year 2010 beginning on October 1). This compares to the $186 billion war spending in 2008. Obama's proposed war budget for 2010 is $130 billion. [T]he three main components of the war budget: Personnel costs; Operation and Maintenance costs, and Procurement costs

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Salmon Salvation, Perhaps, in Columbia River Basin
A ban on commercial salmon fishing along the Oregon and California coasts for the second consecutive year will cost fishing communities hundreds of millions of dollars. Judge Redden is determined to make government agencies finally follow the Endangered Species Act. Throughout the Columbia Basin, there is "more interest than ever in working to recover these fish," says Michael Carrier, natl resources director (OR).

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Garbage Grows Well on the Mexico-Arizona Border
Another couple of steps, and it would have hit the jogger in the head. Athick nylon rope sailed over the wall separating Arizona from Mexico as ifit had wings. A white lifeline with a knot at the end, it hung from the topand dangled to within three feet of the ground.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Church Sues North Coventry for Rights Violation
(1 comments) A federal lawsuit alleges a Chester County township violated a church's rights by preventing it from offering shelter to the homeless. According to the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the church participated for three years, beginning in 2002, in Montgomery County's "One Night at a Time."

Monday, May 4, 2009
Sibel Edmonds: In Congress We Trust...Not
Sibel Edmonds explaining Hastert, Harman (and more) coverups: "[In] addition to my case and the plight of National Security Whistleblowers...." "I, like many others, believed that changing the Congressional majority in 2006 was going to bring about some of the needed changes; the pursuit of accountability being one. We were proven wrong. In 2008, many genuinely bought in to the promise of change... they've been let down"

Monday, May 4, 2009
Why Did Porter Goss Finger Jane Harman?
The leak which just keeps on dripping - at least in the blog world. "The sequence of the leaks is telling: First, leak that Harman may have been implicated in this alleged Israeli spy network; then leak the details of the government's reconsideration of the case and voila! Officials reviewing the case must now contend with the prospect of being accused of covering up a scandal involving a lawmaker from the president's party."

Friday, May 1, 2009
Souter Said to Be Leaving Court in June
By PETER BAKER and JEFF ZELENY Published: May 1, 2009 Justice David H. Souter has grown increasingly sour on Washington and intends to return to his home state at the end of the Supreme Court's term, according to people briefed on his plans.

Friday, May 1, 2009
What's Behind the Epidemic of Family-Killings? Could it Be Anti-Depressants?
Economic stress is usually blamed, but a bunch of government-approved psychoactive drugs have proven homicidal and suicidal side effects. Author asserts: "unlimited weapon arsenals -- including military and assault-style weapons -- in the hands of everyone, including the unbalanced on 'depression' drugs..."

Friday, May 1, 2009
Rice Channels Nixon: Since the President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal
When a student asked whether Rice had authorized torture, she refused to take responsibility, saying only that she "conveyed the authorization of the administration." She added that, "by definition," once the president authorized "enhanced interrogations," they were automatically legal The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur, who obtained the video, said Rice " absolutely pulls a Nixon

Friday, May 1, 2009
Stop your Gadget Greed from Fueling Tragedy in Congo
American consumers can exert enormous leverage over the companies from which we purchase our electronics by pressuring them to ensure that their products are conflict-free and that Congo's natural resources benefit the Congolese people and not militias and perpetrators of crimes against humanity.Violence in Congo is often fueled by warring over "conflict minerals," the ores that produce tin, tungsten,titanium and gold.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Formula for an Obama Press Conference: 13 Questions
He makes TelePrompTer-assisted opening remarks and then calls on exactly 13 reporters. Some sneak in more than one question, but somehow after the 13th member of the Fourth Estate has had his or her moment in the spotlight – always the AP first, then a mix of print, TV, and a few alternative outlets – the hour is up.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Keeping Jobless Rules Intact, Florida Declines Stimulus Money
By GARY FINEOUT Published: April 28, 2009 Florida lawmakers have refused to move a bill to expand unemployment eligibility in order to accept $444 million in federal stimulus aid.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Alleged Cop-Killer Reportedly "˜Disturbed' Over Obama Win
(1 comments) A reported member of the Florida National Guard who allegedly killed two Okaloosa County, Fla., sheriff's deputies in a shootout at a gun club last Saturday believed the U.S. government was conspiring against him and was "severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected president," his wife told investigators.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Ohio Militia Calls for Armed March on Washington
The self-identified leader of the Ohio Militia, a conspiracy-minded "Patriot" group, released a [1] video earlier this week calling for 1 million heavily armed antigovernment demonstrators to march on Washington, D.C., this coming July 4.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Last Great Swine Flu Epidemic
"Guillain-Barré syndrome" and "Legionnaires Disease"--and of course the pandemic after World War I--are put in historical perspective. Also in political perspective of 1976, and what happened to President Eisenhower et al over the swine flu immunization flap.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
"˜Blue Dog' Deal Puts Budget on Path to Clear
Though the House had planned to vote on the measure (S Con Res 13) on Tuesday, with the Senate to follow Wednesday, objections from the House's Blue Dog Coalition held up the measure by a day.The deficit-control rules were first written into law in the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (PL 101-508), but Republicans who controlled Congress for most of the current decade allowed them to lapse at the end of fiscal 2002

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Major Defeat for Bush/Obama Position on Secrecy
The District Court in Jeppesen had accepted the Bush DOJ's argument and dismissed the lawsuit, and on appeal in February, the Obama DOJ -- to the obvious surprise of the judges and in a reversal of everything Democrats claimed they believed during the Bush presidency -- told the Ninth Circuit panel that they embrace the Bush DOJ "state secrets" position in full (a position they've since repeated in other cases). Audio link

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Fall in US GDP Worst in 51 Years
The US economy's output is now 3.3 percent smaller than its peak in the second quarter of 2008 (measured as an actual decline instead of the annualized rates reflected in the quarterly figures). That's the most severe contraction of GDP since the 3.7 percent peak-to-trough tumble in the first quarter of 1958.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A Fallen Wall, a Renewed Germany, a United Europe
(4 comments) The political change wrought by the end of the cold war was immediately apparent. The demonstration of civil courage by East German "dissidents" in their march in Leipzig on Oct. 9, 1989 – in a land not renowned for civil disobedience – set off a happy chain of events to the east. The Leipzig example sparked the breach of the Berlin Wall in November.

Monday, April 27, 2009
The Principal And The Paddle
(1 comments) Paddling in S Carolina schools is legal. "Human interest" could be the category of this article. Discipline, destitution, and determination might be its labels.

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Transcript: Interview with U.N. Torture Official Manfred Novak
Earlier this week, I interviewed Manfred Nowak, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, regarding America's obligations under its treaties and international law to investigate and prosecute allegations of torture and provide legal remedies for torture victims to have their day in court. The podcast recording, and background on these issues, is here.

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wyoming EPA study Due to Energy Production
PINEDALE -- State officials say Wyoming's recommended ozone "nonattainment" map is critical to its efforts to reduce ozone-causing emissions from the lucrative Pinedale Anticline and Jonah natural gas fields. Gov. Dave Freudenthal submitted a recommendation to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month seeking to designate a huge swath of southwest Wyoming as an ozone nonattainment area.

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sweetwater County Debates Impact of Wind Energy Development
The wind energy boom blowing through Sweetwater County will be a gale force soon and could threaten the region's quality of life, a host of speakers said this week. Wyoming's many ongoing wind energy projects include the massive, 1,000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre projects that are proposed for neighboring Carbon County. The county is already home to several existing wind energy farms, including two large projects

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Seed Sales Shoot up in Colorado
Three big seed suppliers in the metro area report their spring sales are up as much as a third over last year. "Our year doesn't end until June 30, but we believe our sales for vegetable seed packets are up about 30 percent,"

Friday, April 24, 2009
U.S. Citizens Detained and Deported by Immigration
20-min audio on Mexicans and ICE: In its zeal to crack down on illegal immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining and deporting American citizens. The Center for Investigative Reporting's Andrew Becker talks about his investigation into this disturbing trend.

Friday, April 24, 2009
Torture Is a Crime, and Crimes Demand Prosecution
Eugene Robinson: This is what Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, told his staff about the interrogation abuses in a memo last week: "I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past, but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given."

Friday, April 24, 2009
U.S. Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police
(3 comments) Jeremy Scahill: "The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States," according to the Washington Post. Some estimate that private security operate inside the U.S. at a 5-to-1 ratio with police.

Friday, April 24, 2009
TARP Watchdog Elizabeth Warren Explains Treasury's Strategy, and Why It May Not Be Enough
8-min video by TARP Watchdog, who spells out possible tactics to the "meltdown." And since TARP was the chosen method, she explains what her panel is stuck with. Warren's work is very important. She is doing us all a great service and should be listened to.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
US Ramps up Cybersecurity Focus
The White House should take direct control of US cybersecurity, the woman tipped to be President Obama's net security Czar has said. Melissa Hathaway told a conference in San Francisco that the net had not been built with safety in mind.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
State Sues Wells for $1.5 Billion
Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Co. on Thursday, accusing the San Francisco bank of deceptively marketing a type of financial instrument and seeking to recover around $1.5 billion for thousands of California investors. The Superior Court suit claims that three affiliates of the company falsely proclaimed so called auction-rate securities "as safe and liquid as cash,"

Thursday, April 23, 2009
Mortgage Defaults Hit Record in State, Bay Area
n an ominous sign that foreclosures may soon surge, the number of mortgage default notices in California and the Bay Area rose to record levels in the first quarter of 2009, according to a report from a real estate information service. "Most of these defaults at some point will end up as foreclosures," he said. "You'll see a massive wave hitting right during the peak selling months."

Thursday, April 23, 2009
Chevron Top Counsel May Need a Lawyer
Chevron Corp.'s chief corporate counsel, William J. Haynes II, might need a lawyer, if he hasn't already hired one. Not that there's much new in the latest reports about the "harsh" interrogation techniques employed at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib when Haynes was the Pentagon's top attorney. ...he's surely aware that Jay Bybee, who presently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Freddie Mac Official Found Dead in Apparent Suicide
(2 comments) David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Police Investigating Death of Freddie Mac Official
(1 comments) A bit more information on the death of Freddie Mac officer--and other recent suicides.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wells Fargo Reports 52 Percent Jump in Earnings
Wells Fargo & Co. reported a 52 percent jump in net income as it reaped quick rewards from its acquisition of Wachovia Corp., but the San Francisco bank also boosted credit reserves in anticipation of mounting loan losses in the months ahead.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Surplus Goods Get New lLfe at S.F. Organization
The liquidation of a major textile company in San Francisco yielded 300 bins of fabric. The merger of a small architecture company with an international firm resulted in the donation of tiles, stone and metal. The closure of a downtown law firm will reap office furniture and supplies.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Bay Area Firms Recognized for Green Innovations
Several Bay Area companies, including Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Google Inc., were recognized Tuesday for pioneering environmental-saving innovations that cut costs and create new business. The nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund of New York published a list of 20 firms that have, for example, produced "smart irrigation"

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Harman, AIPAC, NSA: What did I Know, and When Did I Know It?
Jeff Stein: The tremendous interest in my story yesterday about a 2005 NSA wiretap picking up California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman conversing with a suspected Israeli agent took me by surprise, frankly.But of the all aggregations of the exploding coverage, the best may belong to Glenn Greenwald, the gifted legal analyst over at Salon.com, in my opinion. He and I have had our differences on some national security/civil li

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
10 Environmental Disasters to Remember on Earth Day
Ten tragic lessons in our nation's environmental history that should never be forgotten. And one climate destabilization tragedy in the making that needs our urgent help. The native Inupiat villagers in Kivalina and Shishmaref, along a six-mile barrier island between the Chukchi Sea and the Kivalina River on the Northwest Arctic coast, are on the frontlines of climate change.

Sunday, April 19, 2009
Venezuela's Chavez to Restore Ambassador in US
Hugo Chavez said Saturday that he is restoring Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, voicing hopes for a "new era" in relations after exchanging greetings with U.S. President Barack Obama at a regional summit. Venezuela's socialist president told reporters at the Summit of the Americas that he will propose Roy Chaderton, his current ambassador to the Organization of American States, as the country's new representative

Saturday, April 18, 2009
In State Pension Inquiry, a Scandal Snowballs
By DANNY HAKIM and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH Published: April 18, 2009 The inquiry into corruption at the New York State pension fund has ballooned into a sprawling investigation involving prominent players in New York's political and financial worlds.

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Interrogation Memos Detail Psychologists' Involvement; Ethicists Outraged
When the CIA began what it called an "increased pressure phase" with captured terrorism suspect Abu Zubaida in the summer of 2002, its first step was to limit the detainee's human contact to just two people. One was the CIA interrogator, the other a psychologist.

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Headlights Went out for S&L Bust Figure
Story of a culprit from Bush Sr. regime: Michael R. Wise, an icon of the savings and loan bust, still had a friend when he jumped to his death last week. Chris Copelan, 26, told me he received a message from Wise moments before the former chief executive officer of Silverado Banking leaped from the ninth level of a parking garage at the Tampa International Airport on April 8.

Friday, April 17, 2009
$40M Fuel Theft Prompts Global Manhunt
(2 comments) ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A former Army contractor convicted of stealing $40 million worth of fuel from a military base in Iraq is helping authorities in a global search for other suspects in the case, according to court records.

Friday, April 17, 2009
Human Tide of Misery Flees the Anarchy of Somalia
The lucky ones come with their families, others appear out of the thorn bushes, walking alone. Five hundred Somalis are now arriving at this bleak Kenyan outpost every day. They join a population of 267,000 and counting, in a facility built to shelter just 45,000.

Friday, April 17, 2009
High-Speed Rail: Can it Work in the US?
(6 comments) The bullet trains of Japan and the TGV superfast trains of France are impressive. But they serve smaller areas that are far more densely populated. A train trip as long as Boston-Washington in Europe would stretch from Paris to nearly the middle of Germany.

Friday, April 17, 2009
Superfund: Summitville Mine | Region 8 | US EPA
Through the Dem Governors Assoc. newsletter, I learned Colorado Governor Ritter has thanked the president for funds to clean up this site.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Pakistani Taliban in Swat Refuse to Give up Arms
While militants aligned with the Pakistani Taliban struck a peace deal with authorities in Swat in February, the accords were not implemented until this week, when President Asif Ali Zardari signed the agreement. Though the terms of the agreement were not revealed, government officials had said that the militants would have to relinquish their arms. But Reuters reports that Taliban militants said they would not abide by deal.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Commercial Real Estate Market Softens
Rising vacancies, falling rents and tight capital are likely to push U.S. commercial delinquency rates above 3.5 percent by the end of the year and as high as 6 percent in 2010, near the levels reached during the early 1990s, according to a forecast by Deutsche Bank.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tea Party Day is Coming--Hell or High Water
Thoughts on taxation, representation, and clear motives--or lack thereof.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
A Poisoned Montana Town Gets its Shot at Justice
(2 comments) There are now more than 274 names on the Libby "death list," and another 1,200 -- out of a community of about 12,000 -- who have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases through a federal screening program. More cases are discovered every month.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Shippers Face Higher Insurance as Pirates Run Amok
Shipping companies already smarting from the global downturn are forced to pony up extra cash for steeper premiums to cover multimillion-dollar ransoms or take the long way around the African continent in the hope of dodging hijackers.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Economist Has weak Outlook for state, U.S.
UC of Berkley Professor Rosen said there is about a 20 percent chance that the myriad government stimulus efforts will upgrade the recession from "deep" to "moderate" by the second half of this year, but also a 10 percent likelihood the economy could slip into outright depression. That would mean an unemployment rate of 15 percent or more and another 20 percent drop in home prices.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
06/05/2008 - Monsanto's 2030 Goals
Note date in headline. Article outlines long term goals.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Kerry: Pakistan Needs More Urgency in Terror Fight
Sen. John Kerry, speaking to reporters in Islamabad during a trip to Pakistan, expressed reservations about the peace pact in the Swat Valley, hours after a hard-line cleric who mediated the deal indicated it will protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is spearheading a bill to increase nonmilitary aid to Pakistan, a multi-billion dollar effort

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
FRONTLINE/World Conflict Zones: Pakistan and Afghanistan Synopsis and Video
(2 comments) Synopsis & video. Several weeks after FRONTLINE/World filmed in Swat, the Pakistani government signed a peace deal with the Taliban, allowing the imposition of a brutal brand of Shania Law on a million people across the valley. In Bajaur, just 10 miles from the Afghan border, flattened buildings are all that remain of this former trading hub, once home to 7,000 people.

Monday, April 13, 2009
Twitter Tormented by Nettlesome Computer Program
An obnoxious computer program that barged into Twitter Inc.'s mishmash of Internet chatter served as another reminder of the challenges facing the rapidly growing service. The nettlesome program, known as a worm, targeted Twitter's network with four different attacks starting early Saturday and ending early Monday

Saturday, April 11, 2009
Chinese Drywall Poses Potential Risks
(6 comments) At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. Now that decision is haunting hundreds of homeowners and apartment dwellers who are concerned that the wallboard gives off fumes that can corrode copper pipes, blacken jewelry and silverware, and possibly sicken people.

Friday, April 10, 2009
Fleet-Owners Face Bankruptcy Threat from Plunging Shipping Rates
Global shipping rates are set to fall by 74 per cent this year as commodity demand continues to fall in Asia and the massive glut of vessels ordered during the boom years finally takes to the seas.The misery is expected to continue well into 2010, with a further 15 per cent drop in rates before any rebound brings relief to fleet-owners.

Friday, April 10, 2009
William K. Black: Sharing the Blame for the Economic Crisis?
Friday 03 April 2009 by: Bill Moyers NOTE: This was Friday, a week from this posting date. It may have been posted on OEN already. I repeat only because I consider it an important document to keep.

Friday, April 10, 2009
On Anniversary of Saddam's Fall, Iraqi Protesters Vent Against US
Baghdad - Tens of thousands of Iraqis crowded into the square Thursday where Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled, along with his regime, six years ago. Waving posters of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr and demanding that President Obama fulfill his promise to withdraw US troops, their presence underscored the eagerness of many Iraqis to see the US leave

Friday, April 10, 2009
Getting a Death Grip on Memory
"Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory ..." Big deal. American media outlets have been pulling off such feats for a long time. With constant media prompts, the widely replicated screens end up screening us, from ourselves and from each other.

Friday, April 10, 2009
China Denies Cyber Attacks on U.S. Power Grid
(1 comments) China denied Thursday involvement in malware attacks designed to shut down the U.S. electrical grid in a time of war. "The incident of attacks on the U.S. electrical grid from China and Russia simply does not exist," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters, according to a transcript of the briefing.

Friday, April 10, 2009
Energy Blamed More than Ethanol for Food Prices
Researchers found that ethanol production was responsible for 10 to 15 percent of the increase in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008. Between 22 and 36 percent of the overall increase in food prices can be traced to the rising cost of traditional energy sources such as gasoline, diesel and electricity, according to the report.

Friday, April 10, 2009
The Time to Protest Is Now! Rally to Break Up the Banks
AlterNet has been gathering signatures in partnership with A New Way Forward, an incredible grassroots movement demanding that the U.S. government nationalize, reorganize and decentralize the banks as a first step toward building a more just economy.

Friday, April 10, 2009
AlterNet: Where Did the Worst of Bush's Cronies Go?
To Work for Corporate Media--What else? When you consider the respective achievements of the folks who peopled the upper echelons of the Bush administration, I think you'll agree that after their incompetence, ideological obsession, and general malevolence, their most impressive characteristic was, and remains, their audacity

Friday, April 10, 2009
Why Spain Can Actually Prosecute Bush and Co. for Their Crimes
If arrest warrants are issued, Spain and any of the other 24 countries that are parties to European extradition conventions could arrest these six men when they travel abroad. Does Spain have the authority to prosecute Americans for crimes that didn't take place on Spanish soil? The answer is yes.

Thursday, April 9, 2009
Moody's Downgrades Berkshire's 'AAA' Credit Rating
Berkshire officials did not immediately respond to a message left late Wednesday. Berkshire owns 48 million shares of Moody's, which is more than 20 percent of the ratings agency. Buffett likes to refer to Berkshire's financial strength as "Gibraltar-like" with little debt and huge amounts of excess liquidity. Berkshire finished 2008 with $24.3 billion cash on hand.

Thursday, April 9, 2009
Center Highlights Jewish Context of Easter Story
(3 comments) he links between this week's observances of Passover and Easter are among the parallels in Jewish and Christian traditions that Hannah Thrasher seeks to show visitors at the Bible Times Center in Ein Kerem, a neighborhood of Jerusalem believed to be the birthplace of John the Baptist.

Thursday, April 9, 2009
Integration in Denmark: Minority Youths Fear Honor Crime
Culture conflicts: Dannerhuset, which claims to be Denmark's "oldest and largest crisis center and shelter for women and children who have been subjected to domestic violence," also takes in several young minority women each year who have been the target of family violence."Often this is about them refusing to enter into forced marriages," says Dannerhuset's senior counselor. They want to decide about their own lives

Thursday, April 9, 2009
Russia Banking Crisis just Beginning: Top Banker
The blunt comments by Sberbank chief executive German Gref, who also said bad loans in Russia were increasing by 20 percent a month, came just two days after Putin said the threat to the banking system had receded. "A banking crisis in Russia is in its very beginning and it will come from the real (non-financial) sector of the economy,"

Thursday, April 9, 2009
The World's Most Dangerous Place: Islamist Groups Form Unholy Alliance in Pakistan
Spiegel online (translated into English)presents thorough information on AfPak affairs from the standpoint of terror groups, governments impacted in a wider area, an analysis of Pakistan's intelligence, and overlapping questions about US military and financial involvement. There are links to more articles. Baitullah Mehsud is the chief of Pakistani militant groups, making threats to the US.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Top Obama Bank Watchdog to Call for CEO Heads to Roll
Elizabeth Warren Attacks Geithner-Summers Plan. Yhe chief watchdog of America's $700bn bank bailout plan, will this week call for the removal of top executives from Citigroup, AIG and other institutions that have received government funds in a damning report that will question the administration's approach to saving the financial system from collapse.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies
(2 comments) yberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
US Trade Office Releases Information on Secret Piracy Pact
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released some new details about an anticounterfeiting trade agreement that has been discussed in secret among the U.S., Japan, the European Union and other countries since 2006.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
An Update on Food Safety Reform - US House of Rep.
Interesting site re HR875 & HR 759 I've gotten a new wave of questions about H.R.875, the bill that's generating fear all over the Internets. The reality is that H.R.875's a pretty decent bill overall, BUT it's not going to pass. So let's talk about reality instead of paranoid internet myths.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Salazar: Eastern Wind Could Equal Coal for Power
"The idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility," he said. "It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now."

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
George Soros Warns 'Zombie' Banks Could Suck Lifeblood out of Economy
(1 comments) He also cautioned that the recent rise in global stockmarkets is a "bear market rally because we have not yet turned the economy around". Soros' gloomy verdict weighed on Asian stockmarkets today, alongside a report that the International Monetary Fund now estimates that the toxic debts racked up by banks and insurers could spiral to $4tn (£2.7tn).

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Euro for Eastern Europe? Not so Fast.
The European Central Bank, which sets monetary policy for the 16-member eurozone, sought to quash such speculation Monday. The ECB says it will not relax euro entry rules for Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary so that they can adopt the single currency more quickly. The eurozone is not an easy club to get into.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Upgrade America's Spy Program
To effect meaningful change in a culture steeped in tradition and legend, it will take a leader within the CIA willing to take on the challenge.One who can accept risk-taking and well-intentioned but sometimes unproductive operational activity. (five "C's:" collection, commercial operations, covert action, career development, collaboration) The strong hope is that new CIA Director Leon Panetta is that person.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Spain Investigates What America Should
(1 comments) A Spanish court has initiated criminal proceedings against six former officials of the Bush administration. John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes and Douglas Feith may face charges in Spain for authorizing torture at Guantánamo Bay.

Monday, April 6, 2009
Time Is Short as U.S. Presses a Reluctant Pakistan
News Analysis: By JANE PERLEZ Published: April 6, 2009 In seeking an alliance with Pakistan against militants, America is courting a Muslim nation whose military is fixated on India.

Monday, April 6, 2009
Maddoff Was A Piker -- America's Big Banks Are a Far Larger Fraudulent Ponzi Scheme
William K Black on Moyers Journal: Fraud is deceit. And the essence of fraud is, "I create trust in you, and then I betray that trust, and get you to give me something of value." And as a result, there's no more effective acid against trust than fraud, especially fraud by top elites, and that's what we have.

Monday, April 6, 2009
Eric Holder to Federal Prosecutors: Don't Play Politics with the Law
(2 comments) John Dean on Senator Stevens case: Clearly, Eric Holder, who had started his own career as a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section, did not take this situation lightly. Holder had once served on the District of Columbia trial court bench with Emmett Sullivan, and he knew that Judge Sullivan was a solid, if not model, judge.

Monday, April 6, 2009
Crisis in Journalism: Boston Globe on the Brink
In the most troubling news to date about the state of news industry, the New York Times is threatening to shut down the Boston Globe unless the Globe's unions quickly agree to $20 million in cuts. As the Globe reports today: "This week, the Globe newsroom completed cutting the equivalent of 50 full-time jobs.

Monday, April 6, 2009
Wine Thrives in Muslim Morocco Despite Islam's Ban on Alcohol Consumption
MEKNES, Morocco - The gently rolling hills planted thick with vineyards are an unlikely sight for a Muslim country partly set in the deserts and palms of North Africa. Yet the grapes, and the wine they produce, are thriving in Morocco despite Islam's ban on alcohol consumption.

Monday, April 6, 2009
The Red Desert that Breaks Annie Proulx's Heart
Proulx moved to Wyoming from Vermont in 1994 and right away went about challenging the notion that you can't know the West -- or write about it -- unless you were born and raised here. Close Range: Wyoming Stories, the collection that includes "Brokeback Mountain," came out in 1999 to acclaim from critics.. Now it's in recent years, a fever for oil and gas drilling has gripped the region. Roughly 5,000 wells have been drilled

Friday, April 3, 2009
G-20 roundup: US and Europe Agree to Disagree
The world's largest economies can find unity when it comes to protecting the world's poorest, but they remain split about how best to fight the the recession in the wealthier countries where it began.The US share of the IMF's new cushion would amount to $100 billion, which must be approved by Congress. The European Union and Japan pledged $100 billion apiece. China pledged $40 billion

Friday, April 3, 2009
Obama gets budget passed. Fast? Yes. Bipartisan?
The budget resolutions – $3.55 trillion in the House, $3.5 trillion in the Senate – hew close to Obama's top priorities, including a shift to clean energy, access to healthcare, and a more decisive federal role in education. Some Senate Democrats are optimistic that there is an emerging bipartisan consensus on healthcare – and that procedural hardball will not be needed.

Friday, April 3, 2009
Corporal Punishment Debate Heats up PLUS Exclusive Interview With Bernal Smith of Memphis Academy of Health Sciences
From OEN member Worley found this: Anthony David Adams, educational blogger, satirist, and winner of Time Magazines Best Blog of 2009 and his team of writers at DetentionSlip.org scooped the educational presses when they got an insider interview with Bernal Smith II - director of the Memphis Academy of Health Sciences (MAHS).

Thursday, April 2, 2009
Plan Seeks to Slash Industry Influence on Doctors
(1 comments) In a drastic proposal for limiting drug company influence on doctors and patient care, a group of prominent physicians says medical associations and their leaders should reject almost all industry funding. That means big medical groups would need to find other ways to pay for things like doctors' continuing education classes, or gatherings where treatment guidelines are written. Guideline writers also should have no industry

Thursday, April 2, 2009
Buffett Penalized as Citigroup Borrows for Less (Update1)
The difference in borrowing costs illustrates how government aid is giving an advantage to companies that needed multiple helpings of U.S. rescue funds. Each of the companies except for Berkshire were able to find buyers for notes paying 2.375 percent or less because of their government backing

Thursday, April 2, 2009
Assault of 2 Shoreline CC Students on Oregon Beach Considered Hate Crime
The men, 22 and 23, told police they were assaulted by three to four people in black, who beat them unconscious early Sunday as they walked along the beach after a night out in town during their spring break. After they came to, the two stumbled into a nearby hotel seeking help.They were treated for facial bruises at an area hospital, one of the victims said

Thursday, April 2, 2009
1st US Citizen Charged in UBS Probe
(1 comments) A yacht company accountant became the first U.S. citizen Thursday to be charged in the government's investigation into wealthy citizens who hid assets from tax collectors in the Swiss bank UBS AG. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Steven Michael Rubinstein, 55, of Boca Raton appeared in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale on charges of filing a false tax return.In January, authorities charged Raoul Weil - a senior executive

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
G20 Leaders get OECD Warning that Global Trade is in Freefall
The World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, responded by announcing a $50bn (£35bn) programme to counter the decline in world trade. Speaking in London, Zoellick backed the dollar as the world's main reserve currency but said he feared the world economy could stumble further into recession.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Sen. Levin Confirms Large Painful Cuts in Pentagon Budget; Declines to Provide Details
(1 comments) Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said Tuesday that major program cuts will not be pushed off until the 2011 budget, but will be included when Defense Secretary Robert Gates sends his spending plan to the president later this month.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Merrill Lynch Bonus Payments Dwarf A.I.G.
(1 comments) A larger and potentially far more explosive powder keg of bonus payments - this time to top executives at now defunct Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. - may be about to blow. Ongoing investigations at the New York attorney general's office and at the office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Obama's Aunt Becomes Symbol in Immigration Debate
Over the past decade, relatively few Kenyans have sought asylum in the United States: 223 in fiscal year 2007 - compared with 7,934 asylum requests from China and 10,522 from El Salvador - and only 50 Kenyans that year were granted asylum. From 1998 through 2007, about 20 percent of Kenyans who applied were granted asylum. New hearing? If she goes back to Kenya, she is going to be much more in the limelight.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
France is Threatening G20 Walkout
France will walk away from this week's G20 summit if its demands for stricter financial regulation are not met, the finance minister has told the BBC. European countries, in particular, are resisting calls to commit to spending more this year and next.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Cardinal Health to Cut 1,300 Jobs at Clinical Unit
Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health Inc. said it will take a $33 million restructuring charge in fiscal 2009, which ends in June, and a $24 million charge in fiscal 2010. It will eliminate 1,300 jobs, with most of the cuts made over the next six months, as hospitals cut back on equipment purchases.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
US, Iranian Diplomats Break the Ice at Conference
n a cautious first step toward unlocking 30 years of tense relations, senior U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke had a brief but cordial meeting with Iran's deputy foreign minister Tuesday at an international conference on Afghanistan. The U.S. and Iran have been estranged for 30 years, since young Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
US to Seek Seat on UN Human Rights Council
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in a statement that the administration will join the council to help make it more effective as part of President Barack Obama's desire to create a "new era of engagement" with the international community.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
British Hand Off to US in Oil-Rich Southern Iraq
Britain turned over coalition command of the oil-rich south to the United States on Tuesday in the first step toward withdrawing virtually all British troops from Iraq by July. The pomp-filled ceremony marked the beginning of the end of an often-troubled British mission

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Open Left:: VIDEO CLIP: Discussing the Bailout Double Standard With Rachel Maddow
Sirota: I appeared on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show last night to discuss the seeming double standard between the Obama administration's treatment of car companies and Wall Street firms. You can watch it here.

Monday, March 30, 2009
Doyle Announces $2.3 Billion Tax Credit for Wis. Families
The tax credit is set to start in April and averages $506 per Wisconsin family. It is phased out starting at incomes exceeding $75,000 and is refundable, making it available to those with no tax liability, according to a statement from Doyle's office. "The Making Work Pay Credit cuts taxes for millions of workers in the state and will provide a much-needed financial boost to Wisconsin families," Doyle said.

Monday, March 30, 2009
Obama Can Expect a Week of Protests Ahead of G-20
Saturday's protest march by some 35,000 people went off peacefully here, in fact there was a carnival atmosphere, complete with brass bands and clowns. But British authorities are preparing for a difficult week in the run up to Thursday's Group of 20 meeting of world leaders.

Monday, March 30, 2009
PROMISES, PROMISES: Saving Teacher Jobs Tough
Education Secretary Arne Duncan threatens to "come down like a ton of bricks" on anyone who defies the administration's plans to bring relief to states like California where 26,500 teachers have gotten pink slips. Across the country, 9 percent of teachers - about 294,000 - may face layoffs because of budget cuts, according to a University of Washington study.

Monday, March 30, 2009
77 Names Added to Slain Journalists Memorial in US
he U.S. journalism and free speech museum called the Newseum added 77 names to its Journalists Memorial on Monday to honor reporters, photographers and broadcasters who died while covering the news, including several killed in Mexican drug violence. Mexico ranked second only to Iraq among the deadliest places for journalists last year

Monday, March 30, 2009
Locke Urges Census Volunteers to Boost Outreach
Speaking at a Census Bureau training conference, Commerce Secy Locke and Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., tried to allay fears in Hispanic and Asian communities where immigrants often mistake census workers for tax collectors or law enforcement officials. The bureau two years ago asked the Homeland Security Department to hold off again in 2010, but was rejected by Bush administration, which said it would continue to enforce law

Monday, March 30, 2009
Black Caucus Calls for More Diversity in Bailouts
(2 comments) Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday criticized the lack of minority participation in the government's financial bailouts and suggested that President Barack Obama isn't doing much better than his predecessor to ensure diversity.

Sunday, March 29, 2009
Major Cyber Spy Network Uncovered
PLEASE NOTE: An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say. They said the network had infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries.

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Powerful Banks and Government Handouts to the Rich: It's Time for Protest
On April 11th, 2009, the public will come out in cities across the country to express their frustration and disapproval with how our elected officials have handled the economic crisis. No one has been left unscathed; this protest is yours. A new grassroots, bottom-up, organization, has sprung up demanding structural change,Luckily, the legal structure needed to break up banks is already there. Call it "trustbusting 2.0."

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Pakistan Army Raid 'Kills Rebels'
Pakistan's army says troops backed by artillery and helicopter gunships have killed 26 militants in an attack near the Afghan border. The army said the battle took place in Mohmand, North-West Frontier Province, said to be a hub for Taleban militants. Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a CNN interview on Friday night the ISI had links with militants on both Pakistan's Indian & Afghan borders,

Saturday, March 28, 2009
G20 Demonstrators March in London
Police estimate 35,000 marchers are taking part in the event. Its organisers say people wanted the chance to air their views peacefully. Protesters taking part described a "carnival-like atmosphere" with brass bands, piercing whistles and stereos blasting music

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Paddling Protest At Memphis Charter School
n 2004, corporal punishment was banned by Memphis City Schools. Ever since the ban, Rayburn feels MCS has gotten out of control. Flowe says corporal punishment however, is not the way to restore it. "Today's spanked child is tomorrow's prey for a pedophile. Cause you've already shown that child this is not your body. I'll do as I please."

Saturday, March 28, 2009
NYC MARCH ON WALLSTREET: April 4th
On April 4th, massive numbers of people will be in the street in a unified and nonviolent call to cut military spending and to fund human needs and ecological sustainability. "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Top Ten Reasons to Recall Joe Arpaio
(1 comments) I have been hearing about Sheriff Arpaio, America's most disgusting sheriff, for some time. Including accusations of racism, brutality, and the like. I recently watched an Dateline on ID piece on a case where someone seems to have been framed for trying to kill Sheriff Arpaio largely as a PR stunt for the sheriff.

Friday, March 27, 2009
Investigator: NATO Countries Knew About Secret CIA Flights
NATO countries, including Germany, were aware early on that the United States was conducting secret rendition flights of terror suspects for possible torture following the attacks of September 11, 2001, says Dick Marty, who has been heading up an investigation into the flights on behalf of the Council of Europe.

Friday, March 27, 2009
US General: American Forces May Not Leave Key Iraqi Cities
In an exclusive interview, the top US ground commander in Iraq says that while Iraqi forces have made huge strides, Iraqi officials are likely to ask for US help in the key cities of Baquba and Mosul, meaning that American troops may stay there after the deadline for redeployment to major bases. Senior military commanders say US troops will also likely stay on in the southern city of Basra.

Friday, March 27, 2009
The Market Mystique
By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: March 27, 2009 The top officials in the Obama administration still believe in the magic of the financial marketplace and in the prowess of the wizards who perform that magic.

Friday, March 27, 2009
Suicide Attack Kills 48 at Pakistani Mosque
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this year

Thursday, March 26, 2009
China Fury at US Military Report
(2 comments) He[foreign minister]said Beijing had complained to Washington about it, and urged the US to "drop the Cold War thinking... to prevent further damage to the relationship between the two countries and two armies".

Thursday, March 26, 2009
N.Y. Special Election a Preview of 2010
Months before races heat up elsewhere, two candidates here are vying for an open House seat in the nation's only competitive special election - a swing district where the $787 billion stimulus law and bonuses paid to AIG executives have become key issues. The winner may provide a blueprint for how to campaign next year in an election that will decide control of Congress.

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tough Talk: EU President Says America is on 'Road to Hell'
Speaking before the European Parliament on Wednesday, Mirek Topolanek described the stimulus measures and financial bailouts passed by US President Barack Obama as the "way to hell."

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Bracket of Evil
CREDO has flowchart of who ranks lowest in the world of progressive disgust.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A Major Difference Between Conservatives and Progressives
Greenwald: The right marched in uncritical, creepy devotion to Bush for the first six years of his presidency. The left has been leading the way in criticizing Obama when warranted. Even though Obama unsurprisingly and understandably remains generally popular with Democrats and liberals alike, there is ample progressive criticism of Obama in a way that is quite healthy and that reflects a meaningful difference

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
We Need to Regulate the Financial Instruments That Took AIG Down
Up until the crash of 2008, the prevailing view -- called the efficient market hypothesis -- was that the prices of financial instruments accurately reflect all the available information (i.e. the underlying reality). But this is not true. Financial markets don't deal with the current reality, but with the future -- a matter of anticipation, not knowledge.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Just What Is a "Green Job" Anyway?
Until recently, most people had never heard of "green-collar jobs." Yet the phrase is suddenly on policymakers' tongues. President Obama has made green-collar jobs a major part of his approach to the economic crisis. On Dec. 6, he said, "We will create millions of jobs by making the single-largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s."

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
US Tightens up Violent Mexican Border
The border security policy includes the formation of a new FBI-directed Southwest Intelligence Group, relocating 100 federal agents to the border to curtail gun trafficking, and sending more federal agents to Mexico to coordinate counternarcotics operations. But it does not endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry's call for National Guard troops on the border.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Lessons from Most Successful Schools Abroad
ndeed, education trends from abroad are gaining cachet as political and educational leaders strive to bring American schools in line with the demands of the 21st-century global economy. Researchers cite effective practices from places as varied as Korea, Australia, Singapore, and Switzerland. (See story on Singapore's model and a roundup of practices in other nations.)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Is a Global Super-Currency on the Agenda?
(1 comments) IMF's little known international accounting system of special drawing rights [SDRs] has now been propelled straight into the limelight thanks to both China and Russia. However, while Soros and Truman saw the units as a means to help induce a global helicopter cash drop to kick-start the world economy and save the peripheral states from financial implosion, the Chinese and Russians are advocating the system as currency

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Pakistan's Top Judge: End Judicial Corruption
The Pakistani chief justice whose ouster sparked political turmoil called for an end to judicial corruption upon returning to court Tuesday, a day after the president - who had long blocked the judge's reinstatement - reached out to reconcile.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Stop Subsidizing Mexican Drug Gangs
According to U.S. and Mexican officials, some 60 percent of the profits that fuel these thugs come from just one drug, marijuana. While much is smuggled over the border, an increasing amount is produced in the U.S. by foreign gangs operating on American soil -- often in remote corners of national parks and wilderness areas. By taking marijuana out of the criminal underground and regulating and taxing it as we do beer, wine...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Are we Dangerously Dependent on Wikipedia?
In his new book, "The Wikipedia Revolution," Andrew Lih attempts to catch us up to speed on the history behind the virtual encyclopedia.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Spitzer for Treasury?
(2 comments) Why not bring in the man who took on Wall Street and AIG long before it was trendy? Eliot Spitzer. Call me crazy. But he foresaw the bubbles and disasters resulting from deregulatory frenzy and the financial service industry's creation of toxic credit default swaps and derivatives. As the Sherriff of Wall Street, Spitzer launched investigations lawsuits deploying the creative cudgel of the previously-obscure 1921 Martin Act

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
SOA Watch - Fr. Luis Barrios
At this moment my imprisonment in the Metropolitan Correctional Center-NYC, as a result of an act of civil disobedience against the School of the Americas, is only a personal sacrifice and the goal continues to be to close this School of Assassins. In addition, the final goal is to bring justice to the victims and to all their families.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
BofA Shareholder Looks to Oust CEO from Board
A group that owns Bank of America stock is waging a battle to get shareholders to vote against re-electing CEO Ken Lewis and two others to the bank's board of directors. Finger Interests Number One Ltd., which owns about one-fifth of one percent of Bank of America stock, said in a regulatory filing that the board disregarded protecting the interests of shareholders during its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
General: Obama's New Afghan Plan Needs Benchmarks
The much-anticipated new roadmap, as described by administration officials in recent days, is likely to stress that military might alone cannot win the war and that any strategy also must include a stronger partnership with Pakistan to tame the ungoverned border region. The senior military commander overseeing NATO said Tuesday that U.S. officials will need to set benchmarks for progress in the war. But Gen. John Craddock war

Monday, March 23, 2009
ND Univ Cancels Classes to Help with Sandbagging
High school and college students were let out of class Monday to help with sandbagging as residents raced to hold off possible flooding on the rising Red River. City officials planned to fill more than 1 million sandbags, but with more rain forecast they increased the need to nearly 2 million sandbags - about 500,000 each day by the end of the week.

Monday, March 23, 2009
Thomas A. Daschle - Health-Care Reform -- A Cause Whose Time Has Come
When I withdrew from consideration to be secretary of health and human services, some pundits said health reform had received a devastating blow. Those pundits were wrong. President Obama has assembled Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who will head the White House Office of Health Reform, who are outstanding leaders.

Monday, March 23, 2009
Los Angeles Times: Blacks Lose Ground in Job Slump
Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles - California's unemployment rate rose for the 11th straight month in February, hitting 10.5% as a recession-racked economy shed a higher-than-expected 116,000 jobs, the state reported Friday. Slowing growth in Asia bodes ill for California's trade-dependent economy.

Monday, March 23, 2009
2017 is Just Around the corner for Salmon
Squarely in the middle of this conundrum sit four broad-shouldered flood-control dams on the lower Snake River. Former Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith once famously declared that he would sooner chain himself to a Snake River dam than see the dam breached. Some of us in the press pointed out that the senator's vow could solve two of the salmons' biggest problems.

Monday, March 23, 2009
Salmon and Pesticides
Research conducted by NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Washington State University has discovered that common agricultural pesticides which attack the nervous systems of salmon can turn more deadly when they combine with other pesticides. This development is likely to underscore requirements for no spray buffer zones along salmon waterways – a requirement which agricultural groups have been fighting ever since...

Monday, March 23, 2009
Euro Currency of Choice as Fed Easing Devalues Dollar
"This is a historic moment -- the start of debasement of the world's reserve currency," wrote Alan Ruskin, head of international currency strategy in North America at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets Inc. in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It feels to many participants that in the grand sweep of history we are witnessing the end of 'Rome' on the Potomac."

Monday, March 23, 2009
Obama Commits to Plugin Hybrids, Battery Manufacturing
(1 comments) In a speech at an electric vehicle testing center, President Obama announced that $2.4 billion of US stimulus money will be spent on developing electric vehicle technology, with the goal of having a million plugin hybrids on the roads by 2015.

Monday, March 23, 2009
Russia Sees Chance to Boost US Ties
Russia may be the US's indispensable partner in any fence-mending with Tehran. And Obama's three-minute video appeal to Iran Friday raises hopes here that Moscow and Washington may also be on the path to better ties.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
US 'needs new Pakistan strategy'
Video included in this report: US strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years has not worked, Pakistan's foreign minister has said. But Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the BBC he was optimistic about US President Barack Obama's "different" approach, which is to be unveiled in coming days. He said Mr Obama understood the global impact of success or failure in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?
(1 comments) By ANDREW MARTIN Published: March 22, 2009 Advocates of organic and locally grown food have found a receptive ear in the White House, which has vowed to encourage a more nutritious and sustainable food supply.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Virtues of Public Anger and the Need for More
This anti-anger consensus among our political elites is exactly wrong. The public rage we're finally seeing is long, long overdue, and appears to be the only force with both the ability and will to impose meaningful checks on continued kleptocratic pillaging and deep-seated corruption in virtually every branch of our establishment institutions. The worst possible thing that could happen now is for this collective rage to...

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Diplomat Testifies About Legality of Iraq Invasion
Guardian article: Carne Ross, who was a first secretary at the United Nations in New York for the Foreign Office until 2004, told MPs: "A lot of facts about the run-up to this war have yet to come to light which should come to light and which the public deserves to know."

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It
The following is an excerpt from "Unquenchable: American's Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It" by Robert Glennon. Copyright 2009 Robert Glennon. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC. Editor's Note: This excerpt is from the introduction of Glennon's new book and follows a narrative about the water profligacy of Las Vegas.

Saturday, March 21, 2009
CIA Chief in Pakistan Amid Missile Strike Furor
Director of the CIA held high-level talks in Pakistan on Saturday after a provincial leader warned against expanding U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida and Taliban targets inside the country's thinly policed border with Afghanistan. Leon Panetta arrived in Pakistan on his first overseas trip since taking office as the Obama administration seeks a strategy to turn around the faltering war against Taliban militants in Afghanistan

Friday, March 20, 2009
Was Eliot Spitzer Taken Out Because He Was Going to Bust AIG?
(1 comments) lainly stated, Spitzer brings the AIG Ponzi Scheme one step closer to the revered establishment when he explains how the bailout money was funneled straight into the top players, with Goldman Sachs being the name that comes up again and again.

Friday, March 20, 2009
Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss
(3 comments) In July 2001, I myself attended an event in the Old Executive Office Building held by the Bush White House to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Chambers' death. As journalist Robert Novak spoke, I watched slack-jawed. It was as though time had been suspended for a moment and the McCarthy era had returned, as Novak lauded Richard M. Nixon and raged against the traitorous liberals who had sneered at Chambers

Friday, March 20, 2009
New Twist in the Old Saga of Under-Counting the Unemployed
"February's unemployment rate of 8.1 percent is bad news, but the unemployment picture is even worse than it looks," Over at John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics, there's an analysis suggesting that today's unemployment rate is approaching a Great Depression-like 20 percent.

Friday, March 20, 2009
US navy vessels collide in Gulf
(3 comments) Two US navy vessels have collided in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, lightly injuring 15 sailors, the US navy said. The New Orleans' fuel tank was ruptured in the crash, causing a spill of 25,000 gallons (90,000 litres) of diesel. The US Fifth Fleet, working alongside US Naval Forces Central Command, patrols an area of about 7.5 million square miles of sea in the Middle East and eastern Africa.

Friday, March 20, 2009
Military Ready to Shoot Down NKorean Missile
(1 comments) The top U.S. commander in the Pacific, Adm. Timothy Keating, told senators at a hearing that there was a "high probability" that the United States could knock down a North Korean missile. Gen. Walter Sharp, the U.S. commander in South Korea, said the threat "is real."

Friday, March 20, 2009
GOP Pressed on Health Care
House Democrats, in consultation with the White House, will give Republican lawmakers until September to reach a compromise on President Obama's signature health-care initiative -- otherwise, they will use a shortcut to move the measure through Congress without Republican votes. Senate Democrats have made no decisions about including reconciliation in their version of the budget bill.

Friday, March 20, 2009
13 Bailed-Out Banks Failed to Pay Taxes
Thirteen of the largest recipients of the government's massive bailout failed to pay more than $220 million in federal taxes, congressional investigators said yesterday, prompting a new round of accusations that banks were abusing the financial rescue program. Still, many in Congress were furious, noting that firms with the largest tax liabilities owed $113 million and $102 million.

Friday, March 20, 2009
Fed's Treasury-Bond Gambit: Mother of all Rescue Plans
By becoming a huge buyer of Treasury and mortgage-agency bonds, the Fed is basically pushing the price of those bonds up. The flip-side effect is to push down the yield, or interest rate. The effect should be to lower the borrowing costs. This should be a boon for the US government, which is issuing lots of new debt as it spends to buoy the economy. It will help home buyers and people who want to refinance mortgage loans.

Friday, March 20, 2009
Young Adults U.S., Latin America & Spain Want Reconciliation in Western Hemisphere
Zogby Poll:91% in Latin America and 81% in Spain have a favorable impression of Obama, making him more popular among First GlobalsTM in those places than in the U.S., where 63% of them were favorable. A majority of First GlobalsTM surveyed - 73% in U.S., 76% in Latin America, and 86% in Spain - believe that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is either "a dictator" or "a dictator in the making."

Friday, March 20, 2009
Massive Sun Deal Poses Challenges for IBM
Having spent nearly $19 billion over the last decade on more than 160 mergers and acquisitions, International Business Machines Corp. is clearly no stranger to deal-making. That said, Big Blue may face its biggest challenge yet in taking on Sun Microsystems Inc.(JAVA), a company that has been in a conundrum for years and is known for both developing exceptional technology and floundering in its business practices.

Thursday, March 19, 2009
New Mexico Governor Abolishes Capital Punishment
Gov. Bill Richardson, who has supported capital punishment, signed legislation to repeal New Mexico's death penalty, calling it the "most difficult decision in my political life." The new law replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The repeal takes effect on July 1, and applies only to crimes committed after that date.

Thursday, March 19, 2009
North Korean Officials Cross the Border to Arrest US Journalists
Security officials from North Korea have detained two Korean-American journalists, apparently while they were on the Chinese side of the border and filming into the closed Stalinist state. he report by South Korea's YTN channel quoted a South Korean government official as saying that the guards had crossed the border into Chinese territory to arrest the pair

Thursday, March 19, 2009
Dollar Nurses Mammoth Loss After Fed Opens Taps
The dollar attempted to recover its poise on Thursday, after its biggest one-day loss since at least 1985 as the Federal Reserve stunned investors by saying it would buy long-term debt in an effective printing of money.The dollar index, a gauge of its performance against a basket of major currencies, was flat at 84.177 .DXY after a 3 percent slide on Wednesday -- its biggest one-day drop in at least a quarter of a century.

Thursday, March 19, 2009
Is Access to Clean Water a Basic Human Right?
Government officials and leaders of numerous nongovernmental organizations and companies working on the water issue are meeting this week in Istanbul as part of the World Water Forum, which takes place every three years in a bid to shape global water policy. A declaration to be signed by the ministers of some 120 countries attending the forum is expected to refer to access to water as a "basic need," rather than a right.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Exclusive Interview with El Salvador's New President, Mauricio Funes
The message that I would like to send to President Obama is that I will not seek alliances or accords with other heads of state from the southern part of the continent that will jeopardize my relationship with the government of the United States.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Just how bad off is the Republican Party (Part 2)?
We have (roughly) ordered the list by the relative love that each state has for its Grand Old Party. While there are some places where love is not for sale, there are others where love is all around, and even some spots where hearts are growing fonder. Each entry also includes the cold, hard numeric facts about the electoral strength of the party in 2005 versus its strength today.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Physician, Heal Thy System
(1 comments) Take a look at the following map, the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which shows the variation in Medicare spending per capita, in 2006, across the U.S. In this country, we spend an average of $8,000 per person on healthcare. Now, if we were to overlay a map of the quality of care ....Pouring money into the healthcare system doesn't necessarily translate into effective treatment.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The Dishonest "Blame Dodd" Scheme from Treasury Officials
There is a major push underway -- engineered by Obama's Treasury officials, enabled by a mindless media, and amplified by the right-wing press -- to blame Chris Dodd for the AIG bonus payments. That would be perfectly fine if it were true. But it's completely false, and the scheme to heap the blame on him for the AIG bonus payments is based on demonstrable falsehoods.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Why Pakistan's President Gave in
Pakistan's government capitulated Monday to opposition demands to restore judicial independence after the country's powerful Army and the United States refused to give President Asif Ali Zardari full and unqualified backing, Pakistani and US officials said.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Rape Reports Rise in US Military
he number of incidents reported in Iraq and Afghanistan rose by about a quarter on the previous year to 163. Pentagon officials say the jump in reports suggests the department's policy of encouraging victims to come forward is bearing results. But they estimate that no more than 20% of attacks are actually reported.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Big win for Pakistan protesters
Khalid Rahman, head of the Institute for Policy Studies in Islamabad. "If this is the only decision that has taken place and later no other decision is made, I think there will be a lot of problems." The surging popularity of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif gives the ruling Pakistan People's Party an incentive to continue working with the opposition and agreeing to reforms, Mr. Rahman continues. If the PPP drags its feet...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Without a Pastor of His Own, Obama Turns to Five
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN Published: March 15, 2009 Since cutting his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the president has cultivated new ones with other pastors. [This link should supply pictures.]

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Nonprofit-Funded, University-Based News
I met Len Sellers in the mid-1990s, when he was still a journalism professor at San Francisco State University, where, among other things, he taught a newswriting course that was generally considered make-or-break for aspiring journalists, a hard-core exercise in using public documents and other reliable information sources to write solid news reports. ...he was an early believer in the possibilities of online journalism.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Gates Readies Big Cuts in Weapons
Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the officials said. More cuts are planned for later this year after a review that could lead to reductions in programs such as aircraft carriers and nuclear arms

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Add Shipping Exposure to European Banks' Woes
European banks are especially exposed to drybulk and container shipping, the fundamentals of which are "particularly weak." The S&P analysts highlighted seven banks with significant shipping exposures - DnB NO, DVB, KfW IPEX-Bank, NIBC, HSH Nordbank, Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and Nordea.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
AIG Bailout Benefited Bay Area and State
Not everyone is throwing spitballs at American International Group Inc. In fact, there are those in the Bay Area and California who might say some of its bailout money has been well spent. Take Wachovia, for example. As its takeover by San Francisco's Wells Fargo & Co. was proceeding last fall, Wachovia was getting $1.5 billion from the $173.3 billion loaned to AIG by U.S. taxpayers.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Kaiser to Cut 860 Information Technology Jobs
Kaiser Permanente is cutting 860 information technology jobs nationwide under a realignment that includes a $500 million deal giving IBM management duties at Kaiser's medical records data centers.

Monday, March 16, 2009
Election Dirty Tricks Again in Washington and El Salvador
(2 comments) Upside Down News reports: "On Tuesday El Salvador's largest circulating daily, the Diario de Hoy, published news of a letter signed by over 40 Republicans in Congress, denouncing the FMLN and warning of their links to Venezuela and Cuba. The letter expresses "grave concern that a victory by the FMLN could make links between El Salvador and the regimes of Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, and other states that promote terrorism

Monday, March 16, 2009
Holt Bill Would Create Commission to Probe 2001 Anthrax Attacks
"This is certainly not plowing over old ground or witch hunting," Holt said. "It's an unresolved case. And it really must be understood if we're going to guard against what many people say is the greatest large-scale threat facing the country, which is bio-attack and emerging biological pathogens."

Monday, March 16, 2009
Expanded Health Insurance Might Meet Shortage of Doctors
What if Congress and President Obama achieve their goal of overhauling the health care system this year, only to find there aren't enough primary care doctors for all those newly insured patients? That's a real possibility, thanks to long-term trends in medicine that have made primary care an increasingly unattractive option for new doctors. It's not a front-burner issue yet in this year's debate

Monday, March 16, 2009
Scandal: CEOs Take Our Billions and Are Accountable to No One
AIG's arguments are absurd on their face. Had AIG gone into chapter 11 bankruptcy or been liquidated, as it would have without government aid, no bonuses would ever be paid (they would have had a lower priority under bankruptcy law that AIG's debts to other creditors)

Monday, March 16, 2009
U! S! A! We're Number .... 15?
American Human Development Index (HDI), released for the first time last year. The American HDI is especially troubling because it puts all this economic gloom and doom in stark human terms. And the results are somewhat surprising: in good times as well as bad, in terms of aggregate health, education, purchasing power, security and general well-being, we have been in decline.

Monday, March 16, 2009
Left-Winger Wins El Salvador Poll
Leftist Mauricio Funes of El Salvador's former Marxist rebel FMLN party has won the country's presidential election. He defeated his conservative rival, the Arena party's Rodrigo Avila, who has admitted defeat. Arena had won every presidential election since the end of El Salvador's civil war 18 years ago.

Monday, March 16, 2009
Days of Depression are Recalled
Finally, I found someone who grew up the way I did! Our mode of travel was an old farm wagon pulled by a team of mules. All roads had a dirt surface, and were very muddy when it rained. It was eight or 10 miles to a store, and 20 or more miles to a doctor's office. We raised most of what we ate and raised chickens to trade for things like flour, sugar, salt and pepper. We had no money, no electricity, or phone.

Monday, March 16, 2009
Tarp Nation TARP, also
Fresno, which the Brookings Institution ranked in 2005 as the American city with the greatest concentration of poverty, is far from the only place where people are resorting to life in makeshift abodes. Similar encampments are proliferating throughout the West, everywhere from the industrial hub of Ontario, Calif., to the struggling casino district of Reno, Nev., and the upscale suburbs of Washington state.

Monday, March 16, 2009
Redefining Rancher Politics (Where's the Beef?)
Independent-minded ranchers founded R-CALF -- which stands for Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund -- in 1990 to oppose such corporate power and make a political thrust they felt they weren't getting from the biggest ranchers' group, the Denver-based National Cattlemen's Beef Association. That association draws funding from corporate meatpackers and chemical giants such as Monsanto

Monday, March 16, 2009
Would You Want to Live Near a Wind Farm?
The amount of electricity produced by wind power is going to grow. Eight Western states now have standards requiring that utilities generate between 15 and 33 percent of their power from renewable sources within the next 15 years. Four Western states – California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado -- are already among the top producers of wind energy in the nation.

Sunday, March 15, 2009
Police and Protesters Clash in Pakistan
By JANE PERLEZ Published: March 16, 2009 A government crackdown erupted into a fierce clash between police and members of opposition parties and lawyers.

Saturday, March 14, 2009
Even More than Race, the South Is About Exploiting Workers
(1 comments) Cheap labor. Even more than race, it's the thread that connects all of Southern history-from the ante-bellum South of John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis to Tennessee's Bob Corker, Alabama's Richard Shelby and the other anti-union Southerners in today's U.S. Senate.

Saturday, March 14, 2009
Rebuttal to Chris Hedges: Stop the Tired Overpopulation Hysteria
(2 comments) While world population is projected to increase from 6.7 billion today to about 9 billion in 2050, the rate of growth has slowed considerably. The average number of children born to a woman in the Global South is now 2.75, and the UN predicts this figure will drop to 2.05 by 2050. The war on population always has been, and will continue to be, a war on women's bodies.

Saturday, March 14, 2009
In El Salvador, Cautious Optimism On What a Progressive Win Would Mean for U.S. Relations
El Salvador's election on March 15 is an occasion for Salvadorans to consider future relations with the United States and the new Obama Administration. And it may also be an opportunity for Obama to begin fulfilling his campaign promise to "lead the hemisphere into the 21st Century."

Friday, March 13, 2009
Pakistan's Sharif Capitalizes on Lawyers' March
Nawaz Sharif has become the man of the hour in Pakistan, poised to add tens of thousands of followers to a nationwide protest against the government. The opposition leader's transformation from disciple of a military dictator to champion for the rule of law highlights how strong popular demand for democratic reform has grown here.

Friday, March 13, 2009
China Tries Peddling its Wares in "¦ China
(2 comments) Organized by the Beijing Department of Commerce, the sales drive is designed both to introduce ailing exporters to new markets and to encourage consumers to spend money on goods they may never have seen before. It has been a hit with shoppers. The mall's doors were mobbed well before opening Thursday morning, as security men with bullhorns tried to keep order among the hordes.

Friday, March 13, 2009
US Urges a Global Economic Fix
On March 11, Secretary Geithner outlined an ambitious international agenda, including a 10-fold increase, to as much as $500 billion, in the size of the reserves that the IMF can draw upon to help countries in economic trouble. The second major item on the US agenda for the global finance meetings is an attempt to cajole other developed nations into spending more to stimulate economic demand in their own countries.

Friday, March 13, 2009
Kenya's Power-Sharing Report Card: 'Unsatisfactory'
Kenya was becoming one of those countries that other African nations model themselves after – with stable governance, decent courts, high levels of education, and robust independent watchdog activist groups – when postelection violence set rival parties on a dangerous path in December 2007. Kenyan politicians have done little to address the highly charged issues of land ownership, poverty & inequality.

Friday, March 13, 2009
German Industry is 'War Zone' as Recession Causes Export Collapse
Output slumped 7.5pc in January – the biggest monthly slide since reunification in 1991 – and a staggering 19.3pc lower than the same month last year. Independent forecasters expect the economy to shrink 3.7pc this year although Berlin is sticking to its own prediction of a 2.25pc fall.

Friday, March 13, 2009
Stop the Presses? Many Americans Wouldn't Care a Lot if Local Papers Folded
(1 comments) As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community "a lot." Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

Friday, March 13, 2009
Chavez Takes Over Transport Llinks
(2 comments) This change to the law on decentralisation puts the control of key transport and maritime links out of the hands of the states and under the control of the executive for what the government calls "strategic reasons"....he intends to run again for office in 2012 and has talked of remaining in power until 2021.

Friday, March 13, 2009
Minority Meltdown - CRA and Bad Loans
It was a stunning revelation: Illegal immigrants hold 5 million bad mortgages in the United States. Conservative commentators pounced on the statistic last October. Many of them were already blaming immigrants for the subprime mortgage mess. Now they had numerical proof, and from no less an authority than the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Just one problem: It wasn't true.

Friday, March 13, 2009
U.S. Anti-Gay Leaders Holding Seminar In Uganda
A bizarre trio of American anti-gay leaders arrived in the Ugandan capital of Kampala Thursday to stage a three-day seminar, "Exposing the Truth Behind Homosexuality and the Homosexual Agenda," in a country where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death.

Friday, March 13, 2009
Debate Over Banks Repaying Bailout Money Early
Wells Fargo & Co. may be looking to pay back the $25 billion in federal bailout money it received last fall ahead of schedule, as the rules imposed on financial institutions that accepted funds turn increasingly austere, industry analysts say. Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf signaled the possibility last week, when the San Francisco bank announced it was cutting its common stock dividend by 85 percent.

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Zinn: Obama "Is Going to Need Demonstrations and Protest and Letters and Petitions"
(25 comments) Last month in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to attend a performance of Voices of a People's History, the groundbreaking show conceived by historian Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, and Anthony Arnove, co-editor of Voices of a People's History and author of books including Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal (New Press). Blending historical narrative with spoken word -- and some spunky bluegrass

Thursday, March 12, 2009
"Executive Assassination Ring" Answered to Cheney, Had No Congressional Oversight
At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota [Monday] legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring."

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Chas Freeman Signals 'Israel Lobby' Was Behind His Downfall
(3 comments) Freeman letter: "The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Obama: Troop Move to Mexican Border under Consideration
President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move. "We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense,"

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Omnibus bill's Hidden Item: a Democratic Rift
But the omnibus spending package – 160 days overdue – also highlights unexpected rifts between Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, hinting at an unresolved power play already seeping into the next budget cycle.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Doing Time--Outside Prison
America's crowded prisons are budget busters for states trying to cinch their fiscal belts. One solution, not without risk or debate, is to put more offenders back on the street – under better supervision. A recent study suggests it would work to keep society safe and save money. The cost of imprisonment versus supervision differs wildly. A prisoner costs state governments about $79 a day today, 3 to 4, outside

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Live Webcast: Hate Groups in America
Live webcast Register here SPLC President Richard Cohen and Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, will host a live webcast at 2 p.m. (EDT) on March 18 to discuss the SPLC's recently released annual count of hate groups

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Bay Area technology Google & Options
Google Inc. said Tuesday that employees traded in 93 percent of their underwater stock options for new ones at a lower price, under a program aimed at keeping workers motivated.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Democrats Lean Heavily on Big Freshman Class
The Senate Democratic Class of 2008 already ranks as one of the biggest groups of majority party newcomers in modern times. This year, the seven Democrats who were elected for the first time last fall have been joined by four people appointed to succeed senators who left

Monday, March 9, 2009
Russians Push for Global Disarmament Talks
Russia's foreign minister called Saturday for an end to a decade of failure in global disarmament talks, seeking to build on an upbeat meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sergey Lavrov said a stalemate at the Conference on Disarmament on issues from atomic bombs to space weapons can be broken now

Monday, March 9, 2009
Pakistan's Tenuous Gains on Taliban
(1 comments) ..this time may be different. In the tribal agency of Bajaur, the military for the first time made significant headway before observing a truce. To build on these gains, counter terrorism analysts say Pakistan must use the lull in fighting to bring in as much security and development as possible to Bajaur and to Swat, where a separate cease-fire deal was made.A test of progress will be if refugees in camps in Peshawar go home

Monday, March 9, 2009
Professors Could Rescue Newspapers
So here's a novel idea: Let's get university professors to do it. For real. And, best of all, free of charge. Remember, most professors aren't paid for what they write now. When I publish an article in an academic journal, I don't earn a cent. But I also don't engage more than a handful of readers, mainly fellow specialists in my own field.

Monday, March 9, 2009
United, Newspapers May Stand
A place to voice on opinion to NYTimes: It is time for newspapers to get together and figure out a new business model.

Monday, March 9, 2009
A Spectre is Haunting America
Nationalization is the best option. And it will work much better if it's done forthrightly, It could let the insolvent banks fail, as it did in the early years of the Depression. (Of course, when Paulson and Bernanke allowed only one investment bank, Lehman Brothers, to collapse, the crisis deepened.) It could try to bail out the banks in some way, which was the path of Bush and now Obama.

Monday, March 9, 2009
On the Origin of Bankers' Giant Bonuses
Bankers prefer the elephant seal theory: the humongous bonus packages are essential to attract top executives who otherwise would be nabbed by a rival. Bailed-out bankers grumble that the pay caps imposed by the Obama administration will allow better-financed hedge funds to swoop down and poach the best from their ranks.

Monday, March 9, 2009
Health Sector Has Donated Millions to Lawmakers
Health insurers and their employees contributed $2.2 million to the top 10 recipients in the House and Senate since 2005, while drug makers and their employees gave more than $3.3 million to top lawmakers during that period, according to an analysis of federal elections data by Consumer Watchdog, a California-based advocacy group.

Sunday, March 8, 2009
Reimagining Socialism
Ehrenreich: If you haven't heard socialists doing much crowing over the fall of capitalism, it isn't just because there aren't enough of us to make an audible crowing sound. We, as much as anyone on Wall Street in, say, 2006, appreciate the resilience of American capitalism--its ability to regroup and find fresh avenues for growth, as it did after the depressions of 1877, 1893 and the 1930s.

Friday, March 6, 2009
Food Problems Elude Private Inspectors
By MICHAEL MOSS and ANDREW MARTIN Published: March 6, 2009 Food manufacturers are increasingly hiring private auditors, but problems with contamination remain.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
NATO Renews Russia Ties
NATO agreed on Thursday to resume formal ties with Russia, suspended after Moscow's war with Georgia, in the hope of winning greater Russian support for its struggle to stabilise Afghanistan. "We can and must find ways to work constructively with Russia where we share areas of common interest, including helping the people of Afghanistan," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. Russia immediately welcomed the move

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Automakers Worldwide Seek Government Help Amid Collapsing Sales
The worst global slump in auto sales in 50 years has led to car makers in Europe, Japan and the United States to seek assistance from their governments. Car sales have not declined this sharply since the recession year of 1958.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
No Legal Shield in Drug Labeling, Justices Rule
By ADAM LIPTAK Published: March 5, 2009 The Supreme Court said a drug company was not protected from injury claims merely because the government had approved the products and labeling.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
It's the Pot Economy, Stupid
(1 comments) It looks like the pot debate just got real. As the nation faces its worst economic crisis in generations, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a trailblazing bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Hard on the heels of Michael Phelps' nationally-resonant bong demo, Ammiano's gesture is a whole lot more intentional.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
A Small Wedding Day Detour
(1 comments) A pretty flower in a greenhouse is, well, just another pretty flower. But put it in a pot and take it someplace where beauty and light are in short supply, and that flower becomes special, like a rainbow in a storm.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
As Recession Saps Demand, a World Awash in Oil
Does this portend making of a depression? Supertankers that once raced around the world to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for oil are now parked offshore, fully loaded, anchors down, their crews killing time. In the United States, vast storage farms for oil are almost out of room.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Midwest Moving on Plan to Reduce Carbon Emissions
(1 comments) Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Manitoba Province in Canada, call for a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon dioxide emissions by 15 to 25 percent by 2020 and 60 to 80 percent by 2050. Northeastern states already have such a pact.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Ritter Certifies Federal Stimulus Projects
Ritter said Tuesday he told Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that 18 projects worth $145 million are ready to go. The governor says he will have a list of projects for the rest of the $280 million in the coming months.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Stimulus Money Will Aid Schools, Pa. Governor Says
Federal stimulus money will help ease the pain of difficult budget decisions ahead for Pennsylvania's public school districts and four state-related universities, Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday. The influx of federal money will allow the state to dedicate $418 million - rather than the lower, $300 million

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Ex-Gen Re Executive Gets 1 Year in Prison
Christopher Garand, 61, was also fined $150,000 for his role in the case, which authorities say cost AIG shareholders more than $500 million. Garand is one of five former executives convicted in the case.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
2 Blasts Strike Myanmar's Biggest City
Witnesses said the first blast took place at about 9:40 p.m. at a small park in western Yangon near Myeinigone junction. The witnesses said the second blast, shortly after 11 p.m., occurred by a bus stop next to another park at Kamayut junction, another busy thoroughfare. Several truckloads of solders were quickly deployed to the area.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Obama Pressured by Israel Lobby to Boycott World Conference Against Racism
New Bush administration & Durbin One. Now comes "Durbin Two."....with its very dangerous boycott of Durban II in response to pressure from the very powerful Israel Lobby , the Obama Administration may be giving the green light to governments and other groups practicing their own brand of racial discrimination, promoting hatred and other forms of discrimination.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Peter Gleick: How We Can Avoid a World Without Water
(3 comments) A report from the World Economic Forum warned that in only twenty years our civilization may be facing "water bankruptcy" -- shortfalls of fresh water so large and pervasive that global food production could crater, meaning that we'd lose the equivalent of the entire grain production of the US and India combined.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Desalination, With a Grain of Salt A California Perspective
The potential benefits of ocean desalination are great, but the economic, cultural, and environmental costs of wide commercialization remain high. In many parts of the world, alternatives can provide the same freshwater benefits of ocean desalination at far lower economic and environmental costs. (includes link to Pacific Institute report)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Mercenary King Erik Prince Resigns as Blackwater CEO
Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater's new name and Prince's resignation come following the State Department's recent announcement that it would not be renewing Blackwater's security contract in Iraq. Some have speculated that many of its operatives may be rehired by the State Department through other companies or the Department itself. Moreover, Blackwater still holds lucrative government contracts in Afghanistan

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
China Readies Military Space Station
China is aggressively accelerating the pace of its manned space program by developing a 17,000 lb. man-tended military space laboratory planned for launch by late 2010. The mission will coincide with a halt in U.S. manned flight with phase-out of the shuttle.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A Faith-Based Fix
The office will be devoted to four initiatives that the president has signaled will be co-equal priorities for his first term: fighting poverty, reducing abortions, promoting responsible fatherhood and encouraging interfaith dialogue. The advisory council, which is not yet fully staffed-only 15 of the 25 proposed members have been selected-broadly reflects these priorities.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
If It's "Too Big to Fail," Then It's Too Big to Be Private
David Sirota: I appeared yesterday at the top of Neil Cavuto's Fox News show to discuss the potential for financial industry nationalization. You can watch the clip here. I tried to use the opportunity to float a fairly simple - and old-fashioned - concept: If something is "too big to fail," then it's too big to be in private hands.

Monday, March 2, 2009
Clashes in Nicaragua Show Sandinistas Control the Streets
The increasing intolerance and polarization that has defined Nicaraguan society for the past two years under President Daniel Ortega's Government of Reconciliation and National Unity was again evident on Saturday, as pro-government Sandinista supporters clashed violently with opposition groups protesting last year's alleged electoral fraud and what they say is the return to dictatorship in Nicaragua.

Monday, March 2, 2009
And Now, Twitter Philanthropy
Welcome to the age of "social giving." Spurred on by the success of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, campaigns like the Twestival, which was organized on the microblogging platform Twitter, are changing the landscape of modern philanthropy, say industry insiders

Monday, March 2, 2009
In U.S., Some Executives Step Down to Lower-Paying Jobs
Interviews with more than two dozen laid-off professionals across the United States, including architects, former sales managers and executives who have taken on stopgap jobs to help make ends meet, found that they were working for places like United Parcel Service, a Verizon Wireless call center and a liquor store.

Monday, March 2, 2009
House of Cards (Credit Cards) - Video
"We took on a level of debt that no working class in any country at any time in the history of this planet ever did before," Wolff said. "The fundamental issue is that we've run out of ways to keep this going. The wages are not going up and the credit is now tapped out."

Monday, March 2, 2009
The Pentagon Meets the Real World
For the Pentagon to stay within a $534 billion budget ceiling, it will have to make cuts in expensive and outdated cold-war weapons systems.

Monday, March 2, 2009
Corrections and Public Safety - Pew Center on States
The size and cost of America's prison system has skyrocketed during the last few decades, largely as a result of laws and policies that put more offenders behind bars and keep them there longer. Yet recidivism rates remain stubbornly high, and crime still is a major public concern. State policy makers across the nation are asking whether soaring prison budgets are the best path to public safety.

Monday, March 2, 2009
C.I.A. Destroyed 92 Interrogation Tapes
By MARK MAZZETTI Published: March 3, 2009 The agency destroyed 92 videotapes documenting the harsh interrogations of two Al Qaeda suspects, a greater number than previously acknowledged.

Sunday, March 1, 2009
Doomed to Repeat History in Afghanistan?
If the new American team has some new ideas about how to succeed in Afghanistan, now would be the time to lay them out. Nothing that Alexander the Great, Queen Victoria or Leonid Brezhnev tried in their attempts to subdue the quarrelsome Afghan tribes worked, and nothing we've tried in the last eight years has, either. Kipling: "When wounded and left on Afghanistan's plain "And the women come out to cut up your remains"

Sunday, March 1, 2009
Health Care Reform Is Needed Now More Than Ever
In the short run, health care spending, like other government spending on goods and services, creates jobs and generates income. This will help arrest the economy's downward spiral. The Obama health care plan won't eliminate most of these perverse incentives and waste - eventually we will need a truly national, single-payer system like Medicare to accomplish that. But it would be a big step in that direction

Friday, February 27, 2009
Americans in Appalachia Are Living in a State of Terror
Like sitting ducks waiting to be buried in an avalanche of mountain waste, we are trapped in a war zone within our own country. Quote: These mountains are our home. My family roots are deep in these mountains. We homesteaded this area in the 1820s. This is where I was born. This is where I will die.

Friday, February 27, 2009
James Galbraith: Obama Isn't Doing Enough to Solve the Financial Crisis
Six points of disagreement and a summary: The bottom line, Galbraith emphasizes, is that he believes "we are not in a temporary economic lull, an ordinary recession, from which we will emerge to return to business-as-usual." Instead, he says, "We are at the beginning of a long, profound, painful process of change." On that last bit, at least, Galbraith and the Obama administration can probably agree.

Friday, February 27, 2009
Will Legalizing Pot Save California from its Cash Crunch?
(1 comments) California state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has announced the introduction of legislation to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcoholic beverages. The bill, the first of its kind ever introduced in California, would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine, and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession by those under 21.

Friday, February 27, 2009
Obama Admininistration to Put a Stop to Medical Marijuana Raids
(1 comments) Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law. His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, and marks a major shift from the previous administration.

Friday, February 27, 2009
10 Reasons Why Conservatives' Fiscal Ideas Are Dangerous
Yes, it's true. The conservatives -- that's right, the very same folks who just dragged us along on an eight-year drunken binge during which they borrowed-and-spent us into the deepest financial catastrophe in nearly a century -- are now standing there, faces full of moral rectitude, fingers pointing and shaking in our faces, righteously lecturing the rest of us on the topic of "fiscal responsibility."

Friday, February 27, 2009
Gates Set to Leave Deeper Imprint on Pentagon?
The Obama administration's new budget, unveiled Thursday, actually raises the Pentagon's baseline budget by 4 percent over the current fiscal year. But that money must support a bigger rank-and-file force, better help for disabled veterans, and some spending that previously had been lumped in with separate war costs. In the end, it means Gates must force greater fiscal discipline on the military

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Drug Cartel's Tentacles Stretch Across the US
Seeking to stem the growing influence of the Sinaloa cartel within the United States, federal agents arrested more than 50 suspects in raids Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at different ends of the country. The raids capped a 21-month operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration that rounded up 755 suspects and seized more than $59 million in criminal proceeds.

Thursday, February 26, 2009
China Agrees $10 Billion Trade Deal With Germany
Export powerhouses China and Germany vowed to strengthen bilateral trade Wednesday, Feb. 25, as their trade ministers oversaw the signing of a raft of business contracts worth more than $10 billion (7.85 billion euros).

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Hate Group Numbers Up By 54% Since 2000
The SPLC identified 926 hate groups active in 2008, up more than 4 percent from the 888 groups in 2007 and far above the 602 groups documented in 2000. A list and interactive, state-by-state map of these groups can be viewed here. Extremists are also exploiting the economic crisis, spreading propaganda that blames minorities and immigrants for the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Stimulus Give Jobless $25 Raise, More Benefits
The federal stimulus act provides help for the unemployed, including a $25-per-week raise, more time to qualify for extended benefits, a partial federal tax break on unemployment compensation and subsidized health-insurance premiums. States that pass certain laws could get additional federal unemployment benefits.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Obama Code per George Lakoff
The word "code" can refer to a system of either communication or morality. President Obama has integrated the two. The Obama Code is both moral and linguistic at once. The President is using his enormous skills as a communicator to express a moral system. As he has said, budgets are moral documents. His economic program is tied to his moral system and is discussed in the Code, as are just about all of his other policies.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Financiers Used "Hotline" to SEC Examiners
During the hearing, Congressman Lynch said that current and former SEC employees complained to him about the existence of a "hotline" used by Wall Street firms to call directly to top SEC officials to "stop an investigation or slow it down.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
On the Road, for Reasons Practical and Spiritual
Mr. Cohen will embark on a two-month North American tour, including a performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 17 and an appearance at Radio City Music Hall on May 16. In addition, songs from the concert he played last Thursday at the Beacon Theater will begin streaming online on Thursday on the National Public Radio Web site (npr.org/music or nprmusic.org).

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Pakistan puzzle - Video explaining Swat, etc.
Gareth Porter is a historian and investigative journalist on US foreign and military policy analyst. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. Author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. And Gore Vidal, plus a plug for the site who brought this.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Experts Say Pakistan is on Trajectory to Failure
"Time is running out," said the Atlantic Council, which called for more training and deploying another 15,000 police within six months to bring law and order to the country. "Given the tools and the financing, Pakistan can turn back from the brink," the report said. "But for that to happen it needs help now." John Kerry and former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., are the Atlantic Council's honorary chairmen. Hagel is chair.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Konarka Receives $5 Million Loan for Manufacturing and Job Creation
Konarka Technologies, Inc., a provider of development and commercialization of Konarka Power Plastic, a material that converts light to energy, announced the company has received $5 million in financing in connection with its recently opened production facility in the city of New Bedford. Found at DGA (Democratic Governors Association) newsletter.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Foundation Grows \"Green Jobs\"
"Our firm belief is that a healthy economy and a healthy environment are inextricably linked," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said in a statement. "At a critical time in our history, this partnership will help our residents to develop highly marketable skills while meeting 21st century job demands in the energy and environmental sectors."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Doyle: Touts Potential for High-Speed Rail
Ambitions to build a high-speed passenger rail network connecting Chicago and Minneapolis, with stops in Milwaukee and Madison, took a step forward Wednesday when Gov. Jim Doyle rode a bullet train across Spain and effused about the potential to use federal stimulus money to bring the idea to the Midwest. "It has tremendous potential for economic development for our region," Doyle said in a conference call from Spain. The g

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Middle Class Task Force Meets Fri in Philadelphia
Green jobs, where are they and how to get them, will be the focus when President Barack Obama's task force on middle-class working families formally begins its work Friday in Philadelphia. The panel, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, will hear from experts on the potential to create and fill these jobs.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Pakistan Foreign Minister Pushes US for Drones
Pakistan's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country has asked the United States to provide unmanned aircraft that would allow Pakistan to strike extremists hiding in rugged terrain along the Afghan border. "We feel that if the technology is transferred to Pakistan, Pakistan will be in a better position to determine how to use the technology....(Shah Mahmood Qureshi)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
PG&E bankrolling solar plants
The utility announced plans Tuesday for a five-year program to build enough solar projects throughout its territory to generate as much as 500 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same output as a mid-size fossil fuel power plant. Using money from a proposed increase in electricity bills, PG&E would own half of those plants and buy power from the rest.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hearst Wants 'Significant' Cuts at Chronicle
The Hearst Corp. on Tuesday announced an effort to reverse the deepening operating losses of its San Francisco Chronicle by seeking near-term cost savings that would include "significant" cuts to both union and nonunion staff.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Gannett Slashes Dividend 90 Pct, Saving $325M
Gannett Co. is slashing the dividend on its stock for the first time in its history as the largest U.S. newspaper publisher finally succumbs to the financial squeeze that has triggered similar moves by its cash-strapped brethren.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hurtgen Pleads Guilty in Pay-to-Play Scheme
former senior managing director at Bear Stearns & Co. entered a guilty plea today in the ongoing investigation into state corruption during the tenure of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. P. Nicholas Hurtgen, of Glencoe, agreed to plea guilty to one count in a wide-ranging indictment that accused him of helping convicted influence peddler Stuart Levine in a pay-to-play scheme at the state hospital planning board.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Army Charity Hoards Millions
Between 2003 and 2007 - as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures - Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid, according to an AP analysis of its tax records.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Questions Raised about Rahm Emanuel's Housing Arrangement in D.C.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's Washington lodging arrangements, a rent-free basement room in a Capitol Hill home owned by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn) and her pollster husband, have inspired debate among tax experts and in Republican-leaning parts of the blogosphere. Emanuel has stayed in the basement room of the home for free during House sessions for approximately five years, according to the Hartford Courant.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
GOP's Rossi, others say Locke would be good pick
Gary Locke is best known as a wonk. Now the Democrat politician who was more prudent than flashy might be up for a national post.His job would be to oversee a hodgepodge of national programs that, like his gubernatorial tenure, include the nerdy and the international -- but areas that generally receive relatively little fanfare. "He is well liked in China, knows President Hu Jintao and is with a well-connected law firm

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
No Word from White House Re HHS Appointment
Sebelius said the NGA created a window for "a lot of great conversation" with the Democratic president, but she indicated nothing yet had risen to the level of a job interview for HHS

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Burris Tells Durbin He Will Not Resign.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) held a 59-minute meeting Tuesday with embattled Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and afterwards said Burris told him he will not resign.Durbin said he would if he were in his shoes. Durbin said he told Burris he would not support his candidacy in 2010

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Congress Easing Restrictions on Cuba Travel
Once signed by Obama, the legislation would allow Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba once a year to visit relatives, spend up to $170 a day and visit for an unlimited duration.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Freed, British Detainee Details Abuses
Mohamed's arrival in Britain is expected to add urgency to calls for an investigation into the possible knowledge by British intelligence agents of Mohamed's harsh treatment, including allegations of routine beatings, druggings, and cuttings with a scalpel. Some analysts say it may also increase pressure for a US investigation of controversial tactics used in the Bush administration's war on terror

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
For Pakistan's Swat Residents, Uneasy Calm
MINGORA, PAKISTAN - Residents of the troubled Swat Valley are breathing a little more easily following the announcement of a cease-fire between the Pakistani government and Taliban forces last week, though uncertainty remains over how long peace can last.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
US Rep. George Miller asks GAO to Investigate Cases of Abuse of Schoolchildren
Thanks to OEN member Julie Worley, I found this information: GAO to Investigate Cases of Abuse and Neglect of School Children at Rep. Millers's request. Earlier this month, the National Disability Rights Network released a report detailing hundreds of cases where abusive uses of seclusion and restraint by school staff injured or traumatized schoolchildren, many with disabilities.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Cleveland Native Rev. Otis Moss III Celebrates Black History Month
...with the national staff of the United Church of Christ. (Moss replaced Reverend Wright in Chicago). A capacity crowd filled the Amistad Chapel at the UCC's Cleveland headquarters on Feb. 18 to hear the Rev. Otis Moss III deliver the sermon, "We're Not There Yet," based on the first chapter of Joshua.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
State Foreclosure Moratorium has Wide Loopholes
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a 90-day moratorium on California home foreclosures on Friday, but consumer advocates argue wide loopholes will prevent the legislation from significantly slowing repossessions. A state law passed last year increased the required period from first notification to final sale by 30 days, to a total of 141.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Officials: Most Troops out of Iraq in 18 Months
President Barack Obama plans to remove all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, administration officials said Tuesday, ending the war that defined his upstart presidential campaign three months later than he had promised. The withdrawal plan - an announcement could come as early as this week - calls for leaving a large contingent of troops behind, between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, to advise and train Iraqi security

Monday, February 23, 2009
Decriminalizing Drugs Could Stop the Violence on the Border
en people were killed in a rolling shootout in Nogales this fall. South of there, a paramilitary convoy of criminals invaded the town of Cananea. Things are even more grisly along the Texas border. During recent weeks, these headlines appeared in Juarez news outlets: Five motorcyclists slain in front of seafood restaurant; 11 slain in Juarez in 20 hours; Three severed heads found in ice chest. All in all, at least 5,000 peopl

Monday, February 23, 2009
How long do we wait for clean coal?
Burning coal to produce energy releases pollution and particulates that cause respiratory ailments, acid rain and smog. Washing coal before burning it and using scrubbers in smokestacks helps alleviate some of these problems, and these techniques are certainly an advance over yesteryear's carefree, pollution-strewing approach. But washing and scrubbers fail to remove carbon dioxide, a major cause of global warming.

Monday, February 23, 2009
More Employers Fight Unemployment Benefits
But for a growing proportion of 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. With each successful claim raising a company's costs, many firms resist letting employees collect the benefit if they consider it undeserved.

Monday, February 23, 2009
Irresponsible, Thy Name Is Peterson
By Bill Scher February 20th, 2009 In advance of Monday's "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" at the White House, summit participant Pete Peterson and his foundation launched a $1 million ad campaign, irresponsibly peddling false information about the nation's budget. What's more irresponsible than using one's massive wealth to misinform the public and pressure politicians to make life worse for senior citizens?

Monday, February 23, 2009
America's Municipal Meltdown: It's Tough Times for Troubled Towns
Just one of many examples, chosen by me - familiar with its war effort summer of 42 - Editor: Similarly, the Wall Street Journal profiled the plight of Rockford, Illinois, an industrial city about 90 miles northwest of Chicago with 12.5% unemployment, the highest in the state, a shortfall of $7.6 million in the city's budget, streets filled with "gaping potholes" and a "city center... rife with vacant storefronts."

Monday, February 23, 2009
10 Dirty Tricks Wall Street Con Artists Will Pull to Keep the Rip-offs Going
Yes, Wall Street's running a handicap race on a bad playing field, a rotten economy. Yes, the pressure's enormous. But if Wall Street wants to get its hands back in the magic cookie jar soon, it has no choice. It must get super-clever super-fast and jump-start a roaring new bull for the rest of America's 95 million investors, quickly. Get it? Wall Street must deliver a new bull market, fast and soon

Monday, February 23, 2009
Screw Big Chain Franchises: Support Your Local Bar!
I recently passed a Manhattan milestone; the death of my local bar. In a daze, I watched workmen plunge buzz saws into the old oak bar, rip up the green sofa, toss out antique etchings of Ireland and Yankees of yore. When I beheld the new tenant, Dunkin' Donuts

Monday, February 23, 2009
Janet Napolitano Is Just Finessing Bush's Crackdown on Migrant Workers
As Arizona governor, Napolitano deployed the National Guard to the border to assist the Border Patrol. Now as DHS chief, she is exploring new DHS cooperation with Guard units. She asks: "What overarching plans exist for coordinating with the Guard at the border?

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Stimulus is the Right Medicine for Missouri Now
Editorial: Before they get hamstrung by ideology, those lawmakers ought consider a study published this week in the policy journal Health Affairs. It tallies some of the still-accruing costs of Missouri's disastrous 2005 Medicaid cuts.

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Health-care Holes Make Iowan Suffer
The state launched the IowaCare program in 2005 to recoup federal Medicaid dollars it was losing and plug holes that low-income people were falling through. The true fix needs to come from outside Iowa - in Washington, D.C. The newly elected Congress and president need to reform this country's health-care system. All Americans need access to basic health insurance, similar to what seniors on Medicare have.

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Gov. Doyle (Wisconsin): On the road to recovery
People across the nation will feel a direct impact from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Here in Wisconsin, it is estimated that we will be able to create or save 70,000 jobs, and provide Pell Grants to 91,500 students and tax credits to 2.2 million hardworking families under the new law.

Sunday, February 22, 2009
State and Local Health Leaders Remain Concerned Slow Economy Could Lead to Funding Cuts
"Public health continues to see increases in demands for services with fewer dollars available. We cannot afford to reduce funding for public health programs, we must maintain what we have until additional funding is approved," said Rex A. Allman, M.D., president of the Indiana Association of Public Health Officers and health officer for the Pulaski County Health Department.

Sunday, February 22, 2009
How Would You Spend $500 Million in Taxpayer Money?
(1 comments) It appears more and more likely that a new, iconic structure will rise on Lakeside Avenue in downtown Cleveland in the coming years. It will be the gateway to a medical market-convention center, Cleveland's Acropolis. Backers say the huge complex will lift our medically rich city to a new status, making us a world hub of medical trade shows. Maybe.

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Pakistan to Arm Village Militias to Fight Terror
A Pakistani border region struggling against Taliban and al-Qaida militants will distribute 30,000 rifles to villagers in hopes that local militias can help the provincial government regain control, a top official said Sunday. The announcement from the North West Frontier Province came after Pakistan's government announced a seemingly conflicting deal in the Swat Valley - a Taliban stronghold within the province - to impose

Saturday, February 21, 2009
Krugman: Who Will Stop the Economic Pain?
(1 comments) FED open market committee: "All participants anticipated that unemployment would remain substantially above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011, even absent further economic shocks; a few indicated that more than five to six years would be needed for the economy to converge to a longer-run path characterized by sustainable rates of output growth and unemployment and by an appropriate rate of inflation."

Saturday, February 21, 2009
Al Franken Opens Up on His Recount Battle, Rush Limbaugh and Recession Politics
Franken: Well, I've been certified as the winner of the recount. So I just want to be fair to everybody. When I was certified by the state canvassing board as the winner of the recount, Coleman, as is his right, filed a legal contest contesting the outcome of the recount. And that was January 6th, the day that I could've been seated as the winner of the recount

Saturday, February 21, 2009
Analysis: Obama Faces Split Opinion on Iraq Future
Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has steered clear of the debate over withdrawing from Iraq. But he sees his battlefield as an increasingly urgent priority, not just for additional combat troops but also for Iraq-focused surveillance aircraft and more civilian support. There are now about 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, compared with 38,000 in Afghanistan. Obama has directed 17,000 more to head to Afg

Friday, February 20, 2009
Brazil Aircraft Maker to Cut Jobs
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer is to lay off more than 4,000 employees as a result of the global economic downturn, it has said. The cuts will affect about 20% of the firm's global workforce. It has offices in Brazil, Asia, the US and Europe.

Friday, February 20, 2009
Russians Retrench as Crisis Evokes Memories of 1998 'Nightmare
The government expects the economy to shrink 2.2 percent this year after expanding about 7 percent a year since 1999. Already, household incomes have sunk with the 35 percent plunge in the ruble against the dollar since Aug. 1 and inflation surged to 13.4 percent in January because of the cost of imported goods.

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Nearly 5 Million are Getting Unemployment benefits
The number of laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits has jumped to an all-time high near 5 million while new jobless claims remain well above 600,000. Both figures were worse than expected and new projections from the Federal Reserve show unemployment rising for the rest of this year.

Thursday, February 19, 2009
KKK Fliers Found in Lawns, Driveways
Nashville neighborhood report finding fliers supporting a Ku Klux Klan faction inserted into unrelated and apparently unwitting free publications thrown onto their lawns and driveways. It had a link to the Harrison, Ark.-based Ku Klux Klan The Knights Party, USA's Web site. Similar flier distributions by hate groups have occurred in cities around the country, according to the Anti Defamation League

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Weekend Flier Distribution Puts Hate Group Back on Radar
The group, known as the Creativity Movement, last made headlines after a 1999 killing spree in Illinois, said Heidi Beirich, a spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights law firm that tracks hate groups nationwide.

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Key Prisoners at Center of Israeli-Hamas Negotiations
Among the scores of Palestinian prisoners who Hamas wants freed in exchange for Israeli Sgt. Gilad Shalit is Marwan Barghouti, the most popular man in Fatah. The Israeli Security Cabinet's stance angered Egyptian mediators and Hamas officials who say a prisoner swap, which appeared imminent, should be a separate issue from truce talks.

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Dow Ends at Lowest Close in More Than 6 Years
The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled to its lowest close in more than six years on Thursday as sharp declines in key financial shares led the market lower.

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Who are These 'Responsible' Homeowners?
Most got into trouble by refinancing their homes - often more than once - and extracting every possible dollar of equity. The money went toward granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, credit cards, student loans, vacations, weddings, cars, etc. All bought homes they thought they could afford and in many cases really could afford.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Police foil bomb attack at Citibank in Athens
ere was no immediate claim of responsibility, but authorities suspect the device was the work of the left-wing Revolutionary Struggle, a group that first appeared in 2003 and is best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the U.S. Embassy in 2007 that caused no injuries. "It appears (the militants) have no specific targets and they are slowly spreading their action against all those (involved) in economic & political

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Meet the New Republican Leaders (Video)
New "vision" against a 40Something President. "not only oppose bills" but also "reach agreement" Talking Points!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Attack of the Killer Robots: Pentagon Plans to Deploy Autonomous Robots in War Zones
The hope that killer robots will lower U.S. casualties may excite military officials and a war-weary public, but the grave moral and ethical implications -- not to mention the dubious strategic impact -- associated with their use should give pause to those in search of a quick technological fix to our woes.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
State Expects Tourist Spending to Fall 8%
San Francisco's visitor mix is roughly 40 percent leisure traveler, 33 percent meeting- and convention-goers and the rest a blend of transient business travelers. Business travelers are "possibly the one we are most worried about," said D'Alessandro, "because there is no way to stimulate that. Companies will travel or they won't."

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Spending on Cell Phone Service Tops Landlines
Americans spent more money on residential telephone service than on cellular service as recently as 2006, but the days of keeping a landline phone at home are fading fast and may soon join such bygone staples of daily life as full-service gas stations and home deliveries of milk.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Europe - Bailout of Entire Countries
Germany and France may be forced to contemplate the bailout of entire nations rather than just individual banks as European government budgets buckle under the weight of recession.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
More support for Commission | John Conyers blog
I signed Mr Leahys' petition for a truth Commission. Tho I thought the wording was poor, I value the Idea VERY highly. I am willing to make a deal, sight unseen, to forgo punishment of anyone who testifies to the Truth Commission, regardless of the severity of the crime, unless the testimony is incomplete or perjury. In this way, everything comes out, where everyone can see it, and the crimes will end. It worked for S Africa

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Real Grand Bargain on Social Security
Will President Obama defend Social Security from the folks who want to plunder it? We'll get an early indication this Monday when the president convenes a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" on America's long-term deficits. In the meantime, let's define "fiscal responsibility" on our own terms in a way that helps the country look beyond the crisis, define where we need to go and determine how, in the long term, we'll pay for it.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Soup-Kitchen Accounting
By JAMES DEITRICK and MICHAEL GRANOF Published: February 18, 2009 The beneficiaries of taxpayer financing should have to keep track of their money in the same way nonprofits must.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Grand jury indicts alleged KKK group leader in La.
The alleged leader of a Ku Klux Klan group was indicted on a second-degree murder charge Wednesday in the shooting death of an Oklahoma woman who police said was killed during an initiation in south Louisiana. A grand jury indicted Raymond Foster, 44, and three other suspected group members in the death of Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Okla. She was recruited to join the group over the Internet and was shot to death

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
New Journalism Pioneer Gay Talese Wins Polk Award
A long list of honorees, beginning with Author Gay Talese, who influenced a generation of writers with books such as "Thy Neighbor's Wife" and "Honor Thy Father," was named the winner of a George Polk Award for career achievement. Other winners of the 2008 Polk Awards included New York Times reporters Barry Bearak and Celia Dugger, who risked their lives exposing violence in Zimbabwe, and Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune,

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
High Noon: Geithner v. the American Oligarchs
(1 comments) Bill Moyers with Simon Johnson: I have this feeling in my stomach that I felt in other countries, much poorer countries, countries that were headed into really difficult economic situation. When there's a small group of people who got you into a disaster, and who were still powerful. Disaster even made them more powerful.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Nanotechnology in Household Products Sparks Calls for Oversight
Experts say this is because the technology is so new and, in part, regulators are reluctant to hamper innovation. Meanwhile, manufacturers have, quietly, begun incorporating nanomaterials into all sorts of consumer products. These include products that hit close to home, such as cosmetics, medicines and even food. But there is very little definitive information about where these nanotech products are to be found

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Window Closing for a Two-State Solution in the Middle East
(3 comments) But the parties on the ground see little prospect for progress. In Israel, former prime minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to be called on to try to form a government, refuses to hear of any settlement freeze but calls for the destruction of the Hamas leadership that controls Gaza. Palestinian leaders say they are awaiting Mr. Mitchell's order to Israel to freeze its settlement building--in line with

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Half-life of Memory & Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge
Between 1952 and 1989, Rocky Flats produced as many as 70,000 plutonium "pits" -- the small, fissile atomic detonators at the core of every bomb in the nation's nuclear arsenal -- on an immense industrial complex 15 miles northwest of Denver. It grew to become a veritable city, employing thousands of machinists, metallurgists, janitors, physicists, chemists, biologists, radiation specialists, engineers, secretaries, security..

Monday, February 16, 2009
Nationalizing the Banks Seems Inevitable: How Bad Does It Have to Get First?
Failure to act decisively over the collapse of our banking system could mire the US in a protracted slump, like Japan's "lost decade" in the '90s. During the savings and loans failures of the late 1980s, first Pres Bush took over insolvent institutions that were judged to be "too big to fail," wiped out the banks' shareholders, protected depositors, and sold off the institution asset in an orderly fashion, minimizing shock

Monday, February 16, 2009
America's Shame: Can Jim Webb Fix the Prison Gulag?
Our criminal justice system is broken. The U.S. represents 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for nearly 25 percent of its prison population. We are incarcerating at a record rate with one in 100 American adults now locked up -- 2.3 million people overall. As a New York Times editorial stated simply, "This country puts too many people behind bars for too long."

Monday, February 16, 2009
Islamic law to be imposed in parts of NW Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The government agreed to implement Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across a large swath of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying a spreading Taliban insurgency there. They allow for Muslim clerics to advise judges when hearing cases, but do not ban female education or mention other strict interpretations of Shariah espoused by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Monday, February 16, 2009
To Kill or Not to Kill
Author Tyler Boudreau served 12 years in the Marine Corps infantry. He now lives with his family in Western Massachusetts. He's the author of "Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine." AND U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl on The Daily Show, an author of the 2006 Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Nagl said: "If I could sum up the book in just a few words: Be polite, be professional, be prepared to kill

Monday, February 16, 2009
| OBAMA RENEGES ON A BIG ONE
Jim Hightower: Obama's use of the state secrets gimmick to continue covering up Bush's illegalities is ridiculous, because the "secrets" being hidden are hardly secret. From books to TV exposés, the world knows about them. As the ACLU lawyer for the victims noted, "The only place in the world where these claims can't be discussed is in this courtroom."

Monday, February 16, 2009
Biofuels May Speed up, not Nlow Global Warming: Study
Once heralded as the answer to oil, biofuels have become increasingly controversial because of their impact on food prices and the amount of energy it takes to produce them. They could also be responsible for pumping far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than they could possibly save as a replacement for fossil fuels, according to a study released Saturday.

Monday, February 16, 2009
IEA sees risk of oil supply crunch from 2010
(1 comments) LONDON (Reuters) -- The International Energy Agency said on Monday there could be an oil supply crunch from 2010 once global demand recovers and the impact of delayed investment crimps future supplies.

Monday, February 16, 2009
Child Abuse In Chicago Public Schools- A Travesty !
CBS 2 investigators found reports of students who were beaten with broomsticks, whipped with belts, yard sticks, struck with staplers, choked, stomped on and pushed down stairs. A student was paddled by a coach after missing serves. A substitute teacher fractured a student's neck. The majority of cases of staff who were found guilty were only given a slap on the wrist, Savini said.

Saturday, February 14, 2009
Obama and liberals: a counter-productive relationship
Greenwald: The major problem now is that these entities -- the ones that ought to be applying pressure on Obama from the Left and opposing him when he moves too far Right -- are now completely boxed in. They've lost -- or, more accurately, voluntarily relinquished -- their independence. They know that criticizing -- let alone opposing -- Obama will mean that all those new readers they won last year will leave

Saturday, February 14, 2009
New Guidelines for Tracking cConsumers Online
The report by the Federal Trade Commission was highly anticipated by the online industry and privacy advocates, with a big chunk of an expected $25.7 billion in U.S. online ad spending this year hanging in the balance. In the end, the report offered only modest changes to a 2007 federal policy on the practice known as behavioral advertising.

Saturday, February 14, 2009
Bill Joy Discusses Techie Role in Limiting Pollution
Semiconductors (the foundation of Silicon Valley) can be used to convert light to solar electricity and for other applications to the green revolution. The Web was envisioned a long time before it was invented, and the same will be true now in green technology. The best venture opportunities are based on physics - we have a talent pool.

Saturday, February 14, 2009
Regulators Close Banks in Neb., Fla., Ill., Ore.
Twenty-five U.S. banks failed last year, far more than in the previous five years combined. There were just three bank failures in 2007. It's expected that many more banks won't survive this year

Saturday, February 14, 2009
How Will the Government Stimulus Plan Affect You?
(1 comments) An examination of how the economic stimulus plan will affect Americans.

Friday, February 13, 2009
The New Fallujah
Driving through Fallujah, once the most rebellious Sunni city in this country, I saw little evidence of any kind of reconstruction underway. At least 70% of that city's structures were destroyed during massive U.S. military assaults in April, and again in November 2004, and more than four years later, in the "new Iraq," the city continues to languish.... So you see, they can deal with anyone in Iraq with money.

Friday, February 13, 2009
Twitter's Secret: the Law of Unintended Consequences
(1 comments) News no longer breaks, it tweets," blogged Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley-based technology forecaster, last November during the Mumbai attacks. "If newspapers are the first draft of history, then blogs are the scratch pad. And in front of blogs are tweets," he added in a phone interview last week.The service has attracted 4 million to 5 million users, 70 percent of whom joined in 2008, calculates a report from HubSpot.com

Friday, February 13, 2009
Marine's Arrest Again Raises Issue of Extremists in the Military
...in 2006, the SPLC issued a major report, "A Few Bad Men," that revealed that large numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacists were joining the armed forces to acquire combat training and access to weapons and explosives. It's no surprise that a person who allegedly hoped to kill President Barack Obama has white supremacist leanings...Marine Lance Cpl. Kody Brittingham

Friday, February 13, 2009
Cut the Military Budget
(2 comments) Barney Frank: I have been one of a few members of Congress to oppose censorship.I have been tempted recently to make an exception, not by banning speech but by requiring it. I would be very happy if there was some way to make it a misdemeanor for people to talk about reducing the budget deficit without including recommendation that we substantially cut military spending

Friday, February 13, 2009
Large U.S. Banks on Brink of Insolvency, Experts Say
Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, has been both pessimistic and prescient about the gathering credit problems. In a new report, Roubini estimates that total losses on loans by American financial firms and the fall in the market value of the assets they hold will reach $3.6 trillion, up from his previous estimate of $2 trillion.

Friday, February 13, 2009
Justice Dept. Investigating Campaign Donations From Lobbying Firm
The offices of PMA, which ranked last year as the tenth biggest-earning lobby firm in Washington, were raided in November by FBI agents and Department of Defense investigators. Federal investigators are focused on allegations that PMA founder Paul Magliocchetti, a former appropriations staffer close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), may have reimbursed some of his staff to cover contributions made in their names to Murtha

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Drought Threatens China's Wheat Crop
The most prolonged drought for half a century has parched fields and stunted crops in this remote village at a particularly difficult time. Many of the residents who normally migrate to the cities, and send money home, have lost their jobs as China's economic growth slows. Suddenly, the wheat harvest here in Zhaogou matters again as a question of subsistence.

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Marc Ambinder Grants Anonymity to "Officials" to Defend the Obama DOJ
Glenn Greenwald: Bush-era reporting practices are used to justify the new president's embrace of the prior president's main secrecy weapon Last night, Rachel Maddow interviewed the torture victims' attorney, Ben Wizner of the ACLU, and both of them did an excellent job highlighting the travesty of what the Obama DOJ here did ..Despite all of this, The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder continues to defend the Obama administration's

Thursday, February 12, 2009
How Economists (and Pundits and Politicians) Helped Steer America Off a Cliff
Dean Baker, one of few economists who warned of the housing market's impending crash, discusses where we should go from here. In his new book, Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy, Baker explains the rise of the speculation-fueled bubble economy

Thursday, February 12, 2009
U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision
(1 comments) Iridium Satellite LLC confirmed today that one of its satellites was destroyed Tuesday in an unprecedented collision with a spent Russian satellite and that the incident could result in limited disruptions of service. In a prepared statement, the Bethesda, Md.-based Iridium characterized the incident as a "very low probability event" and said it was taking immediate action to minimize any loss of service.

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Taliban Stealing War From US
In April, 2006, the Los Angeles Times uncovered the story of confidential military information being smuggled off Bagram air base in Afghanistan on miniature hard drives and sold in markets no more than two hundred yards away. Embarrassed U.S. military officials cracked down on the brazen black marketers in Afghanistan, but now it appears the market has shifted to the Pakistani side of the border, and the trade is getting..

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Solar Firm Announces Big Contract
In what could be the world's largest solar deal to date, BrightSource Energy of Oakland announced Wednesday that it will sell Southern California Edison 1,300 megawatts of electricity from seven large solar plants planned for the California desert.

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Will Debt-for-Equity Swaps Stem Foreclosures?
On top of a stimulus package and a new bank bailout, President Obama has a separate plan to tackle home foreclosures. Details to come, but according to the L.A. Times, "banks would commit not to evict certain homeowners but in turn would receive a share of equity in the house once the market recovered and prices rose.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
ACORN Saves Homes While Feds Flounder
Since 2006, the Daniels had paid their rent each month to their landlord, who had not told them that he was not in turn paying the mortgage on time. The landlord's lender had foreclosed on the property and terminated the lease, and on Wednesday the Sheriff was scheduled to come to their home and evict the Daniels, a family on the verge of becoming another statistic in the national economic catastrophe.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Ahmadinejad says Iran ready to talk to US
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, opened the door today to the prospect of talks with the US, less than 24 hours after Barack Obama said face-to-face discussions could take place within months.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Obama's News Conference - Like Watching Paint Dry but 50 Million Watch
Still, nearly 50 million people (49.5) tuned in to watch President Obama's first prime time press conference Monday night on eight networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Univision, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC).

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Fearing Another Quagmire in Afghanistan
Helene Cooper: When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains And the women come out to cut up what remains Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier. -Rudyard Kipling, "The Young British Soldier," 1892

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
GOP gubernatorial candidate Whitman outlines stands
Meg Whitman backed Prop 8. Yesterday she launched her bid for California governor in 2010. The former chief executive of Ebay displays a sharply conservative approach to the state's financial crisis. She may be remembered as supporting Palin at the RNC's 08 convention.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Moscow and EU Agree on Calling MidEast Quartet Meeting
The EU and Russia have agreed to hold a new meeting of the Middle East Quartet - which includes the UN, the EU, Russia and the U.S. - to lay grounds for a long-term settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Regarding the Iranian issue, Lavrov said both sides have 'almost identical views', adding that Moscow is counting on 'a fresh approach' on Iran from the American administration.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
States Push to Take Back National Guard
(1 comments) Going on its seventh year, the Iraq war has taken its toll on not only the US military, but also on the states's National Guard units, which were called up when Congress passed the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq. Now a growing state-level movement is working to keep the Guard at home.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Source: Petraeus Leaked Misleading Story on Pullout Plans
The political maneuvering between President Barack Obama and his top field commanders over withdrawal from Iraq has taken a sudden new turn with the leak by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus - and a firm denial by a White House official - of an account of the Jan. 21 White House meeting suggesting that Obama had requested three different combat troop withdrawal plans with their respective associated risks

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
National Security Team Delivers Grim Appraisal of Afghanistan War
Army Gen. Petraeus, head of the U.S. CentCom, said the war in Afghanistan "has deteriorated markedly in the past two years" and warned of a "downward spiral of security." In addition to more combat troops, Petraeus called for "a surge in civilian capacity" to help rebuild villages, tackle corruption in government and reduce the country's thriving opium trade. WH plans to unveil the results before NATO holds summit in April.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
FBI Investigating 530 Corporate Fraud Cases
The FBI is conducting more than 500 investigations of corporate fraud amid the financial meltdown, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Barofsky, who was appointed the inspector general of the ongoing financial bailout plan, suggested the best way to clean up mortgage fraud is to pursue licensed professionals in the industry, and make examples of them.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
France to Launch Euro Missile Warning Satellite
The Spirale program is the first step for what could eventually be a European equivalent to the U.S. Defense Support Program-Space Based Infrared System constellation. Spirale is merely a demonstration system

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
They're Autistic--and They're in Love
(1 comments) ..on any given evening, Dave and Lindsey are likely to be orbiting the home separately, doing their own thing. Dave may be flipping through magazines, pausing to stare fixedly at design details or leaning in to inhale the scent of the pages. Lindsey typically sits down to eat alone-from a particular plate with a particular napkin placed just so-and may slip so deeply into her own world that Dave has learned to whisper

Monday, February 9, 2009
Virtual Meetings to Ground 2 Million Airline Seats
The worldwide economic downturn will boost videoconferencing tech, according to analyst house Gartner that predicts virtual meetings will replace more than two million airline seats per year by 2012.

Monday, February 9, 2009
ExecOrder_Preemption_809.pdf (application/pdf Object)
The structure of the U.S. Constitution reflects a profound respect for the principles of federalism and state sovereignty. These principles require the federal government to recognize and encourage opportunities for state and local governments to exercise their authority, especially in areas of traditional state concern such as the protection of the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. Bush & "tort" issues

Monday, February 9, 2009
3 TED trends: efficiency, robots, genomics
Spending a few days at the TED conference in Long Beach simultaneously taxes the brain and inspires the mind. The world's most pressing problems are on constant display, counterbalanced by mind-boggling innovations. It's a marketplace for ideas. A place where issues are discussed and consensus formed.

Monday, February 9, 2009
Stimulus Would Boost Digitizing Health Records
Both the House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus package include $20 billion for electronic medical records, a sum expected to spur the conversion to save costs, improve the quality of care and add information technology jobs, especially in the Bay Area.

Sunday, February 8, 2009
AP CEO Urges Better Press Access to Military Ops
Lawrence, Kansas - The Bush administration turned the U.S. military into a global propaganda machine while imposing tough restrictions on journalists seeking to give the public truthful reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Associated Press chief executive Tom Curley said Friday. Curley, speaking to journalists at the University of Kansas, said the news industry must immediately negotiate a new set of rules

Sunday, February 8, 2009
Tie Education Funding To Corporal Punishment Ban
(1 comments) Stimulus package and tying it to "no more paddling." Reports indicate that most funds would go to economically depressed districts struggling to meet desired education outcomes. Twenty-one states still allow educators to hit children with boards as punishment for breaking school rules. It's an antiquated and barbaric practice that sometimes leads to injuries.

Saturday, February 7, 2009
Regulators Close Failed Banks in Ga., Calif.
Regulators on Friday closed FirstBank Financial Services in Georgia and two California banks, Alliance Bank and County Bank, marking nine failures this year of federally insured institutions Twenty-five U.S. banks failed last year, far more than in the previous five years combined. The six failures announced in the last two weeks are double the total for all of 2007.

Saturday, February 7, 2009
Senators Reach Deal on Stimulus Plan as Jobs Vanish
By CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN February 7, 2009 Senate Democrats reached an agreement with Republican moderates to pare the huge bill measure two days of tense negotiations. Phrases like: "government plane was dispatched to Florida to bring back Senator Edward M. Kennedy" & "the senators brought in the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, for assurance that the deal was acceptable to administration.."

Saturday, February 7, 2009
Latin America Poverty 'May Soar'
[Brazil] has the world's sixth largest car industry, but major car making firms like Mercedes and Volkswagen have placed their workers on mandatory leave.--especially concerned for the smaller economies in Central America and the Caribbean --rop in the price of oil has also raised concerns about the future of social programmes in major oil exporting countries in the region like Ecuador and Venezuela.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Congressional & Press Club Get-together Video
Link to video from C-Span with the Washington Press Club dinner. About an hour.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Facing Foreclosure? Don't Leave. Squat.
Amy Goodman: [P]ossession is nine-tenths of the law," Rep. [Marcy] Kaptur told me. "Therefore, stay in your property. Get proper legal representation ... [if] Wall Street cannot produce the deed nor the mortgage audit trail ... you should stay in your home. It is your castle. It's more than a piece of property. ... Most people don't even think about getting representation, because they get a piece of paper from the bank.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Justice Rehires Attorney Fired Amid Gay Rumor
(1 comments) On Monday, the Justice Department undid a small part of the damage that top officials caused in a scandal of politicized hiring and firing during the Bush administration. The department rehired an attorney who was improperly removed from her job because she was rumored to be a lesbian. Now, Leslie Hagen has returned to her post at the department's Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan (Thanks for Ruining America)
Ronald Reagan's 98th birthday is being celebrated today at a time that should be a cause for soul searching among his admirers. The conservative revolution that Reagan unleashed upon the nation and much of the world lay in ashes, and Washington is embarking on a new epoch of government intervention to eradicate the excesses of free-market purism.

Friday, February 6, 2009
They Just Don't Get It
Right now, conservative U.S. senators-both Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats-are thrashing around trying to cut pieces out of President Obama's economic recovery plan. They say it costs too much. Ironically, these are the same senators who increased the legislation by more than $100 billion just a couple of days ago.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Executive Pay: Obama's PATCO Moment
Could [Obama's] public attack on sky-high financial pay have ripple effects on executive compensation in other industries? If history is any guide, the answer is yes. A President, if he chooses the right moment to act, can have enormous impact on public attitudes. In this case, if Obama chooses to make an example of highly paid financial executives, it could make it a lot easier for shareholders and directors.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Denial As Political Strategy
Behind all the back and forth over the Stimulus Bill is a simple fact: the debate in Washington is rapidly moving away from any recognition that the US economy -- and the global economy, for that matter -- is in free-fall. Take stock of the last few weeks and you can almost visualize the two conversations -- path toward economic calamity and debate over Stimulus Bill -- diverging.

Friday, February 6, 2009
Halliburton Spinoff Prepares to Admit Bribery
Court papers filed in Houston on Friday show Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC is preparing to plead guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for promising and paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts between 1995 and 2004.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
CA Supreme Court to Hear Prop 8 Arguments
The plaintiffs -- including same-sex couples, the ACLU, and a group of local governments, led by the city of San Francisco -- argue that a measure eliminating fundamental rights from a historically persecuted minority amounts to a revision of the Constitution and exceeds the power of initiatives.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Woman Who Recruited Female Suicide Bombers Arrested
(1 comments) The plaintiffs -- including same-sex couples, the ACLU, and a group of local governments, led by the city of San Francisco -- argue that a measure eliminating fundamental rights from a historically persecuted minority amounts to a revision of the Constitution and exceeds the power of initiatives. Samira Ahmed Jassim claims to have arranged the rapes of her recruits, then persuaded them to blow themselves up.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
"This is Not Your Grandma's Environmental Movement Anymore"
Van Jones is an award-winning activist, best-selling author, orator and political advisor. I helped him birth his first book, The Green Collar Economy (Harper One, 2008). The tanking economy is also changing the environmental movement. Van Jones talks about what we should be doing next.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
White House to Bypass Commerce on Census
The director of the Census Bureau will report directly to the White House and not the secretary of Commerce, according to a senior White House official. The decision came after black and Hispanic leaders raised questions about Commerce Secretary nominee Judd Gregg 's commitment to funding the census

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Economic Stimulus Plans Now Global Phenomenon
At least 34 countries have plans, worth a total of $2.25 trillion. While Congress is still arguing over the size and shape of the US package, at least 33 other nations have started programs that are far more ambitious than were planned even a month ago.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
China Declares an Emergency Amid Worst Drought in 50 Years
(1 comments) Not a drop of rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days, the longest dry spell for 38 years in a city known for its arid climate. Water shortages, exacerbated by the relentless demands of a rapidly growing economy, are among the main long-term worries for the Government.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Leo J. Hindery Jr. relationship map
Interactive map showing how Hindery (who was the man Tom Daschle worked for)had his fingers in a lot of pies--some non-profit and Democrat friendly.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Daschle's Ambitions Collided, Friends Say
(1 comments) By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Published: February 5, 2009 Tom Daschle's competing ambitions of earning money in the private sector while continuing to shape government policy ultimately sunk his appointment for health secretary.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Curtailing Executives' Pay? Good Luck with That
"It's like putting up a dam for a river. The water tries very hard to find a way around it," says John Olson, a partner with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher who advises corporate boards on compensation and other matters.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Daily Digits: Vacant Homes Reach Record High
Fifteen percent of all houses and apartments in the United States stood empty at the end of 2008 - a record 19 million homes

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
We're Disappointed in TVA Negligence, Rising Power Rates
Editor of Daily Times (Maryville): East Tennessee came to trust TVA when it arrived in the mid-1930s and became one of the nation's major dam builders as it harnessed the Tennessee River and its tributaries to produce power and reduce regular floods. Growing negligence will continue to boost power rates and damage our environment. It is us ratepayers who foot the bill for $1-million-a-day cleanups.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
I.B.M.'s 'Sequoia' Supercomputer to Shatter Speed Records
Ashlee Vance Published: February 3, 2009 A new BlueGene system from I.B.M. set for delivery in 2012 could be the fastest computer ever made.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Fannie Mae's Overpaid Board: Can President Obama Turn Words Into Action?
This pay seems rather high for two reasons. First, being a director is a very part-time job. A director's duties almost certainly require an average of less than one day a week. This means that the $160,000 annual salary for board members would translate into a full-time salary of more than $800,000.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Talking to Israelis, the PLO and Hamas
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima Party kicked off its campaign by threatening to assassinate Hamas leaders, while the likely new prime minister, Likkud's Bibi Netanyahu, announced that he would trash the current government's commitment to evacuate Jewish settlements and withdraw from the West Bank.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Why Are We Still at War?
(1 comments) The United States began its war in Afghanistan 88 months ago. "The war on terror" has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
How Obama Won: The Rise of Web 2.0
Simply put: The rules of the game have been changed forever -- by technology. It was more than the "YouTube Election," as some dubbed it, or "The Facebook Election," or "hyper-politics." James Rainey, the longtime media reporter for the Los Angeles Times, declared that there is a "new-media revolution that is remaking presidential campaigns.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
On Eve of Elections, Israeli Leaders Play Into Hands of Palestinian Militants
But will Israeli leaders indeed be restrained? Israeli leaders are divided on the question. Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly wants to respond positively to Hamas, predicting that "Israel is on the verge of a long period of quiet." But Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is against it, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has thus far remained silent.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
In tough times, US consumers forging new behaviors
While personal income fell 0.2 percent for the month, spending fell even further – a full percentage point. Much of what's happening is a short-term reaction to tough times as the risk of unemployment has risen. But economists say it also reflects a longer-term transition in response to the end of an era of soaring home prices.

Monday, February 2, 2009
Smoky Mountains' 'marrying minister' is retiring
Feeling impetuous? A wedding license is available for $38.50 (even on Saturday). Then, stroll into a wedding chapel, say the vows and you can be married in a matter of moments. According to the Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce, 600,000 people come to the Great Smoky Mountains each year to get married or attend a wedding. The town is marketed proudly as "the wedding capital of the South." Editor note: Look me up if you come.

Monday, February 2, 2009
Where has Chavez taken Venezuela?
(2 comments) When Chávez was elected in 1998, the national mood was one of exasperation: citizens, rich and poor, were sick of political leaders they considered corrupt and uncaring. But polarization, which has always been part of Venezuelan society, has only grown more intense under Chávez.In his 10 years in power, Chávez has also risen as the US's most uncensored critic: calling former Pres Bush everything from a donkey to the devil

Monday, February 2, 2009
Iraq's Shocking Human Toll: About 1 Million Killed, 4.5 Million Displaced, 1-2 Million Widows, 5 Million Orphans
We have a better grasp of the human costs of the war. For example, the United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis -- more than half of them refugees -- or about one in every six citizens. Only 5 percent have chosen to return to their homes over the past year, a period of reduced violence from the high levels of 2005-07

Monday, February 2, 2009
Xenophobic Attempt to Put "English First" in Nashville Fails
But leaders of the broader movement to legislate English as an official language are not quitting the fight. They say despite the Nashville defeat they stand to make gains in state capitols. Nashville's "English First" measure lost 57 to 43 percent in the Jan. 22 special election

Monday, February 2, 2009
Bottom Line : Payback, Wells Fargo-style
Wells Fargo, now the nation's largest bank by number of branches, made $22 billion in loan commitments and $50 billion in mortgage originations last quarter. "That's more than $70 billion or almost three times the amount of the U.S. Treasury's investment in Wells Fargo," according to CFO Howard Atkins.

Friday, January 30, 2009
Regulations Restrict How Debt Collectors Can Act
Debt collection is a highly regulated industry and consumers are protected under both federal and state laws. Here are some important things to know about dealing with debt collectors: (8 specific rules listed)

Friday, January 30, 2009
Schwab Will Cut 500-600 Jobs, Many in S.F.
About half the job cuts will hit Schwab's San Francisco headquarters, the largest concentration of company workers....any new hires would probably occur in cities such as Phoenix, Denver and Austin, Texas

Friday, January 30, 2009
AlterNet: Stop Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic and Nationalize the Damn Banks
Economist Paul Krugman wrote that the political establishment has "become devotees of a new kind of voodoo [economics]: the belief that by performing elaborate financial rituals we can keep dead banks walking." Perhaps the best rationale for nationalization is that the bursting bubble that precipitated this crisis wasn't in tech stocks or commodities -- it was a bubble built largely on people's homes.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Suspect in Racist Vandalism Linked to Neo-Nazi Groups
A man suspected of spray painting swastikas and racist slogans on a Messianic Jewish house of worship was doing more than making idle threats. Mobile police said Tuesday. Laborers with the Mobile Public Works Department found racist graffiti in Cooper Riverside Park the same day as the Tree of Life vandalism.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
How to Feed the Hungry Billion
Before the global economic crisis, there was the global food crisis. Last year, soaring prices for basic foods sparked riots in about 30 countries. In June, the UN held a summit to tackle it. In July, the G-8 pledged to act. But in the fall, the floor fell out from the financial markets. Now, like a mountain of maize, countries' economic worries threaten to bury their concerns about rising world hunger.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Fight brews over how to build a better Internet
Stakeholders are at odds over whether it's more important to quickly stimulate or wisely invest, to get the most speed from federal bucks, or the most bang That tension, inherent throughout the $825 billion stimulus package, is especially acute in broadband development. Congress is sympathetic to reformers who see this as a chance to inject more competition into the market, even if that means relying less on big companies t

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Americans Receiving Jobless Benefits Hit Record
The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment insurance for the week ending Jan. 17 was a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest on records dating back to 1967. A department analyst said that as a proportion of the work force, the tally of unemployment recipients is the highest since August 1983.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Fox News Is Using the Obamas to Perfect Its Racist Attacks on Black America
O'Reilly who has, in the past, blamed the victims of Hurricane Katrina for their losses; publicly expressed shock at the idea of black people eating civilly at a Harlem restaurant; believes inner-city students are innately uncivil; and finds it "difficult to answer precisely" if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. loved his country, is, as evidenced, no stranger to race-based controversies

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Obama set to sign equal-pay bill
(1 comments) Obama was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on Thursday during an East Room ceremony, a move that effectively ends a 2007 Supreme Court decision that said workers had only 180 days to file a pay-discrimination lawsuit. Obama and fellow Democrats campaigned hard against the court decision and promised to pass legislation that would give workers more time to sue their employers for past discrimination.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Homeland Secretary Wants Criminal Aliens out of US
(1 comments) Napolitano wants what she calls "criminal aliens" off U.S. streets. Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement say about 201,000 criminals illegally in the U.S. were deported last year.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Colorado Man Accused of Threatening Obama
The indictment claims Gutierrez e-mailed the FBI's Washington office eight days before Obama's inauguration. A federal grand jury in Denver handed up the indictment Tuesday against Timothy Ryan Gutierrez.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure
The Report Card is an assessment by professional engineers of the nation's status in 15 categories of infrastructure. In 2009, all signs point to an infrastructure that is poorly maintained, unable to meet current and future demands, and in some cases, unsafe. Since the last Report Card in 2005, the grades have not improved. ASCE estimates the nation still stands at a D average.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Stimulating Broadband: If Obama Builds It, Will They Log on?
Although job creation is the main topic in this debate, there are really three policy goals associated with broadband in the stimulus package: creating new jobs, creating new broadband subscribers, and improving the broadband experience for all subscribers through faster networks.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Interactive Map: Recovery Beyond the Beltway
This is the first in a series of maps that will be released over the coming week delving into more detail about particular state-level programs in the recovery package. Easy readout of each state's proposed share.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Richard Cohen Fulfills the Role of the American Journalist
Reflecting the vast diversity of our national media, Richard Cohen now joins fellow Washington Post columnists Ruth Marcus, David Ignatius, David Broder and Fred Hiatt, as well as virtually every other Beltway journalist,in demanding that Bush officials not be prosecuted even if they committed felonies. The only political leaders any of them ever want to see pay a price for wrongdoing are those who get caught in titillating

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Controversial Bestseller Shakes the Foundation of the Israeli State
(4 comments) That's the explosive thesis of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand) that sent shockwaves across Israeli society when it was published last year. After 19 weeks on the Israeli best-seller list, the book is being translated

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Financial Crisis Is Too Dire to Be Left to Politicians
As tens of thousands of activists from around the world gather in Belem, Brazil, for the World Social Forum, social movements everywhere are debating how to respond to the ever-deepening economic crisis. This is excerpted from the longer discussion paper "Globalization From Below" Tackles the "Great Recession" prepared by Global Labor Strategies. economic globalization gave birth to new convergence of global social forces

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Studies Find Mercury in Much U.S. Corn Syrup
Food processors and the corn syrup industry group attacked the findings as flawed and outdated, but the researchers said it was important for people to know about any potential sources of the toxic metal in their food.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Obama launches effort to 'communicate' in Mideast
First President on TV; then envoy in Turkey (video) George Mitchell: "My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries," the president told Al Arabiya.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
America Needs a Job
"The latest job cuts - and the additional announcements likely to come in a cascading pattern as job losses through the economy cause demand to shrink further and thus lead to more layoffs -mean more pain for states, as unemployment insurance claims rise and deplete state coffers," continued the report.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
But What If Torture Works?
Matthew tells the story in an exciting thriller called "How To Break A Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, To Take Down The Deadliest Man In Iraq." Matthew and co-author Jon Bruning have changed the names to protect the innocent - and the guilty, a distinction that is sometimes hard to make.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
SEIU Takes Over Local Health Care Workers Union
Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers-West, the fastest-growing health care union in the nation, was taken over Tuesday by its parent union, the Service Employees International Union. The order removed Sal Rosselli, the local president and most vocal critic of Stern. Rosselli said later in the day that he and the local reject the trusteeship as a political move and that they will refuse to obey the order and yield power.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Forty-Four Years Later, LBJ's Ghost Hovers Over the 44th President
Right now, on the subject of the Afghan war, what dominates the discourse in Washington is narrowness of political vision - while news outlets are reporting that the number of US forces in Afghanistan is expected to "as much as double this year to 60,000 troops."

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ex-Guantanamo inmates return to militancy in Yemen
wo Saudis formerly jailed at the US prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have joined Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch, and authorities here worry that two other ex-Guantánamo inmates may have strayed back to militancy because they have recently disappeared from their homes. Yemen also has a rehab program for jihadis, but it has been much less aggressive and successful than its Saudi counterpart, which has been widely praised.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
AIG executive sentenced to 4 years in prison
A former executive of insurance heavyweight American International Group Inc. was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday in a fraud case that authorities say cost shareholders more than $500 million. Is it correct thatthiscase was ferretted out by AG Spitzer?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Bill Clinton made millions from foreign sources
- Former President Bill Clinton earned nearly $6 million in speaking fees last year, almost all of it from foreign companies, according to financial documents filed by his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press show that $4.6 million of the former president's reported $5.7 million in 2008 honoraria came from foreign sources, including Kuwait's national bank

Monday, January 26, 2009
Are We Civilized Enough to Hold Our Leaders Accountable for War Crimes?
John Dean: Other countries are likely to take action against officials who condoned torture, even if the United States fails to do so. Philippe Sands, a Queen's Counsel at Matrix Chambers and Professor of International law at University College London, has assembled a powerful indictment of the key Bush Administration people involved in torture in his book Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values.

Monday, January 26, 2009
John Doar with Bryan Lamb re Nixon Investigation - Video
Our guest is John Doar, Former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. He talks about his involvement in several major civil rights events during the 1960's.

Monday, January 26, 2009
General says Marines can pull out of Iraq within months
Marine Corps Commandant James Conway said Friday that the time is right to pull the force of roughly 23,000 Marines out of Iraq, a task he estimated could be done in months. "We've been steadily removing equipment from theater on a not-as-needed basis and we've been fairly successful doing that,"

Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama Called a "Visual Aid" for White Supremacist Recruiting
(1 comments) President Obama may have smashed the ultimate political barrier to African Americans, but his presidency and the deepening economic crisis are creating the perfect storm for white supremacists intent on swelling their ranks. Racist extremists have been energized by Obama's election, hoping to exploit an Obama backlash among whites who resent having a black man in the White House.

Monday, January 26, 2009
Broken Military Marriages: Another Casualty of War
More than 13,000 military marriages ended last year, and mine came dangerously close to becoming one of them, but it wasn't because of some gays getting hitched. Military marriages are at increasingly high risk of failure, and combat is the cause.

Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama's Partisan, Profane Confidant Reins It In
One take on Obama's chief of staff: By MARK LEIBOVICH Published: January 25, 2009 Rahm Emanuel is reconciling his fiery, bombastic ways with the cool and deliberate style of Obama World.

Monday, January 26, 2009
Father Luis Barrios - Trial statement
School of Americas: November 23rd, 2008, Barrios: I, along with other human rights activists, crossed the gates of Fort Benning . I did so with a photo of Monsignor Oscar Romero, the former Archbishop of San Salvador. Upon his assassination, this brother, this companion, and this spiritual guide, was converted into our Saint Romero of the Americas. His assassination was planned and executed by graduates from SOA

Monday, January 26, 2009
The Anti-Stimulus Crowd Blows a Gasket
Dean Baker:....desperation led them to fabricate a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which purportedly showed that most of the stimulus would not be spent in 2009, or even in 2010 This preliminary analysis was done at the request of members of Congress to give them what was available at the time. It was not a full analysis that had gone through the CBO's normal review process, and was not posted on its website

Monday, January 26, 2009
Carter: If no Palestine, Israel sees 'catastrophe'
Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Israel will face a "catastrophe" unless it revives the Mideast peace process and establishes an independent Palestinian state.He said Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land in the foreseeable future. "If we look toward a one-state solution, which seems to be the trend - I hope not inexorable - it would be a catastrophe for Israel, because there would be only three options

Monday, January 26, 2009
House Judiciary chairman subpoenas Karl Rove
The House Judiciary Committee chairman subpoenaed former White House adviser Karl Rove on Monday to testify about the Bush administration's firing of nine U.S. attorneys and its prosecution of a former Democratic governor, Conyers: "Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it's time for him to talk."

Saturday, January 24, 2009
New York Times Co. Bonds Now Junk, Moody's Declares
Moody's Investors Services downgraded The New York Times Co. debt to "junk" levels Friday....assigned a speculative-grade rating to Times Co. liquidity, despite the $250 million loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu announced earlier this month.

Saturday, January 24, 2009
Newspaper Releases Military Report on U.S. Doctor in Iraq Driven to Suicide
Of the thousands of "noncombat" American deaths in Iraq -- and I have covered many of them for almost six years, here and elsewhere -- one of the most haunting involved Army Capt. Roselle M. Hoffmaster. Now the Army's investigation into her death on Sept. 20, 2007, has finally been released. Greg Mitchell who wrote "So Wrong for So Long" explains her suicide.

Saturday, January 24, 2009
Lee Enterprises Seeking Reverse Stock Split To Stay On NYSE
Lee Enterprises will attempt to stay listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through a reverse stock split that would convert as many as 10 shares of its struggling stock to a single share, the Davenport, Iowa-based publisher disclosed late Thursday. They own papers in many states.

Saturday, January 24, 2009
AP IMPACT: Freedom looms for terrorist
In 1973, a young terrorist named Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary entered the United States and quickly began plotting an audacious attack in New York City. He built three powerful bombs -- bombs powerful enough to kill, maim and destroy -- and put them in rental cars scattered around town, near Israeli targets.The plot failed. The explosive devices did not detonate, and Al-Jawary fled country, escaping prosecution for nearly tw

Saturday, January 24, 2009
Georgia unemployment rate hits 8.1%
Georgia's unemployment rate in December climbed to 8.1%, up 80 percent in the past year to reach its highest level since 1983, the state Labor Department announced Thursday. In Georgia, 393,168 workers are looking for work, the Labor Department said. Roughly 40 percent of them are drawing unemployment insurance benefits. Nationally, new jobless claims climbed last week to 589,000.Thatfigure has not been higher since 1980

Friday, January 23, 2009
Hey, Obamas! Is this your dog?
Of human (make that canine) interest: The competition is fierce – among animal rescue advocates who see a public relations bonanza for the broad animal adoption movement which struggles to save 4 million stray and unwanted dogs nationwide each year, not to mention a windfall for their own shelters and agencies if their dog is The One.

Friday, January 23, 2009
Suspected US missile strikes kill 14 in Pakistan
Two suspected U.S missile attacks killed 14 people Friday in Pakistan just east of the Afghan border, security officials said, the first such strikes since the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Friday, January 23, 2009
Calling a Time Out - Geaorge McGovern
As you settle into the Oval Office, Mr. President, may I offer a suggestion? Please do not try to put Afghanistan aright with the U.S. military. To send our troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan would be a near-perfect example of going from the frying pan into the fire.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Mohammed Jawad and Obama's efforts to suspend military commissions
Greenwald on order to postpone Gitmo trials while Secy Gates has time to study procedure to shut the place down.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Benjamin Button leads Oscar field
The awards, to be hosted by actor Hugh Jackman, will be announced on 22 February at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has emerged as the frontrunner with 13 nominations. Slumdog Millionaire, from Britain's Danny Boyle, was close behind with 10 nominations, including best film. And then many more names. Best part is ability to see video of who they all are.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
SPLCenter.org: Hate Groups Map
he Southern Poverty Law Center counted 888 active hate groups in the United States in 2007. Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2007 are included. All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Top newspapers play into Social Security scaremongering
(1 comments) An article in the New York Times last week announced, "Obama Promises Bid to Overhaul Retiree Spending." The Washington Post responded this week with "Obama Pledges Entitlement Reform," also splashed across the front page. Obama and his team of experts, including his choice for budget director, Peter Orszag, know that the biggest contributor to long-term deficits is rising health care costs.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Global financial crisis overwhelms tiny Iceland
[S]un shines about 4 hours a day here. But thousands of Icelanders, more than 1 percent of the entire country, have sacrificed much of their precious few hours of daylight in recent weeks to protest the financial darkness that now shrouds their island. They clashed with police in increasingly violent demonstrations that suspended Parliament.From dapper senior citizens to masked anarchists, an eclectic group gathers every Sat.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Anti-Union Front Groups Promote Distorted Initiative Campaigns
"Save Our Secret Ballots" With a new administration in Washington, D.C. promising to enact federal labor law reform for the first time in generations, corporations are plowing money into the states in an attempt to undermine workers rights there. SOSB seems to be a project of the conservative, Arizona-based Goldwater Institute and the national Heritage Foundation(whose representative chairs the SOSB national advisory board

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Mr. Roosevelt Must Lead
This article appeared in the February 8, 1933 edition of The Nation. January 13, 2009 reprint: Within a few hours after inauguration the nation should be able to gauge fairly well, whether Norman Thomas's taunt that the political star of Franklin D. Roosevelt would begin to set on March 4 was justified.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Senate passes wage discrimination bill
Known as the Lilly Ledbetter bill,the legislation reverses a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that narrowly defines the time period during which a worker can file a claim of wage discrimination, even if the worker is unaware for months or years that he or she is getting less than colleagues doing the same job. It has been a priority for women's groups seeking to narrow the wage gap between men and women.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Housekeeper and Taxes Are Said to Derail Kennedy's Bid
Published: January 23, 2009 An account by a person close to Gov. David A. Paterson is at odds with Caroline Kennedy's description for why she is withdrawing.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
French Government to Pump 6 bn Euros into Ailing Car Industry
Fears grow for sector collapse without state aid 200,000 European jobs estimated to be at risk

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
AIG ends Man Utd sponsorship deal
The troubled US insurer AIG will not be renewing its shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United that expires in May 2010. AIG has already ended its sponsorship deal with the US Davis Cup tennis team. It is currently restructuring itself, having received a $150bn (£109bn) bail-out from the US government.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Taliban warn Obama: Leave Afghanistan
"The insurgent Taliban said Wednesday that US President Barack Obama should learn from the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and pull his troops out of the country to allow Afghans to decide their own fate," reports The News, a popular English-language daily in Pakistan. The Boston Globe adds that a "record 151 American forces died in Afghanistan in 2008, compared with 111 the previous year.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Supreme Court won't revive online content law
(1 comments) The government lost its final attempt Wednesday to revive a federal law intended to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Threat of a Global Trade War
It is an article of faith among economists that rising global protectionism intensified the Great Depression of the 1930s. History looks back at the infamous Smoot-Hawley Act, which jacked up tariffs in the United States, as a disastrous step that stymied the international economic cooperation needed to alleviate the worst economic catastrophe in modern history.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Turkey Blackmailing EU Over Gas Pipeline, German Minister Says | Europe
Ankara is engaged in "political blackmail," Glos said at an energy forum in Berlin. He accused Turkey of using the proposed 3,400-kilometer (2,112-mile) pipeline as leverage in its mired bid for EU membership. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Brussels on Monday for the first time in four years to revive his country's membership talks, said his government would "review our position"

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Obama freezes salaries of some White House aides
President Barack Obama announced on his first day in office Wednesday that he is freezing the pay of the about a hundred White House employees who make over $100,000 a year. The freeze would hold salaries at their current levels. It is part of a presidential memorandum being issued Wednesday when Obama attends a swearing-in for staff at the White House.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Why banks still teeter, after $232 billion in aid
(2 comments) Banks sought billions in taxpayer assistance last year because of their losses in the mortgage and housing markets. Now, they are getting pinched by the recession as consumers miss payments on credit-card bills, developers default on loans for new office towers, and a rising number of companies go bankrupt.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
For Obama and other public servants, three tests of integrity
(1 comments) The first question is intellectual and lays the foundation: "Is it whole and complete?" We must think decisions through to their second, third, and fourth-order consequences. The second is moral: "Is this the right thing to do?" The third question is intuitive and spiritual: "Is it good?" Decisions should benefit others and at the very least do no harm

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Michelle Obama shines in Isabel Toledo
First lady Michelle Obama wore a sparkling yellow-gold sheath dress with matching coat by Cuban-born American designer Isabel Toledo for the inauguration of her husband, a choice many applauded as a cheerful message of hope and a vote for the American fashion industry

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
FCC probes Comcast's phone practices
(1 comments) Comcast last year changed the way it handles Internet traffic after the FCC cracked down on its practice of delaying peer-to-peer file sharing, an issue that outraged supporters of "network neutrality," which is the idea that Internet service providers should not give certain types of online data better treatment than others. Now, Comcast is slowing down traffic for heavy users if there is Internet congestion in their area

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Slide Show: Historic Moments From Inauguration Day
Good shots of events over the weekend through the inauguration.

Monday, January 19, 2009
The Next War President
(1 comments) By WILLIAM KRISTOL Published: January 19, 2009 Like President Bush before him, Barack Obama knows he, too, will be a war president and that the decisions he makes as commander in chief will be his most consequential.

Monday, January 19, 2009
Binding U.S. law requires prosecutions for those who authorize torture
The new Attorney General just said that Bush officials authorized torture. A treaty signed in 1988 by Ronald Reagan compels the U.S. to prosecute those who authorize torture. What's the way out of that?

Monday, January 19, 2009
Militants in Pakistan bomb 5 schools, kill soldier
Elsewhere in the northwest, suspected Taliban militants bombed five schools as their campaign against girls' education continued. Militants - who have blown up or burned down more than 170 schools so far - had ordered all girls' schools in the area closed by Jan. 15. ...adding urgency to efforts to secure alternative supply lines as about 30,000 more U.S. troops head to Afghanistan this year.

Monday, January 19, 2009
Schedule of events for Obama's inauguration
TUESDAY, JAN. 20 (INAUGURATION DAY) Gates to the Inaugural Ceremony open at 8 a.m. The inaugural festivities are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. They will include: Musical selections of The United States Marine Band, followed by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus AND the rest of the program

Monday, January 19, 2009
Windows worm numbers 'skyrocket'
WINDOWS WORM: But as the virus can be spread with USB memory sticks, even having the Windows patch won't keep you safe. You need anti-virus software for that." According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code.

Monday, January 19, 2009
Brazil's Lula urges Obama to act on Doha round
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday to make completing the Doha round of world trade talks a priority, saying a lack of political will in Washington had undermined efforts to reach a deal. "We were within a millimeter of reaching a deal. But at the last moment I would say the U.S. government didn't have the political will for a deal

Monday, January 19, 2009
Inaugural Journey - Victor Navasky recalling 55 years ago
Barack Obama "was a good talker who hadn't accomplished much," but his backers cited his years as a community organizer when, inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he organized a public housing project called Altgeld Gardens. And indeed Obama devotes more than 100 pages of his his memoir, Dreams from My Father, to his experiences organizing the Altgeld Gardens, named of course after the governor of Illinois

Monday, January 19, 2009
Ruling on Records Delivers a Win to Cheney
A federal judge yesterday rejected the claim by a coalition of historians and nonprofit groups that Vice President Cheney intended to illegally discard some of his official records, and instead accepted the pledge of a senior White House aide that key Cheney documents and other materials will be transferred as required to the National Archives.

Monday, January 19, 2009
Biden tries to shush wife after state-VP slip
(1 comments) Joe Biden's wife said Monday that he had his pick of being Barack Obama's running mate or the secretary of state nomination that eventually went to Hillary Rodham Clinton, a slip that the vice president-elect immediately tried to shush.

Saturday, January 17, 2009
Obama Has to Hold Bush Accountable for the Laws He Broke
(1 comments) Elizabeth Holtzman: What we need to do is conceptually simple. We need to launch investigations to get at the central unanswered questions of Bush's abuse of power, commence criminal proceedings and undertake institutional, statutory and constitutional reforms. An impeachment proceeding against President Bush would have been the proper forum to expose the full scope of his abuses and to impose punishment.

Saturday, January 17, 2009
Ray LaHood: The Obama Appointment You Should Be Really Worried About
LaHood supporters point out that the president-elect promised to appoint Republicans, and LaHood is trusted by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Obama had to throw Republicans a bone somewhere, they argue: why not Transportation? {Even} more importantly, Transportation is about to play a key role in handing out hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years.

Saturday, January 17, 2009
2 Years After Campaign Began, a Different World
By DAVID E. SANGER Published: January 18, 2009 The agenda Barack Obama is setting out to enact is significantly altered from what he had in mind when he began his candidacy.

Friday, January 16, 2009
Scramble for solutions as foreclosures rise at record speed
Foreclosures jumped a record 80 percent last year, according to a new report by consulting firm RealtyTrac. The rise comes despite state and federal programs designed to stem the tide of home losses. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also announced this week the launch of a public service campaign designed to help individuals at risk of losing their homes.

Friday, January 16, 2009
Citigroup to split as losses grow
(1 comments) It said it would realign into two new firms, Citicorp and Citi Holdings. Citicorp will handle the company's traditional banking work, while Citi Holdings will take on the firm's riskiest investment assets. Meanwhile, the bosses at Citi Holdings will have the arduous task of sorting through the mass of bad debt, picking out what can be salvaged. Citigroup said it was now looking for a "strong manager" to head Citi Holdings.

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Holder Tells Senators Waterboarding Is Torture
(1 comments) Eric H. Holder Jr., the nominee for attorney general, also came under close questioning for his role in the pardoning of Marc Rich.

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Power Legal
Note: This includes a correction of an earlier article By ERIC LICHTBLAU Published: January 16, 2009 The ruling validated the president's power to wiretap international phone calls without a court order.

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Not guilty pleas for suspects in lesbian rape
Three suspects in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian woman pleaded not guilty Thursday and are likely to remain jailed until a judge decides whether there's enough evidence to put them on trial. "She got beaten pretty bad and has a major medical situation around that, and she can't work,"

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Criticisms, political pressure and Barack Obama
(1 comments) The president-elect's advisors respond to the firestorm created by Sunday's remarks on Guantanamo, illustrating the value of criticizing Obama when he deserves it. Politicians, by definition, respond to political pressure. Those who decide that it's best to keep quiet and simply trust in the goodness and just nature of their leader are certain to have their political goals ignored.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tenn. Presses TVA for Details of Ash Spill Cleanup
"I am committed to making sure this spill is cleaned up and doing everything we can to prevent any similar situation in the future," Gov. Phil Bredesen said in a statement. "I'm also committed to make sure Tennessee taxpayers don't foot the bill." Ash is now killing fish. Catfish and black bass caught this week in the Clinch and Emory rivers within a mile of the Kingston plant were found to have gills coated in ash

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Track the confirmation of Obama's Cabinet Nominees
Here's the site. Of course on Jan 14, there has not been time to see many actions.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Launch Point for Mumbai Attacks, Karachi Faces Rising Militancy
Karachi has long been described as the Paris of Asia, Pakistan's City of Light – a pulsating metropolis of finance, media, fashion, and telecom industries. Some 5,000 trained militants reside in the city, says a senior police official. [It] is known as the place where journalist Daniel Pearl was murdered.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wofford Sees Bright Future for National Service
Miller-McCune.com interview with retired lawyer and legislator Harris Wofford, who helped birth such organizations as the Peace Corps. Over his almost 83 years, Harris Wofford has been a lawyer, a serviceman in World War II, an author, a civil rights pioneer, one of the founders of the Peace Corps, a college president....

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
10 Big Goals for Obama's First 1,460 Days
(1 comments) If Obama wants to be credited with inspiring an era of progressive governance we have to push him to adopt a really bold agenda. President Obama should be guided by the well known ethic, "Make no small plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood." Often wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill, this observation originated with Daniel Hudson Burnham, the noted Chicago architect who designed the 1893 World Exposition

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Pro-Israel Rally Attended by NY Dems Descends into Calls for 'Wiping Out' Palestinians
On January 11, an estimated 10,000 people rallied in front of the Israeli consulate in midtown New York in support of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip. The rally, which was organized by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in cooperation with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, featured speeches by New York's most senior lawmakers.

Monday, January 12, 2009
Bush: I Personally Authorized Torture
(3 comments) And I'm in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him and they gave me a list of tools, and I said are these tools deemed to be legal

Monday, January 12, 2009
Obama Won't Have to Kiss AIPAC's Ring
(2 comments) Normally, a very constricted beltway political wisdom on Israel, as embodied by AIPAC, would set and guard the parameters of the debate over these questions. But the landscape of organized Jewish political power in America is changing. "During its first several months, the Obama administration will have to make a choice," says Ben-Ami of J Street

Monday, January 12, 2009
The Bush Era Has Been an Eight-Year-Long Madoff-Style Ripoff
Three days after the world learned that $50 billion may have disappeared in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, The Times led its front page of Dec. 14 with the revelation of another $50 billion rip-off. This time the vanished loot belonged to American taxpayers.

Monday, January 12, 2009
Ethanol Is a Disaster, But What About Other Biofuels?
(5 comments) It might lessen our environmental guilt to say we're using "green" biofuel (life fuel!). But the reality is the end product of corn ethanol releases only slightly less carbon than gasoline (less than two percent) and consequences such as soil erosion and increased food price are drastic.

Sunday, January 11, 2009
Bill Moyers on Israel/Gaza
(1 comments) On his PBS Journal Show last night, Bill Moyers delivered a poignant essay on Israel/Gaza (video below). The whole segment is worth watching -- it begins with coverage of a mostly ignored anti-war march this week in Washington (while media hordes, down the street, fixated on the Roland Burris circus) -- but Moyers' essay begins at roughly the 2:20 mark.

Sunday, January 11, 2009
US VP-elect Biden visits southern Afghanistan
resident-elect Barack Obama has promised to end the war in Iraq and refocus U.S. military efforts on Afghanistan, where spiraling violence has claimed thousands of lives and is threatening efforts to stabilize the country. Thousands of new American troops will be joining the battle against the Taliban this year, and Biden's visit is a sign that Obama plans to make the region an immediate priority.

Sunday, January 11, 2009
Obama promises new tack on Iran
(3 comments) In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Obama also said he planned a special team to deal with conflict in the Middle East. The president-elect said he was not ruling out prosecution for possible crimes committed by Bush administration officials. And he repeated his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but suggested it might not happen within his first 100 days in office

Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them
For the 50 million Americans with 401(k) retirement plans, 2008 is a year many wish they could forget. Workers saw their 401(k) plans lose between 20 and 30 percent of their value. Meanwhile, several major corporations have recently announced they are suspending matching contributions to workers' 401(k) plans.

Saturday, January 10, 2009
Campaign For Special Torture Prosecutor Takes Change.gov Site By Storm
(1 comments) A whopping 70,000 questions poured into Change.gov over the past week, in response to the Obama transition team's call for citizen queries to the President-Elect. After votes from about 100,000 people, the top ranked question asks Obama whether he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture and illegal surveillance

Saturday, January 10, 2009
Obama: 'If Paul Krugman Has a Good Idea "¦ Then We're Going to Do It'
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has been a frequent critic of President-elect Barack Obama. During the primary season, he faulted Obama for saying there is a Social Security "crisis," refusing to adopt a mandate in his health care proposals and not fighting enough on "partisan issues."

Saturday, January 10, 2009
An Unnecessary War
I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided. After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area...After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that time, Israel rejected international efforts for cease fire

Friday, January 9, 2009
Toxic coal ash piling up in ponds in 32 states
illions of tons of toxic coal ash are piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated. An Associated Press analysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to one that ruptured last month in Tennessee.

Friday, January 9, 2009
Obama wants digital TV delayed
In a letter sent to the chairman and ranking members on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Podesta said the transition team has found "major difficulties" in the funds authorized to smooth the transition that may cost consumers millions.

Friday, January 9, 2009
TVA waste pond ruptures in Ala.; spill contained
The spill is about 30 miles southwest of Chattanooga. A waste pond at a coal-burning power plant in northeast Alabama ruptured Friday, but the spill was quickly contained, utility officials said. It was the second breach at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility in less than a month

Friday, January 9, 2009
Judge rules against White House on visitors logs
A federal judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration's latest attempt to keep secret the identities of White House visitors and declared that the government illegally deleted Secret Service computer records. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the deletions took place before October 2004 when the Secret Service transferred large numbers of entry and exit logs to the White House and then deleted copies

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Defense spending as 'stimulus'?
The Defense Department has enjoyed a long budgetary heyday, but the golden times may be nearing an end as the Iraq war, which has been eating up $10 billion a month, starts winding down and recession pressures force federal budgeteers to rein in spending. That's the conventional wisdom, at least.

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Schools tap '21st-century skills'
For decades, the emphasis in public education has been on making sure that students can read, write, and do math. But can they apply those skills in a real-world scenario, such as designing a bridge? Can they identify what information they need and use digital tools to find it? Those are some of the capabilities known as "21st-century skills"

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Brussels to Host Emergency Talks as Tens of Thousands Lose Heating in Their Homes
The EU, Russia and Ukraine will today hold top-levels talks in a last-ditch effort to resolve the increasingly angry political dispute that has cut off all Russian gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine. Russia accused Ukraine of "blackmail" and Kiev blamed Moscow for halting supplies without warning as a routine price dispute spiralled into all-out political conflict - and tens of thousands, mainly in eastern Europe, shiver

Thursday, January 8, 2009
How Rick Warren Is Undermining AIDs Prevention in Africa
Team Obama likes to cite Warren's work on AIDS in Africa to combat criticism about the controversial pastor. But how does burning condoms save lives? Once hailed by Time magazine as "America's Pastor," California megachurch leader and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren now finds himself on the defensive.

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Republicans Fight Obama's Stimulus Plan, Fearing Its Success Will Mean Years of Political Oblivion
At least some Republicans are starting to muster an anti-stimulus drive, claiming that President-elect Obama's package will not help the economy. Their drive is centered on what they claim is a careful rereading of the history of the New Deal. According to their account, President Roosevelt's policies actually lengthened the Great Depression.

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Absurd: Joe 'the Plumber' to Become War Correspondent
Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for a conservative website called pjtv.com. The Ohio man, who became famous during the U.S. presidential campaign after asking Barack Obama about his tax plan, is heading to Israel as a war correspondent

Thursday, January 8, 2009
American Civil Liberties Union : National Security Letters
The National Security Letter provision of the Patriot Act radically expanded the FBI's authority to demand personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit companies without prior court approval. The ACLU has challenged this Patriot Act statute in court in three cases. The first, called Doe v. Mukasey, involves an NSL served on an Internet Service Provide

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Obama's Speech on the Economy
The following is a transcript of President-Elect Barack Obama's speech on the economy, as prepared by Federal News Service Jan 8,2009

Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Alcoa slashes 15,000 jobs, cuts output yet again
IN A further sign the global economy is in trouble, aluminium giant Alcoa is set to slash 15,000 jobs. They will also cut production for the third time in as many months.Most of Alcoa's job cuts, comprising 13,500 of its own workforce and 1700 contractors, will come from its downstream markets in North America and Europe

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Extremist group in Greece attacks police
The incident Monday, which left 21-year-old policeman Diamandis Matzounis in critical but stable condition, marks a dramatic intensification of the violence. Although protesters have previously destroyed property and hurled Molotov cocktails at police, gun violence is extremely rare. Greece has been wracked by violent street protests and attacks on government and police facilities since the Dec. 6

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Piracy raises pressure for new international tack on Somalia
With Islamist militias in control of much of the country, pirates using Somali coasts to attack commercial ships with ease, and mounting hunger among civilians, Somalia is a failed state begging for new ideas in 2009. The world is not willing to allow this strategic nation to remain ungoverned.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Burris denied seat in US Senate to succeed Obama
Roland Burris announced Tuesday he was rejected for Barack Obama's Senate seat, in a bizarre rainy-day scene on the Capitol grounds as lawmakers awaited the gaveling of the 111th Congress into session. Standing amid a huge throng of reporters and television cameras in a cold and steady rain, Burris, 71, declared that he had been informed that "my credentials are not in order and will not be accepted."

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Hemingway archive opens in Cuba
The items had been stored in the cellar of the writer's Cuban home for decades. Cuba has opened up electronic access to thousands of documents belonging to the writer Ernest Hemingway Curators say the files offer an insight into Hemingway's life on the island, where he lived for 20 years. "We are talking about 3,194 pages of documents

Monday, January 5, 2009
NY Fed begins purchasing mortgage securities
The New York Fed is overseeing the program for the Federal Reserve. The New York Fed is working with four investment managers - BlackRock Inc., Goldman Sachs Asset Management, PIMCO and Wellington Management Co. - to purchase the securities. Up to $500 billion in securities will be purchased by the end of the second quarter.

Monday, January 5, 2009
Leon Panetta, Institute Director
Washington Post has article on Panetta's appointment to head the CIA. This link tells about his being director of the institute that bears his name.

Monday, January 5, 2009
Biden to head to Asia for congressional trip
Joining Biden will be Democratic Sen. John Kerry, the incoming chairman of the committee. Also accompanying the vice president-elect will be Democratic Sens. Jack Reed, Susan Collins; and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Collins and Graham are members of the Armed Services Committee.

Monday, January 5, 2009
Can America Clean Up from Its Worst Environmental Disaster?
On December 26, 2008, the Roane County Codes Enforcement Office condemned three homes along Swan Pond Circle Road in Harriman, Tennessee, four days after 5.4 million cubic yards, more than 1 billion gallons, of coal combustion waste (CCW) slurry surged, "like a tsunami" according to residents, into the confluence of the Emory and Clinch Rivers after breaking a 40-acre holding pond at the TVA's Kingston coal-fired plant.

Sunday, January 4, 2009
Former DNC chief announces Va. gov run
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe said on Saturday he intends to run for governor of Virginia."McAuliffe also brings a political portfolio well to the left of Democrats Mark R. Warner and Kaine, who toiled in the state party for years before they were elected governor by pledging bipartisan cooperation and campaigning as moderates."

Sunday, January 4, 2009
Richardson withdraws as commerce nominee
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, one of the country's most prominent Hispanic politicians and President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be commerce secretary, on Sunday dropped out of consideration for that post. He attributed his decision to the ongoing investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico.

Sunday, January 4, 2009
A donor's gift soon followed Clinton's help
Hillary Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Iraq War Is Now Illegal
In authorizing an invasion in 2002, Congress did not give President Bush a blank check. It explicitly limited the use of force to two purposes: to "defend the national security of the US from the threat posed by Iraq" and "enforce all relevant UN Security Council resolutions." Bush is trying to fill the legal vacuum with the new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) he signed. But the president's agreement needs Congress' approva

Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Invisible Injuries of the Invisible Ranks - Iraq War
I never expected to feel so lonely, so isolated, so out-of-place and out of sorts all the time, always in that in-between place of neither here nor there, neither this nor that. As an Army wife (excuse me, as six percent are male, Army "spouse"), you are no longer a civilian, but you are not a soldier either. I don't know what military life was like before 9/11, but I can tell you what it is like now

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Colo. gov names schools chief for Senate vacancy
A whip-smart lawyer who has turned successively to the worlds of business and education, Denver Superintendent Michael Bennet won't have much trouble adjusting to the biggest promotion of his life: to U.S. senator. But people who have worked with Bennet, a Democrat, who at 44 will become the Senate's youngest member pending Salazar's confirmation to the Cabinet, say he's up for the challenge.

Friday, January 2, 2009
One Mother Makes a Difference
(1 comments) Cheryl Harris dared to confront two of the biggest powers: the Pentagon and its favorite corporation, Halliburton. "I'm not going to sit around quietly," she said determinedly early this year. What prompted her defiance was the death of one of her sons in Iraq. Ryan wasn't killed by the enemy he'd been sent to fight – but by the shower in his own barracks.

Friday, January 2, 2009
Oil wealth gone, Russians brace for hard times
There are many oft-quoted indicators of Russia's suffering economy - the nation's international reserves have fallen by more than 25 percent since August; the major stock indices recently plummeted by 70 percent; and the ruble has been sliding -

Friday, January 2, 2009
Chinese Migrants Return to Rural Roots
By the time their train pulled into its final station, Deng Hongshu and his teenage son had been standing in a packed aisle, shoulder to shoulder, for 38 hours. Like many of their fellow migrant laborers on Train 1009 from Guangzhou, they were out of work and headed home.

Friday, January 2, 2009
Ill. governor's federal security clearance revoked
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revoked embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's access to classified federal security information, officials said Friday. The move withdraws the governor's access to classified information, although Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said other individuals within state and local government have access

Friday, January 2, 2009
Obama team polishing economic stimulus measure
Pesident-elect Barack Obama's transition team is putting the finishing touches on an economic recovery plan that could run from $675 billion to $775 billion. Briefings for top congressional Democratic officials are likely this weekend or on Monday, a senior transition official said Friday.

Thursday, January 1, 2009
In the Cold on Long Island
As shelters are filling up and food pantries are emptying, the mortgage crisis has hit hard in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Domestic workers are seeing wages cut in half, Ms. Marin-Molina said, as their bosses tell them to come back to clean house every other week. These are not the chronic homeless. "Our donors are now our clients," Mr. Kennedy said. "People who gave us food are now asking us to help them."

Thursday, January 1, 2009
Budget breakdown - California Politics
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to close a roughly $40 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months and provide a $2 billion reserve relies on tax increases, spending cuts and borrowing. Here are the major components. Spending cuts, decreased spending, and borrowing. example: $5 billion from investors against future lottery earnings. Lottery changes must be approved by voters

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Can Obama Sustain the Interest of His Online Constitutents?
So Far, Yes, Says Pew Study. A new survey by Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project indicates the under-30 crowd is not undergoing the post-election drift common to other voting groups and might provide a grass-roots force for Obama's efforts to address health care, college costs and the economic crisis.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Land owners sue TVA for $165M over coal ash spill
A group of land owners sued the Tennessee Valley Authority for $165 million on Tuesday over a dike burst that spilled more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge. The six-page lawsuit was filed in state court by Jot and Brenda Raymond, owners and developers of North Lake Estates in eastern Tennessee's Roane County.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Blair Still to be Top Spy, Despite Silence on Nomination
"A lot of people don't want the job," said the source, because the CIA chief is no longer top dog in the fractious, 16-agency intelligence community, and no longer gives the President his daily briefing. The Obama team has gone down "some blind alleys" in finding the right person, the source said.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Bizarre Life and Angry Times of Bill O'Reilly
Book Review "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" In this slight, self-indulgent memoir, Bill O'Reilly tells us how he got so "bold" and "fresh." A humble man, he attributes his success to his own innate greatness, with honorable mention going to his solidly rock-headed upbringing in Levittown, N.Y.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Muni Sales Dry Up as States Face $42 Billion Deficit
(1 comments) The worst year for municipal bond investors since 1999 may further reduce demand for tax-exempt debt just as state governments face the biggest budget deficits in at least a quarter-century. The combination of the worst financial crisis since World War II and the collapse of the $330 billion auction-rate debt market will leave 41 states and the District of Columbia with shortfalls just as financing sources diminish.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
In 2009, Economy Will Depend on Unlocking Credit
(3 comments) The length of the credit crisis will depend on the availability of credit in all its forms.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Pakistani militant confesses to role in Mumbai attacks
The diplomatic row between India and Pakistan continues to deepen following the November terrorist attack as both countries send more troops to their borders. At least one top leader of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or "Army of the Pure," captured in a raid earlier this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, has confessed the group's involvement in the attack as India and the U.S. have alleged

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Chihuahua City now a model for cleaning up Mexico's police
A three-month-old program that allows human rights workers 24-hour access to live images of prison life is the newest effort toward transparency for Chihuahua's lauded police department...in a country where the police rank among the least respected institutions, Chihuahua's moves toward accountability are garnering its police a rare reputation for honesty and competency that experts hope can be implemented elsewhere.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Obama pledges schools upgrade in stimulus plan
A clue paragraph: Judi Caddick, a middle school math teacher in blue-collar Lansing, Ill., just south of Chicago, said in the older part of her World War II-era school, classrooms had just two power outlets, forcing teachers to string multiple extension cords into the rafters or to unplug a TV power point presentation in order to plug a computer in for a child.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
President-elect Brings Aloha Spirit to the Rest of the U.S. and the World
(1 comments) Also honors others, but--- When change came to America in 2008, the man at the center of it was one of us. He was a self-proclaimed "local boy," born in Honolulu and raised by grandparents who had Midwestern roots, but an island sensibility. "Yes, we can," became a mantra that permeated the islands as Obama won an astounding 72 percent of the state's vote in the general election.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Settlement of International War Disputes
(1 comments) Wolf's calling takes him all over the world, wherever bodies of water - usually rivers - are shared by two or more countries. A dam built upstream, on one side of the border, will affect the flow of water downstream on the other side; whose needs are more important? Is generating electricity the priority? What about pollution?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
One of Its Bloodiest Attacks on Palestinians in 60 Years
Amy Goodman: We speak to Dr. Moussa El-Haddad and Fida Qishta in Gaza, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti in Ramallah, Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv and Ali Abunimah in the United States. Fears of a ground invasion are growing after Israel declared a military buffer zone around Gaza, closing off the strip and its 1.5 million residents to journalists and civilians.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Are Older People Happier?
So what advice does this research offer people seeking to stay happy as they age? Since how one perceives one's circumstances seems to have much more to do with happiness than the actual circumstances, this strongly suggests that what matters most is attitude.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
At Plant in Coal Ash Spill, Toxic Deposits by the Ton
In a single year, an electric plant deposited more than 2.2 million pounds of toxic materials in a holding pond that failed last week, flooding 300 acres in Tennessee.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Blagojevich names Roland Burris to Obama's Senate seat
(1 comments) A video to pay attention to. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) made a surprise appearance at the press conference to give Burris a vote of confidence and urge the U.S. Senate not to stand in Burris' way. It is imperative the Senate have an African-American replace Obama, Rush said.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Cable Repairs Set Back by Second Undersea Break
Engineers from France Télécom had just finished repairing the Sea Me We 4 cable on Dec. 25 when the same cable broke again in a different place, this time 388 kilometers (241 miles) off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt, a France Télécom spokesman said Monday. The cause was likely an undersea landslide or earthquake, the France Télécom spokesman said.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Gazprom, Once Mighty, Is Reeling
The giant Russian natural gas monopoly is deep in debt and negotiating a government bailout.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Cheney will return to Wyo as transformational figure
A long article on Cheney by his hometown paper: Rather than traveling internationally or raising political funds, as had been the custom for previous vice presidents, Cheney stayed home and dug into policy matters. As he reportedly told former Vice President Dan Quayle shortly after he was sworn in: "I have a different understanding with the president" about what his role would be.

Monday, December 29, 2008
Thousands across Metro Detroit to Wait for Power Restored
"It's not localized; it really is broadscale damage," DTE spokesman Michael Porter said just after 7 a.m. "In some cases, trees have been uprooted and knocked down poles and wires. Each is a construction job all its own." DTE called in extra crews from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois after 230,000 homes in southeast Michigan lost power during Sunday's 60 m.p.h. winds. ...more than 400,000 homes and businesses statewide affected

Monday, December 29, 2008
Rule change promises explosion of damage
At least a half-dozen rule changes have been issued in the past month that will weaken clean-air, clean-water and endangered-species protections - none more blatant than a change that would allow mining waste to be dumped on or near mountain streams. ...the practice is common in states including Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. Mining-industry groups say environmentalists are overreacting. But it is difficult to accept

Monday, December 29, 2008
Obama picks a moderate - Salazar
(1 comments) It's not surprising that Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity and Jon Marvel of the Western Watersheds Project are disappointed in Barack Obama's choice for Interior secretary, Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar. If the sage grouse is listed, it could have the same kind of impact on public-land ranching that the spotted owl had on logging in the Pacific Northwest's old-growth forests in the late 1980s.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Israeli Attacks in Gaza Strip Continue for 2nd Day
Israeli airstrikes against Hamas facilities in Gaza continued on Sunday and the death toll rose to more than 280 in Israel's most severe campaign against Palestinian militants in decades.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Road Stirs Up Debate, Even on Its Name
An 18-mile section of Interstate 99 in Central Pennsylvania has drawn ire from many, including environmentalists, taxpayer watchdog groups and advocates upset by its name.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Do Your Part To Get Credit Under Control
Columnist: If you haven't handled your credit card well, make it one of your financial New Year's resolutions to change. The government has offered some help, but it doesn't arrive for a while. Until then, you'd better do everything in your power to handle your credit perfectly to avoid the unfair practices still allowed

Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster
(4 comments) Sue Sturgis writes ....collapse of a lagoon holding coal combustion waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant. The resulting deluge inundated 12 nearby homes, buried more than half a square mile in four to six feet of hazardous waste, and blocked a tributary of the Tennessee River, which provides drinking water for millions of people downstream.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Anniversary of an Assassination
Reflections by an Indian journalist: On December 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto met her martyrdom. The explosions, which took place at a mammoth political rally just two weeks before a general election originally scheduled for January 8, 2008, put an end to more than the life of the 54-year-old leader

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Where car loan funding is found
New-auto sales have fallen hard this year, dropping an unprecedented 37 percent in the 12 months through November. If credit unions hadn't stepped into the financing gap left after other lenders backed away, the decline probably would have been much worse in Colorado, auto dealers say.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
'Little Rock Nine' prepare to celebrate day of victory
When Barack Obama is inaugurated next month, thousands of African Americans who risked their lives in the civil rights movement will flock to Washington to witness the moment. Among the vast crowds, none will feel more proud than a small group of black pioneers who faced down violent mobs more than 50 years ago when they struggled to end racial segregation in schools.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Rabbi Yona Metzger: 'My Dream Is to Create a United Religious Nations'
(1 comments) the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about the Abraham as the father of all three monotheistic religions -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism -- and explains how that connection could be a starting point for a dialogue of peace between them. Slowly but surely many people gathered around him and today most of the population of the world is monotheistic: Christianity, Islam, Judaism ...

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Israeli Attack Kills Scores Across Gaza
(1 comments) A Gazan medical official said that at least 140 people had been killed in Israel's massive attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza in retaliation for the recent rocket fire from the area.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
TVA doubles estimate of ash spilled
The TVA, which as the nation's largest utility company supplies electricity to 8.8 million people, first estimated that Monday's breach had spilled less than half that amount. Moulton could not explain the discrepancy but said TVA's first tests showed no threat to the area's drinking water. The spill damaged 12 homes and covered 300 acres with sludge in Harriman, about 35 miles west of Knoxville.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Beyond our Differences
(4 comments) Moyers presented this film on Dec 26, 2008. His site cannot stream it for proprietary reasons. Here is an introductory segment. Gist: Human Beings are by nature spiritual. Along the way institutions adopt a few tenets and ascribe other churches, synagogues, mosques, etc., as less than "true." This site gives a cast of "performers."

Friday, December 26, 2008
Obama "slights"� the South in picking his team
(1 comments) With about a third of the US population, the American South has established itself as an economic and political juggernaut. "You can see the political shift going to more Northeastern or Western constituencies, where unions do have more of a foothold than the more open-shop policies and labor laws of Southern regions," says Todd Shaw, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

Friday, December 26, 2008
How the West's Energy Boom Could Threaten Drinking Water for 1 in 12 Americans
(2 comments) A rush to develop domestic oil, gas and uranium deposits along the Colorado River and its tributaries is a threat to our children's future. The region could contain more oil than Alaska's National Arctic Wildlife Refuge. It has the richest natural gas fields in the country. And nuclear energy, viewed as a key solution to the nation's dependence on foreign energy, could use the uranium deposits held there.

Friday, December 26, 2008
Plowing Through the Door re Murdoch
Michael Wolff attacks Rupert Murdoch with casual delight in this portrait of the media titan and his quest to buy the Wall Street Journal. THE MAN WHO OWNS THE NEWS Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch 446 pp. Broadway Books. $29.95. Review by DAVID CARR

Thursday, December 25, 2008
Environmental Spill Disaster Devastates Tennessee; 48 Times the Size of Exxon Valdez
(4 comments) The main toxicity seems headed to Chattanooga, the city Senator Corker is associated with. Approximately 500 million gallons of coal ash sludge has broken through a holding pond at a coal-fired plane.

Thursday, December 25, 2008
Seymour Hersh: "After 9/11 We Became a Different Country"
(5 comments) In this interview, Asharq Al-Awsat speaks to veteran American reporter Seymour Hersh SH: What I have said is that there are a lot of people that I have talked to who will be much easier to talk to after the inauguration of [President-elect] Barack Obama. I will be writing a book with a very fine publishing house and a very bright group of people; the idea is to write a book from the inside.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Resistance to Kennedy Grows Among Democrats
(2 comments) Contention is emerging among officials against Caroline Kennedy as she pursues Hillary Rodham Clinton's seat. Governor is pressed, but Bloomberg operatives have overshot their aim in promoting her. Methinks Cuomo is holding his breath. Who knows? New York--up and downstates, you know.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Pentagon Tries to Lock Obama Into an Outrageously Bloated Budget
...without the additional money called for in the October estimate, proposed military spending for 2010 almost doubles the already astronomical budget from fiscal year 2000, which was approximately $280 billion. This, however, is not the whole story. Adding to the Pentagon "base budget," an extra $16 billion goes each year to the Department of Energy to maintain nuclear weapons. And Congress funds wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Is Obama's Education Pick the Sarah Palin of the School System?
(1 comments) Duncan's record has been shaped by his avid support of charter schools and by Mayor Richard M. Daley's Renaissance 2010 initiative to close hundreds of schools and reopen them as new and improved after a year of building renovation and complete staff renewal. Note: JOHN Ayers is head of charter school assoc and not, apparently, related to Bill Ayers at U of Chicago

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
American Express gets OK for $3.39B from gov't
American Express changed its structure to become a bank holding company last month. The change in status allows American Express to tap a wide array of government funding and lending programs, including the bank investment program. ajor financial firms have been becoming bank holding companies to access federal lending programs, such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and CIT Group Inc.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Ex-Bill Clinton aides to join State Dept.
Some appointees require Senate approval, some don't. Names, former positions, and current jobs are listed for several in Dept of State and also in the administration's staff.

Monday, December 22, 2008
Brazil and EU leaders hold summit
Leaders from the European Union and Brazil are expected to focus on the financial crisis and climate change at a two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro. On Tuesday, Mr Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to sign a range of agreements. With Brazil making extensive oil finds off its coast, the government here is becoming increasingly preoccupied with defending the country's coastal waters

Monday, December 22, 2008
Unions pose difficult political test for Obama
The worst job market in a generation sets up a difficult test for Barack Obama: how closely to align himself with organized labor at a time when reviving economic growth is the top national priority. One of Obama's key tenets is that America is in economic trouble because ordinary workers have fallen behind and been neglected in public policy, relative to business executives and investors.

Monday, December 22, 2008
Obama as geo-politician
(1 comments) As problems become more global, there arise more opportunities for nations to work together, often beyond the difficult channels of the United Nations and other international institutions. But it is really the steep recession and the stalled flow of financial credit that mark a historic turning point toward nations linking hands for collective action.

Sunday, December 21, 2008
Poet Chosen for Inauguration Is Aiming for a Work That Transcends the Moment
Barack Obama has commissioned Elizabeth Alexander to compose and read a poem for his inauguration, making her only the fourth poet in American history to read at one.

Sunday, December 21, 2008
Bush E-Mails May Be Secret a Bit Longer
The required transfer in four weeks of all of the Bush White House's electronic mail messages and documents to the National Archives has been imperiled by a combination of technical glitches, lawsuits and lagging computer forensic work, according to government officials, historians and lawyers.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Shares in UK weapons plant sold
(2 comments) The government has sold its last remaining shares in the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire to an American company. The move means Britain no longer has any stake in the production of its Trident nuclear warheads.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
In the Downturn, Europe's Airlines Scramble to Merge
Aside from bankers and automakers, few can claim as rough a ride in 2008 as those in the airline business. Eye-watering fuel prices in the first half of the year and the onset of a global slump in the second will mean a $5 billion loss for the industry this year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). More than 30 carriers from Hong Kong to the U.S. have gone under in 2008.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Madoff scandal could burn Uncle Sam if spurned investors seek tax break
Investors who lost their fortunes in Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme will end up paying far less in taxes and may even be eligible for refunds, according to accounting experts. By some estimates, the Internal Revenue Service could be out as much as $17 billion in lost tax revenue.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Jerry Brown: Gay-marriage ban should be invalidated
(5 comments) ..attorney general's duty to defend the state's laws, and after gay rights activists filed legal challenges to Prop 8, which amended the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, he said he planned to defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California....after studying the matter, Brown concluded that "Prop 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional righ

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Tortured Reasoning
George W. Bush defended harsh interrogations by pointing to intelligence breakthroughs, but a surprising number of counterterrorist officials say that, apart from being wrong, torture just doesn't work. Delving into two high-profile cases, the author exposes the tactical costs of prisoner abuse.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Franken Posts Newfound Lead Over Coleman
The state Canvassing Board's ballot rulings today in the U.S. Senate race have unofficially put challenger Al Franken in the lead by nearly 250.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Cheney Throws Down Gauntlet, Defies Prosecution for War Crimes
Why is Cheney so sanguine about admitting he is a war criminal? Because he's confident that either President Bush will preemptively pardon him or President-elect Obama won't prosecute him. Both of those courses of action would be illegal. Constitution will require President Obama to faithfully execute the laws. That means prosecuting lawbreakers. When the United States ratified the Geneva Conventions and the Convention agains

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Panel may call ex-deputy gov to testify
(1 comments) Gov. Blagojevich's onetime top aide, who now is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's chief political strategist, was named Friday as a potential witness by the House panel weighing impeachment against the governor. Tusk's name also surfaced in Tony Rezko's corruption trial earlier this year, though Tusk has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
The truth? Gov. Blagojevich can't handle the truth
Those who have watched him over the last few years know the governor is entirely capable of creating an alternate reality for himself, one in which everything is going to turn out right if he just keeps smiling and denying. If the day ever comes when Blagojevich accepts the truth about his corrupt administration, maybe somebody will read him the last two lines from the Kipling poem:

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Drug charges hit mom of Bristol Palin's fiance
(1 comments) Alaska state troopers have arrested the mother of Bristol Palin's fiance on drug charges. Sherry L. Johnston was arrested Thursday after troopers served a search warrant on a Wasilla home. The 42-year-old Johnston has been charged with six felony drug counts.

Friday, December 19, 2008
Demands for war crimes prosecutions are now growing in the mainstream
(11 comments) Perhaps most notably of all -- and illustrating the importance of finally having someone like Rachel Maddow occupy such a prominent place in an establishment media venue -- Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, one of the Senate's most restrained, influential and Serious members, was prodded by Maddow last night into going about as far as someone like him could be expected to go, acknowledging the necessity of appointing a Prosecutor

Friday, December 19, 2008
How the hell did Rick Warren get inauguration tickets?
Obama and Warren have often used each other to demonstrate that they'll be willing to listen to people they disagree with -- and yes, also to let everyone know that they'll be willing to anger their friends. This isn't one of those political controversies that pop up out of nowhere without warning

Friday, December 19, 2008
City Room: Protest at the New School Turns Unruly
(1 comments) Another war, another protest against it: Students demonstrating against the administration of Bob Kerrey have a confrontation with security guards and police officers.

Friday, December 19, 2008
Marine "Military Presence" Confirmed in San Bernardino County
(2 comments) As we reported yesterday, the Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center has dispatched uniformed and presumably armed (we have no confirmation of the latter) soldiers to assist the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in the operation of unconstitutional sobriety checkpoints in San Bernardino County, California, Per Gary Daigneault, News Director at KCDZ-FM based in Joshua Tree, California, said the CHIPS was less than forthcoming

Friday, December 19, 2008
Expert seeks Treasury spending plan
AP Exclusive: Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of a congressional oversight panel, traveled to Washington to get answers on how Treasury is managing the unprecedented bailout....the Democratic appointee said she doesn't understand why it's taken so long for the Bush administration to explain its plan. Warren said she doesn't want to believe it's because there never was a plan for spending 700 bn

Friday, December 19, 2008
Gov. Napolitano signs 'meet and confer' union order
Napolitano said a "meet and confer'' requirement in effect since February at the Department of Corrections has been successful in building relationships between the state and its workers. The governor said she believes the mandate will mean more employee input "with the goal of making state government more effective, efficient, reliable and accountable.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
Familiar challenges on biofuels, environment, subsidies await Vilsack
Vilsack & Iowa issues: No state has been more affected by the growth in biofuel production than Iowa, where livestock farms have been paying higher prices for feed, and increased fertilizer use for corn is threatening water quality. If crop prices soar again as they did this year, he could face pressure to release idled cropland from a federal conservation program.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
The economic Civil War
Warning to heed: If the major U.S. automobile companies go under, it will be partly because timely federal aid for them was blocked by members of Congress like Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, whose states have created their own counter-Detroit in the form of Japanese, Korean, and German transplant factories. The South will have risen by bringing down the North. Jefferson Davis will have had his revenge.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
'Killing a Brown' Hate in the military
About a month after he announced his enlistment, Sobibor's SS bragged in another post to Forum 14 that he'd specifically requested and been assigned to MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty, 98D. MOS98D soldiers are in high demand right now. That's because they're specially trained in disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs

Thursday, December 18, 2008
Iraq arrests 50 over coup plot: security official
Iraq has arrested about 50 interior ministry officials for plotting a coup against the Shiite-led government, a senior Iraqi security official said on Thursday. "Fifty interior ministry civil servants, including senior officials, were arrested over the past three days for trying to topple the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,

Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Madoff Scandal and the Future of Hedge Funds
For sheer toe-curling embarrassment, it may be a while before Wall Street does better than the Bernard Madoff scandal. Here was a rogue who practically telegraphed his unreliability by hiring a tiny, no-name audit firm, by reporting monthly investment results that never fluctuated and by claiming a trading strategy that could not possibly have been implemented given the billions of dollars he managed.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
Issa moving to create house Republican investigative unit (12/17/08)
In a bid to beef up House Republicans' ability to scrutinize an Obama administration, incoming House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Darre