Sunday, March 29, 2009
Economics:
Joseph Stiglitz: Reform Is Needed. Reform Is in the Air. We Can't Afford to Fail.
"The task is to build a new financial architecture. If we flunk it, the pain will strike most cruelly in the world's poorest countries..."
Joseph Stiglitz: Reform Is Needed. Reform Is in the Air. We Can't Afford to Fail.
"The task is to build a new financial architecture. If we flunk it, the pain will strike most cruelly in the world's poorest countries..."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
20 Years On, 'Valdez' Still A Stain On Exxon's Corporate Personhood:
Greg Palast: Stick Your Damn Hand in It
"The petite Eskimo-Chugach woman gave me that you-dumb-ass-white-boy look.
'Gail, Gail. STICK YOUR DAMN HAND IN IT!'
She stuck it in, under the gravel of the beach at Sleepy Bay, her village's fishing ground. Gail's hand came up dripping with black, sickening goo. It could make you vomit. Oil from the Exxon Valdez.
It was already two years after the spill and Exxon had crowed that Mother Nature had happily cleaned up their stinking oil mess for them. It was a lie. But the media wouldn't question the bald-faced bullshit. And who the hell was going to investigate Exxon's claim way out in some godforsaken Native village in the Prince William Sound?
So I convinced the Natives to fly the lazy-ass reporters out to Sleepy Bay on rented float planes to see the oil that Exxon said wasn't there.
The reporters looked, but didn't see it, because it was three inches under their feet, under the shingle rock of the icy beach. Gail pulled out her hand and now the whole place smelled like a gas station. The network crews wanted to puke.
And now, with their eyes open, they saw the oil, the vile feces- colored smear across the glaciated ridge faces, the poisonous 'bathtub ring' that ran for miles and miles at the high tide level. And it's still there. Less for sure. But twenty years later, IT'S STILL THERE, GODDAMNIT. And I want YOU, dear reader, to stick your hand in it. I want YOU, President Obama, to stick your hand in it before you blithely fulfill your Palin-esque campaign promise for a little more offshore drilling..."
Iraq:
The Guardian (UK) - Intelligence made it clear Saddam Hussein was not a threat, diplomat tells MPs
"A former diplomat at the centre of events in the run-up to the Iraq war revealed yesterday that the government has a 'paper trail' that could reveal new information about the legality of the invasion.
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.' There were also assessments by the joint intelligence committee which had not been disclosed, Ross told the Commons public administration select committee.
He told the inquiry that the intelligence made it 'very clear' that Saddam Hussein did not pose a significant threat to the UK, as was being claimed at the time by ministers, and that tougher enforcement of sanctions could have brought his regime down..."
William Rivers Pitt: Remember
"Six years ago, the United States of America began the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Since then, 4,259 American soldiers have been killed and tens of thousands more have been wounded. There is no accurate accounting of Iraqi dead and wounded, because as we were told, we do not do body counts. Because the Bush administration left its Iraq expenditures off the budget, and because of the tremendous amount of war-profiteering, graft and theft that has been involved, we do not know exactly how much we have spent.
For the record, 2,192 days later, this is how we got here..."
Pitt goes on to list some four dozen lies the Bush Administration told about why invading & occupying a sovereign nation was necessary. Yet nobody is in prison for the lies that took a fearful nation to war.
Greg Palast: Stick Your Damn Hand in It
"The petite Eskimo-Chugach woman gave me that you-dumb-ass-white-boy look.
'Gail, Gail. STICK YOUR DAMN HAND IN IT!'
She stuck it in, under the gravel of the beach at Sleepy Bay, her village's fishing ground. Gail's hand came up dripping with black, sickening goo. It could make you vomit. Oil from the Exxon Valdez.
It was already two years after the spill and Exxon had crowed that Mother Nature had happily cleaned up their stinking oil mess for them. It was a lie. But the media wouldn't question the bald-faced bullshit. And who the hell was going to investigate Exxon's claim way out in some godforsaken Native village in the Prince William Sound?
So I convinced the Natives to fly the lazy-ass reporters out to Sleepy Bay on rented float planes to see the oil that Exxon said wasn't there.
The reporters looked, but didn't see it, because it was three inches under their feet, under the shingle rock of the icy beach. Gail pulled out her hand and now the whole place smelled like a gas station. The network crews wanted to puke.
And now, with their eyes open, they saw the oil, the vile feces- colored smear across the glaciated ridge faces, the poisonous 'bathtub ring' that ran for miles and miles at the high tide level. And it's still there. Less for sure. But twenty years later, IT'S STILL THERE, GODDAMNIT. And I want YOU, dear reader, to stick your hand in it. I want YOU, President Obama, to stick your hand in it before you blithely fulfill your Palin-esque campaign promise for a little more offshore drilling..."
Iraq:
The Guardian (UK) - Intelligence made it clear Saddam Hussein was not a threat, diplomat tells MPs
"A former diplomat at the centre of events in the run-up to the Iraq war revealed yesterday that the government has a 'paper trail' that could reveal new information about the legality of the invasion.
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.' There were also assessments by the joint intelligence committee which had not been disclosed, Ross told the Commons public administration select committee.
He told the inquiry that the intelligence made it 'very clear' that Saddam Hussein did not pose a significant threat to the UK, as was being claimed at the time by ministers, and that tougher enforcement of sanctions could have brought his regime down..."
William Rivers Pitt: Remember
"Six years ago, the United States of America began the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Since then, 4,259 American soldiers have been killed and tens of thousands more have been wounded. There is no accurate accounting of Iraqi dead and wounded, because as we were told, we do not do body counts. Because the Bush administration left its Iraq expenditures off the budget, and because of the tremendous amount of war-profiteering, graft and theft that has been involved, we do not know exactly how much we have spent.
For the record, 2,192 days later, this is how we got here..."
Pitt goes on to list some four dozen lies the Bush Administration told about why invading & occupying a sovereign nation was necessary. Yet nobody is in prison for the lies that took a fearful nation to war.
Economics:
Matt Taibbi (RS): The Big Takeover
"The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution..."
Matt Taibbi (RS): The Big Takeover
"The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution..."
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Gaza:
Reuters: Israeli soldiers break ranks over Gaza war
"Israel's military was rocked on [March 19] by Gaza war veterans' accounts of the killing of civilians and allegations that deep contempt for Palestinians pervaded its ranks.
The soldiers, alumni of a military academy, gathered last month to discuss their experiences in the 22-day Israeli offensive that ended in January, a campaign that Palestinians and human rights groups have said warranted war crimes probes.
Disclosing details of the session, the institution's director said the soldiers pointed to an atmosphere within the military of 'unbridled contempt for, and forcefulness against, the Palestinians,'..."
Haaretz (IL) - IDF rabbinate publication during Gaza war: We will show no mercy on the cruel
"...An overview of some of the army rabbinate's publications made available during the fighting reflects the tone of nationalist propaganda that steps blatantly into politics, sounds racist and can be interpreted as a call to challenge international law when it comes to dealing with enemy civilians.
Haaretz has received some of the publications through Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who collect evidence of unacceptable behavior in the army vis-a-vis Palestinians. Other material was provided by officers and men who received it during Operation Cast Lead. Following are quotations from this material:
'[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it,'..."
Reuters: Israeli soldiers break ranks over Gaza war
"Israel's military was rocked on [March 19] by Gaza war veterans' accounts of the killing of civilians and allegations that deep contempt for Palestinians pervaded its ranks.
The soldiers, alumni of a military academy, gathered last month to discuss their experiences in the 22-day Israeli offensive that ended in January, a campaign that Palestinians and human rights groups have said warranted war crimes probes.
Disclosing details of the session, the institution's director said the soldiers pointed to an atmosphere within the military of 'unbridled contempt for, and forcefulness against, the Palestinians,'..."
Haaretz (IL) - IDF rabbinate publication during Gaza war: We will show no mercy on the cruel
"...An overview of some of the army rabbinate's publications made available during the fighting reflects the tone of nationalist propaganda that steps blatantly into politics, sounds racist and can be interpreted as a call to challenge international law when it comes to dealing with enemy civilians.
Haaretz has received some of the publications through Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who collect evidence of unacceptable behavior in the army vis-a-vis Palestinians. Other material was provided by officers and men who received it during Operation Cast Lead. Following are quotations from this material:
'[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it,'..."
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
On Contracts & Bailouts
Eliot Spitzer: The Real AIG Scandal
"...The appearance that this was all an inside job is overwhelming. AIG was nothing more than a conduit for huge capital flows to the same old suspects, with no reason or explanation.
So here are several questions that should be answered, in public, under oath, to clear the air:
What was the precise conversation among Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson, and Blankfein that preceded the initial $80 billion grant?
Was it already known who the counterparties were and what the exposure was for each of the counterparties?
What did Goldman, and all the other counterparties, know about AIG's financial condition at the time they executed the swaps or other contracts? Had they done adequate due diligence to see whether they were buying real protection? And why shouldn't they bear a percentage of the risk of failure of their own counterparty?
What is the deeper relationship between Goldman and AIG? Didn't they almost merge a few years ago but did not because Goldman couldn't get its arms around the black box that is AIG? If that is true, why should Goldman get bailed out? After all, they should have known as well as anybody that a big part of AIG's business model was not to pay on insurance it had issued.
Why weren't the counterparties immediately and fully disclosed?
Failure to answer these questions will feed the populist rage that is metastasizing very quickly. And it will raise basic questions about the competence of those who are supposedly guiding this economic policy."
Eliot Spitzer: The Real AIG Scandal
"...The appearance that this was all an inside job is overwhelming. AIG was nothing more than a conduit for huge capital flows to the same old suspects, with no reason or explanation.
So here are several questions that should be answered, in public, under oath, to clear the air:
What was the precise conversation among Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson, and Blankfein that preceded the initial $80 billion grant?
Was it already known who the counterparties were and what the exposure was for each of the counterparties?
What did Goldman, and all the other counterparties, know about AIG's financial condition at the time they executed the swaps or other contracts? Had they done adequate due diligence to see whether they were buying real protection? And why shouldn't they bear a percentage of the risk of failure of their own counterparty?
What is the deeper relationship between Goldman and AIG? Didn't they almost merge a few years ago but did not because Goldman couldn't get its arms around the black box that is AIG? If that is true, why should Goldman get bailed out? After all, they should have known as well as anybody that a big part of AIG's business model was not to pay on insurance it had issued.
Why weren't the counterparties immediately and fully disclosed?
Failure to answer these questions will feed the populist rage that is metastasizing very quickly. And it will raise basic questions about the competence of those who are supposedly guiding this economic policy."
Bailout-funded Bonuses:
Suggesting that the very people who put the car in the ditch should be lavishly rewarded for doing so simply shows how disconnected the 'financial innovators' are from the rest of the U.S. economy.
Lawrence A. Cunningham: A.I.G.’s Bonus Blackmail
"...If the government is serious about finding a legitimate basis for abrogating these payments, officials must look to basic legal principles. And if A.I.G. is serious that it is legally bound to pay these bonuses, it must do more than say nonpayment would expose it to damages or penalties. Nor is it enough to invoke the sanctity of contracts, because our legal and business system recognizes plenty of valid excuses from contractual duty and even justification for breaching...
...Findings of fraud on the part of an employee would certainly also excuse A.I.G.’s duty to pay. This isn’t to say that any A.I.G. employee engaged in such activity. But given the scale of problems that A.I.G. has confronted, and credible allegations of serious misconduct within the organization, it’s worth investigating...
...Without reading the contracts, understanding their background and learning about employee performance, one cannot say whether A.I.G. is legally bound to pay or legally excused from paying these bonuses. But we won’t resolve this question by simply trading nebulous assertions and hysterical threats."
I suppose we'll be told there is never any quid pro quo on Capitol Hill...
The Buffalo News: Light shed on AIG as a political cash cow
"Congressional Democrats vowed Tuesday to strip away the $165 million in bonuses that American International Group paid to its executives with taxpayer bailout money. In doing so, they threatened to bite one of the many hands that feed the Washington campaign money machine.
'One way or another, we’re going to try to figure out how to get these [bonus] resources back,' said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Dodd has accepted $280,238 in campaign cash from AIG’s political committee and employees in the last 20 years.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., said: 'If they don’t give the money back, we will put in place a new law that will allow us to tax these bonuses at a very high rate so that it is returned to its rightful owners — the taxpayers.'
Schumer has accepted $111,875 from AIG donors over two decades.
'They’re not going to get the financial benefit of those bonuses,' said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Baucus collected $90,000 from those connected to the insurance giant that has received more than $170 billion in federal bailout funds..."
Politico: Dodd facing fresh political firestorm
"Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) looks like he may be facing a fresh political firestorm.
Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision. .
'We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,' Dodd told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.
'But for that language, there would have been no language to deal with this at all.'
Dodd had previously said that he played no role in writing the controversial language, and was not a part of the conference committee that inserted the language in the bill. As late as today, Dodd’s spokeswoman denied the senator’s involvement..."
Suggesting that the very people who put the car in the ditch should be lavishly rewarded for doing so simply shows how disconnected the 'financial innovators' are from the rest of the U.S. economy.
Lawrence A. Cunningham: A.I.G.’s Bonus Blackmail
"...If the government is serious about finding a legitimate basis for abrogating these payments, officials must look to basic legal principles. And if A.I.G. is serious that it is legally bound to pay these bonuses, it must do more than say nonpayment would expose it to damages or penalties. Nor is it enough to invoke the sanctity of contracts, because our legal and business system recognizes plenty of valid excuses from contractual duty and even justification for breaching...
...Findings of fraud on the part of an employee would certainly also excuse A.I.G.’s duty to pay. This isn’t to say that any A.I.G. employee engaged in such activity. But given the scale of problems that A.I.G. has confronted, and credible allegations of serious misconduct within the organization, it’s worth investigating...
...Without reading the contracts, understanding their background and learning about employee performance, one cannot say whether A.I.G. is legally bound to pay or legally excused from paying these bonuses. But we won’t resolve this question by simply trading nebulous assertions and hysterical threats."
I suppose we'll be told there is never any quid pro quo on Capitol Hill...
The Buffalo News: Light shed on AIG as a political cash cow
"Congressional Democrats vowed Tuesday to strip away the $165 million in bonuses that American International Group paid to its executives with taxpayer bailout money. In doing so, they threatened to bite one of the many hands that feed the Washington campaign money machine.
'One way or another, we’re going to try to figure out how to get these [bonus] resources back,' said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Dodd has accepted $280,238 in campaign cash from AIG’s political committee and employees in the last 20 years.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., said: 'If they don’t give the money back, we will put in place a new law that will allow us to tax these bonuses at a very high rate so that it is returned to its rightful owners — the taxpayers.'
Schumer has accepted $111,875 from AIG donors over two decades.
'They’re not going to get the financial benefit of those bonuses,' said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Baucus collected $90,000 from those connected to the insurance giant that has received more than $170 billion in federal bailout funds..."
Politico: Dodd facing fresh political firestorm
"Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) looks like he may be facing a fresh political firestorm.
Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision. .
'We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,' Dodd told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.
'But for that language, there would have been no language to deal with this at all.'
Dodd had previously said that he played no role in writing the controversial language, and was not a part of the conference committee that inserted the language in the bill. As late as today, Dodd’s spokeswoman denied the senator’s involvement..."
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Executive Branch:
Murder has been committed in the name of the American people (but without their direct knowledge) for decades, as John Perkins has written about. I do not expect any members of the D.C. Establishment to react with much more than a shrug to Perkins' story or Hersh's recent statements. Perkins even earned himself a page on the DoS site in 2006 about disinformation, so you know he's on to something. Archive.org captured this copy while it was live, as it is now no longer available.
Eric Black [Minneapolis Post] Seymour Hersh Describes 'Executive Assassination Ring'
"At a 'Great Conversations' event at the University of Minnesota last night, 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,'...
...[Hersh:]'After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen.
'Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...
'Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.
'Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us.
'It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized.
'In many cases, they were the best and the brightest. Really, no exaggerations. Really fine guys that went in to do the kind of necessary jobs that they think you need to do to protect America. And then they find themselves torturing people.
'I've had people say to me -- five years ago, I had one say: 'What do you call it when you interrogate somebody and you leave them bleeding and they don't get any medical committee and two days later he dies. Is that murder? What happens if I get before a committee?'
'But they're not gonna get before a committee,'..."
Murder has been committed in the name of the American people (but without their direct knowledge) for decades, as John Perkins has written about. I do not expect any members of the D.C. Establishment to react with much more than a shrug to Perkins' story or Hersh's recent statements. Perkins even earned himself a page on the DoS site in 2006 about disinformation, so you know he's on to something. Archive.org captured this copy while it was live, as it is now no longer available.
Eric Black [Minneapolis Post] Seymour Hersh Describes 'Executive Assassination Ring'
"At a 'Great Conversations' event at the University of Minnesota last night, 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,'...
...[Hersh:]'After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen.
'Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...
'Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.
'Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us.
'It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized.
'In many cases, they were the best and the brightest. Really, no exaggerations. Really fine guys that went in to do the kind of necessary jobs that they think you need to do to protect America. And then they find themselves torturing people.
'I've had people say to me -- five years ago, I had one say: 'What do you call it when you interrogate somebody and you leave them bleeding and they don't get any medical committee and two days later he dies. Is that murder? What happens if I get before a committee?'
'But they're not gonna get before a committee,'..."
Today's (Imploding) GOP:
Non-politicians Chuck Norris, Jim Robinson, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh seem to be vying for Top Idiot...
William River Pitt: Idiot Wind
Learning Nothing From Prohibition:
Reuters: Anti-narcotics drive has fuelled drug cartels: U.N.
"A U.N. anti-narcotics drive has backfired in part by making drug cartels so rich they can bribe their way through West Africa and Central America, U.N. crime agency chief Antonio Maria Costa said on Wednesday.
The 10-year 'war on drugs' campaign had cut drug output and the number of users, he said. But it had a 'dramatic unintended consequence' -- profit-gorged trafficking gangs destabilizing nations already plagued by poverty, joblessness and HIV-AIDS..."
Non-politicians Chuck Norris, Jim Robinson, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh seem to be vying for Top Idiot...
William River Pitt: Idiot Wind
Learning Nothing From Prohibition:
Reuters: Anti-narcotics drive has fuelled drug cartels: U.N.
"A U.N. anti-narcotics drive has backfired in part by making drug cartels so rich they can bribe their way through West Africa and Central America, U.N. crime agency chief Antonio Maria Costa said on Wednesday.
The 10-year 'war on drugs' campaign had cut drug output and the number of users, he said. But it had a 'dramatic unintended consequence' -- profit-gorged trafficking gangs destabilizing nations already plagued by poverty, joblessness and HIV-AIDS..."
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Economics:
Mr. Friedman still has a lot of good writing to do before he can be forgiven for supporting Bush's illegal Iraq War, but here he's making economic sense...
Thomas Friedman: The Inflection Is Near?
"...What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: 'No more.'
We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...
We can’t do this anymore.
'We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,' said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.
'You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,' added Romm. 'But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy,'..."
The So-Called 'Unitary Executive'
Dan Froomkin: Bush's Secret Dictatorship
"The memo issued by the acting director of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel just five days before Barack Obama took office comes across almost as, among other things, a bit whiny.
Steven Bradbury wrote to officially retract a series of memos in which his former colleagues secretly rewrote the Constitution.
He acknowledged that their reasoning was at various points 'unconvincing' and 'not sustainable.'
But Bradbury was also making excuses for them. They were afraid, he wrote: 'The opinions addressed herein were issued in the wake of the atrocities of 9/11, when policymakers, fearing that additional catastrophic terrorist attacks were imminent, strived to employ all lawful means to protect the nation.' They were rushed, confronting 'novel and complex legal questions in a time of great danger and under extraordinary time pressure.'
No excuse. Not even close...
...R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen write in The Washington Post: 'The number of major legal errors committed by Bush administration lawyers during the formulation of its early counterterrorism policies was far greater than previously known, according to internal Bush administration documents released for the first time by the Justice Department yesterday...'...
...Law professor Jack Balkin blogs about 'reasoning which sought, in secret, to justify a theory of Presidential dictatorship...
'This theory of presidential power argues, in essence, that when the President acts in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, he may make his own rules and cannot be bound by Congressional laws to the contrary. This is a theory of presidential dictatorship.
'These views are outrageous and inconsistent with basic principles of the Constitution as well as with two centuries of legal precedents. Yet they were the basic assumptions of key players in the Bush Administration in the days following 9/11.'..."
Mr. Friedman still has a lot of good writing to do before he can be forgiven for supporting Bush's illegal Iraq War, but here he's making economic sense...
Thomas Friedman: The Inflection Is Near?
"...What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: 'No more.'
We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...
We can’t do this anymore.
'We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,' said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.
'You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,' added Romm. 'But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy,'..."
The So-Called 'Unitary Executive'
Dan Froomkin: Bush's Secret Dictatorship
"The memo issued by the acting director of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel just five days before Barack Obama took office comes across almost as, among other things, a bit whiny.
Steven Bradbury wrote to officially retract a series of memos in which his former colleagues secretly rewrote the Constitution.
He acknowledged that their reasoning was at various points 'unconvincing' and 'not sustainable.'
But Bradbury was also making excuses for them. They were afraid, he wrote: 'The opinions addressed herein were issued in the wake of the atrocities of 9/11, when policymakers, fearing that additional catastrophic terrorist attacks were imminent, strived to employ all lawful means to protect the nation.' They were rushed, confronting 'novel and complex legal questions in a time of great danger and under extraordinary time pressure.'
No excuse. Not even close...
...R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen write in The Washington Post: 'The number of major legal errors committed by Bush administration lawyers during the formulation of its early counterterrorism policies was far greater than previously known, according to internal Bush administration documents released for the first time by the Justice Department yesterday...'...
...Law professor Jack Balkin blogs about 'reasoning which sought, in secret, to justify a theory of Presidential dictatorship...
'This theory of presidential power argues, in essence, that when the President acts in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, he may make his own rules and cannot be bound by Congressional laws to the contrary. This is a theory of presidential dictatorship.
'These views are outrageous and inconsistent with basic principles of the Constitution as well as with two centuries of legal precedents. Yet they were the basic assumptions of key players in the Bush Administration in the days following 9/11.'..."
Energy:
Tony Ortega: Why 'Top Gear' Made Me Hate My Country Last Night - Runnin' Scared
"...The fourth episode of [BBC] Top Gear's 12th season aired last night, and I am still in shock. I'm angry, I feel betrayed. And I feel like a fool.
Here's why.
Clarkson, the show's lead-foot, explained that he hated the contest the producers had dreamed up for them in this episode. The three hosts would choose unmodified production cars and then, on a single tank of gas, attempt to drive the 750 miles from Basel, Switzerland to Blackpool, England.
James May loved the idea (if you knew the show, you'd know why -- he's the methodical driver). He thought very carefully and showed up to the contest with a Subaru Legacy Diesel.
Clarkson showed up with a Jaguar twin turbo XJ6 TDVi. 'Because he's an idiot,' May said.
And Richard Hammond pulled up in a tiny VW Polo 3-cylinder 'Bluemotion,' a car that made the other two laugh. But Hammond said, quite logically, that this contest was about gas mileage. And he quizzed the others what sort of mpg they expected to get.
Clarkson in his Jaguar? 35 miles per gallon, with a single tank range of about 655 miles.
May in his diesel Subaru Legacy? 50 miles per gallon, single tank 706 miles.
And Hammond in his diesel VW Polo? 74 miles per gallon, single tank 740 miles.
This was one of those 'Say what?' moments. I turned to my wife and asked, 'They said kilometers, didn't they? They didn't actually say miles, did they?'
But no, it soon became clear that they were talking miles per gallon, and these were not hybrid automobiles..."
WIRED Blog: Ford's ECOnetic Fiesta Gets 65 MPG. You Can't Have One
"The ECOnetic Fiesta that Ford sells in Europe is a sporty little five-passenger hatchback that gets 65 mpg and emits less CO2 than a Toyota Prius. It is the greenest family car sold in Britain and just the thing to boost Ford's sales - and image - at home. But Ford has no plans to bring it to America for one simple, stupid, reason.
It's a diesel.
The Fiesta sports a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with direct injection. It produces just 88 horsepower, so acceleration is, shall we say, relaxed, but European customers don't seem to mind. They've snapped up more than 42,000 of them since the car's debut last fall.
But we can only look on with envy..."
Tony Ortega: Why 'Top Gear' Made Me Hate My Country Last Night - Runnin' Scared
"...The fourth episode of [BBC] Top Gear's 12th season aired last night, and I am still in shock. I'm angry, I feel betrayed. And I feel like a fool.
Here's why.
Clarkson, the show's lead-foot, explained that he hated the contest the producers had dreamed up for them in this episode. The three hosts would choose unmodified production cars and then, on a single tank of gas, attempt to drive the 750 miles from Basel, Switzerland to Blackpool, England.
James May loved the idea (if you knew the show, you'd know why -- he's the methodical driver). He thought very carefully and showed up to the contest with a Subaru Legacy Diesel.
Clarkson showed up with a Jaguar twin turbo XJ6 TDVi. 'Because he's an idiot,' May said.
And Richard Hammond pulled up in a tiny VW Polo 3-cylinder 'Bluemotion,' a car that made the other two laugh. But Hammond said, quite logically, that this contest was about gas mileage. And he quizzed the others what sort of mpg they expected to get.
Clarkson in his Jaguar? 35 miles per gallon, with a single tank range of about 655 miles.
May in his diesel Subaru Legacy? 50 miles per gallon, single tank 706 miles.
And Hammond in his diesel VW Polo? 74 miles per gallon, single tank 740 miles.
This was one of those 'Say what?' moments. I turned to my wife and asked, 'They said kilometers, didn't they? They didn't actually say miles, did they?'
But no, it soon became clear that they were talking miles per gallon, and these were not hybrid automobiles..."
WIRED Blog: Ford's ECOnetic Fiesta Gets 65 MPG. You Can't Have One
"The ECOnetic Fiesta that Ford sells in Europe is a sporty little five-passenger hatchback that gets 65 mpg and emits less CO2 than a Toyota Prius. It is the greenest family car sold in Britain and just the thing to boost Ford's sales - and image - at home. But Ford has no plans to bring it to America for one simple, stupid, reason.
It's a diesel.
The Fiesta sports a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with direct injection. It produces just 88 horsepower, so acceleration is, shall we say, relaxed, but European customers don't seem to mind. They've snapped up more than 42,000 of them since the car's debut last fall.
But we can only look on with envy..."
Monday, March 09, 2009
Healthcare 'Reform'
Keeping Single-Payer advocates away from the public discussion is highly disingenuous, if the best interest of the citizens is supposed to be a consideration.
FAIR.org - Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare
"Major newspaper, broadcast and cable stories mentioning healthcare reform in the week leading up to President Barack Obama's March 5 healthcare summit rarely mentioned the idea of a single-payer national health insurance program, according to a new FAIR study. And advocates of such a system--two of whom participated in yesterday's summit--were almost entirely shut out, FAIR found.
Single-payer--a model in which healthcare delivery would remain largely private, but would be paid for by a single federal health insurance fund (much like Medicare provides for seniors, and comparable to Canada's current system)--polls well with the public, who preferred it two-to-one over a privatized system in a recent survey (New York Times/CBS, 1/11-15/09). But a media consumer in the week leading up to the summit was more likely to read about single-payer from the hostile perspective of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer than see an op-ed by a single-payer advocate in a major U.S. newspaper.
Over the past week, hundreds of stories in major newspapers and on NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer mentioned healthcare reform, according to a search of the Nexis database (2/25/09-3/4/09). Yet all but 18 of these stories made no mention of 'single-payer' (or synonyms commonly used by its proponents, such as 'Medicare for all,' or the proposed single-payer bill, H.R. 676), and only five included the views of advocates of single-payer--none of which appeared on television..."
Keeping Single-Payer advocates away from the public discussion is highly disingenuous, if the best interest of the citizens is supposed to be a consideration.
FAIR.org - Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare
"Major newspaper, broadcast and cable stories mentioning healthcare reform in the week leading up to President Barack Obama's March 5 healthcare summit rarely mentioned the idea of a single-payer national health insurance program, according to a new FAIR study. And advocates of such a system--two of whom participated in yesterday's summit--were almost entirely shut out, FAIR found.
Single-payer--a model in which healthcare delivery would remain largely private, but would be paid for by a single federal health insurance fund (much like Medicare provides for seniors, and comparable to Canada's current system)--polls well with the public, who preferred it two-to-one over a privatized system in a recent survey (New York Times/CBS, 1/11-15/09). But a media consumer in the week leading up to the summit was more likely to read about single-payer from the hostile perspective of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer than see an op-ed by a single-payer advocate in a major U.S. newspaper.
Over the past week, hundreds of stories in major newspapers and on NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer mentioned healthcare reform, according to a search of the Nexis database (2/25/09-3/4/09). Yet all but 18 of these stories made no mention of 'single-payer' (or synonyms commonly used by its proponents, such as 'Medicare for all,' or the proposed single-payer bill, H.R. 676), and only five included the views of advocates of single-payer--none of which appeared on television..."
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Economics:
Timothy Schoechle: Back to the future: Feudal Capitalism?
Le Monde (FR) - After the Financial Crisis, Civil War?
"...According to the European think tank, LEAP/Europe 2020, two factors make the US a likely candidate for civil violence: the absence of a strong social safety net and the presence of hundreds of millions of firearms..."
Timothy Schoechle: Back to the future: Feudal Capitalism?
Le Monde (FR) - After the Financial Crisis, Civil War?
"...According to the European think tank, LEAP/Europe 2020, two factors make the US a likely candidate for civil violence: the absence of a strong social safety net and the presence of hundreds of millions of firearms..."
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Healthcare Reform?
Jane Hamsher: Ellen Tauscher (D-BofA) Helps Bank Lobbyists Write Our Laws
"I've talked to probably a dozen people involved with the bill allowing bankruptcy judges to write-down mortgages, which would reduce foreclosures by 20% and wouldn't cost the taxpayers one dime. Every single person I spoke to said the same thing -- it's disgusting that banks are writing the legislation, watering it down so it is meaningless with the help of Ellen Tauscher and the New Democrat coalition.
On Saturday I wrote about the efforts of former Wall Street investment banker Tauscher to gut the legislation on behalf of banks, who are holding out hope that they can unload their bad loans on taxpayers and never have to take responsibility for their mistakes.
I promptly got a call from Jonathan Kaplan, Tauscher's press secretary, who said that the New Dem's Executive Director Adam Pase, a former lobbyist for predatory lenders who worked to undermine regulation of subprime loans, was not working on this issue. Nor, he claimed, was Tauscher taking the lead. He said Tauscher was only trying to help homeowners before they got to bankruptcy court, and wasn't trying to weaken anything.
Lo and behold, this morning we find not one but two articles where Tauscher brags about her leadership of an effort to 'limit the scope of the bankruptcy bill as much as possible,' saying that 'it shows we have bench strength, and it shows we can flex.' Adam Pace was circulating memos on the bill, and an article in Roll Call this morning (subscription) states that he is 'widely credited with bringing a sharp organizational focus that has reinvigorated the group.'
The upshot? Nancy Pelosi 'buckled' and suspended consideration of the housing bill at a time when it is desperately needed."
Questionable e-Voting Technology:
Slashdot.org Diebold Election Audit Logs Defective
"Premier Election Solutions' (formerly Diebold) GEMS 1.18.19 election software audit logs don't record the deletion of ballots, don't always record correct dates, and can be deleted by the operator, either accidentally or intentionally. The California Secretary of State's office has just released a report about the situation (PDF) in the November 2008 election in Humboldt County, California (which we discussed at the time). Here's the California Secretary of State's links page on Diebold. The conclusion of the 13-page report reads: 'GEMS version 1.18.19 contains a serious software error that caused the omission of 197 ballots from the official results (which was subsequently corrected) in the November 4, 2008, General Election in Humboldt County. The potential for this error to corrupt election results is confined to jurisdictions that tally ballots using the GEMS Central Count Server. Key audit trail logs in GEMS version 1.18.19 do not record important operator interventions such as deletion of decks of ballots, assign inaccurate date and time stamps to events that are recorded, and can be deleted by the operator. The number of votes erroneously deleted from the election results reported by GEMS in this case greatly exceeds the maximum allowable error rate established by HAVA. In addition, each of the foregoing defects appears to violate the 1990 Voting System Standards to an extent that would have warranted failure of the GEMS version 1.18.19 system had they been detected and reported by the Independent Testing Authority that tested the system."
Jane Hamsher: Ellen Tauscher (D-BofA) Helps Bank Lobbyists Write Our Laws
"I've talked to probably a dozen people involved with the bill allowing bankruptcy judges to write-down mortgages, which would reduce foreclosures by 20% and wouldn't cost the taxpayers one dime. Every single person I spoke to said the same thing -- it's disgusting that banks are writing the legislation, watering it down so it is meaningless with the help of Ellen Tauscher and the New Democrat coalition.
On Saturday I wrote about the efforts of former Wall Street investment banker Tauscher to gut the legislation on behalf of banks, who are holding out hope that they can unload their bad loans on taxpayers and never have to take responsibility for their mistakes.
I promptly got a call from Jonathan Kaplan, Tauscher's press secretary, who said that the New Dem's Executive Director Adam Pase, a former lobbyist for predatory lenders who worked to undermine regulation of subprime loans, was not working on this issue. Nor, he claimed, was Tauscher taking the lead. He said Tauscher was only trying to help homeowners before they got to bankruptcy court, and wasn't trying to weaken anything.
Lo and behold, this morning we find not one but two articles where Tauscher brags about her leadership of an effort to 'limit the scope of the bankruptcy bill as much as possible,' saying that 'it shows we have bench strength, and it shows we can flex.' Adam Pace was circulating memos on the bill, and an article in Roll Call this morning (subscription) states that he is 'widely credited with bringing a sharp organizational focus that has reinvigorated the group.'
The upshot? Nancy Pelosi 'buckled' and suspended consideration of the housing bill at a time when it is desperately needed."
Questionable e-Voting Technology:
Slashdot.org Diebold Election Audit Logs Defective
"Premier Election Solutions' (formerly Diebold) GEMS 1.18.19 election software audit logs don't record the deletion of ballots, don't always record correct dates, and can be deleted by the operator, either accidentally or intentionally. The California Secretary of State's office has just released a report about the situation (PDF) in the November 2008 election in Humboldt County, California (which we discussed at the time). Here's the California Secretary of State's links page on Diebold. The conclusion of the 13-page report reads: 'GEMS version 1.18.19 contains a serious software error that caused the omission of 197 ballots from the official results (which was subsequently corrected) in the November 4, 2008, General Election in Humboldt County. The potential for this error to corrupt election results is confined to jurisdictions that tally ballots using the GEMS Central Count Server. Key audit trail logs in GEMS version 1.18.19 do not record important operator interventions such as deletion of decks of ballots, assign inaccurate date and time stamps to events that are recorded, and can be deleted by the operator. The number of votes erroneously deleted from the election results reported by GEMS in this case greatly exceeds the maximum allowable error rate established by HAVA. In addition, each of the foregoing defects appears to violate the 1990 Voting System Standards to an extent that would have warranted failure of the GEMS version 1.18.19 system had they been detected and reported by the Independent Testing Authority that tested the system."
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Economics:
Wired Magazine: Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street
"In the mid-'80s, Wall Street turned to the quants—brainy financial engineers—to invent new ways to boost profits. Their methods for minting money worked brilliantly... until one of them devastated the global economy..."
The So-Called Unitary Executive:
NY Times: Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought
"The secret legal opinions issued by Bush administration lawyers after the Sept. 11 attacks included assertions that the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants.
That opinion was among nine that were disclosed publicly for the first time Monday by the Justice Department, in what the Obama administration portrayed as a step toward greater transparency.
The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting as well that the president could unilaterally abrogate foreign treaties, ignore any guidance from Congress in dealing with detainees suspected of terrorism, and conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants.
Some of the positions had previously become known from statements of Bush administration officials in response to court challenges and Congressional inquiries. But taken together, the opinions disclosed Monday were the clearest illustration to date of the broad definition of presidential power approved by government lawyers in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks..."
Wired Magazine: Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street
"In the mid-'80s, Wall Street turned to the quants—brainy financial engineers—to invent new ways to boost profits. Their methods for minting money worked brilliantly... until one of them devastated the global economy..."
The So-Called Unitary Executive:
NY Times: Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought
"The secret legal opinions issued by Bush administration lawyers after the Sept. 11 attacks included assertions that the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants.
That opinion was among nine that were disclosed publicly for the first time Monday by the Justice Department, in what the Obama administration portrayed as a step toward greater transparency.
The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting as well that the president could unilaterally abrogate foreign treaties, ignore any guidance from Congress in dealing with detainees suspected of terrorism, and conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants.
Some of the positions had previously become known from statements of Bush administration officials in response to court challenges and Congressional inquiries. But taken together, the opinions disclosed Monday were the clearest illustration to date of the broad definition of presidential power approved by government lawyers in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks..."
Monday, March 02, 2009
Economics:
Paul Krugman: Revenge of the Glut
"Remember the good old days, when we used to talk about the 'subprime crisis' — and some even thought that this crisis could be 'contained'? Oh, the nostalgia!..."
Energy:
Popular Mechanics: Solar Panels Get Cheap, But Will the Trend Last? - Research says Silicon Solar Panels like First Solar Uses May Not Hold Up to Scale
"A solar power milestone was reached on Tuesday when First Solar Inc brought its manufacturing costs for solar panels down to $1 per watt. But a study from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs suggests that this might be the bottom for a price-point—if solar power is ever going to scale up to become competitive with other forms of energy..."
Paul Krugman: Revenge of the Glut
"Remember the good old days, when we used to talk about the 'subprime crisis' — and some even thought that this crisis could be 'contained'? Oh, the nostalgia!..."
Energy:
Popular Mechanics: Solar Panels Get Cheap, But Will the Trend Last? - Research says Silicon Solar Panels like First Solar Uses May Not Hold Up to Scale
"A solar power milestone was reached on Tuesday when First Solar Inc brought its manufacturing costs for solar panels down to $1 per watt. But a study from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs suggests that this might be the bottom for a price-point—if solar power is ever going to scale up to become competitive with other forms of energy..."
