Monday, August 31, 2009
Against Reform:
Maybe you noticed a full-page from a group (now) calling itself the 'U.S. Citizens Association'?
It appeared in a large number of newspapers around the country, which cannot be in inexpensive undertaking.
The ad is embedded in this page.
They blame the housing bubble on ACORN, and in stunning fashion, flatly deny any Republican involvement in financial-sector deregulaton that allowed the Bankers to run amok. No mention of Phil Gramm and his role in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the GOP cheerleaders for gutting the Glass-Steagall Act. They assume their audience has no capacity or interest to research things independently, and sadly, in the case of many Americans, they are correct...
The Greed That Created The Sub-Prime Mortgage Bubble:
That it is possible for Bankers who behaved this way to still be in business, is what boggles the mind. Sounds like a reason to pull their corporate charter, as used to be possible in the U.S. (until the 1950's)...
Democracy Now! - Former Wells Fargo Subprime Loan Officer: Bank Targeted Black Churches as Part of Predatory Subprime Lending Scheme
"JUAN GONZALEZ: And what were the differences in the incentives for employees, in terms of putting someone in a subprime versus a prime loan?
ELIZABETH JACOBSON: Well, just based on the commission, you would make sometimes three to four times as much in commission if you put somebody into a subprime loan. And you’d probably be thinking, well, why would somebody that perhaps had a really good credit score that could go prime end up in subprime?
So, when you looked at the initial rate, the teaser rate, on a 228 on a two-year arm, at that point the going rate may have been six, six-and-a-half percent, and that would be comparable to what was on the prime side. So when you got into the subprime loan, you’d have a similar rate, a similar payment. But in two years, that rate was going to adjust, and the first adjustment, it could increase by three percent up to nine percent, and then it could adjust by another three percent in another six months. So you’ve gone from six percent to 12 percent.
In addition, there was points on the loan. There could be two origination and two discount points. Generally, on a prime loan, the only reason you’d pay points is if you’re going to buy your rate down. But they were just selling payment. You just talked about what the payment was. And there were some loan officers out there that were just selling principal and interest payment, because on these subprime loans you did not have to escrow for taxes and insurance. Obviously, those payments had to be made, but the loan officer would get away with saying, 'OK, this is your payment.'
And so, they’d be comparing it with other good-faith estimates of perhaps a prime loan, and they would actually think they were getting a better deal. In reality, they were not. And what would happen, as soon as they got to the table, things would switch. They might have thought they were in a thirty-year fixed, then all of a sudden they found out they were in a two-year arm..."
Maybe you noticed a full-page from a group (now) calling itself the 'U.S. Citizens Association'?
It appeared in a large number of newspapers around the country, which cannot be in inexpensive undertaking.
The ad is embedded in this page.
They blame the housing bubble on ACORN, and in stunning fashion, flatly deny any Republican involvement in financial-sector deregulaton that allowed the Bankers to run amok. No mention of Phil Gramm and his role in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the GOP cheerleaders for gutting the Glass-Steagall Act. They assume their audience has no capacity or interest to research things independently, and sadly, in the case of many Americans, they are correct...
The Greed That Created The Sub-Prime Mortgage Bubble:
That it is possible for Bankers who behaved this way to still be in business, is what boggles the mind. Sounds like a reason to pull their corporate charter, as used to be possible in the U.S. (until the 1950's)...
Democracy Now! - Former Wells Fargo Subprime Loan Officer: Bank Targeted Black Churches as Part of Predatory Subprime Lending Scheme
"JUAN GONZALEZ: And what were the differences in the incentives for employees, in terms of putting someone in a subprime versus a prime loan?
ELIZABETH JACOBSON: Well, just based on the commission, you would make sometimes three to four times as much in commission if you put somebody into a subprime loan. And you’d probably be thinking, well, why would somebody that perhaps had a really good credit score that could go prime end up in subprime?
So, when you looked at the initial rate, the teaser rate, on a 228 on a two-year arm, at that point the going rate may have been six, six-and-a-half percent, and that would be comparable to what was on the prime side. So when you got into the subprime loan, you’d have a similar rate, a similar payment. But in two years, that rate was going to adjust, and the first adjustment, it could increase by three percent up to nine percent, and then it could adjust by another three percent in another six months. So you’ve gone from six percent to 12 percent.
In addition, there was points on the loan. There could be two origination and two discount points. Generally, on a prime loan, the only reason you’d pay points is if you’re going to buy your rate down. But they were just selling payment. You just talked about what the payment was. And there were some loan officers out there that were just selling principal and interest payment, because on these subprime loans you did not have to escrow for taxes and insurance. Obviously, those payments had to be made, but the loan officer would get away with saying, 'OK, this is your payment.'
And so, they’d be comparing it with other good-faith estimates of perhaps a prime loan, and they would actually think they were getting a better deal. In reality, they were not. And what would happen, as soon as they got to the table, things would switch. They might have thought they were in a thirty-year fixed, then all of a sudden they found out they were in a two-year arm..."
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Health Care:
The constant I observe since the 1930s is the AMA warning against 'socialized' medicine.
NY Times: Interactive Timeline - A History of Health Care Reform
The AMA has help opposing universal health care...
HuffPo LobbyBlog: blogging about the world of lobbying
"'Who's Paying to Kill Health Reform?
It's a tangled web, with big lobbying firms, industry groups, and Astroturf organizers all linked to townhall meetings. Reflecting a widely-held view among progressives, the big kahuna behind it all is the health insurance industry, via trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.'
'They're playing a sophisticated game at the front of the pack,' said Campaign for America's Future's Roger Hickey in an interview with the Huffington Post. 'They're trying to pretend that they're in favor of reform and they're spending some money on advertising that looks like
it's pro-reform. And at the same time they're working pretty hard to make sure the public plan is not in the final version. They're primarily using their political contributions and their lobbying
efforts to do that.'
As the chart shows, AHIP is encouraging the employees of its members to attend town hall meetings. The chart also has AHIP pumping money into big PR firms, something unproved that AHIP denies -- though reform advocates suspect it's true..."
The constant I observe since the 1930s is the AMA warning against 'socialized' medicine.
NY Times: Interactive Timeline - A History of Health Care Reform
The AMA has help opposing universal health care...
HuffPo LobbyBlog: blogging about the world of lobbying
"'Who's Paying to Kill Health Reform?
It's a tangled web, with big lobbying firms, industry groups, and Astroturf organizers all linked to townhall meetings. Reflecting a widely-held view among progressives, the big kahuna behind it all is the health insurance industry, via trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.'
'They're playing a sophisticated game at the front of the pack,' said Campaign for America's Future's Roger Hickey in an interview with the Huffington Post. 'They're trying to pretend that they're in favor of reform and they're spending some money on advertising that looks like
it's pro-reform. And at the same time they're working pretty hard to make sure the public plan is not in the final version. They're primarily using their political contributions and their lobbying
efforts to do that.'
As the chart shows, AHIP is encouraging the employees of its members to attend town hall meetings. The chart also has AHIP pumping money into big PR firms, something unproved that AHIP denies -- though reform advocates suspect it's true..."
On Torture:
Given this, the notion of holding low-level people 'accountable' is rather absurd. They had orders from the highest levels, and it is those in the Bush DoJ and White House Office of Legal Counsel that need to be held to account.
NY Times: Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations
"The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program operated under strict rules, and the rules were dictated from Washington with the painstaking, eye-glazing detail beloved by any bureaucracy.
The first news reports this week about hundreds of pages of newly released documents on the C.I.A. program focused on aberrations in the field: threats of execution by handgun or assault by power drill; a prisoner lifted off the ground by his arms, which were tied behind his back; another detainee repeatedly knocked out with pressure applied to the carotid artery.
But the strong impression that emerges from the documents, many with long passages blacked out for secrecy, is by no means one of gung-ho operatives running wild. It is a portrait of overwhelming control exercised from C.I.A. headquarters and the Department of Justice — control Bush administration officials say was intended to ensure that the program was safe and legal..."
Given this, the notion of holding low-level people 'accountable' is rather absurd. They had orders from the highest levels, and it is those in the Bush DoJ and White House Office of Legal Counsel that need to be held to account.
NY Times: Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations
"The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program operated under strict rules, and the rules were dictated from Washington with the painstaking, eye-glazing detail beloved by any bureaucracy.
The first news reports this week about hundreds of pages of newly released documents on the C.I.A. program focused on aberrations in the field: threats of execution by handgun or assault by power drill; a prisoner lifted off the ground by his arms, which were tied behind his back; another detainee repeatedly knocked out with pressure applied to the carotid artery.
But the strong impression that emerges from the documents, many with long passages blacked out for secrecy, is by no means one of gung-ho operatives running wild. It is a portrait of overwhelming control exercised from C.I.A. headquarters and the Department of Justice — control Bush administration officials say was intended to ensure that the program was safe and legal..."
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Who's Looking Out For The Average Citizen?
In a country like France, where the government fears the people, a strike would succeed, but it seems to me that working Americans, instead, fear their government and employers too much to risk taking part.
Larry Flynt: Common Sense 2009
"The American government -- which we once called our government -- has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich. They are the ones who decide our fate. It is this group of powerful elites, the people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called 'economic royalists,' who choose our elected officials -- indeed, our very form of government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not control the government. In America, corporations are the government.
This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that, without a moment's hesitation, they took our money -- yours and mine -- to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something they continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don't care what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as 'useless eaters,'...
...I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful..."
In a country like France, where the government fears the people, a strike would succeed, but it seems to me that working Americans, instead, fear their government and employers too much to risk taking part.
Larry Flynt: Common Sense 2009
"The American government -- which we once called our government -- has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich. They are the ones who decide our fate. It is this group of powerful elites, the people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called 'economic royalists,' who choose our elected officials -- indeed, our very form of government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not control the government. In America, corporations are the government.
This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that, without a moment's hesitation, they took our money -- yours and mine -- to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something they continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don't care what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as 'useless eaters,'...
...I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful..."
Our (Broken) Health Care System:
Heavy advertising on broadcast media creates an unhealthy, dependent relationship between news organizations who (hopefully) feel obligated to report the truth, and advertisers who don't like bad news about their products. It is the classic Business Office vs Editorial Office conflict described by Bagdikian in 'The Media Monopoly.' Read that book, if you haven't.
Dr. Andrew Weil: Should You Get Your Drug Information From An Actor?
"Sally Field is a talented actor. But what qualifies her to promote Boniva, an osteoporosis drug that is of limited benefit, has worrisome side effects, and for which there are natural alternatives that merit careful consideration?
In 'What's Wrong with American Medicine?' I point out that many high-technology treatments have a shadow side. In most areas of life, technological development has made services better and cheaper, but (with a few notable exceptions) it has made health care worse and more expensive. The result: an unhealthy populace and an economy that's lurching toward disaster.
A major component of today's high-tech medical treatment is the reckless overuse of pharmaceutical drugs. An estimated 50 percent of Americans take at least one prescribed medication every day; in 2007, drug sales accounted for an astonishing $315 billion in revenue. When I was growing up, far fewer Americans took prescription drugs.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical marketing, such as Ms. Field's Boniva campaign, is a major engine behind this unfortunate change..."
Clean Water:
Here we see the sorely needed role of investigative journalists in a free society: keeping the public informed about poisons industry would rather keep selling, and how their regulatory agencies are failing them.
The use of the herbicide atrazine resulted in persistent groundwater contamination in the EU, leading to a ban in 2004. Our EPA, however, isn't convinced it is a problem worth addressing...
Huffington Post: EPA Fails To Inform Public About Weed-Killer In Drinking Water (VIDEO)
"One of the nation's most widely-used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results.
Records that tracked the amount of the weed-killer atrazine in about 150 watersheds from 2003 through 2008 were obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund under the Freedom of Information Act. An analysis found that yearly average levels of atrazine in drinking water violated the federal standard at least ten times in communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas, all states where farmers rely heavily on the herbicide.
In addition, more than 40 water systems in those states showed spikes in atrazine levels that normally would have triggered automatic notification of customers. In none of those cases were residents alerted.
In interviews, EPA officials did not dispute the data but said they do not consider atrazine a health hazard and said they did not believe the agency or state authorities had failed to properly inform the public. 'We have concluded that atrazine does not cause adverse effects to humans or the environment,' said Steve Bradbury, deputy office director of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs..."
Heavy advertising on broadcast media creates an unhealthy, dependent relationship between news organizations who (hopefully) feel obligated to report the truth, and advertisers who don't like bad news about their products. It is the classic Business Office vs Editorial Office conflict described by Bagdikian in 'The Media Monopoly.' Read that book, if you haven't.
Dr. Andrew Weil: Should You Get Your Drug Information From An Actor?
"Sally Field is a talented actor. But what qualifies her to promote Boniva, an osteoporosis drug that is of limited benefit, has worrisome side effects, and for which there are natural alternatives that merit careful consideration?
In 'What's Wrong with American Medicine?' I point out that many high-technology treatments have a shadow side. In most areas of life, technological development has made services better and cheaper, but (with a few notable exceptions) it has made health care worse and more expensive. The result: an unhealthy populace and an economy that's lurching toward disaster.
A major component of today's high-tech medical treatment is the reckless overuse of pharmaceutical drugs. An estimated 50 percent of Americans take at least one prescribed medication every day; in 2007, drug sales accounted for an astonishing $315 billion in revenue. When I was growing up, far fewer Americans took prescription drugs.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical marketing, such as Ms. Field's Boniva campaign, is a major engine behind this unfortunate change..."
Clean Water:
Here we see the sorely needed role of investigative journalists in a free society: keeping the public informed about poisons industry would rather keep selling, and how their regulatory agencies are failing them.
The use of the herbicide atrazine resulted in persistent groundwater contamination in the EU, leading to a ban in 2004. Our EPA, however, isn't convinced it is a problem worth addressing...
Huffington Post: EPA Fails To Inform Public About Weed-Killer In Drinking Water (VIDEO)
"One of the nation's most widely-used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results.
Records that tracked the amount of the weed-killer atrazine in about 150 watersheds from 2003 through 2008 were obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund under the Freedom of Information Act. An analysis found that yearly average levels of atrazine in drinking water violated the federal standard at least ten times in communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas, all states where farmers rely heavily on the herbicide.
In addition, more than 40 water systems in those states showed spikes in atrazine levels that normally would have triggered automatic notification of customers. In none of those cases were residents alerted.
In interviews, EPA officials did not dispute the data but said they do not consider atrazine a health hazard and said they did not believe the agency or state authorities had failed to properly inform the public. 'We have concluded that atrazine does not cause adverse effects to humans or the environment,' said Steve Bradbury, deputy office director of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs..."
Friday, August 21, 2009
Iraq:
Also see the DN! item below on this issue.
NY Times: C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists
"The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.
It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations..."
Democracy New! - CIA Hired Private Military Firm Blackwater for Secret Assassination Program
"...JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, I think that what we see here in the Times is a very small fraction—and in the Post, for that matter—a very small fraction of this story. Blackwater has had a longstanding relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency...
...JUAN GONZALEZ:...could you give us a sense — the Times is reporting that these assassination teams did not actually kill anybody. Is that your understanding, as well?
JEREMY SCAHILL: I would raise very serious questions about that, and I’ll tell you why. Cofer Black, when he was head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, said, shortly after Blackwater started working for the CIA, that they had killed thousands of people and that they either killed or detained thousands of people as part of their covert program. Blackwater is alleged to have been working under the CIA’s paramilitary assassination program.
I think that before we go off to the races with declarations about how programs of this nature didn’t work, let’s remember one very important fact. These guys are former Navy Seals. They are the most sophisticated, highly trained operatives in the US military. That was the bonus of hiring Erik Prince. You are getting, off the books, off the map, unknown, plausibly deniable paramilitary operatives, who were the most seasoned veterans of US covert operations, to work essentially a black program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I doubt very seriously that, if Blackwater was involved, no one got killed..."
The 'Liberal' Media:
The Daily Show: Video: Fox News: The New Liberals
[Humor] "Fox News turns into the liberal media by defending protesters, criticizing the president and shoving its values down America's throat..."
Also see the DN! item below on this issue.
NY Times: C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists
"The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.
It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations..."
Democracy New! - CIA Hired Private Military Firm Blackwater for Secret Assassination Program
"...JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, I think that what we see here in the Times is a very small fraction—and in the Post, for that matter—a very small fraction of this story. Blackwater has had a longstanding relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency...
...JUAN GONZALEZ:...could you give us a sense — the Times is reporting that these assassination teams did not actually kill anybody. Is that your understanding, as well?
JEREMY SCAHILL: I would raise very serious questions about that, and I’ll tell you why. Cofer Black, when he was head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, said, shortly after Blackwater started working for the CIA, that they had killed thousands of people and that they either killed or detained thousands of people as part of their covert program. Blackwater is alleged to have been working under the CIA’s paramilitary assassination program.
I think that before we go off to the races with declarations about how programs of this nature didn’t work, let’s remember one very important fact. These guys are former Navy Seals. They are the most sophisticated, highly trained operatives in the US military. That was the bonus of hiring Erik Prince. You are getting, off the books, off the map, unknown, plausibly deniable paramilitary operatives, who were the most seasoned veterans of US covert operations, to work essentially a black program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I doubt very seriously that, if Blackwater was involved, no one got killed..."
The 'Liberal' Media:
The Daily Show: Video: Fox News: The New Liberals
[Humor] "Fox News turns into the liberal media by defending protesters, criticizing the president and shoving its values down America's throat..."
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Afghanistan:
Democracy Now! - Obama Calls for Probe into 2001 Massacre of at Least 2,000 Suspected Taliban POWs by US-Backed Afghan Warlord
"President Obama’s comments follow initial statements from other officials in his administration Friday who said the Department of Defense and the FBI had no jurisdiction over the mass killing by a US-backed warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum. A Pentagon spokesman told the Associated Press, 'There is no indication that US military forces were there, or involved, or had any knowledge of this, so there was not a full investigation conducted because there was no evidence that there was anything from a DoD perspective to investigate.' The infamous Dasht-e-Leili massacre is back in the news in the wake of new evidence published in a New York Times report last Friday that shows the Bush administration blocked at least three federal investigations into the alleged war crimes. The article by journalist James Risen notes that 'American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation because the warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the CIA and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001.' Dostum served as a defense official in the Karzai government. Last year he was suspended for threatening a rival at gunpoint and lived in Turkey in exile. But ahead of the August 20th elections, Karzai has invited him back to the country and reinstated him as military chief of staff. Democracy Now! first covered the massacre six years ago when we aired the award-winning documentary from Jamie Doran Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death..."
Politics:
This group desperately needs the disinfecting light of sunshine upon it.
A secrect organization with elected public policy-makers as members has no place in American politics...
Democracy Now! - Jeff Sharlet on 'The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power'
"A secretive group known as The Fellowship, or 'The Family,' is one of the most powerful Christian fundamentalist movements in the United States. The Family’s devoted membership includes congressmen, corporate leaders, generals and foreign heads of state. Author Jeff Sharlet profiles the group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power...
...The Family’s devoted membership includes Congress members, corporate leaders, generals, foreign heads of state, dictators. The longtime leader, Doug Coe, was included in Time Magazine’s 2004 list of the twenty-five most influential evangelicals in America.
...In 2002, he joined the Family’s home for young men at an estate in Virginia, becoming a member of the Family’s so-called 'new chosen.' He first wrote an article about his research in Harpers magazine..."
Democracy Now! - Obama Calls for Probe into 2001 Massacre of at Least 2,000 Suspected Taliban POWs by US-Backed Afghan Warlord
"President Obama’s comments follow initial statements from other officials in his administration Friday who said the Department of Defense and the FBI had no jurisdiction over the mass killing by a US-backed warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum. A Pentagon spokesman told the Associated Press, 'There is no indication that US military forces were there, or involved, or had any knowledge of this, so there was not a full investigation conducted because there was no evidence that there was anything from a DoD perspective to investigate.' The infamous Dasht-e-Leili massacre is back in the news in the wake of new evidence published in a New York Times report last Friday that shows the Bush administration blocked at least three federal investigations into the alleged war crimes. The article by journalist James Risen notes that 'American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation because the warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the CIA and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001.' Dostum served as a defense official in the Karzai government. Last year he was suspended for threatening a rival at gunpoint and lived in Turkey in exile. But ahead of the August 20th elections, Karzai has invited him back to the country and reinstated him as military chief of staff. Democracy Now! first covered the massacre six years ago when we aired the award-winning documentary from Jamie Doran Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death..."
Politics:
This group desperately needs the disinfecting light of sunshine upon it.
A secrect organization with elected public policy-makers as members has no place in American politics...
Democracy Now! - Jeff Sharlet on 'The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power'
"A secretive group known as The Fellowship, or 'The Family,' is one of the most powerful Christian fundamentalist movements in the United States. The Family’s devoted membership includes congressmen, corporate leaders, generals and foreign heads of state. Author Jeff Sharlet profiles the group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power...
...The Family’s devoted membership includes Congress members, corporate leaders, generals, foreign heads of state, dictators. The longtime leader, Doug Coe, was included in Time Magazine’s 2004 list of the twenty-five most influential evangelicals in America.
...In 2002, he joined the Family’s home for young men at an estate in Virginia, becoming a member of the Family’s so-called 'new chosen.' He first wrote an article about his research in Harpers magazine..."
Monday, August 17, 2009
Economics - Banking With The People's Money:
Robert Scheer: Letting the Banking Rats Out of the Bag
"The good judge smelled a rat.
'Was there some sort of ghost that performed these actions?' New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff demanded to know Monday in rejecting a deal that would let Bank of America off the hook in yet another banker bonus scandal. The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the bank with covering up for outrageous bonuses given out at Merrill Lynch as the bank acquired the failed stockbrokerage, and now it was letting the bank off the hook with a chicken-feed fine.
'Do Wall Street people expect to be paid large bonuses in years when their company lost $27 billion?' the judge asked, and Lewis J. Liman, the lawyer for Bank of America, assured him they do: 'My God! Bonuses on Wall Street? It is not a matter of surprise.'
But for those of us less sophisticated in the ways of Wall Street, it is a surprise that Merrill Lynch executives were rewarded for failure at the same time Bank of America was using $45 billion in taxpayer funds to take over the brokerage house. Six hundred ninety-six executives who helped run Merrill into the ground were granted more than a million bucks each.
BofA lawyer Liman attempted to put an egalitarian spin on this government-sponsored welfare for the superrich by pointing out that all told, another 39,000 Merrill employees averaged only $91,000 in bonuses, but the judge wasn't having it: 'I'm glad you think that $91,000 is not a lot of money; I wish the average American was making $91,000.'
That's the point; the average American is paying for the banking debacle not only in taxes for the bailout but with lost jobs and homes. Yet the SEC, which is supposed to be protecting the ordinary citizen's interests, decided to give BofA execs a bye. The question is why Bank of America and Merrill failed to inform their shareholders that such payoffs were part of the deal. The details of the bonuses were known to BofA CEO Kenneth Lewis and other top bank executives but not mentioned in the merger agreement or proxy statements sent to the company's shareholders for approval..."
Income (In)Equality:
If the health of a consumer-oriented society (ours depends on 60-70% consumer spending), wouldn't the the ability of more people to spend be a concern?
Or do we only care if the rich can spend at will?
Huffington Post: Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY
"Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes. On his blog, Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called the numbers 'truly amazing.'
Though income inequality has been growing for some time, the paper paints a stark, disturbing portrait of wealth distribution in America. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000.
As of 2007, the top decile of American earners, Saez writes, pulled in 49.7 percent of total wages, a level that's 'higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the 'roaring' 1920s.''
Beginning in the economic expansion of the early 1990s, Saez argues, the economy began to favor the top tiers American earners, but much of the country missed was left behind. 'The top 1 percent incomes captured half of the overall economic growth over the period 1993-2007,' Saes writes.
Despite a rising stock market, largely growing employment and a historic housing boom things were not nearly so rosy for the rest of U.S. workers. This trend, according to Saez, only accelerated during the George W. Bush's tenure as President:
'...while the bottom 99 percent of incomes grew at a solid pace of 2.7 percent per year from 1993-2000, these incomes grew only 1.3 percent per year from 2002-2007. As a result, in the economic expansion of 2002-2007, the top 1 percent captured two thirds of income growth,'..."
Health Insurance Reform:
It seems that the Conservatives are succeeding in destroying any hope for a non-profit public plan, as they have in the past. The people making the biggest noise in opposing reform are those who have insurance, suggesting their level of concern for their fellow citizens who have none, or who cannot afford it, is non-existent. 'I've got mine, screw everybody else,' is something George W. Bush would appreciate, as it is the same thinking he wished people to engage in when proposing privatizing Social Security: the notion that we should not care about those who are less fortunate.
How greedy and how despicable!
As long as corporations have 'free speech' rights, these non-human entities (with paid human mouthpieces) will continue to displace the voice of the People in volume and persuasive efficacy, as they 'speak' with money spent on PR, lobbying and 'campaign contributions' (read: BRIBES).
Dr. Andrew Weil: Why I Am A Conservative On Health Care Reform
"...here's my question: Since when is it conservative to embrace new, overpriced, corrupt systems, like the health-destroying and ruinously expensive protocols of much of modern medicine? 'Conservative' has several meanings, but two central ones are 'favoring traditional views and values,' and 'avoiding excess.'
I hold that nothing could be more wild, unconstrained, and downright liberal than the path medicine has taken in just the last 20 years -- an unprecedented bacchanalia of excess and contempt for traditional American values.
Pharmaceuticals, once just one of many therapeutic modalities, are now synonymous with medical care; more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines for chronic health problems. Medical journals, formerly bastions of objectivity, are today often ghostwritten shills for moneyed interests. And physicians, once free to make healing their only goal, must now obey the dictates of lawyers and stockholders by ordering endless tests and dangerous, dubious surgeries for even minor conditions.
While billions of dollars are shunted into very few pockets via such abuses, insurance premiums skyrocket, leaving 47 million Americans with no coverage. The result of medicine's libertine spree? The relief agency Remote Area Medical, established to bring health care to rural parts of third-world nations, now sends 60 percent of its missions to U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, California and Knoxville, Tennessee.
By contrast, integrative medicine (IM), the system we teach at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson (and that is taught at more than 40 other medical schools nationwide including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic) is profoundly conservative in at least three ways:
1. It is philosophically conservative in that it aims to restore core values of medicine that were strong in the past, such as a reverence for the healing power of nature and the importance of the therapist-patient relationship.
2. It is medically conservative in stressing prevention and advocating lesser rather than greater intervention -- the least invasive, least harmful, least expensive treatments that the circumstances of illness demand. IM practitioners always observe the Hippocratic precept of 'First, do no harm,' relying in simpler interventions whenever possible and turning to more drastic ones only when the former fail to produce desired outcomes.
3. It is fiscally conservative in its willingness to look beyond the blinders of high-tech medicine to identify inexpensive therapies that may be useful and in its insistence that they be held to the same standard for clinical- and cost-effectiveness in well-designed outcomes trials..."
Paul Krugman: Republican Death Trip
"...President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.
This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.
Right now, the charge that’s gaining the most traction is the claim that health care reform will create 'death panels (in Sarah Palin’s words) that will shuffle the elderly and others off to an early grave. It’s a complete fabrication, of course. The provision requiring that Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling was introduced by Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican — yes, Republican — of Georgia, who says that it’s 'nuts' to claim that it has anything to do with euthanasia.
And not long ago, some of the most enthusiastic peddlers of the euthanasia smear, including Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, and Mrs. Palin herself, were all for 'advance directives' for medical care in the event that you are incapacitated or comatose. That’s exactly what was being proposed — and has now, in the face of all the hysteria, been dropped from the bill.
Yet the smear continues to spread. And as the example of Mr. Gingrich shows, it’s not a fringe phenomenon: Senior G.O.P. figures, including so-called moderates, have endorsed the lie..."
AP: Britons unite to defend health care amid US debate
"...Britons love to mock their National Health Service — just don't let anyone else poke fun at it.
They particularly resent the British universal health care system being used as a punching bag in the battle against President Barack Obama's proposed reforms.
Conservatives in the United States have relied on horror stories from Britain's system to warn Americans that Obama is trying to impose a socialized health care system that would give the government too much power.
In an interview widely interpreted here as an attack on the U.K., Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa told a local radio station last week that 'countries that have government-run health care' would not have given Sen. Edward Kennedy, who suffers from a brain tumor, the same standard of care as in the U.S. because he is too old.
The superheated debate broadened this week to include renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, a British icon who suffers from motor neurone disease. A U.S. newspaper wrote that under the British system Hawking would be allowed to die — an assertion that Hawking said was absurd.
'I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,' Hawking said, joining the ranks of those praising Britain's system.
Britons say the country's universal health care system, which provides free medical care, is far fairer than the current American system.
Behind the criticism is a popular British view that American society represents unbridled capitalism run amok, with catastrophic results for people left behind in the boom times like those of the last two decades.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, who is usually pro-American, blasted U.S. health care Friday, suggesting the delivery system is fine for the wealthy but not for the poor..."
The Environment:
Expect more Astroturf-roots nonsense when the next big topic comes into focus...
The Guardian (UK) - Oil lobby to fund campaign against Obama's climate change strategy
"The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama's climate change strategy, according to campaigners.
A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 ''energy citizen'' rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace, Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a 'sensitive' plan to stage events during the August congressional recess to put a 'human face' on opposition to climate and energy reform..."
Robert Scheer: Letting the Banking Rats Out of the Bag
"The good judge smelled a rat.
'Was there some sort of ghost that performed these actions?' New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff demanded to know Monday in rejecting a deal that would let Bank of America off the hook in yet another banker bonus scandal. The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the bank with covering up for outrageous bonuses given out at Merrill Lynch as the bank acquired the failed stockbrokerage, and now it was letting the bank off the hook with a chicken-feed fine.
'Do Wall Street people expect to be paid large bonuses in years when their company lost $27 billion?' the judge asked, and Lewis J. Liman, the lawyer for Bank of America, assured him they do: 'My God! Bonuses on Wall Street? It is not a matter of surprise.'
But for those of us less sophisticated in the ways of Wall Street, it is a surprise that Merrill Lynch executives were rewarded for failure at the same time Bank of America was using $45 billion in taxpayer funds to take over the brokerage house. Six hundred ninety-six executives who helped run Merrill into the ground were granted more than a million bucks each.
BofA lawyer Liman attempted to put an egalitarian spin on this government-sponsored welfare for the superrich by pointing out that all told, another 39,000 Merrill employees averaged only $91,000 in bonuses, but the judge wasn't having it: 'I'm glad you think that $91,000 is not a lot of money; I wish the average American was making $91,000.'
That's the point; the average American is paying for the banking debacle not only in taxes for the bailout but with lost jobs and homes. Yet the SEC, which is supposed to be protecting the ordinary citizen's interests, decided to give BofA execs a bye. The question is why Bank of America and Merrill failed to inform their shareholders that such payoffs were part of the deal. The details of the bonuses were known to BofA CEO Kenneth Lewis and other top bank executives but not mentioned in the merger agreement or proxy statements sent to the company's shareholders for approval..."
Income (In)Equality:
If the health of a consumer-oriented society (ours depends on 60-70% consumer spending), wouldn't the the ability of more people to spend be a concern?
Or do we only care if the rich can spend at will?
Huffington Post: Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY
"Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes. On his blog, Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called the numbers 'truly amazing.'
Though income inequality has been growing for some time, the paper paints a stark, disturbing portrait of wealth distribution in America. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000.
As of 2007, the top decile of American earners, Saez writes, pulled in 49.7 percent of total wages, a level that's 'higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the 'roaring' 1920s.''
Beginning in the economic expansion of the early 1990s, Saez argues, the economy began to favor the top tiers American earners, but much of the country missed was left behind. 'The top 1 percent incomes captured half of the overall economic growth over the period 1993-2007,' Saes writes.
Despite a rising stock market, largely growing employment and a historic housing boom things were not nearly so rosy for the rest of U.S. workers. This trend, according to Saez, only accelerated during the George W. Bush's tenure as President:
'...while the bottom 99 percent of incomes grew at a solid pace of 2.7 percent per year from 1993-2000, these incomes grew only 1.3 percent per year from 2002-2007. As a result, in the economic expansion of 2002-2007, the top 1 percent captured two thirds of income growth,'..."
Health Insurance Reform:
It seems that the Conservatives are succeeding in destroying any hope for a non-profit public plan, as they have in the past. The people making the biggest noise in opposing reform are those who have insurance, suggesting their level of concern for their fellow citizens who have none, or who cannot afford it, is non-existent. 'I've got mine, screw everybody else,' is something George W. Bush would appreciate, as it is the same thinking he wished people to engage in when proposing privatizing Social Security: the notion that we should not care about those who are less fortunate.
How greedy and how despicable!
As long as corporations have 'free speech' rights, these non-human entities (with paid human mouthpieces) will continue to displace the voice of the People in volume and persuasive efficacy, as they 'speak' with money spent on PR, lobbying and 'campaign contributions' (read: BRIBES).
Dr. Andrew Weil: Why I Am A Conservative On Health Care Reform
"...here's my question: Since when is it conservative to embrace new, overpriced, corrupt systems, like the health-destroying and ruinously expensive protocols of much of modern medicine? 'Conservative' has several meanings, but two central ones are 'favoring traditional views and values,' and 'avoiding excess.'
I hold that nothing could be more wild, unconstrained, and downright liberal than the path medicine has taken in just the last 20 years -- an unprecedented bacchanalia of excess and contempt for traditional American values.
Pharmaceuticals, once just one of many therapeutic modalities, are now synonymous with medical care; more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines for chronic health problems. Medical journals, formerly bastions of objectivity, are today often ghostwritten shills for moneyed interests. And physicians, once free to make healing their only goal, must now obey the dictates of lawyers and stockholders by ordering endless tests and dangerous, dubious surgeries for even minor conditions.
While billions of dollars are shunted into very few pockets via such abuses, insurance premiums skyrocket, leaving 47 million Americans with no coverage. The result of medicine's libertine spree? The relief agency Remote Area Medical, established to bring health care to rural parts of third-world nations, now sends 60 percent of its missions to U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, California and Knoxville, Tennessee.
By contrast, integrative medicine (IM), the system we teach at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson (and that is taught at more than 40 other medical schools nationwide including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic) is profoundly conservative in at least three ways:
1. It is philosophically conservative in that it aims to restore core values of medicine that were strong in the past, such as a reverence for the healing power of nature and the importance of the therapist-patient relationship.
2. It is medically conservative in stressing prevention and advocating lesser rather than greater intervention -- the least invasive, least harmful, least expensive treatments that the circumstances of illness demand. IM practitioners always observe the Hippocratic precept of 'First, do no harm,' relying in simpler interventions whenever possible and turning to more drastic ones only when the former fail to produce desired outcomes.
3. It is fiscally conservative in its willingness to look beyond the blinders of high-tech medicine to identify inexpensive therapies that may be useful and in its insistence that they be held to the same standard for clinical- and cost-effectiveness in well-designed outcomes trials..."
Paul Krugman: Republican Death Trip
"...President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.
This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.
Right now, the charge that’s gaining the most traction is the claim that health care reform will create 'death panels (in Sarah Palin’s words) that will shuffle the elderly and others off to an early grave. It’s a complete fabrication, of course. The provision requiring that Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling was introduced by Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican — yes, Republican — of Georgia, who says that it’s 'nuts' to claim that it has anything to do with euthanasia.
And not long ago, some of the most enthusiastic peddlers of the euthanasia smear, including Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, and Mrs. Palin herself, were all for 'advance directives' for medical care in the event that you are incapacitated or comatose. That’s exactly what was being proposed — and has now, in the face of all the hysteria, been dropped from the bill.
Yet the smear continues to spread. And as the example of Mr. Gingrich shows, it’s not a fringe phenomenon: Senior G.O.P. figures, including so-called moderates, have endorsed the lie..."
AP: Britons unite to defend health care amid US debate
"...Britons love to mock their National Health Service — just don't let anyone else poke fun at it.
They particularly resent the British universal health care system being used as a punching bag in the battle against President Barack Obama's proposed reforms.
Conservatives in the United States have relied on horror stories from Britain's system to warn Americans that Obama is trying to impose a socialized health care system that would give the government too much power.
In an interview widely interpreted here as an attack on the U.K., Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa told a local radio station last week that 'countries that have government-run health care' would not have given Sen. Edward Kennedy, who suffers from a brain tumor, the same standard of care as in the U.S. because he is too old.
The superheated debate broadened this week to include renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, a British icon who suffers from motor neurone disease. A U.S. newspaper wrote that under the British system Hawking would be allowed to die — an assertion that Hawking said was absurd.
'I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,' Hawking said, joining the ranks of those praising Britain's system.
Britons say the country's universal health care system, which provides free medical care, is far fairer than the current American system.
Behind the criticism is a popular British view that American society represents unbridled capitalism run amok, with catastrophic results for people left behind in the boom times like those of the last two decades.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, who is usually pro-American, blasted U.S. health care Friday, suggesting the delivery system is fine for the wealthy but not for the poor..."
The Environment:
Expect more Astroturf-roots nonsense when the next big topic comes into focus...
The Guardian (UK) - Oil lobby to fund campaign against Obama's climate change strategy
"The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama's climate change strategy, according to campaigners.
A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 ''energy citizen'' rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace, Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a 'sensitive' plan to stage events during the August congressional recess to put a 'human face' on opposition to climate and energy reform..."
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Health Care:
The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an email this week stating:
"This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer published a column in USA Today in which they called those who oppose the Democrats' health care plan 'un-American,'..."
If one bothers to read the Op-Ed, which the NRSC email failed to link to (really? why?), one sees what Pelosi/Hoyer actually wrote:
"...These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades..."
The difference between rudely shouting down people who are expressing opposing views and voicing opposition, politely, when it is one's turn to speak at a Town Hall meeting is not a subtle one, yet the NRSC sees fit to distort and misrepresent what their opponents write.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an email this week stating:
"This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer published a column in USA Today in which they called those who oppose the Democrats' health care plan 'un-American,'..."
If one bothers to read the Op-Ed, which the NRSC email failed to link to (really? why?), one sees what Pelosi/Hoyer actually wrote:
"...These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades..."
The difference between rudely shouting down people who are expressing opposing views and voicing opposition, politely, when it is one's turn to speak at a Town Hall meeting is not a subtle one, yet the NRSC sees fit to distort and misrepresent what their opponents write.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Environment vs Business, Guess Who Loses?
AutoBlogGreen: REPORT: GM gets out from under its polluted sites scot-free — Autoblog Green
"Next in the line of those clamoring for attention and payouts from Motors Liquidation Co., the company that was given all of GM's unwanted assets, are the environmental and economic redevelopment departments of state governments. General Motors was able to exit bankruptcy without responsibility for a number of factory and land sites that are polluted, and state leaders fear that there won't be any money to clean them up.
Before bankruptcy, GM estimated it had $1.9 billion in liability regarding environmental issues and litigation. Motors Liquidation Co., though, has only about $1.2 billion to manage the entire wind-down of its affairs – and as one might expect, attorneys handling the matter are expected to get a huge chunk of that. The figure to clean up sites in places like Buick City (pictured, before the buildings were demolished), Michigan and Massena, New York has been pegged at $530 million. However, the way it's looking, there won't be anywhere near that much money to get the job done..."
Health Care:
Dr. Andrew Weil: The Wrong Diagnosis
"...what's missing, tragically, is a diagnosis of the real, far more fundamental problem, which is that what's even worse than its stratospheric cost is the fact that American health care doesn't fulfill its prime directive -- it does not help people become or stay healthy. It's not a health care system at all; it's a disease management system, and making the current system cheaper and more accessible will just spread the dysfunction more broadly.
It's impossible to make our drug-intensive, technology-centric, and corrupt system affordable. Consider that Americans spent $8.4 billion on medicine in 1950, vs. an astonishing 2.3 trillion in 2007. That's $30,000 annually for a family of four. The bloated structure of endless, marginal-return tests; patent-protected drugs and 'heroic' surgical interventions for virtually every health problem simply can't be made much cheaper due to its very nature. Costs can only be shifted in various unpalatable ways.
So, a far more salient question that must be addressed is: Are we getting good health for our trillions? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding, 'No.' The U.S. ranked near the very bottom of the top 40 nations -- below Columbia, Chile, Costa Rica and Dominica -- in a rating of health systems by the World Health Organization in 2000. In short, we pay about twice as much per capita for our health care as does the rest of the developed world, and we have almost nothing to show for it.
I'm not against high-tech medicine. It has a secure place in the diagnosis and treatment of serious disease. But our health care professionals are currently using it for everything, and the cost is going to break us..."
AutoBlogGreen: REPORT: GM gets out from under its polluted sites scot-free — Autoblog Green
"Next in the line of those clamoring for attention and payouts from Motors Liquidation Co., the company that was given all of GM's unwanted assets, are the environmental and economic redevelopment departments of state governments. General Motors was able to exit bankruptcy without responsibility for a number of factory and land sites that are polluted, and state leaders fear that there won't be any money to clean them up.
Before bankruptcy, GM estimated it had $1.9 billion in liability regarding environmental issues and litigation. Motors Liquidation Co., though, has only about $1.2 billion to manage the entire wind-down of its affairs – and as one might expect, attorneys handling the matter are expected to get a huge chunk of that. The figure to clean up sites in places like Buick City (pictured, before the buildings were demolished), Michigan and Massena, New York has been pegged at $530 million. However, the way it's looking, there won't be anywhere near that much money to get the job done..."
Health Care:
Dr. Andrew Weil: The Wrong Diagnosis
"...what's missing, tragically, is a diagnosis of the real, far more fundamental problem, which is that what's even worse than its stratospheric cost is the fact that American health care doesn't fulfill its prime directive -- it does not help people become or stay healthy. It's not a health care system at all; it's a disease management system, and making the current system cheaper and more accessible will just spread the dysfunction more broadly.
It's impossible to make our drug-intensive, technology-centric, and corrupt system affordable. Consider that Americans spent $8.4 billion on medicine in 1950, vs. an astonishing 2.3 trillion in 2007. That's $30,000 annually for a family of four. The bloated structure of endless, marginal-return tests; patent-protected drugs and 'heroic' surgical interventions for virtually every health problem simply can't be made much cheaper due to its very nature. Costs can only be shifted in various unpalatable ways.
So, a far more salient question that must be addressed is: Are we getting good health for our trillions? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding, 'No.' The U.S. ranked near the very bottom of the top 40 nations -- below Columbia, Chile, Costa Rica and Dominica -- in a rating of health systems by the World Health Organization in 2000. In short, we pay about twice as much per capita for our health care as does the rest of the developed world, and we have almost nothing to show for it.
I'm not against high-tech medicine. It has a secure place in the diagnosis and treatment of serious disease. But our health care professionals are currently using it for everything, and the cost is going to break us..."
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Military Industrial Complex:
We seem to always have money for war.
Chalmers Johnson: Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire
"However ambitious President Barack Obama's domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union.
According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to U.S. military forces living and working there -- 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan.
These massive concentrations of American military power outside the United States are not needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries. They are also unimaginably expensive..."
Food:
TreeHugger: The Corn Syrup - Mercury Connection
"...According to a recent Mother Jones article, in 2004 when FDA researcher Renee Dufault found mercury in HFCS samples from leading manufacturers, they did what any agency looking to protect public health would do: they asked her to stop her inquiry.
The source of the mercury is thought to be lye, which is used to separate the cornstarch from the kernel. Many chemical companies make lye by pumping salt through large vats of mercury. That mercury-laced lye is most likely the same lye used in processing corn to make HFCS.
After the FDA tried to stymie Dufault’s inquiry, she decided pursue the matter further, sending the original 20 samples to be retested; nearly half of the samples contained mercury. This past January, Dufault published her findings in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health..."
I had to look up what BPAs are. They used to create the polycarbonate plastic that is everywhere in modern life.
TreeHugger: New Study: BPA May Make You Stupid and Depressed
"Coincidentally with the release of the National Toxicology Program report, a new study reports that researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and Guelph University exposed African Green monkeys on the Island of St. Kitts to low levels of Bisphenol A for a month. They found that even low doses of BPA slow down the synapses in the brain..."
Energy ~ Environment:
The news below is great, especially when combined with the sort thing NREL demonstrates.
TreeHugger: eSolar Switches on its First 5MW Solar Power Tower
"Back in February it was announced that NRG Energy and eSolar would be developing 500 MW of solar power plants in the desert Southwest, with the electricity going to Southern California Edison. Here's an update on that: eSolar (sans-NRG this time) has taken the first small step towards that goal, completing its first utility-scale solar thermal power tower in Lancaster, California:
The 5 MW Sierra Sun Tower uses 24,000 mirrors to focus the sun's heat onto a central tower, which can generate enough electricity for 4,000 homes. Total construction time was under one year..."
The Guardian (UK) - Paying to keep oil in the ground
"Ecuador's President Rafael Correa is often dismissed as a radical leftist. Such has been the response to his proposal that the world pay him not to extract oil from Yasuni National Park in the western Amazon. Yasuni is home to almost 850 million barrels of oil, or 20% of Ecuador's reserves..."
We seem to always have money for war.
Chalmers Johnson: Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire
"However ambitious President Barack Obama's domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union.
According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to U.S. military forces living and working there -- 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan.
These massive concentrations of American military power outside the United States are not needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries. They are also unimaginably expensive..."
Food:
TreeHugger: The Corn Syrup - Mercury Connection
"...According to a recent Mother Jones article, in 2004 when FDA researcher Renee Dufault found mercury in HFCS samples from leading manufacturers, they did what any agency looking to protect public health would do: they asked her to stop her inquiry.
The source of the mercury is thought to be lye, which is used to separate the cornstarch from the kernel. Many chemical companies make lye by pumping salt through large vats of mercury. That mercury-laced lye is most likely the same lye used in processing corn to make HFCS.
After the FDA tried to stymie Dufault’s inquiry, she decided pursue the matter further, sending the original 20 samples to be retested; nearly half of the samples contained mercury. This past January, Dufault published her findings in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health..."
I had to look up what BPAs are. They used to create the polycarbonate plastic that is everywhere in modern life.
TreeHugger: New Study: BPA May Make You Stupid and Depressed
"Coincidentally with the release of the National Toxicology Program report, a new study reports that researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and Guelph University exposed African Green monkeys on the Island of St. Kitts to low levels of Bisphenol A for a month. They found that even low doses of BPA slow down the synapses in the brain..."
Energy ~ Environment:
The news below is great, especially when combined with the sort thing NREL demonstrates.
TreeHugger: eSolar Switches on its First 5MW Solar Power Tower
"Back in February it was announced that NRG Energy and eSolar would be developing 500 MW of solar power plants in the desert Southwest, with the electricity going to Southern California Edison. Here's an update on that: eSolar (sans-NRG this time) has taken the first small step towards that goal, completing its first utility-scale solar thermal power tower in Lancaster, California:
The 5 MW Sierra Sun Tower uses 24,000 mirrors to focus the sun's heat onto a central tower, which can generate enough electricity for 4,000 homes. Total construction time was under one year..."
The Guardian (UK) - Paying to keep oil in the ground
"Ecuador's President Rafael Correa is often dismissed as a radical leftist. Such has been the response to his proposal that the world pay him not to extract oil from Yasuni National Park in the western Amazon. Yasuni is home to almost 850 million barrels of oil, or 20% of Ecuador's reserves..."
Friday, August 07, 2009
Health Insurance Reform:
Howard Dean called the distuptive Town Hall protesters 'Brownshirts.'
The ignorance displayed by people who receive Medicare but who reflexively 'oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care' is quite astonishing.
They seem to have no idea how the GOP talking heads who told them what to think are deceiving them.
Paul Krugman: The Town Hall Mob
"...Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, has compared the scenes at health care town halls to the 'Brooks Brothers riot' in 2000 — the demonstration that disrupted the vote count in Miami and arguably helped send George W. Bush to the White House. Portrayed at the time as local protesters, many of the rioters were actually G.O.P. staffers flown in from Washington.
But Mr. Gibbs is probably only half right. Yes, well-heeled interest groups are helping to organize the town hall mobs. Key organizers include two Astroturf (fake grass-roots) organizations: FreedomWorks, run by the former House majority leader Dick Armey, and a new organization called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights.
The latter group, by the way, is run by Rick Scott, the former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital chain. Mr. Scott was forced out of that job amid a fraud investigation; the company eventually pleaded guilty to charges of overbilling state and federal health plans, paying $1.7 billion — yes, that’s 'billion' — in fines. You can’t make this stuff up...
...There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they 'oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.' Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.
Now, people who don’t know that Medicare is a government program probably aren’t reacting to what President Obama is actually proposing...
...the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the 'birther' movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.
And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers..."
Howard Dean called the distuptive Town Hall protesters 'Brownshirts.'
The ignorance displayed by people who receive Medicare but who reflexively 'oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care' is quite astonishing.
They seem to have no idea how the GOP talking heads who told them what to think are deceiving them.
Paul Krugman: The Town Hall Mob
"...Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, has compared the scenes at health care town halls to the 'Brooks Brothers riot' in 2000 — the demonstration that disrupted the vote count in Miami and arguably helped send George W. Bush to the White House. Portrayed at the time as local protesters, many of the rioters were actually G.O.P. staffers flown in from Washington.
But Mr. Gibbs is probably only half right. Yes, well-heeled interest groups are helping to organize the town hall mobs. Key organizers include two Astroturf (fake grass-roots) organizations: FreedomWorks, run by the former House majority leader Dick Armey, and a new organization called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights.
The latter group, by the way, is run by Rick Scott, the former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital chain. Mr. Scott was forced out of that job amid a fraud investigation; the company eventually pleaded guilty to charges of overbilling state and federal health plans, paying $1.7 billion — yes, that’s 'billion' — in fines. You can’t make this stuff up...
...There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they 'oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.' Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.
Now, people who don’t know that Medicare is a government program probably aren’t reacting to what President Obama is actually proposing...
...the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the 'birther' movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.
And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers..."
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
U.S. Mercenaries In Iraq:
Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder
"A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince 'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,' and that Prince's companies 'encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.'
In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting 'illegal' or 'unlawful' weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety..."
Big Phara Earners Get Black Box Warnings:
AP: FDA: Arthritis drugs pose cancer risk to children
"Federal regulators on Tuesday added stronger warnings to a group of best-selling drugs used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, saying they can increase the risk of cancer in children and adolescents.
After more than a year of review, Food and Drug Administration scientists said the drugs appear to increase the risk of cancer after they are used beyond 2 1/2 years. The agency studied several dozen reports of cancer in children taking the drugs, some of which were fatal. Half of the cases were lymphomas, a cancer that attacks the immune system.
The drugs are known as tumor necrosis factor blockers and work by neutralizing a protein that, when overproduced, causes inflammation and damage to bones, cartilage and other tissue. The drugs are prescribed to children with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disorder and Crohn's disease.
The FDA will bolster the 'black box' warning on the five drugs sold in the U.S., including Abbott Laboratories' Humira, Johnson & Johnson's Remicade and Simponi, and Enbrel which is co-marketed by Amgen Inc. and Wyeth. All the products are multibillion-dollar sellers. Enbrel was the biggest moneymaker of the group with sales of $3.4 billion last year..."
Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder
"A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince 'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,' and that Prince's companies 'encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.'
In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting 'illegal' or 'unlawful' weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety..."
Big Phara Earners Get Black Box Warnings:
AP: FDA: Arthritis drugs pose cancer risk to children
"Federal regulators on Tuesday added stronger warnings to a group of best-selling drugs used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, saying they can increase the risk of cancer in children and adolescents.
After more than a year of review, Food and Drug Administration scientists said the drugs appear to increase the risk of cancer after they are used beyond 2 1/2 years. The agency studied several dozen reports of cancer in children taking the drugs, some of which were fatal. Half of the cases were lymphomas, a cancer that attacks the immune system.
The drugs are known as tumor necrosis factor blockers and work by neutralizing a protein that, when overproduced, causes inflammation and damage to bones, cartilage and other tissue. The drugs are prescribed to children with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disorder and Crohn's disease.
The FDA will bolster the 'black box' warning on the five drugs sold in the U.S., including Abbott Laboratories' Humira, Johnson & Johnson's Remicade and Simponi, and Enbrel which is co-marketed by Amgen Inc. and Wyeth. All the products are multibillion-dollar sellers. Enbrel was the biggest moneymaker of the group with sales of $3.4 billion last year..."
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Journalism:
One reason for the current financial crisis is that there are far too few investigative journalists like Morgenson.
Without a free press, a 'free' society isn't...
The Nation: The Most Important Financial Journalist of Her Generation
"...For the public, the financial crisis has demonstrated the degree to which Morgenson matters. We've just experienced a long period of radical deregulation that touched off a sea change in the business culture and at the same time created an information vacuum. How was the public to know about Wall Street-backed predatory lending and the scale it had reached? Most of the business press ducked the challenge, sticking largely to tried-and-true formulas: personality profiles, scoops handed out by insiders and after-the-fact explanations of the latest corporate scandal. And while the press did publish some investor- and consumer-oriented stories about the housing bubble, defective mortgage products and the like, it was culturally incapable of grasping the big picture--that, for instance, the financial sector had gone rogue.
Morgenson got it then and gets it now. Ignoring the eye rolls of her peers, pushing back against the lawyers and the flacks, she aims her reporting straight at the heart of the matter--and in doing so points the way for a more credible business press..."
One reason for the current financial crisis is that there are far too few investigative journalists like Morgenson.
Without a free press, a 'free' society isn't...
The Nation: The Most Important Financial Journalist of Her Generation
"...For the public, the financial crisis has demonstrated the degree to which Morgenson matters. We've just experienced a long period of radical deregulation that touched off a sea change in the business culture and at the same time created an information vacuum. How was the public to know about Wall Street-backed predatory lending and the scale it had reached? Most of the business press ducked the challenge, sticking largely to tried-and-true formulas: personality profiles, scoops handed out by insiders and after-the-fact explanations of the latest corporate scandal. And while the press did publish some investor- and consumer-oriented stories about the housing bubble, defective mortgage products and the like, it was culturally incapable of grasping the big picture--that, for instance, the financial sector had gone rogue.
Morgenson got it then and gets it now. Ignoring the eye rolls of her peers, pushing back against the lawyers and the flacks, she aims her reporting straight at the heart of the matter--and in doing so points the way for a more credible business press..."
