THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

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// posted by montag @ 5:59 PM 0 Comments

A federal judge has ruled that the health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in March is unconstitutional.

Judge Roger Vinson, a Reagan appointee serving in Pensacola, Florida, ruled that key components of the law are unconstitutional and that the entire law "must be declared void."

In the decision, Vinson writes:

"... I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate. That is not to say, of course, that Congress is without power to address the problems and inequities in our health care system. The health care market is more than one sixth of the national economy, and without doubt Congress has the power to reform and regulate this market. That has not been disputed in this case. The principal dispute has been about how Congress chose to exercise that power here.

Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."

// posted by montag @ 5:36 PM 0 Comments

"I intend to introduce legislation that would require the Treasury to make interest payments on our debt its first priority in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised," Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) wrote in a Friday Wall Street Journal op-ed.

If passed, Toomey's plan would require the government to cut large checks to foreign countries, and major financial institutions, before paying off its obligations to Social Security beneficiaries and other citizens owed money by the Treasury -- that is, if the U.S. hits its debt ceiling.

// posted by montag @ 4:58 PM 0 Comments

American taxpayers should not foot the bill for infrastructure improvements around the country, the new White House chief of staff said recently.

“I don’t think raising the taxes on the American people right now is the way to go at this point of our economy," William M. Daley told Bob Schieffer of CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday.

Daley, a former Wall Street executive who opposed two of President Obama's major initiatives, said that investment for US infrastructure could instead come from private sources both foreign and domestic.

As you drive down the Poulan WeedEater Turnpike to the Heinz Ketchup cutoff you are glad you refilled your traveling water bottle from the Aquafina Water Service tap before they raised the rates again. Speaking of rates, that dump you took this morning put you at the limit of allowable waste with the Koch Brothers Shit Service and with their overage rates it looks like you will be shitting in the woods until next month.

// posted by montag @ 11:43 AM 0 Comments

Fraud and mismanagement at Afghanistan’s largest bank have resulted in potential losses of as much as $900 million — three times previous estimates — heightening concerns that the bank could collapse and trigger a broad financial panic in Afghanistan, according to American, European and Afghan officials.

The extent of these losses make it clear that keeping the bank afloat — something the government has said it is determined to do — would require large infusions of cash from an already strained budget.

Banking specialists, businessmen and government officials now fear that word of Kabul Bank’s troubles could prompt a run on solvent banks, destroying the country’s nascent banking system and shaking the confidence of Western donors already questioning the level of their commitment to Afghanistan.

The scandal has severe political and security implications. Investigators and Afghan businessmen believe that much of the money has gone into the pockets of a small group of privileged and politically connected Afghans, preventing earlier scrutiny of the bank’s dealings.

// posted by montag @ 12:35 AM 0 Comments

Representative Darrell Issa calls it a way to promote transparency: a request for the names of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, business executives, journalists and others who have requested copies of federal government documents in recent years.

Mr. Issa, a California Republican and the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says he wants to make sure agencies respond in a timely fashion to Freedom of Information Act requests and do not delay them out of political considerations.

// posted by montag @ 10:30 PM 0 Comments

There are numerous reasons for the F-35 debacle, say longtime defense observers, and most of them were predictable: Pentagon officials and military officers cobble together unrealistic goals, timetables and budgets, and defense contractors sign on knowing that once a big program is launched, it's seldom canceled and the money keeps flowing.

// posted by montag @ 1:39 PM 0 Comments

The first articles in the project, which we called the War Logs, were scheduled to go up on the Web sites of The Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel on Sunday, July 25. We approached the White House days before that to get its reaction to the huge breach of secrecy as well as to specific articles we planned to write — including a major one about Pakistan’s ambiguous role as an American ally. On July 24, the day before the War Logs went live, I attended a farewell party for Roger Cohen, a columnist for The Times and The International Herald Tribune, that was given by Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. A voracious consumer of inside information, Holbrooke had a decent idea of what was coming, and he pulled me away from the crowd to show me the fusillade of cabinet-level e-mail ricocheting through his BlackBerry, thus demonstrating both the frantic anxiety in the administration and, not incidentally, the fact that he was very much in the loop. The Pakistan article, in particular, would complicate his life. But one of Holbrooke’s many gifts was his ability to make pretty good lemonade out of the bitterest lemons; he was already spinning the reports of Pakistani duplicity as leverage he could use to pull the Pakistanis back into closer alignment with American interests. Five months later, when Holbrooke — just 69, and seemingly indestructible — died of a torn aorta, I remembered that evening. And what I remembered best was that he was as excited to be on the cusp of a big story as I was.

// posted by montag @ 1:07 PM 0 Comments

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says it's not a threat.

Even as he admitted that not raising the debt ceiling would mean a "financial disaster" for the US and the world, the Speaker said Sunday that Democrats must agree to big spending cuts before the GOP-controlled House will support the Obama administration's spending plans.

"I know you're not threatening to default, but do you agree with administration officials and other economists that defaulting on the full faith and credit of the United States would be a financial disaster?" Fox News' Chris Wallace asked Boehner.

"That would be a financial disaster," the Speaker agreed. "Not only for our country, but for the worldwide economy. Remember, the American people on election day said we want to cut spending and we want to create jobs. You can't create jobs if you default on the federal debt."

// posted by montag @ 11:47 AM 0 Comments

The early moves suggest that the pattern of the last elections, in which primaries were more fiercely contested than the general election in several states, may be repeated.

They also show how much the Tea Party has changed the definition of who qualifies as a conservative. While Ms. Snowe is widely considered a moderate Republican, Mr. Hatch is not. Mr. Lugar, similarly, defines himself as a conservative. He argues that he has consistently won praise from small-business groups, supported a balanced budget amendment and pushed for a reduction in farm subsidies and the closing of agricultural extension offices as part of an effort to reduce unnecessary spending — all initiatives that fall under the smaller government rubric of the Tea Party...

The advocates in Indiana, which national Tea Party groups say has the most organized of the primary efforts, point to Mr. Lugar’s push for the New Start nuclear treaty, which the Senate approved in December; his sponsorship of the Dream Act, which would grant a path to citizenship for limited groups of illegal immigrants; and his votes for President Obama’s picks for the Supreme Court, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

“The senator would call it bipartisanship, but we think you’re siding with the other side,” said Greg Fettig, a Tea Party supporter in Indiana.

// posted by montag @ 12:09 AM 0 Comments

Bank of America Corp.’s investment banking division set aside about 10 percent less for employee compensation than a year earlier as revenue slipped, said two people with direct knowledge of the decision.

Managing directors in areas that underperformed compared with 2009 saw pay shrink by as much as about 20 percent, said the people, who declined to be identified because the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank doesn’t disclose compensation figures. Employees of the global banking and markets unit, run by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trading head Thomas Montag, were told their year-end payouts on Jan. 27, the people said.

“It’s what you should expect considering it was a pretty volatile year,” said Alan Johnson, managing director of New York-based compensation consultant Johnson Associates Inc. “People were down more than that at other places; I’d say a 10 percent decline overall is a pretty good outcome.”

// posted by montag @ 1:28 PM 2 Comments

Hamstrung by federal prohibitions against lowering Medicaid eligibility, governors from both parties are exercising their remaining options in proposing bone-deep cuts to the program during the fourth consecutive year of brutal economic conditions.

Because states confront budget gaps estimated at $125 billion, few essential services — schools, roads, parks — are likely to escape the ax. But the election of tough-minded governors, the evaporation of federal aid, the relentless growth of Medicaid rolls and the exhaustion of alternatives have made the program, which primarily covers low-income children and disabled adults, an outsize target.

In Arizona, which last year ended Medicaid payments for some organ transplants, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, is asking the Obama administration to waive a provision of the new health care law so that the state can remove 280,000 adults from the program’s rolls. In California, the newly elected governor, Jerry Brown, a Democrat, proposes cutting Medicaid by $1.7 billion, in part by limiting the beneficiaries to 10 doctor visits a year and six prescriptions a month.

// posted by montag @ 12:39 PM 0 Comments

You're probably aware that the beautiful young girl pictured at the top of this post is not Christina Green. Her name was Brisenia Flores. Like Christina, Brisenia was 9 years old, and she also lived in Pima County, Arizona, not far from Tucson. Like Christina, she was gunned down in cold blood by killers with strange ideas about society and politics.

But there are also important differences. While the seriously warped mind of Christina'ss Tucson murderer, Jared Lee Loughner, is a muddled mess, the motives of one of Brisenia's alleged killers-- a woman named Shawna Forde -- are pretty clear: She saw herself as the leader of an armed movement against undocumented immigrants, an idea that was energized by her exposure to the then-brand-new Tea Party Movement. But unlike the horrific spree that took Christina's life, the political murder of Brisenia and her dad (while Brisenia's mom survived only by pretending to be dead) has only received very sporadic coverage in the national media. That's a shame, because it's an important story that illustrates the potential for senseless violence when hateful rhetoric on the right -- in this case about undocumented immigrants -- falls on the ears of the unhinged.

This week, Forde is on trial on Tucson, and the details are horrific:

// posted by montag @ 11:35 AM 1 Comments

“Recently, Rush Limbaugh reached a new low as he mocked the Chinese language and culture. His classless act is an insult to over 3,000 years of cultural history and is a slap in the face to the millions of Chinese Americans who have struggled in this country and to a people who constitute one-quarter of the world’s population. His comments belittle the contributions of the Chinese community and are sadly indicative of the bigotry that has often plagued his commentary and lined his pockets. Mr. Limbaugh owes the Chinese community an apology for this pointless and ugly offense.”

// posted by montag @ 10:17 PM 0 Comments

SARAH PALIN's husband TODD is caught up in a sleazy sex scandal, The ENQUIRER has learned!

Political bloggers are digging into incredible claims that the "First Dude" - father of the couple's five children — cheated on his wife with a female massage therapist who was busted for prostitution!

// posted by montag @ 7:21 PM 0 Comments

One day as a 16 year old, Ryan came upon the lifeless body of his father. Paul Ryan, Sr. had died of a heart attack at age 55, leaving the Janesville Craig High School 10th grader, his three older brothers and sisters and his mother alone. It was Paul who told the family of his father’s death.

With his father’s passing, young Paul collected Social Security benefits until age 18, which he put away for college.

// posted by montag @ 5:26 PM 1 Comments

Sorry, fiscal austerity doesn’t work. For evidence, look no further than the U.K.

This can’t be good news for the U.S. political right, whose mantra has been: cut spending, put a lid on deficits, and growth will improve.

All sorts of good things, it is claimed, will spring from a turn to austerity that stops all this stimulus nonsense and prevents the Federal Reserve from doing more quantitative easing. Reductions in spending, according to a theory known as Ricardian equivalence, will do no harm because lower borrowing will automatically lead to higher private spending. Plus, of course, there is the notion of crowding out, meaning that reining in the public sector leaves room for the private industry to step in and all will be well.

This is dangerous hogwash.

There is little historical precedent in the real world, though lots of fantasizing in the made-up world of economic theorists, to suggest that fiscal austerity works. The best example of austerity’s failure is the double-dip that occurred in the late 1930s in the U.S., when spending was reduced too soon in a nascent recovery. In contrast, the U.K. didn’t have a double-dip because it was engaging in classic Keynesian spending as it began re- arming.

// posted by montag @ 1:57 PM 0 Comments

Well, contrary to what Mr. Ryan seemed to imply, Britain has not, in fact, suffered a debt crisis. True, David Cameron, who became prime minister last May, has made a sharp turn toward fiscal austerity. But that was a choice, not a response to market pressure.

And underlying that choice was the new British government’s adherence to the same theory offered by Republicans to justify their demand for immediate spending cuts here — the claim that slashing government spending in the face of a depressed economy will actually help growth rather than hurt it.

So how’s that theory looking? Not good. The British economy, which seemed to be recovering earlier in 2010, turned down again in the fourth quarter. Yes, weather was a factor, and, no, you shouldn’t read too much into one quarter’s numbers. But there’s certainly no sign of the surging private-sector confidence that was supposed to offset the direct effects of eliminating half-a-million government jobs. And, as a result, there’s no comfort in the British experience for Republican claims that the United States needs spending cuts in the face of mass unemployment.

// posted by montag @ 12:59 PM 0 Comments

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.)

Given that the bill also would forbid the use of tax benefits to pay for abortions, that 13-year-old's parents wouldn't be allowed to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure. They also wouldn't be able to deduct the cost of the abortion or the cost of any insurance that paid for it as a medical expense.

// posted by montag @ 12:45 PM 0 Comments

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support for his idea to replace Medicare with a fixed payment to buy a private medical plan from a menu of coverage options.

Party leaders will determine if the so-called voucher plan will be part of the budget Republicans put forward in the spring...

Under Ryan's plan, current Medicare recipients would get to stay in the program. People within 10 years of eligibility - ages 55 to 64 - would also go into Medicare. But those now 54 and under would get a fixed payment from the government when they become eligible at age 65. They would be able to use the voucher to buy a Medicare-approved private plan from a menu of coverage levels and options.

// posted by montag @ 11:46 AM 0 Comments

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// posted by montag @ 7:08 PM 0 Comments

In violation of a law intended to protect active military personnel from creditors, agents of Deutsche Bank foreclosed on his small Michigan house, forcing Sergeant Hurley’s wife, Brandie, and her two young children to move out and find shelter elsewhere.

When the sergeant returned in December 2005, he drove past the densely wooded riverfront property outside Hartford, Mich. The peaceful little home was still there — winter birds still darted over the gazebo he had built near the water’s edge — but it almost certainly would never be his again. Less than two months before his return from the war, the bank’s agents sold the property to a buyer in Chicago for $76,000.

Since then, Sergeant Hurley has been on an odyssey through the legal system, with little hope of a happy ending — indeed, the foreclosure that cost him his home may also cost him his marriage. “Brandie took this very badly,” said Sergeant Hurley, 45, a plainspoken man who was disabled in Iraq and is now unemployed. “We’re trying to piece it together.”

In March 2009, a federal judge ruled that the bank’s foreclosure in 2004 violated federal law but the battle did not end there for Sergeant Hurley.

Typically, banks respond quickly to public reports of errors affecting military families. But today, more than six years after the illegal foreclosure, Deutsche Bank Trust Company and its primary co-defendant, a Morgan Stanley subsidiary called Saxon Mortgage Services, are still in court disputing whether Sergeant Hurley is owed significant damages.

// posted by montag @ 11:25 AM 0 Comments

"Well, if you really want to talk about what the 'Sputnik moment' is," he replied, "it's the fact that we're broke. And American people know we're broke."

// posted by montag @ 11:22 AM 0 Comments

His wife, Frances, had just been informed that due a typo on their November premium payment, their insurance had been canceled. She had swapped a 7 for a 9, sending Ceridian a check for $328.67, instead of $328.69.

The Flanagans said the insurer did little to notify them their coverage was about to be canceled. Their next statement listed the faulty November payment, but did not alert them that their insurance was canceled. Their December premium payment was accepted, they say.

"They never did a certified letter saying what could happen. They never made a phone call. As far as I'm concerned, they're looking for a way to drop you," Ronald Flanagan said.

After sending a letter to ABC in Denver on Tuesday defending its decision to drop the Flanagans, the company appeared to quickly change its mind on Wednesday, when officials at the Florida-based insurer reportedly called the Flanagans personally to let them know their coverage had been reinstated.

// posted by montag @ 11:22 AM 0 Comments

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) walked back his prior remarks that Social Security benefits should be cut by raising the retirement age, but added that the idea still "ought to be on the table."

"I made a mistake when I did that because I think having the conversation about how big the problem is is the first step," Boehner told CNN's Parker/Spitzer Wednesday night. "And once the American people understand how big the problem is, then you can begin to outline an array of possible solutions."

Boehner, the most powerful Republican in Washington, made news last summer when he championed raising the retirement age from 65 to 70 for workers not retiring for another 20 years.

// posted by montag @ 11:21 AM 0 Comments

The rabbis have called on Fox News's owner, Rupert Murdoch, to sanction his two famous employees via a full-page ad in Thursday's editions of the Wall Street Journal - one of many other media properties controlled by Murdoch's News Corp.

The ad is signed by the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as Orthodox rabbis.

"We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News," says the ad, signed by hundreds of rabbis and placed by the Jewish Funds for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group. Earlier this month, the group organized a letter-writing campaign asking Murdoch to remove Beck from the air...

"It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year-old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps," says the ad. "It is not appropriate to call executives of another news agency 'Nazis.' And it is not appropriate to make literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom you disagree.

"We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and that Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air."

// posted by montag @ 12:43 AM 0 Comments

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// posted by montag @ 12:23 AM 0 Comments

The Obama administration's $11.4 billion plan to bolster Afghanistan's security forces is "at risk" because of poor planning, a government watchdog agency concluded in a report released Wednesday.

Auditors with the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the U.S. government "could not provide the plans or justifications" for building nearly 900 police stations and garrisons and other facilities for Afghanistan's national security forces.

The report confirms earlier findings in a series late last year by McClatchy that found the ambitious strategy, like much of the wider Afghan reconstruction effort, is faltering. The program is a linchpin of President Barack Obama's strategy to strengthen Afghan security forces so 100,000 U.S. troops can come home by the end of 2014.

// posted by montag @ 4:50 PM 0 Comments

We must come to realize that not every defense program is necessary, not every defense dollar is sacred or well-spent, and more of everything is simply not sustainable

// posted by montag @ 1:23 PM 0 Comments

The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.

“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done,” the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions, which were read by The New York Times. “If we accept this notion, it will happen again.”

// posted by montag @ 1:05 PM 0 Comments

But King wasn't so busy that he couldn't take a few minutes Tuesday to appear on a conservative radio show, and claim that four out of five mosques in the US were "controlled by radical imams."

"Congressman, how widespread do you think this radical jihad sentiment is in US mosques?" the guest host on Laura Ingraham's radio show asked. "How many mosques do you think are infected by this?"

"The only real testimony we have on it is from Sheikh Kabbani who was a Muslim leader during the Clinton Administration, he testified back in 1999 and 2000 before the State Department that he thought over 80 percent of the mosques in this country are controlled by radical imams," King replied. "Certainly from what I’ve seen and dealings I’ve had, that number seems accurate."

// posted by montag @ 11:58 AM 0 Comments

A small and progressive state whose legislators are sympathetic to single-payer, Vermont could be slated for a major breakthrough on a goal liberals have vigorously pushed for, but to no avail.

The state's top lawmakers have joined forces and made strides towards implementing a public-only health insurance system, taking up an ambitious idea that could have far-reaching impacts across the country if successful.

// posted by montag @ 11:52 AM 0 Comments

A former border guard who says he was fired for suggesting to a co-worker that marijuana should be legalized has filed a lawsuit against the US Border Patrol.

In documents (PDF) filed in a federal court in west Texas last week, Bryan Gonzalez alleged that he lost his job in 2009 after telling a colleague on the Mexican border that he believed legalizing marijuana could reduce drug war violence.

Gonzalez was issued a termination letter stating that he was fired because he "held personal views that were contrary to the core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps," according to the lawsuit...

In an exclusive interview, Gonzalez told Raw Story he was questioned by Customs and Border Patrol's Office of Internal Affairs -- a confrontation that felt more to him like an "interrogation."

"I was asked if I wanted to overthrow the American government," he said. "I was asked if I was a socialist."

But his only transgression was to say that legalizing marijuana would "eliminate a lot of unnecessary deaths."

// posted by montag @ 11:28 AM 0 Comments

A grand piano recently appeared on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, about 200 yards from the Quayside condominiums off Northeast 107th Street. Whoever put it there placed it at the highest point of the sandbar so that it's not underwater during high tide.

How and why the piano got there is a mystery. A grand piano weighs at least 650 pounds and is unwieldly to move, said Bob Shapiro, a salesman at Piano Music Center in Pembroke Park. ``You don't take it out there in a rowboat,'' Shapiro said.

This much is clear, however: The piano isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless it becomes a danger to wildlife or boaters, authorities have no plans to haul it away.

// posted by montag @ 7:54 PM 1 Comments

CNN's decision to air Bachmann's speech, interestingly, is angering liberals and Republicans alike. Steve Benen notes this morning that Bachmann's Tea Party brew could end up making Ryan's speech look moderate and reasonable in comparison. Both Benen and Atrios also point out that it could create a fundamental imbalance -- two Republicans responding to one speech from Obama -- and that there's no way CNN would allow a liberal Dem to offer a response from the left, as Bachmann is doing from the hard right.

But Republicans, too, have reason to be annoyed about this. Granting such a high profile to Bachmann's Messianic Tea Party air won't help the GOP manage the already difficult task of offering a response that has a chance of competing with Obama's speech.
The President already has a big built-in advantage during State of the Union speeches, and the designated opponent already faces an uphill climb when trying to rise to his stature. Elevating Bachmann, of all people, will likely complicate this dynamic even further.

// posted by montag @ 4:46 PM 0 Comments

A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit that accused the security company formerly known as Blackwater of wrongful death, closing the case more than six years after four company contractors were killed in Iraq.

// posted by montag @ 12:37 PM 1 Comments

But before we get to the fees for private planes, hotels, and a car and driver, there is the all-important ticket. And it isn’t free.

Just to have the opportunity to be invited to Davos, you must be invited to be a member of the World Economic Forum, a Swiss nonprofit that was founded by Klaus Schwab, a German-born academic who managed to build a global conference in the snow.

There are several levels of membership: the basic level, which will get you one invitation to Davos, costs 50,000 Swiss francs, or about $52,000. The ticket itself is another 18,000 Swiss francs ($19,000), plus tax, bringing the total cost of membership and entrance fee to $71,000.

But that fee just gets you in the door with the masses at Davos, with entry to all the general sessions. If you want to be invited behind the velvet rope to participate in private sessions among your industry’s peers, you need to step up to the “Industry Associate” level. That costs $137,000, plus the price of the ticket, bringing the total to about $156,000.

Of course, most chief executives don’t like going anywhere alone, so they might ask a colleague along. Well, the World Economic Forum doesn’t just let you buy an additional ticket for $19,000. Instead, you need to upgrade your annual membership to the “Industry Partner” level. That will set you back about $263,000, plus the cost of two tickets, bringing the total to $301,000.

And if you want to take an entourage, say, five people? Now you’re talking about the “Strategic Partner” level. The price tag: $527,000. (That’s just the annual membership entitling you to as many as five invitations. Each invitation is still $19,000 each, so if five people come, that’s $95,000, making the total $622,000.) This year, all Strategic Partners are required to invite at least one woman along in an effort to diversify the attendee list.

As part of the Strategic Partner level, you get access to the private sessions as well as special conference rooms to hold meetings. And perhaps the biggest perk of all, your car and driver are given a sticker allowing door-to-door pickup service.

// posted by montag @ 12:28 PM 0 Comments

Texas Governor Rick Perry, the Democrat-turned-Republican who served as George W. Bush's lieutenant and won his third term last year, wants you to think he's not a fan of federal bailouts.

Yet, on the same day "Texans for Rick Perry" launched their "No Government Bailouts" campaign, Perry himself was lining up with the rest of the states asking for billions in federal funding from President Barack Obama's Recovery Act.

Despite having $9.1 billion in surplus in a so-called "rainy day fund," Texas faced a $6.6 billion budget deficit in the 2010-11 fiscal years. To fill that gap, the state took $6.4 billion from the Obama administration and declared their budget gap covered, freeing up the Republicans who dominated the legislature to run on their fiscal responsibility.

The day after President Obama signed the Recovery Act, Perry published an op-ed in The Washington Times, railing against "unparalleled growth in government." On his blog, he urged supporters to sign his petition against "irresponsible spending that threatens our future."

// posted by montag @ 11:17 AM 0 Comments

When you see surveillance videos of some creep mugging an elderly person in an elevator or apartment lobby, the universal reaction is outrage. But when the fat cats and the ideologues want to hack away at the lifeline of Social Security, they are treated somehow as respectable, even enlightened members of the society.

We need a reality check. Attacking Social Security is both cruel and unnecessary. It needs to stop...

Mugging the nation’s grandparents by depriving them of some of their modest, hard-earned Social Security retirement benefits is hardly an answer to the nation’s ills. And, believe me, those benefits are modest. The average benefit is just $14,000 a year, which is less than the minimum wage would pay. With employer-provided pensions going the way of the typewriter and pay telephones, the income from Social Security is becoming more precious by the day.

“If we didn’t have Social Security, we’d have to invent it right now,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. “It’s perfectly suited to the terrible times we’re going through. Hardly anyone has pensions anymore. People’s private savings have taken a huge hit, and home prices have been hit hard. So the private savings that so many seniors and soon-to-be seniors have counted on have just been wiped out.

“Social Security is still there, and it’s still paying out retirement benefits indexed to wages. It’s the one part of the retirement stool that is working.”

// posted by montag @ 12:55 AM 1 Comments

The bipartisan panel appointed by Congress to investigate the financial crisis has concluded that several financial industry figures appear to have broken the law and has referred multiple cases to state or federal authorities for potential prosecution, according to two sources directly involved in the deliberations.

The sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, declined to identify the people implicated or the names of their institutions. But they characterized the panel's decision to make referrals to prosecutors as a significant escalation in the government's response to the financial crisis. The panel plans to release its final report in Washington on Thursday morning.

// posted by montag @ 12:26 AM 0 Comments

J.R.S. 11. Joint resolution urging the United States Congress to propose an
amendment to the United States Constitution for the states’ consideration
which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United
States or any of its jurisdictional subdivisions.

Whereas, free and fair elections are essential to American democracy and
effective self-governance, and

Whereas, individual persons are rightfully recognized as the human beings
who actually vote in elections, and

Whereas, corporations are legal entities that governments create and can
exist in perpetuity and simultaneously in many nations, and

Whereas, corporations are not and have never been human beings and
therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings and the governments that
are their creators

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the General Assembly urges Congress to propose an amendment to the
United States Constitution for the states’ consideration which provides that
corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States or any of its
jurisdictional subdivisions, and be it further
Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this
resolution to the Vermont Congressional Delegation.

// posted by montag @ 10:31 PM 0 Comments

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// posted by montag @ 7:05 PM 0 Comments

Over the weekend, the White House informed Democratic lawmakers and advocates for seniors that Obama will emphasize the need to reduce record deficits in the speech, but that he will not call for reducing spending on Social Security - the single largest federal program - as part of that effort.

Liberals, who have been alarmed by Obama's recent to shift to the center and his effort to court the nation's business community, applauded the decision, arguing that Social Security cuts are neither necessary to reduce current deficits nor a wise move politically. Polls show that large majorities of Americans in both parties - even in households that identify themselves as part of the tea party movement - oppose cuts to Social Security.

// posted by montag @ 4:51 PM 0 Comments

Witnesses say they saw a woman throw herself from the 23rd story of a Buenos Aires hotel Monday and survive.

The woman landed in a sitting position on the roof of a taxi whose driver got out just before the impact deeply dented his roof and shattered the windshield.

The woman, a 30-year-old Argentine, has injuries throughout her body and is being treated in the emergency room of the Hotel Argerich, said Alberto Crescenti, director of Argentina's Emergency Medical System.

// posted by montag @ 12:52 PM 0 Comments

The financial crisis of 2008 was a teachable moment, an object lesson in what can go wrong if you trust a market economy to regulate itself. Nor should we forget that highly regulated economies, like Germany, did a much better job than we did at sustaining employment after the crisis hit. For whatever reason, however, the teachable moment came and went with nothing learned.

// posted by montag @ 12:43 PM 0 Comments

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) on Sunday threw a measure of support behind a key Republican lawmaker's plan to dramatically cut Social Security and Medicare.

The plan, called "A Roadmap for America's Future," was created by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the new chairman of the budget committee, who promoted it last year as a means to cut the national debt.

"The direction the roadmap goes is something we need to embrace," Cantor said on NBC's "Meet the Press," praising the plan's capacity for deficit reduction.

The roadmap would partially privatize Social Security benefits and turn Medicare into a voucher program, effectively ending two monumental safety net programs for seniors in the United States.

// posted by montag @ 11:47 AM 0 Comments

But don’t worry, America. You will never, ever have to suffer the slings and arrows of affordable healthcare, a clean environment, low unemployment, and a high standard of living like our Norwegian friends. That’s because we in America have been brainwashed for an entire generation into thinking certain things like taxes are a soul-crushing evil. Who needs taxes when we have our beloved Puritan work ethic, and “rags to riches” mythology, ammiright? The idea that America is the land of opportunity is as central to our national identity as the Stars and Stripes and National Anthem. Continually these national talismans prove to be worthless fairy tales, yet we cling to them because the idea that America is not the land of opportunity is just too painful to bear.

Norwegians have a completely different attitude toward taxes which I just can’t imagine flourishing in the United States. They don’t see it as a “punishment” the way some people, especially conservatives, do. Norwegians see taxes as an investment in their families and their country. Because they receive such high level of tangible services -- healthcare, pensions, free education (from preschool to college), robust family leave, etc. -- there’s an actual value.(my em) America never invested in itself in such a fashion; instead, what we get for our tax dollar is war.

// posted by montag @ 12:26 AM 0 Comments

To build an average house, you need 6,200 bricks, 2,950 roof tiles, 785 floor tiles and 15 cans of paint -- multiply that 28,000 times and you get a picture of the task to rebuild Brisbane after Australia’s worst flood.

It gets worse: the state of Queensland will need to rebuild 90,000 kilometers (56,000 miles) of roads, enough to circle the globe twice, thousands of kilometers of rail line, almost 100 schools, an unknown number of bridges, several regional airports, power lines, sewers and water treatment -- the list goes on...

“The state’s a disaster zone,” said Greg Hoffman, general manager at the Queensland Local Government Association, which estimates up to 90,000 kilometers of road and “tens of thousands of drains” will need to be replaced or repaired across Queensland. “Roads have been torn away, airport terminals have been uprooted and you can’t believe your eyes when you see the wasteland left behind,” he said in a telephone interview.

The flooding across three states represents Australia’s biggest natural disaster in economic terms, said Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who has pledged the federal government will cover 75 percent of the reconstruction cost. ANZ Bank said the bill to rebuild just Queensland could be as much as A$20 billion, or 1.5 percent of the national economy.

The sugar- and coal-producing state accounts for about 20 percent of the A$1.3 trillion economy. The national and state governments have not yet said how much the flooding will cost.

“This effort is bigger than Cyclone Tracy in 1974, which destroyed Darwin, it’s bigger than the 1989 Newcastle earthquake, the 1999 Sydney hail storm and any other flood or bushfire we have seen,” said Professor Peter Grace, from the Queensland University of Technology. “It will take at least two years.”

// posted by montag @ 4:36 PM 1 Comments

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he believes Obama is a citizen and that most Americans are beyond that question.

// posted by montag @ 12:23 PM 0 Comments

"In an Onion News Network survey, 62 percent of Americans said that even though they don't support Sarah Palin's politics, they would consider voting for her out of a perverse desire to see what would happen if she were the president," Brooke Alvarez, host of ONN's FactZone, said in a report Friday.

Jason Copeland, ONN's political analyst, added that it would be possible for Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska who stepped down in the middle of her term, to be elected president with the help of Democrats with a sick sense of wonder.

"In one sampling, 2,000 life-long Democrats were asked, 'What's the worst thing that could happen if Sarah Palin were elected president? Wouldn't you kinda want to find out?' he explained. "And more than 80 percent of them responded, 'God, I'm so sorry, but yes.'"

// posted by montag @ 11:40 AM 0 Comments

Bob Barr, a former U.S. congressman, said Haitian ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier is trying to unlock frozen funds left in Swiss banks after he fled to Paris exile amid a 1986 rebellion.

Duvalier “is very interested in trying to get those funds freed up, not for himself, but so they can be used to help the situation in Haiti,” Barr said by phone from Port-au-Prince today. Barr, 62, was a Republican representative from Georgia in 1995-2003 and ran for president in 2008 on the Libertarian Party ticket.

Barr accompanied Duvalier yesterday as the former dictator made his first public comments since his Jan. 16 return to his homeland from a 25-year exile. Also accompanying Duvalier were two other American lawyers, Ed Marger of Jasper, Georgia, and Mike Puglise of Snellville, Georgia, according to a statement issued by Barr’s office.

The 59-year-old Duvalier, also known as “Baby Doc,” apologized to victims of abuses during his government, vowed to help the quake-ravaged nation rebuild and said he expected to face “persecution” upon his return. Haitian authorities opened a corruption case against him two days after his return.

The former dictator said his desire to help Haiti rebuild from last year’s quake that killed more than 300,000 “far outweighs any harassment I could face,” according to a video of his speech posted on the website of the daily Nouvelliste.

// posted by montag @ 7:02 PM 0 Comments