The WAWG Blog

New Reason to Pass Healthcare: Rush Limbaugh Promises to Leave U.S.!

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself?
LIMBAUGH: … I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.

What happens when Rush realizes that Costa Rica has universal health care? Costa Rica has better health statistics than the U.S. and spends less. They have one of the world’s most successful universal health care systems. 100% of their population is given equal comprehensive public health insurance with equal access to services.

Given that Costa Rica’s successful “cradle to grave” universal health care system is not just for Costa Ricans, but even for foreigners in the country, I’d like to suggest Rush try Somalia instead.

Wall Street Journal Recommends That Phil Gramm Be Appointed to the Bipartisan Budget Deficit Commission – Gramm is the guy who said during the 2008 presidential campaign that we were just in a “mental recession.” He was pointman for the law that repealed hunks of the Glass-Steagall Act that had prevented commercial banks from operating as investment banks and from entering the insurance business. It was the repeal of Glass-Steagall which allowed the financial conglomerates such as AIG and Citigroup. He and his wife are responsible for the Enron loophole and derivatives deregulation. He also blocked legislation that would have cracked down on off-shore tax havens, a law that might, just might, have had an impact on reducing federal deficits. And he is now vice chairman of the scandal-plagued UBS investment firm.

Liz Chaney’s Attacks Are So Out-of-Bounds That They Have Been Rebuked by Twenty Conservative Attorneys – Twenty conservative attorneys including Bill Clinton’s prosecutor, Ken Starr, have rebuked Cheney’s ad campaign suggesting that a number of Justice Department officials are terrorist sympathizers for having represented detainees during the Bush administration. The spot labels them the “Al-Qaeda 7” and questions their “values.” Here are excerpts from the letter:

“The past several days have seen a shameful series of attacks on attorneys in the Department of Justice who, in previous legal practice, either represented Guantánamo detainees or advocated for changes to detention policy. As attorneys, former officials, and policy specialists who have worked on detention issues, we consider these attacks both unjust to the individuals in question and destructive of any attempt to build lasting mechanisms for counterterrorism adjudications.”

“The American tradition of zealous representation of unpopular clients is at least as old as John Adams’s representation of the British soldiers charged in the Boston massacre. People come to serve in the Justice Department with a diverse array of prior private clients; that is one of the department’s strengths.”

“To suggest that the Justice Department should not employ talented lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees maligns the patriotism of people who have taken honorable positions on contested questions and demands a uniformity of background and view in government service from which no administration would benefit.”

Actual letter

City Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn to Save Water – On Tuesday, Quan and Angelina Ha are scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court. City codes require that live landscaping cover 40% of the yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. The Has say their water use has dropped 80% since they replaced the grass with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants.

They said they were trying to do something good for the environment. “We’ve got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,” said Quan Ha.

Regards,

Jim

Republicans Oppose Law to Ban Physical Abuse of Children in Schools – The House of Representatives last week passed the Keeping All Students Safe Act, which for the first time sets minimum national standards for practices the use seclusion rooms, the use of “mechanical restraints” such as tying children to furniture. The bill would allow seclusion and physical restraint to be used only when there is “imminent danger of injury and only when imposed by trained staff.”

Though the bill was a bipartisan effort in reaction to a government report last year that found “hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death” related to the practices, it was opposed by a vast majority of Republicans, who said the bill amounted to an intrusion on states’ rights and the ability of local school districts to determine their own policies.

In all, 145 Republicans and eight Democrats voted against the bill last week, which will have to get the Senate’s and the president’s approval to become law. [This is key to the strict father worldview of conservatives – children will be bad and need strict physical punishment to teach them what is right as dictated by a strict authority figure.]

School Rejects Child Because Of Lesbian Parents – Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School, in Boulder, has refused to readmit a preschooler because her parents are lesbians.

“God and Jesus would not allow discrimination in that way,” said Joellen Raderstorf, one of about two dozen demonstrators who turned out at Sunday’s church service. Most of the protesters stood silently, across the street, holding signs. One read “God loves all people.”

Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice – On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that “social justice,” the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a “code word” for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.

(Glenn Beck says, “Who you gonna’ listen to, me or some guy that lived 2,000 years ago? 😉 JLV)

Tom DeLay Says People are Unemployed Because They Want to Be – On CNN:

“People are unemployed because they want to be? ” asked Crowley.

“Well, it is the truth. And people in the real world know it,” said DeLay. [In the strict-father worldview, the individual is totally responsible for their circumstances and there is no such thing as systemic causation.]

Ryan Grim noted in The Huffington Post that “unemployment benefits are generally so small that much of it is often used to pay for COBRA health insurance, even when subsidized. The size of the benefits does not generally cover the cost of living and it would be hard to find a single person who would prefer unemployment to having a job so that they could get subsidized COBRA.”

Tennessee CEO Compares Michelle Obama to Chimpanzee
An e-mail that Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, sent to to a few friends, the president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and several members of the press compares First Lady Michelle Obama to Tarzan’s chimpanzee sidekick Cheeta. There are two photos at the bottom — one of Obama with an awkward pursing of her lips and another of a chimp.

Baker has begun apologizing for the outrage created by the e-mail.

Sarah Palin’s Family Traveled Across Border to Canada for Health Care – At a speech in Calgary, Canada, Sarah Palin said:

“My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not – this was in the ‘60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.”

Humans Driving Extinction Faster Than Species Can Evolve – For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world’s experts on biodiversity has warned.

Conservation experts have already signaled that the world is in the grip of the “sixth great extinction” of species, driven by the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predators and disease, and climate change.

“Measuring the rate at which new species evolve is difficult, but there’s no question that the current extinction rates are faster than that; I think it’s inevitable,” said Stuart.

Regards,

Jim

It’s Official: Republicans Plan to Use More Fear for Upcoming Elections – The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to “save the country from trending toward socialism.”

The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.”

The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”

One page of the Republican presentation, headed “The Evil Empire,” pictures Obama as the Joker from Batman, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid are depicted as Cruella DeVille and Scooby Doo, respectively.

The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18, a source at the gathering said.

(Note: I looked up the definition of “tchochkes.” It can mean cheap trinkets, but it is also slang for “bimbo” or “slut.” – JLV)

Liz Cheney’s Attack on Justice Department Lawyers Undermines American Values – A furious effort by Liz Cheney to label seven Justice Department lawyers who previously defended Guantanamo detainees as terrorist sympathizers appears so contrary to the American legal tradition that it puts her at odds with the man responsible for getting her father elected vice president.

Back in January 2007, Ted Olsen — then a lawyer in private practice but previously a lead counsel in Bush v. Gore and solicitor general of the United States — co-authored a short article for Legal Times in which he called efforts to demonize detainee defense lawyers as antithetical to American values.

“The ethos of the bar is built on the idea that lawyers will represent both the popular and the unpopular, so that everyone has access to justice. Despite the horrible Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, this is still proudly held as a basic tenet of our profession,” Olsen wrote.

“When government officials are called ‘war criminals’ and when public-interest lawyers are called ‘terrorist huggers,’ it not only cheapens the discourse, it scrambles the dialogue. The best solutions to these difficult problems will emerge only when the best advocates, backed by weighty resources, bring their talents to bear. And the heavy work of creating solutions for these complicated issues can only move forward when the name-calling ceases.”

Michele Bachmann Says More Untrue Things About Reconciliation on “Larry King Live” – Wednesday on “Larry King Live,” Republican Michele Bachmann began the discussion by arguing that the Senate would be breaking its own rules to pass a health care bill if it uses reconciliation:

Bachmann: An up or down vote is a good thing, Larry. It’s just how many votes will it take. Will it take 50 votes or will it take 60 votes …
King: Well what’s wrong with majority rules?
Bachmann: Well because that’s not how the Senate works. The Senate works with 60 votes, and now what the president is promoting is a nuclear option which is 50 votes.
King: But it used the majority rules on the Bush tax cuts.
Bachmann: Well, the House uses straight majority rules, the Senate doesn’t. So what this means is that the Senate has to break their own rules in order to pass the bill.
King: And that’s wrong?
Bachmann: Oh, I think so. Sure.

Alan Grayson: My esteemed colleague from Minnesota is entirely wrong. There’s nothing in the Senate rules that prevents reconciliation. It’s been used 22 times overall and 14 times by Republicans. If it’s good enough to provide tax cuts for the rich — twice under Bush — it’s good enough to provide health care for all Americans.

(And as I’ve explained before, reconciliation is totally different from the “nuclear option,” so Bachmann is wrong on that also. Did she skip government class? Did she never watch Schoolhouse Rock’s How a Bill Becomes a Law?– JLV)

Sarah Palin and Entourage At Oscar Gift Suite ‘Like Locusts’ – Sarah Palin and her entourage visited the Academy Awards Gift Suite. The Los Angeles Times reported that Palin was supposed to donate $1,700 along with all of her gift items to the Red Cross, which is currently helping with relief efforts in Haiti and Chile.

But E! Online insists, “we can assure you she did not give up any of her swag.” They quote an unnamed vendor who claims that upwards of 20 people from the Palin camp swarmed the event. “They were like locusts,” he told the entertainment news outlet.

According to AOL’s Pop Eater, publicist Ben Russo of EMC/Bowery said, “she kind of cleaned the place out.” They list out a number of her swag-grabs, including United Hair Care products, jewels from Pascal Mouawad, Skagen watches and a whopping 40 pairs of AIAIAI earphones.

It didn’t stop there. HollywoodLife.com reports that she also picked up a blue Kenya robe from designer Jenna Leigh, facewash and a pair of foam Bandal sandals.

Or, in common-sense language, Palin and her handlers, “practically cleaned out the suite.”
HollywoodLife.com says that Palin’s security swept the venue and would not allow photos, which are often expected by companies to use as promotion in exchange for the free products.

Anti-Gay State Senator DUI After Leaving Gay Nightclub – Early Wednesday morning, State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Calif.) was pulled over and arrested for drunk driving. Sources report that Ashburn — a fierce opponent of gay rights — was driving drunk after leaving a gay nightclub; when the officer stopped the state-issued vehicle, there was an unidentified man in the passenger seat of the car.

Get Ready to Celebrate Good Deeds Day – How easy it is to do a good deed! Every one of us can do a good deed, almost anytime and anyplace. A good deed can change the world — yet even so, we don’t always have the energy to do one. Our everyday cares, making a living, the crazy rat race of life often make us forget the value of a good deed. Thus, the goodness that exists within each and every one of us is covered with layer upon layer of indifference and unawareness.

This year, Good Deeds Day will be officially held on March 16. But, you don’t have to wait. Get ready for Good Deeds Day by doing a good deed today and every day, and when March 16th gets here, don’t stop. And by all means, avoid bad deeds.

Regards,

Jim

Interference Seen in Blackwater Inquiry – An official at the United States Embassy in Iraq has told federal prosecutors that he believes that State Department officials sought to block any serious investigation of the 2007 shooting episode in which Blackwater Worldwide security guards were accused of murdering 17 Iraqi civilians, according to court testimony made public on Tuesday.

David Farrington, a State Department security agent in the American Embassy at the time of the shooting in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, told prosecutors that some of his colleagues were handling evidence in a way they hoped would help the Blackwater guards avoid punishment for a crime that drew headlines and raised tensions between American and Iraqi officials.

Karl Rove Portrays Lies as Truth and Truth as Lies – A study by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism found that President Bush and top administration officials issued 935 false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
But, in his new book, Karl Rove acts like the proven lies are truth and says many of the controversies that weakened Bush’s presidency were falsehoods perpetuated by political opponents.

President Obama Way Behind on Nominating Federal Judges – After decades of Republican appointments of conservative federal judges (at the time of Obama’s election more than 60 percent of all federal judges and seven of the nine justices of the Supreme Court had been appointed by Republican presidents), President Obama now has an historic opportunity to reestablish our nation’s commitment to the core values of our Constitution by nominating judges who will uphold the fundamental principles of individual dignity, equality, due process, personal liberty, privacy, and separation of powers. However, since taking office, the president has nominated only 43 federal judges — despite the fact that there are currently more than 100 judicial vacancies and 31 judicial “emergencies” due to unfilled positions.

Counting the Errors in Orrin Hatch Op-ed – Reconciliation has been used dozens of times the process has been used with little fallout. That fact was lost on Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who slammed the idea of reconciling the bill in an op-ed for the Washington Post. Hatch thundered that reconciliation “would threaten our system of checks and balances, corrode the legislative process, degrade our system of government and damage the prospects of bipartisanship.”

But Hatch’s op-ed contains a variety of factual errors:

· Wrong on the Constitution “It’s true that the Constitution requires a supermajority vote in certain circumstances — but under no reading of the Constitution is it required to hold a supermajority vote on legislation, no matter how big or controversial,” writes Joel Mathis at Cup o’ Joel, debunking one of Hatch’s main contentions. “Whether it’s wise or good to use the process is a separate question; but it’s silly to suggest it’s somehow unconstitutional.”
· Wrong on His Voting Record Think Progress’ Zaid Jilani debunks Hatch’s argument that reconciliation is in general an “abuse” of power. “What Hatch fails to mention is that he has voted for bills passed through reconciliation every single time a bill was offered through the process during the Bush years,” Jilani says, helpfully providing a list of all the reconciled bills Hatch voted for. The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent compiles a similar list.
· Wrong on the Terms Themselves At Capital Gains and Games, conservative Andrew Samick balks at Hatch’s misuse of the word ‘democracy’. “Senator Hatch may like the way the Senate requires supermajorities and other obstacles to the simplest version of majority rule that most of us think of when we hear the word ‘democracy,’ but he shouldn’t go redefining words on his own,” Samick lectures. “That’s not what language is for.”
· Wrong on Everything Steve Benen doesn’t single out one particular error–the entire column disgusts him. The Washington Monthly columnist unleashes a furious denunciation of Hatch’s “intellectually dishonest nonsense” that is in sum “a sad joke”.
“Hatch has been around long enough (he joined the Senate 33 years ago) to know that his claims aren’t true. He says reconciliation is “arcane,” but it’s not. Hatch argues President Obama wants to use majority rule to pass the health care reform package, but he doesn’t. Hatch says the Constitution discourages the Senate from approving legislation by majority rule, but it doesn’t.”

And more details on why Hatch is wrong:
· Hatch Abandons All Pretense Steve Benen, The Washington Monthly
· A Strange Op-Ed Andrew Samwick, Capital Gains and Games
· Hatch Rewrites History Greg Sargent, The Plum Line
· Hatch Forgets About Bush Years Zaid Jilani, Think Progress
· Hatch: An Affront to Democracy Joel Mathis, Cup o

Number of US Extremist Groups ‘Exploded’ in 2009 – Extremist groups surged in the United States in 2009, with anti-government “Patriot” militias leading the way, says a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation,” says the report written by Mark Potok.

The number of active Patriot groups grew from 149 to 512 during the course of the year, a 244-percent increase, the report states. Militias — which the SPLC describes as “the paramilitary arm of the Patriot movement” — grew from 42 to 127 over the same period, a three-fold increase.
Today, some of the movement’s central ideas are being plugged by people with large audiences like FOX News’ Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn).

Are You Skeptical About Skeptics? – Today, we have many types of skeptics and deniers. Climate-change skeptics, commercial-space skeptics, birth-certificate deniers, government-can-do-good deniers, etc.

Here’s some excerpts from an op-ed from an Internet skeptic, published in Newsweek in 1995:

· “Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, …”
· “How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it’s an unpleasant chore … “
· “And you can’t tote that laptop to the beach.”
· “ … we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure.”
· “Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month?”

It seems some people can’t face the future.

Fox News, rightwing blogs, Republican legislators, conservative talking heads, rightwing radio hosts, assorted climate naysayers and their ilk go around denying the obvious. But we should treat them like pariahs for endangering the planet we share. We should shun them for their philosophy of me (first and only).

We should be twice as emphatic and vehement as they are, since we are in motion (progressive) and they are static (conservative), we are trying to make the planet healthier and they are sitting on their rear ends wagging their collective fingers at us, pretending to be objective but in fact just being cowards, afraid to do what it takes to undo the damage we’ve done to the planet God gave us.

Most Airlines Don’t Recycle -Airlines in the U.S. throw away enough aluminum cans every year to build 58 new Boeing 747s. A new report by the nonprofit environmental group Green America reveals that many of the airlines commonly flown by Americans have a long way to go when it comes to recycling the massive amounts of waste generated on passenger flights. The Green America report gave Delta and Virgin America the best grades when it came to airline recycling programs, with both receiving a “B-.” United Airlines and US Airways came in at the bottom of the list, both getting an “F.”

Send a message to the airline executives that you value recycling, and don’t want your mile-high trash going into a landfill when you come down. Send a message to airline executives today.

teCharlie Rangel’s Ethics Problemsxt – The U.S. House ethics committee said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) violated standards of conduct by accepting 2007 and 2008 trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporations. The committee said it could not prove whether Rangel knew of the corporate payments but concluded members of his staff knew about them — and the congressman was responsible for their actions.

Rangel said he didn’t even have “constructive knowledge” of the corporate sponsorship of the trips and couldn’t be held responsible for something staff members may have known but which he didn’t.
In a separate case, the ethics committee is looking into Rangel’s fundraising for a college center to be established in his name, in addition to other allegations — including belated financial disclosure filings that showed he previously failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments.

Rush Limbaugh Says Nancy Pelosi is the Same as Suicide Bombers Limbaugh: “Mullah Nancy Bin Pelosi … is no different” than those who “convince all these people to put bombs on their kids.”

This is really outrageous even by his standards. He cheapens the lives that are lost to suicide bombers when he says that.

Limbaugh’s Condo is Over-Sized, Loud, Gaudy and Over-Priced (Remind You of Anyone?) – Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is saying adios to the Big Apple and selling his Fifth Avenue penthouse. The pad sprawls across nearly 5,000 square feet and features a double living room; a wood-paneled library; four terraces; enormous baths; and a maid’s room. But it’s not for the faint of heart — or those afraid of a big renovation. The general appearance can be described as, well, ornate, with trompe l’oeil ceilings and mural-covered walls. Other lavish features include gold leaf moldings, mahogany floors, upholstered walls and an Italian marble foyer. Limbaugh is asking almost $14 million. For the tax rolls, the city values the property at $1.56 million.

Regards,

Jim

Use of Filibuster Threat Explodes – The frequency of filibusters — plus threats to use them — are measured by the number of times the upper chamber votes on cloture. Such votes test the majority’s ability to hold together 60 members to break a filibuster by the minority party.
The 104th Congress in 1995-96 — when Democrats were in the minority — required 50 cloture votes.

Last year, the first of the 111th Congress, there were a record 112 cloture votes.

In the first two months of 2010, the number already exceeds 40. That means, with 10 months left to run in the 111th Congress, Republicans have turned to the filibuster or threatened its use at a pace that will exceed 240 cloture votes, more than triple the old record.

Conservative Film Maker Edited Tapes to Meet Agenda – Prosecutors on Monday cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing after a four-month probe that began when undercover conservative activists filmed workers giving what appeared to be illegal advice on how to hide money.

While the video by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles seemed to show three ACORN workers advising a prostitute how to hide ill-gotten gains, the unedited version was not as clear, according to a law enforcement source.

“They edited the tape to meet their agenda,” said the source.

While his edited version shows O’Keefe posing as a pimp, he actually presented himself to ACORN employees as a boyfriend trying to rescue a prostitute from a violent pimp. At the time of the incident, O’Keefe was wearing normal clothes and not the outrageous pimp costume he later edited into his films.

Senator Causes Furlough of 2,000 Highway and Transit Workers – Two-thousand workers in federal highway and transit programs have been furloughed because of objections raised by one senator, Republican Jim Bunning. The bill would have also improved Medicare reimbursement rates (known as “doc fix”), funded issuance of flood insurance policies, allowed licensing for satellite TV providers to carry local channels in rural areas where they are unavailable with an antenna, and provided unemployment benefits for about 400,000 Americans.
Pressed to rescind his persistent objections Friday, Bunning reportedly responded by saying “tough shit.” Later, he reportedly flipped the bird to an ABC reported who was questioning him about his objections.

Bunning travels with a special police escort, at taxpayer expense. His explanation? Al-Qaida may be out to get him.

Conservative Commentator Critiques Health Care Summit That He Says He Didn’t Watch – Conservative Commentator and Fox News regular Bill Kristol claims he didn’t watch any of the Health Care Summit, but that didn’t stop him from giving Chris Wallace his critique of the event. If he didn’t watch it, how does he know how the President, Ryan and Alexander did? And of course him saying he didn’t watch it didn’t stop Chris Wallace from hanging on his every word while he explained what he thought about what he didn’t watch.

Senator Lamar Alexander Doesn’t Know History – On the ABC This Week panel Sunday, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said that reconciliation had only been used in the past for small things and “to reduce the deficit”. However, he seems to forget that reconciliation was used to pass the two major Bush tax cuts, which increased the deficit — by $1.8 trillion. So much for that argument.

Goldman Sachs’s Board Rejects Shareholder Demands To Cut Excessive Pay, Bonuses – Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Monday it has rejected demands by shareholders to investigate the Wall Street bank’s compensation practices.

Shareholder lawsuits filed recently in New York and Delaware charge that Goldman’s compensation levels in 2009 were too high, Goldman said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The lawsuits seek to recover some of the pay and force the bank to adopt pay reforms. Goldman said shareholders have made similar demands in letters to its board.

Lawmakers and shareholders sharply criticized Wall Street pay after the biggest banks lost billions of dollars on bad mortgage bets, helped cause the recession and then had to be bailed out by the government.

In its filing, Goldman said government agencies and regulators have sought information about its pay practices. The bank said it was cooperating with those inquires but won’t grant shareholders’ demand for an internal probe or wider pay reforms.

Workers Fired For Jaywalking – More than 40 workers at a construction site at the Marathon Oil Refinery in Detroit have been told they no longer have a job.

The workers are contractors at the plant and they told Local 4 it’s because they were jaywalking.
Workers who did not want to be identified said they were given termination papers because they crossed the public street in front of the refinery without using the crosswalk.

“I was floored. I was in awe. I couldn’t believe I got terminated over it,” said the worker.

The company said it just had a safety meeting with the workers and talked specifically about crossing at the crosswalk.

“The workers were well aware of the need to follow the rules and procedures. Some, of reasons unknown, decided to take their lives in their own hands,” said company spokeswoman Chris Fox.
Marathon officials told Local 4 the workers were suspended for 90 days. The workers said they were terminated and showed Local 4 the notice that stated “not eligible for rehire.”

“It could possibly be a way to cut down the workforce and not want to pay unemployment. That would be the best way,” said one employee.

Regards,

Jim

Joe “You Lie” Wilson Repeats Old Republican Lie – Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) believes that the U.S. has the best health care system in the world. (How many times have you heard that one? – JLV)

The congressman made the pronouncement during an appearance Tuesday on The Dylan Ratigan Show and then went on to talk about the “nice hospital” in one of South Carolina’s poorest counties. Ratigan promptly corrected Wilson.

Rep. Wilson: I’ll take you to the poorest county in South Carolina, Allendale, a very nice hospital. I’ll take you to another county which is very depressed.

Ratigan: South Carolina has the 33rd worst health care in America, according to The Commonwealth Fund. America has the most expensive health care in the world and the 37th highest quality. We pay more than any country in the world. We have huge amounts of money going to special interests. Our budget is dominated by health care and people don’t have coverage.

Blackwater Took Hundreds of Guns From U.S. Military and Afghan Police – Employees of the CIA-connected private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee. On at least one occasion, an individual claiming to work for the company evidently signed for a weapons shipment using the name of a “South Park” cartoon character. And Blackwater has yet to return hundreds of the guns to the military.

Bristol Palin to Appear on Reality Show Despite Mother’s Objection to Reality 😉 Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol has agreed to appear on a reality show despite her mother’s well-documented objection to reality.

In agreeing to appear on the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Bristol is breaking with family tradition, Gov. Palin said: “We Palins don’t like reality. It’s not our thing.”

The former Alaska Governor said she is allowing her daughter to engage with reality for the duration of the show “just so long as it doesn’t become a regular thing.”

Gov. Palin’s husband Todd was also asked to be on the program, Gov. Palin confirmed, but declined to do so because it would have required him to emit sounds.

Regards,

Jim

Rep. Steve King To Conservatives: ‘Implode’ IRS Offices – Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a crowd at CPAC on Saturday that he could “empathize” with the suicide bomber who last week attacked an IRS office in Austin by flying an airplane into it, and encouraged his listeners to “implode” other IRS offices, according to a witness.

Wall Street Bonuses Up 17%, Profits Could Hit ‘Unprecedented’ Level, Says NY State Comptroller – Wall Street bonuses were up 17 percent to over $20 billion in 2009, the year taxpayers bailed out the financial sector after its meltdown, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday.

Total compensation at the largest securities firms grew beyond that figure and profits could surpass what he calls an unprecedented $55 billion last year, DiNapoli said. That’s nearly three times Wall Street’s record increase, a rate of growth that is boosted in part by the record losses in 2008 of nearly $43 billion, the Democrat said.

“Wall Street is vital to New York’s economy, and the dollars generated by the industry help the state’s bottom line,” said DiNapoli. “But for most Americans, these huge bonuses are a bitter pill and hard to comprehend. … Taxpayers bailed them out, and now they’re back making money while many New York families are still struggling to make ends meet.”

Banks Apply Pressure to Keep Fees Rolling In – As the government cracks down on the way banks charge fees for overspending on debit cards, the industry is mounting an aggressive campaign aimed at keeping billions of dollars in penalty income flowing into its coffers. Chase and other banks are preparing a full-court marketing blitz, which is likely to include filling mailboxes with various aggressive and persuasive letters, calling account holders directly, and sending a steady stream of e-mail to urge consumers to keep their overdraft service turned on.

In recent weeks, Chase has been fanning special letters out to consumers with an offer that it urges them not to refuse:

“Your debit card may not work the same way anymore, even if you just made a deposit. Unless we hear from you,” the message, emblazoned in large red type, warns. “If you don’t contact us, your everyday debit card transactions that overdraw your account will not be authorized after August 15, 2010 — even in an emergency,” with “even in an emergency” underlined for emphasis.

Fox News Misleads About a Possible Reconciliation Vote – Fox News’ Megyn Kelly this morning, on the supposedly “opinion free” and “fair and balanced” “news show” America Live:

Kelly: “Moments ago, at the White House briefing, reporters asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about reports the Democrats are ready to use the so-called nuclear option.”

However, reconciliation is not the “nuclear option.” Reconciliation is a normative part of Senate rules. The term “nuclear option” refers to a Republican plan to do away with the filibuster altogether, threatened back when Democrats used filibuster threats to hold up the Bush administration’s extremist slate of judicial appointments.

Virginia Now Allows State Employees to be Fired Because They Are Gay – Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has signed an executive order barring discrimination in the state workforce on grounds that include race, sex, religion and age, but not sexual orientation. It follows McDonnell’s long-standing position on the issue of legal protections based on sexual orientation. McDonnell had criticized his two Democratic predecessors for barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in their similar executive orders.

More Soft-on-Terror Results – Suspected NYC bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty today to three counts:
A former Denver airport shuttle driver admitted Monday to a plot to bomb the New York City subways, saying he was recruited by al-Qaida in Pakistan for a “martyrdom plan” against the United States. The Afghan native pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. He faces a life prison sentence without parole at a sentencing in June.
So he had lawyers from day 1, waived his Miranda rights, wasn’t tortured, and is now cooperating and pleading guilty. The U.S. gets the benefit of his knowledge. He gets punished and incarcerated.

Republican Legislator Says Disabled Kids are God’s Punishment – State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood.

Republican Party Launches Time Travel Machine to Disagree with Obama in Future 😉 – In a plot twist worthy of the television series Lost, key congressional Republicans launched themselves in a state-of-the-art time machine today to complete an important mission: traveling to the future to disagree with President Barack Obama.

The self-styled “timestronauts,” led by House Minority Leader John Boehner, traveled four days into the future to attend this Thursday’s health care summit.

Returning safely to the present after their brief visit to the future, Rep. Boehner took issue with everything Mr. Obama will say on Thursday.

“My colleagues and I have traveled four days into the future and listened to everything the President will say,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “And it all will suck.”

Rep. Boehner said that the Republican time-travel machine was an unqualified success, and may have even broader applications going forward: “We hope someday to take this entire country back to the nineteenth century.”

Regards,

Jim

Top 10% Doing Just Great Thanks to the Bottom 90% – Last week I showed you how the wealthy have made out like bandits. Between 2001 and 2007, the 400 richest taxpayers doubled their annual incomes to an average of $345 million, while their effective tax rate plummeted to only 16.6% from 29.4% in 1993. (Notice the last time the wealthy did this well was 1929, and then CRASH!):

But look at the bottom graph. Ninety percent of Americans are suffering while the wealthy are doing better than ever. For Democrats wavering in their resolve to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, this shocking new data from the IRS should hopefully stiffen their backbones.

And as the New York Times uncovered in 2006, the 2003 Bush dividend and capital gains tax cuts offered almost nothing to taxpayers earning below $100,000 a year. Instead, those windfalls reduced taxes “on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000.” As the Times revealed in a jaw-dropping chart, “the top 2 percent of taxpayers, those making more than $200,000, received more than 70% of the increased tax savings from those cuts in investment income.” People making over $10 million per year got an additional 95% tax savings! So it should come as no surprise that the income share of the 400 richest Americans doubled over the past decade.

And yet, the usual suspects among the Republican Party (and some quislings among the Democrats) are pleading that the rich should be spared even as their share of the national wealth reaches stratospheric levels. Baloney!

Health Insurance CEOs Doing Just Great Thanks to You – In the past 10 years, your family’s health insurance bill has more than doubled. And if nothing is done to rein in the health insurance industry, your premiums will double again in another 10 years.

Did your salary double during the past decade – will it in 10 years? Meanwhile, the CEOs of the top health insurance companies each averaged $9.7 million in compensation in 2008. How can they possibly understand the financial strain on us from their never-ending rate increases?

We have the power to force health costs down if we get real oversight of insurance companies and allow competition to flourish. We have to make sure that we can control what we pay, how we pay it, and what we get for it. And the leading health reform bill does that.

In a Time of Budget Cuts, Yacht Sales Sail Through Untaxed in Missouri – Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.

Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat. But if you’re buying a small bass boat or runabout, forget about any tax breaks. You’ll pay the full load.

That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates.

See What Being “Soft on Terror” Gets You! – Washington’s recent decision to tone down its criticism of the Pakistani military has resulted in a new level of cooperation between Pakistan and the U.S. “When you criticize the Pakistani military publicly, it reduces room for maneuvering for Pakistan’s institutions. It becomes difficult for the military to motivate the lower and middle rank officers. Finally, there is a much better equation between both military establishments,” said Imtiaz Gul, head of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.

Another senior Afghan Taliban leader has been arrested in Pakistan, two Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN on Monday. Security forces arrested Mullah Abdul Kabir last week from a religious school in the district of Nowshera, 54 miles (88 km) northwest of Islamabad, the officials said. Kabir is the fourth Afghan Taliban leader to be arrested by Pakistani security forces in the past several weeks.

More Palin Hypocrisy: Tripp Has Government Provided Health Insurance – Recently released documents from the custody battle show clearly Tripp Palin Johnston has socialized health care through Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center. Palin’s family has federally funded health care afforded to them…but if you had it Barack Obama might kill you. Put this on the list of Palin’s Greatest Hypocritical Hits…volume 97.

Rep Olsen and Sen. Cornyn Get a Big Fat Zero on Environmental Record
The League of Conservation Voters has released their scorecard for the first session of the 111th Congress. Rep Pete Olsen and Sen. John Cornyn got a big fat zero. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison got 18%. What if your kid brought home a report card like that?

Regards,

Jim

School Spied on Kids at Home via Laptop Computer Webcams – Students in a Philadelphia-area school district have launched a lawsuit accusing their schools of spying on them at home through webcams installed in laptop computers the district gave them. The parents of Blake Robbins, a student at Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, found out that school officials were allegedly spying on students when an assistant principal confronted Robbins about “improper behavior in his home,” and showed him a picture taken from Robbins’ school-issued laptop.

Lobby Firm Tells Clients How To Sway Elections While Avoiding ‘Public Scrutiny’ – In the wake of last month’s Citizens United ruling, a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm is informing its corporate clients on how they can use middlemen like the Chamber of Commerce to pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, while maintaining “sufficient cover” to avoid “public scrutiny” and negative media coverage.

A “Public Policy and Law Alert” on the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling, prepared by two lawyers for K&L Gates and posted on the firm’s site last Friday, notes that, thanks to disclosure rules, corporations could alienate their customers by spending on political campaigns — especially because they could become the target of negative media coverage.

So, what’s a corporation looking to advance its political goals to do? According to the alert, written by K&L lawyers Tim Peckinpaugh and Stephen Roberts:

“[G]roups of corporations within an industry may form coalitions or use existing trade associations to support candidates favorable to policy positions that affect the group as a whole. While corporations that contribute to these expenditures might still be disclosed, this indirect approach can provide sufficient cover such that no single contributing entity receives the bulk of public scrutiny.”

World’s Top Firms Cause $2.2 Trillion of Environmental Damage, Report Estimates – The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world’s biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.

Rick Perry Cares About Polluters More Than People – Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) announced at a press conference Tuesday that he’s suing the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of Texas over its December decision to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant.

Regards,

Jim

Tax Rates for Top 400 Earners Fall as Income Soars – The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the income tax rates they paid fell to a record low, newly disclosed tax data show.

In 2007 the top 400 taxpayers had an average income of $344.8 million, up 31 percent from their average $263.3 million income in 2006, according to figures in a report that the IRS posted to its Web site without announcement that were discovered February 16. (For the report, see Tax Analysts Doc 2010-3372 .)

The figures show that widely published reports in major newspapers asserting that the richest Americans are losing relative ground and “becoming poorer” are not supported by the official income data.

The effective income tax rate of top earners fell to 16.62 percent, down more than half a percentage point from 17.17 percent in 2006, the new data show. That rate is lower than the typical effective income tax rate paid by Americans.

Based on 2007 data, top earners bring in the same amount in three hours as the average American earner receives in an entire year. The top 400’s share of all income grew from 1.31 cents out of every dollar earned by all Americans to 1.59 cents. Since 1992, the bottom 90 percent of Americans have seen their incomes rise by 13 percent in 2009 dollars, compared with an increase of 399 percent for the top 400.

Payroll taxes did not add a significant burden to the top 400, not changing the rounding of rates by even one decimal.

The top 400 reports understate actual top incomes because of deferral rules. For example, managers of offshore hedge funds who deferred their gains may not be counted in the top 400 reports, which are based on the figure on the last line of the front page of Form 1040. At least three hedge fund managers made $3 billion in 2007. It is not known how much, if any, of their income they deferred.

The annual top 400 report was first made public by the Clinton administration, but the George W. Bush administration shut down access to the report. Its release was resumed a year ago when President Obama took office. The Statistics of Income Division at the IRS created the top 400 reports at the urging of Joel Slemrod, a business professor at the University of Michigan.

Contrary to What You Have Been Led to Believe, Federal Spending is Down, Monthly Deficit is Falling – The U.S. government monthly deficit fell by $49.3 billion in January, 2010. The January deficit was $42.6 billion, less than half of the $91.9 billion shortfall reported in December, 2009. It even came in below the $63.5 billion deficit reported in January 2009, the last month that Bush was in office.

“[The deficit reflects] the cost of fighting the financial crisis and recession,” said Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics for Moody’s Economy.com.

Driving the fiscal 2010 deficit is the fact that tax revenues have fallen faster than government spending. In the first four months of the fiscal year, government receipts fell by $80.5 billion compared to the year before, while outlays only decreased by $45.7 billion from the same period.

Nearly Half of World’s Primate Species Are Now Endangered – Nearly half the world’s primate species are in danger of extinction. The main threat facing primates — including apes, monkeys, and lemurs — is tropical forest destruction, with the illegal wildlife trade and commercial bush meat hunting also playing roles. Of the world’s 634 primate species, 48 percent are threatened with extinction, according to the report, issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

A handful of primate species count populations in the dozens. For example, there are just 60 to 70 Asian monkeys known as Golden Headed Langurs, found only on an island in Vietnam’s Gulf of Tonkin. There are fewer than 100 remaining Northern Sportive Lemurs, which live in Madagascar, and around 110 eastern Black Crested Gibbons, found in northeastern Vietnam.

John McCain Falsely Claims He Has Never Favored Capping Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — who is facing a primary challenge from former right-wing GOP congressman J.D. Hayworth — played along with Fox News host Sean Hannity’s uninformed idea that the recent snow storms in the mid-Atlantic region disprove that the earth’s climate is changing. “I think they made some movie that showed that the earth was going to freeze over as a result of global warming. I never quite understood that,” McCain said.

Yesterday, a local Arizona conservative talk radio host told McCain that “80 percent” of global warming science “is based on fraud and misinformation.” Despite having previously refuted such nonsense publicly, McCain again remained silent. Pandering to the far right, the Arizona senator later said he “never” supported capping carbon emissions.

In fact, McCain has actually co-sponsored cap-and-trade legislation. “We need a successor to Kyoto, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner,” McCain wrote in a 2008 op-ed. And during the his 2008 presidential campaign, he delivered a major speech on his plan to address climate change. “A cap-and-trade policy will send a signal that will be heard and welcomed all across the American economy,” he said in the speech.

Tea Party Speaker Suggests Hanging Elected Official – A tea party gathering in Asotin County, Washington turned more than a bit ugly on Saturday when a featured speaker actually called for the hanging of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash), the fourth ranking Democrat in the Senate and a vulnerable re-election candidate.

“How many of you have watched the movie Lonesome Dove?,” asked an unidentified female speaker from the podium. “What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd? What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd. He got hung. And that’s what I want to do with Patty Murray.”

Former Bush Speechwriter Lies About Role of FBI and Usefulness of Torture – In his book, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen discounts the role of the FBI in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah that led to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), arguing that “since the CIA took over interrogations from [FBI agent] Soufan, dozens of senior al Qaeda leaders have been captured, including KSM.”

However, a review of the Inspector General’s report shows that FBI interrogators Soufan and his colleague “Agent Gibson” played vital roles in the interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah. And according to the report, their use of “rapport-” and “relationship-building” techniques -not “enhanced interrogation techniques”–is what led Zubaydah to reveal to them the identity of KSM, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

The IG report also stated:

“”… these [aggressive] techniques were not as effective for developing accurate information as the FBI’s rapport-based approach…if ‘aggressive’ techniques are used long enough, detainees will start saying things they think the interrogator wants to hear just to get them to stop…Second…the use of the aggressive techniques failed to take into account an ‘end game.’ D’Amuro stated that even a military tribunal would require some standard for admissibility of evidence…Third, in addition to being ineffective and short-sighted, using these techniques was wrong and helped al-Qaeda in spreading negative views of the United States” (71-72).”

Thiessen is now making the news show circuit, trying to convince us that torture is good. Plus, he’s trying to sell his book.

The New Champions of Greed – Wall Streeters were widely considered a shoo-in to take the coveted Corporate Greedhead Trophy this year — but, holy cow, what a comeback bid we’re now seeing from the Giants of Insurance!

Let’s recap their amazing charge: Last week, the news broke that America’s five largest health insurance companies (United Health, Wellpoint, Aetna, Humana and Cigna) had scored record profits in 2009, totaling $12.2 billion. This was a stunning 56 percent hike over the previous year, a drive made all the more impressive by the fact that these gains came from people suffering during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

As American families struggled financially last year, Team Insurance was able to boot 2.7 million more people out of their private health plans, leaving those folks in the corporate dust. In an even slicker, hidden-ball play, three of the five giants cut the proportion of premiums they spent on their customers’ medical care, shifting those premium dollars into corporate salaries, profits and administrative overhead.

By the way, buried in that increase for the insurers’ administrative overhead was a little statistic that often gets overlooked: lobbying expenses. The Big Five spent $16.8 million last year to lobby against comprehensive reform of our health care system.

Republican Leadership Not Too Comfortable About Open Discussions – President Obama issued an executive order on Thursday that formally creates a bipartisan fiscal commission, a first step to forcing painful decisions needed to get the U.S. debt load under control. Raising taxes, cutting spending and reforming Medicare and Social Security are all fair game, and thought to be impossible without the backing of both Republicans and Democrats. “Everything’s on the table. That’s how this thing is going to work,” the president said immediately after signing the order.

It was not clear before the president signed the executive order whether House and Senate Republicans would even choose to participate. A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, gave some indication that House Republicans might participate but didn’t say it was confirmed.

After the President signed the order, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that McConnell will name three Senate Republicans to the panel. But his instructions to them will be to focus more on spending cuts than tax increases. (I guess they are not interested in that “everything’s on the table” idea.) (Now, read again the article at the top of today’s Bad Deeds about how tax rates for the rich have dropped. – JLV)

Regards,

Jim