Doug Hardin's Blog

2010-10-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

2010-10-19T08:44:00.001-07:00

Robert Reich

Former Secretary of Labor; Professor at Berkeley; Author, 'Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future'

Posted: October 18, 2010 08:36 PM

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The Perfect Storm That Threatens American Democracy

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It's a perfect storm. And I'm not talking about the impending dangers facing Democrats. I'm talking about the dangers facing our democracy.

First, income in America is now more concentrated in fewer hands than it's been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans.

The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us.

Who are these people? With the exception of a few entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, they're top executives of big corporations and Wall Street, hedge fund managers, and private equity managers. They include the Koch brothers, whose wealth increased by billions last year, and who are now funding tea party candidates across the nation.

Which gets us to the second part of the perfect storm. A relatively few Americans are buying our democracy as never before. And they're doing it completely in secret.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against candidates -- without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They're laundered through a handful of groups. Fred Maleck, whom you may remember as deputy director of Richard Nixon's notorious Committee to Reelect the President (dubbed Creep in the Watergate scandal), is running one of them. Republican operative Karl Rove runs another. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a third.

The Supreme Court's Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission made it possible. The Federal Election Commission says only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.

We're back to the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. The public never knew who was bribing whom.

Just before it recessed the House passed a bill that would require that the names of all such donors be publicly disclosed. But it couldn't get through the Senate. Every Republican voted against it. (To see how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.)

Here's the third part of the perfect storm. Most Americans are in trouble. Their jobs, incomes, savings, and even homes are on the line. They need a government that's working for them, not for the privileged and the powerful.

Yet their state and local taxes are rising. And their services are being cut. Teachers and firefighters are being laid off. The roads and bridges they count on are crumbling, pipelines are leaking, schools are dilapidated, and public libraries are being shut.

There's no jobs bill to speak of. No WPA to hire those who can't find jobs in the private sector. Unemployment insurance doesn't reach half of the unemployed.

Washington says nothing can be done. There's no money left.

No money? The marginal income tax rate on the very rich is the lowest it's been in more than 80 years. Under President Dwight Eisenhower (who no one would have accused of being a radical) it was 91 percent. Now it's 36 percent. Congress is even fighting over whether to end the temporary Bush tax cut for the rich and return them to the Clinton top tax of 39 percent.

Much of the income of the highest earners is treated as capital gains, anyway -- subject to a 15 percent tax. The typical hedge-fund and private-equity manager paid only 17 percent last year. Their earnings were not exactly modest. The top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion.

Congress won't even return to the estate tax in place during the Clinton administration - which applied only to those in the top 2 percent of incomes.

It won't limit the tax deductions of the very rich, which include interest payments on multimillion dollar mortgages. (Yet Wall Street refuses to allow homeowners who can't meet mortgage payments to include their primary residence in personal bankruptcy.)

There's plenty of money to help stranded Americans, just not the political will to raise it. And at the rate secret money is flooding our political system, even less political will in the future.

The perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top; a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy; and a public becoming increasingly angry and cynical about a government that's raising its taxes, reducing its services, and unable to get it back to work.

We're losing our democracy to a different system. It's called plutocracy.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

2010-10-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

2010-05-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Queen Meg for Governor - Never!

2010-05-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Meg Whitman ads I have seen are not the Meg Whitman I know.

When Whitman was CEO of eBay I attended Las Vegas eBay Live, an annual convention for thousands of eBayers. The convention traditionally closed with a pep speech by CEO Whitman about what eBay had done for Sellers in the past and would be doing in the future.

Since eBays attitude toward Sellers could, at best, be described as imperial.....raising fees, no telephone calls from Sellers, questions read and answered by computers that NEVER resolved an issue, arbitrary suspensions, Millions of dollars frozen or payments arbitrarily delayed by PayPal, and all sorts of rules and regulations for Sellers that accomplished nothing but to make their lives less profitable and more difficult......you can imagine the kinds of questions Whitman had to field. What I witnessed was an almost open revolt cut short when Whitman walked off the stage early. Apparently, this had become a growing tradition in the last several years. Sellers were very very unhappy with Meg.

So, what was Whitmans solution to this show of dissatisfaction? A committee to hear and resolve the Seller issues? An attempt to explain why recent changes in eBay policy were necessary? Changes in company policy? Anything, at all, to resolve Seller issues? Anything, at all, like the caring concerned Meg of the TV ads?

Nope. Whitman stopped the Conventions. After all eBay was the only game in town. Who cares what Sellers think? Where are they going to go? No convention equals no questions equals no Seller dissatisfaction. Out ear, out of mind....

For more about the real Meg, Google the recent Craigs List lawsuit where Whitman tried to sneak in the back door of Craigs List, by buying shares of stock from a disgruntled owner, and take over Craigslist. When she was unable to bully her minority stake into control of the company, eBay stole the operating secrets, by agreeing not to compete with Craigslist and then, within weeks, starting her own version of CraigsList...Kijiji. Surely we all remember Kijiji?

And of course there was her greatest financial coup..... buying Skype for $3 Billion, spending almost a billion dollars integrating it into eBay and then selling it for for $2 Billion.....Do the math. Of course, in doing this, she so alienated and ignored the wisdom of the brain behind Skype, that he resigned his lucrative new job and started Tesla Motors

This is Queen Meg, the real Queen Meg. The person behind all those caring, listening, warm and fuzzy ads. How could anybody think she will treat the citizens of California any better than she did eBay Sellers. After all, where are the citizens going to go? Nevada?

Read more: http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2010/05/whitmans_new_ad_lumps_poizner.html#ixzz0oCUBdFZ7

2010-04-20T14:28:00.001-07:00

2010-04-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

My Blackjack Career - Life of A Low Roller Card Shark

2010-02-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

I've spent way too much time learning to play Basic Strategy Blackjack. Have worked my way through the practice games on the internet, the math and probabilities and now it is time to start playing for real money.

I decided it would be a good idea to start small and work my way up so I would appreciate what I build up and value each play more than if it was only cash I threw in. I am consistently winning 19 out of 20 rounds on the computer and have now gone to the local Indian casino to play their video blackjack games. They start out at $1 and go as high as $10. A little more restrictive than the $5 tables with real people but a good way to learn.

Last week I went up with $20 and came back with $44.

Today I returned and following is my report

Just returned from up the hill at Table Mountain Casino.

Arrived on the free Monday & Wednesday bus at 10:30 AM. Got my free $5 of play and my free bottle of water, along with everybody else, as I exited the bus. Placed my first bet at 10:45 and went through 45 minutes of hell. Lost $26 of my precious $44 dollars. I have never seen a run of luck, lack of skill or crooked game this bad. This is a reputable video game called Game King...I don't have enough cash, skill or chutzpah to play at the tables with the Big Boys. I eventually pulled the plug and retreated to the restaurant, in a blurred suicidal funk, to get a cup of coffee and analyze my nightmare. I had heard the Indian casinos were not regulated by anybody except themselves and I was now very suspicious. It was hell.

I confess to contemplating the thick Red Elastic Lanyard, attached to your Players Card with a clip so you won't walk away from the machine, leaving your card, on the other end of the lanyard, behind in the machine....."I wonder if it will hold my weight from the stall frame or break, leaving me not only destroyed, but humiliated as well?

But, with $18, a $5 play voucher and $2 in my pocket I decided to figure out where I had screwed up. I write down all my plays in a notebook as I play, so I sat there and analyzed them.

I had played 90 hands. I could tell something was off while I was playing. The rhythm was just way way off. You usually win one or two, dealer wins one or two and occasionally either side wins 3(12% probability), 4 (6% probability) or even 5 (3% probability) in a row. Plus, bear in mind the probability of winning or losing 3 in a row is a subset of the probability of 4 or 5 in a row.

In the same 90 hands the machine had 5 strings of 3 winning hands in a row (1:8 probability), 1 string of 5 winning hands (1:33 probability) and 1 string of 6 winning hands (1:66 probability). Almost 1/3 of the hands the machine dealt itself were in strings. Meanwhile, I had only 2 strings of 3 winning hands. The interesting thing is that the mix of won, lost and pushed hands was almost spot on the anticipated outcome. I won't bore you with any more statistics but the way I play is to keep track, in my mind of how many wins and losses both sides have had and increase my bet when I think the pattern is going to swing. Clearly, if it doesn't swing I get murdered, losing higher bets I had anticipated winning. Today I got murdered and murdered yet again.

The Blackjacks were wacky also. A black jack should be a 1:25 occurrence with blackjacks accruing equally to both sides. In 90 hands you would expect me to have about 1.5 blackjacks and the machine to have 1.5 black jacks. In 45 minutes I had 1 Blackjack (pays 150% of the amount bet) and the machine had 5 Blackjacks.

But, in for a penny, in for a pound; Dreams die hard. With the remaining $18 (less than I started with last week) in my pocket, plus $5 the casino gives me for taking the free bus and $2 of my own meager cash I returned, once more, to the machines, depressed with 4 months of sweat and dreams evaporating like fog on a sunny morning. I vowed that, when this last trickle of cash had evaporated, and surely it would, I would declare myself finished forever with Blackjack...or at least until I could figure out my my failure.

The remainder of the afternoon was my own personal version of shock and awe. No more long, long strings of losses. The cards performed exactly as my computer simulations said they should. The Rhythm felt just like it should, although I was squeamish in my bet acceleration, afraid of getting my finger bitten off. Apparently, in my earlier play, I had just passed through a stretch of statistically very bad road in The Twilight Zone.. Tonight I will run an analysis of my first round to see how far out of our reality dimension the road really was.

I played an additional 900 hands. I no longer have $44 in my bank. I now have $118 in my bank. I took a few breaks, had a literally well-earned buffet lunch. My play continued within expectations. This is a profit of $74 for about 3 hours of play. My estimate of playing at $1, with the severe statistical and betting limitations of the video system was $22 - $24 per hour, so somehow it all leveled out and, in the words of John Steinbeck, "The World is running on greased grooves again". \

I left the casino with almost exactly what my simulations projected. And, the $74 does not include the $7, after senior discount, buffet I treated my self to, the first senior discount I have ever taken or enjoyed. Food was OK. Vindication was priceless.

During the day I placed about $1,600 in bets and kept my original $44 plus $74 new friends from Table Mountains casino vault. By way of thanks for this rescue the casino will also mail me about $4 in a monthly check for my playing volume - Every little bit helps.

Never even noticed the noise, uncomfortable chair or confusion today. Plus, somebody had moved and remodeled the poorly placed, illogical and confusing buttons on the mission. Today they were just right and no more betting $10 when all I really wanted to risk was $1.

I have ruled out Blackjack as an expensive hobby. It will now be either an inexpensive hobby or, perhaps, an income source. But, obstacles remain. Let's not count our Blackjacks before they are dealt.

I have returned the money I borrowed from myself last week, using it to buya needed groceries at the Walmart in whose parking lot the Monday Wednesday bus operates. I now play only on free money earned gambling. I plan to keep at the video machines until my bank is at $250 - $350 or wiped out. I will start polishing my computer table simulation play next week and then slowly stick my toes into the $5 tables which will be slower than the video games, 100 hands per hour at the table as opposed to 300 hands per hour at the machine, but statistically richer....At least that is what my simulations tell me. I plan to waste $50 - $100 getting the hang of the tables. I will have to remember a lot more in my head as I am pretty sure it is not considered cool to sit at the Blackjack table with a notepad and a packet of sharpened pencils. The nature of the system is such that the bigger the hands, the more favorable the rules are to the player. The minimum/maximum bet spread of $1 - $10 on the video game offers about 4-5% margin for the house, the $5 -$300 table offers about 3% margin for the house and the $25 - $3000 table offers about 2% for the house.

In Las Vegas the margin goes down to about 8/10 of one percent for the house (along with Nevada regulatory oversight to keep everybody honest) and, in Macao the margin at the $25 table is 16/100 of one percent for the house.....That's about as close to even money as it gets. Compound all of this with the statistical projection that one standard deviation (the 34% area on either side of the bell curve - 68% total) after 10 hours of play at $10 per hand shows you have a 34% chance you will win about $2,000 and a 34% chance you will lose about $1,000. That is just playing statistically perfect blackjack (rote memorization) and no counting or betting systems. The profit is in Kenny Rogers, "You got to know when to Hold 'em and knowing when to Fold 'em". Sorry, waxing a little complex I guess. But each to his own hobbies...

This is a game that can be beat, and regularly is. I am finally beginning to understand how what I blindly stumbled on makes sense.....The numbers I am giving you are for people that have taken the very long time to memorize, feel comfortable with and understand the probabilities, never ever make mistakes and exercise the mental discipline and stamina to walk the walk. These super-persons prosper in the statistical 2% margin world. The statistical margins may be less than 2% but actual casino margins are closer to 20% of the money wagered on Blackjack so there are a lot of people losing money (why do you think they give free drinks to the players?), so the casinos love blackjack. But, there are also the smart well trained, well informed and well disciplined players who make good money. The casinos have their ways of dealing with the flashy break-the-bank players who splash $10,000 bets but can't tune their radar effectively to the moles-like-I-wanna-be who quietly move around a lot and are content with $250 - $500 per hour winnings.

So, I will return next Monday with my less-than-flashy $118 bank roll. As I said before, this bank is not to be friveled away on non-essential luxuries like food and rent. Perhaps I will take a page from Jons book and hide it where I won't lose it. Mail myself a letter to arrive next Monday with an $118 Postal Money Order. Meanwhile I practice, practice, practice.

Of course, it would also be nice to get my pickup all papered up so I could drive up any time I want instead of waiting for the Monday and Wednesday bus. That will have to be a high priority. Maybe higher than moving to the $5 table. What a luxury going to the casino when you actually want to. One of the other bigger casinos around here charges $38 for a bus but gives you a $15 food voucher and $25 of free play. Not sure, I am that self-confident yet.

Also need to get in a lot better physical shape to stay sharp for longer periods of time. I still make a lot of mistakes and was getting a little mind dumb today; Caught myself missing an opportunity to split to 8's. I got a a free coffee from the cute girl walking around with drinks. Perked me up fine but 5 minutes later I was so wired I couldn't focus and started making mistakes again. Next time only 1/2 cup. And if I get the pickup papered, I can take a nap, meditate or listen to music to clear my head. The casinos really don't have anywhere free to sit and relax. If you're not playin', you're not payin'.

Sorry to drag you through all the math and stuff, but all this helped organize my thoughts.

Doug
Feelin' perty good today!

Not With My Tea Party You Don’t

2009-12-30T16:57:00.000-08:00

If you read my blog occasionally, you may have figured out I have am a bit schizophrenic in political viewpoints. I believe in a government where the politicians actually think about what is best for the country and consider the wishes of the voters that put them in their jobs. Yeah, right! Dream On. Most of them, from both parties, went to DC to clean out the swamp and learned to love the jacuzzi instead.

Recently, there has been a lot of hullabaloo about Tea Parties. Now, I have to tell you, I was happy that somebody was standing up and yelling, “enough!”. I don’t necessarily agree with their politics but Good On Em for taking their responsibilities as citizens and standing up for what they believe in.

Well, that is what I used to think. I thought they were a bit loopy in their views, but it was a start. Now I found out that the Tea Party I thought was the Tea Party, a bunch of frustrated citizens who banded togother is not the Tea Party I have been reading about.

The original Tea Party, as I have been thinking about it, you know the one with real citizens, actually exists and is based in Punta Gorda, Florida.

The Tea Party I have been reading about and watching on Fox News is actually owned, operated and run by a California-based GOP political consulting firm, Russo Marsh & Rogers. They are the ones making all the noise and raising millions of dollars. Turns out they have been spending a lot of the money donated by a lot of citizen dupes living the high life, including a recent $1,500 meal for 6.

I’ve been had again.

Read about it here in Mother Jones

US News and World Report is doing a really information packed 3 part report on Social Security.

2009-12-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

I just read the second report and am going to dig up the first report while keeping my out for the secont report. Some really useful information for anybody that wants to know when, how much and how they calculate it all.

Read the 2^nd report here.

How come the Chinese can build a high speed train in 5 years and we can’t?

2009-12-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

What’s more, they plan to build another 42 high speed trains in the next TWO YEARS. We couldn’t even decide on a color for the trains in two years. So, what’s wrong with our system? I thought we were trying to create jobs. This sounds like a great way to create jobs to me. Maybe our system is worn out and gridlocked. Ya’ think?

Read about it and take a look at the jazzy stations here.

Maybe we could learn something from the French?

2009-12-30T16:51:00.000-08:00

Without getting into whether Carbon Credits or Taxes are good or bad, necessary or unnecessary, I was unhappy with the way Congress handled the program. Basically exempting the large producers who had the money to pay lobbiest and letting the rest of us carry the load….as too increasing usual.

Well, the French courts just said, “Not on my watch!” when the French government tried to mandate a similar policy. A $24.38 tax set to go into effect on January 1, that exempted 93% of the carbon producers, leaving consumers to carry the freight with taxes on cars and heating costs, was rejected by the Constitutional Court, because the tax was “disproportinally allocated”

Is anybody here in the US listening?

Presidents Johnson and Obama - Vietnam and Afghanistan - So Much in Common

2009-11-21T10:07:00.001-08:00

Last night Moyers had an incredible show with tapes of telephone conversations between President Johnson and MacNamara, Bundy, Knight and others discussing the development of the Vietnam war. Incredible! Amazing parallels to present thought process on Afghanistan.

Link to Moyers show below. Will probably take a while unless your high speed is pretty good, but well worth it. You can even hear the airplane droning in the background as MacNamera is talking to Johnson on return trip. Awsome. I had no idea these tapes even existed. They knew they were screwed long before the public did. They were just stalling, while people died, hoping for a compromise that would save Vietnam, preserve the rest of the dominoes (they really did believe that then) and save American prestige.

I think had it not been for Johnson's belief that if South Vietnam fell, the rest of SE Asia would also go communist, Johnson would have pulled the plug when we were still only advisers.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11202009/profile.html

Our mission goal in Afghanistan is fuzzy at best. Certainly we are not engaging Al Qaeda, only the Taliban, who just want us out of their country and are not going to launch any attacks against us. We are the best recruiting tool Al Qaeda has

This excellent article in Foreign Policy makes the point better than I could ever hope to. We gain nothing by staying in Afghanistan except the creation of more animosity and more terrorists. Staying is actually decreasing our security.

Hopefully Obamas "dithering" is a delaying tactic so the Health Care mess can pass, after which he will announce he is withdrawing from Afghanistan and wait for the political hurricane which will probably cost him a second term. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes. The parallels between Obama and Johnson are uncanny.

We'll see.

Welcome Bill McBride's Calculated Risk Blog

2009-11-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

I just added Bill McBride's Calculated Risk Blog to the RSS feeds on the right.

Huffington Post has just classified him, and his blog, as a must-read economics blogger in their HuffPost Gamechangers ranking.

Or, you can go directly to Calculated Risk Blog here

Welcome.

Afghanistan-Who is in Charge? The Horse or the driver?

2009-11-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

Entirely too much has been made of whether or not we accede to General McCrystals' request for more troops. For the second time this week I make a silly Horse analogy. Not the horse, but the analogy.

I was always taught to, first, define the problem, then develop a solution and finally formulate a plan to implement the solution. Decide where you need to go (the driver wants a cheeseburger), decide how best to get there (by cart - it's too far to walk) and finally get moving, to your destination. In this silly story, the horse directed by the driver over the most appropriate path, direct, avoiding dangerous neighborhoods and, perhaps via scenic park drive. This is as a simple process. Deciding what it takes to get the job done before clearly defining the job makes no sense at all.

So, why does it matter what General McCrystal has requested? At least not until we understand clearly where we want to go and how we plan to get there. At this point, General McCrystals input is essential and should be seriously considered.

I have yet to hear a clearly defined reason of what we want to accomplish in Afghanistan except the mushy mealy phrase "defeat Al Quaida". Well, that may, or may not according to some, be a worthy goal. But, if it is a worthy goal, then it requires a worthy definition. Confine them to an area, arrest them all, kill them all, disillusion their followers? What are we trying to accomplish here. Defeat is an awfully big word.

Once we define our mission, which will always be in a state of flux, we need a strategy for implementing our goal. General, McCrystal, and the rest of the military heads can give us some serious input here.

With a clearly defined both goal and how we intend to get there it is time to turn it over to the military. Bearing in mind that we control the reins and need to keep our eyes on the path and make the necessary course changes if the horse wanders or unexpected traffic blocks the path.

This all seems ridiculously simple. If we let the horse decide where to go we will invariably end up eating oats.

Welcome icanhascheezburger.com !

2009-11-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

For those of us that just can never remember how to spell icanhascheezburger I have added a link to their RSS feed. You can click on the links at the right to view their newest crazy pics.

The Horse Wasn't Taxed Out of Existance, It Was Replaced by a Better Idea

2009-11-11T11:52:00.001-08:00

Today George Will joins BBC, Newsweek and many other reputable news sources in questioning our prevailing attitude towards climate change. If you believe passionately that global warming is serious, imminent and caused primarily by human activity, you're not going to like this one.

Read George Wills commentary here

Will points out, as so many shushed voices have in the past, that we are making important decisions based on bad data. The prevailing zealous inertia stands on two wobbly legs, a United Nations study, with narrow scientific representation that was never submitted to peer review prior to being published, and a movie by Al Gore, whose scientific credentials consist of two science classes for which he was awarded a C and a D grade. These two were awarded the Nobel Prize for their efforts on Global Warming, which has gradually morphed into to more innocuous term, Climate Change.

The UN study was based on a model, a complex version of A + B = Climate, where A and B, along with thousands of other earthly variables, combine to predict Climate. Solve for A, solve for B and Climate is the inevitable result......If the formula was correct. It is not.

In the 10 years since this model was developed we have been able to fill in the blanks for A and B with actual data instead of the previously predicted data. If the model was correct we should be able to look out our window and the Climate would be as we predicted. It is not. There is either a problem with the model or a problem with our window. CO2 levels, temperature and thousands of other Climate variables have radically underperformed the predicted levels, even after accounting for the fact that 1998 was a statistically contentiously cold year.

Worse, the model never worked to begin with. Scientists have gone back 10, 20 and even 50 years for actual data and plugged it in. The UN, and other models, have consistently failed to predict the Climate we live in today. The math just doesn't predict. If we were students our parents would have already been called and we would be on permanent detention. But, that is not the way of the world. We won't fly on an airplane or cross a bridge built with bad math. But, we will alter the entire World economy and starve millions of developing nation citizens based on equally bad math. We continue to stumble ahead as if the math really worked, zealously protecting our new flat earth 11th Commandment.

Al Gore deserves credit for a compelling movie that drew our attention to the fact that Climate is in flux and we should understand more about it. However, his Hollywood ice was thinner, his seas higher and hurricanes stronger than even the flawed UN Council model predicted. His movie was so inconveniently-over-the-top that, in the UK, as a result of a court ruling, students must read a disclaimer detailing 37 totally incorrect statements in the movie, including the fact that the world polar bear population, instead of being almost wiped out, has increased from 5,000 to 25,000. Meanwhile, Al Gore refuses to debate the subject or even appear on the same platform with opposing views. He seldom accepts questions from his audience, usually with controversial results. This, in spite of the fact, that over 700 renowned scientists, some of whom signed the original UN findings, have signed a document detailing their personal doubts about or outright rejection of the UN Study. Math is always tricky in these sorts of things, but it appears that more Nobel Prize winners in related areas have come out challenging the UN results than supporting them.

Climate is changing. It has always changed and probably always will. It is not clear, however, where Climate is headed, how soon,or how much it will change and how it will impact us. The average opinion seems to be it will probably get a bit warmer in the next 100 years with the increase starting in about 20 years. Does that mean a new future for Canadian wheat farmers or does it mean shrewd investors will be rushing to Las Vegas to buy beach front property?

There are, and, have always been, incongruities in our Climate. The Arctic ice is now reducing at an inexplicable rate, in spite of the fact that overall temperature has not increased in the last 10 years. The ice is now thicker at the North Pole than it was in the 50's when a Russian submarine actually surfaced in clear ocean. Where the submarine surfaced there is now a thick crust of ice. However, the ice is rapidly "calving" off the edges and we don't know why or for how long it will continue. Maybe something to do with ocean dynamics. The average ocean temperature has only changed minimally, but the concentrations of hot and cold are apparently switching geography. This may be effecting currents and weather. We don't know why or the net effect of these changes. Ocean CO2 levels may be higher than they have ever been in the past. Is there a relationship? In fact, we know very little about the dynamics of our constantly moving ocean surfaces which make up 70% of the surface of our planet. That is roughly 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons to an average depth of 3,000 feet. That is 46,571,428,571 gallons of water for each of the almost 7 Billion people alive today. That's a lot of water, in delicate balance, with organisms producing and consuming Oxygen and CO2.

There are strong indications that the relationship between CO2, other gases and Climate are complex. Climate has increased and decreased radically in the last several million years, but not always in line with CO2 concentration, although there are also studies that correlate CO2 levels with temperature. The sun, the atmosphere, cloud formations, the cooling of the earth, volcanic activity, the mysterious activities of the ocean and, perhaps, human activity all somehow interact in ways we have yet to sort out. Even the, heat absorbing, dark roof tops and highway surfaces we have built may contribute. Massive amounts of CO2 are also released from mountain rock formations as they roast in the sun. A lot of variables to understand and put together correctly.

It may be hubris to say human activity is responsible for climate change, but is it correct? Picture a steel apple with a hot molten core, a very very thin skin composed of 70% water, floating in a vacuum about 5 feet from a roaring fire. Imagine several billion bacteria on the apple skin holding an apple-wide conference informing other bacteria they are responsible for the temperature changes of their apple and need to change their ways or die.....Sounds like a lost chapter from Gulliver's Travels. On the other hand, what makes beer and champagne so really good is the CO2 bubbles that are the by-product of bacteria reproducing under pressure until the CO2 concentration gets so high the bacteria all die off leaving only tasty beer and dead bacteria. We need to understand a lot more than we do today if we are going to successfully live in harmony with our apple.

The US and most developed countries agree we need to start softening our footprint, to say nothing of the economic necessity of replacing our appetite for dirty coal and expensive oil that stink up our air and deplete our cash. Toward this goal they have mostly elected to follow a carbon rationing policy of cap and trade, exempting the largest abusers from tax, pain or motivation while shoving developing nations and smaller businesses to the edges of the playing field.

Instead of squeezing the existing production that feeds, clothes and shelters people, why aren't we focusing on newer and better ways to make our old dirty habits obsolete? The horse wasn't taxed out of existence it was replaced by a better idea. Coincidentally, that new idea worked out smoothly for Henry Ford and the US economy. At least until lately. Maybe it is time for a new idea. The ideas are going to come from somewhere. The only question is whether we are going to be buying or selling the ideas.

There is even talk of introducing dust, ice, chemicals and other strange stuff into the atmosphere to reduce warming. Don't laugh, China just coerced the earliest snow ever in Beijing and is talking about more efforts to control the weather. This is all sounding a lot like either a bad science fiction or the last bacterial gasp from a dieing bottle of beer. We might want to think this through a little more before we go pumping even more strange stuff into our atmosphere.

Of course, the really smart thing to do would be to cut back on population. A recent study reports that 40% of pregnancies are unwanted. How much trouble would it be to develop a birth control serum we all take at birth and then take the antidote when we actually want to have children? That thought should get the bacteria buzzing.

Brain Tumors and Arrogantly Bad Timing

2009-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that Health Insurance Companies try to save every penny they take in, all companies do. That's what the game is all about. But today's news provides more proof that we need some form of intelligent universal coverage and, probably, a Public Option to keep it all honest.

Dawn Smith, of Georgia, was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor 4 years ago. Benign as it was, it still needed treatment as it was causing excruciating headaches, was located in a particularly sensitive area and difficult to get at. Her doctors recommended she seek treatment from several experts at the Cleveland Clinic, who had a record of successful treatment for this type of tumor. Her insurance company, CIGNA, refused because the Cleveland Clinic was outside their system. Logical enough, I guess, but more logical if they had actually had doctors inside their system with exceptional experience with this kind of tumor. So, Dawn struggled on with her debilitating headaches. She wrote politicians and public organizations with no results until MoveOn.org informed everybody on their very big mailing list about Dawns problem. Days later CIGNA reviewed her case and Dawn got to go to the Cleveland Clinic and an improvement in her condition, although she still required regular medication.

A small victory for the common citizen, thanks to MoveOn.org. But, no memory is so long as a scorned insurance company. Shortly afterwards, Dawns premiums were raised from, $366 to $750 per month. Dawn, 33 and still unable to work, getting around in her dead grandmothers wheelchair, had to keep making the payments, even if it meant delaying checking a bump on her breast for several months.

Thankfully, the bump turned out to be nothing more than a calcium deposit. Again, MoveOn.org sent out an e-mail and, again, CIGNA reversed their decision. there had been an error in classification and her premiums would not be increased.

But, insurance companies and elephants never forget. Four days later Dawn was told the medication she used to control headache pain was being increased from $10 every two-and-a-half-months to $1,115, and increase of over 1,100%. This time it was Huffington Post who jumped in. CIGNA backed down, saying that it was an error in the way her doctor had filled out the form.

The moral of this story? If you want fair treatment from the vengeful Sword of an insurance company you better have some really big Pens in your corner. Most folk don't. Read Dawns entire story here.

Or, perhaps, you could go to work for an insurance company. Surely, they don't eat their own. Or do they? Wellpoint Insurance has just announced they are cutting their employee insurance benefits for their 42,000 employees. They will keep the same insurance, but will have to pay more for it. Wellpoint, you may recall, along with United Health Care, illegally encouraged its California employees to lobby against health care reform. In an e-mail sent to their employees, encouraging them to write letters, said, "The proposals would hurt the company by causing tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage and end up in a government-run plan."

Well, yes....Duhhh! Beat a puppy long enough it will run to a better master.

Incidentally, WellPoint paid their CEO, Angela Braly, almost $10 Million last year. That works out to about $238 for each one of Wellpoints employees. Just an observation.

Read more about Wellpoint and their employees here.

Rio, Chicago, Obama and Living Forever....

2009-10-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, quite a week. First criticism is heaped on President Obama for trying to assist in delivering the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. Then, when the Olympic Committee rejected Chicago in the first round and eventually selected Rio it becomes Obamas fault. Now, I don't know whether it was a good idea or a bad idea to have the Olympics in Chicago....Some very persuasive arguments on both sides. but, at least he tried. Good on him.

This all segues nicely into Thomas Friedmans New York Times commentary, "Where Did 'We' Go?".

The American political system was, as the saying goes, “designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots.” But a cocktail of political and technological trends have converged in the last decade that are making it possible for the idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.
Those factors are: the wild excess of money in politics; the gerrymandering of political districts, making them permanently Republican or Democratic and erasing the political middle; a 24/7 cable news cycle that makes all politics a daily battle of tactics that overwhelm strategic thinking; and a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world. Finally, on top of it all, we now have a permanent presidential campaign that encourages all partisanship, all the time among our leading politicians.

We will never get around to solving the serious stuff until "we" grasp the fact that we are all in the same boat and quit trying to punch holes in the "other guys" part of the hull. If not, we're all going to sink together.

And finally, two worrisome articles, highlighted on the right in "Headlines of Note , Half of babies born in rich world will live to 100 and Scientists find path to fountain of youth, point out that we are getting a lot closer to the 500 year life spans I keep projecting. What are "we" going to do when that happens. All the looming devils of Climate Change, true or not, pale when compared to the problems of 400 year old adults having their 30th child.

All this talk of Climate Change and the proposed solutions of Carbon controls, emission controls are starting to bother me. Now, personally, I think there is serious doubt as to both the degree of Climate Change we can expect and the part that "we" humans play in it. Personally, I think Change is coming, it is not quite as dramatic as Al Gore is making his millions preaching about, it is inevitable, there is nothing we can do to reverse it and "we" are only minimal contributing factors. Our time and money will be much better spent preparing for it than trying to prevent the inevitable.

But, having stated my position, why are "we" not taking a serious look at two of the more zany solutions that have been proposed. One article I read said that 40% of all pregnancies are unwanted. So, why aren't we encouraging the development of solutions that would prevent pregnancy unless "turned off' by those who actually want to have children? A 40% reduction in birth rates would eliminate a very very large portion of the carbon footprint.

Another suggestion has been that if we painted all the rooftops and highways white this would more than offset the temperature rising impact of CO2 emissions, if any. These are just a couple of the ideas that are out there. My apologies to the authors, but I can't recall their names at the moment.

So call me crazy, but it has been that sort of week.

15 Extraordinary Sand Sculptures

2009-10-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

Just ran across this at Oddee (Link to RSS feed down on the right) This was, arguably, the best of some really interesting sand sculptures.

See More Sand Sculptures at www.oddee.com here

No Wonder Politicians Are So Confused by the Health Care Crisis

2009-09-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

ABC News has just written an interesting piece about the sort of medical care Congressmen, Senators and senior government officials receive. It shouldn't surprise anyone that they get really good care. They can walk in without an appointment and be seen immediately. Their doctors, unlike ours, have plenty of time to spend with them, explain things and ponder their cases. To add insult to injury, our politicians pay about $503 per YEAR to insure themselves and their families. If you and I purchased the same level of care we could expect to pay upwards of $3,000 per month. For just the insurance, not for the visits.

Services offered by the Office of the Attending Physician include physicals and routine examinations, on-site X-rays and lab work, physical therapy and referrals to medical specialists from military hospitals and private medical practices. According to congressional budget records, the office is staffed by at least four Navy doctors as well as at least a dozen medical and X-ray technicians, nurses and a pharmacist.
Sources said when specialists are needed, they are brought to the Capitol, often at no charge to members of Congress.
"If you had, for example, prostate cancer, you would go to one of the centers of excellence for the country, which would be Johns Hopkins. If you had coronary artery disease, we would engage specialists at the Cleveland Clinic. You would go to the best care in the country. And, for the most part, nobody asked what your insurance was," Balbona said.
In addition to Balbona, several former staff members and private physicians who have consulted at the OAP as recently as last year agreed to talk to ABC News on background. They described a culture centered on meeting the needs and whims of members of Congress, with almost no concern for cost.

It is no surprise, then, that so many of these politicians are totally confused about what all the fuss is about when they go home to their town meetings and everybody is upset. What's all the fuss about? America has the best medical care in the world? Wrong! Our politicians have the best medical care in the world. We, the citizens, have health care ranked about 37th, just above third world status.

I am constantly wondering how long all this ridiculous bickering in Washington would continue if, tonight at midnight, all the politicians were directed to their local Blue Cross doctor or Free Clinic. I would guess we would have a decent equitable and affordable universal health care in about two weeks.

But, that would be dreaming, wouldn't it. So, the nightmare continues for over 50 Million fellow citizens. Will the madness never end?

Read ABC's entire article here

Meg Whitman for Governor - I Think Not!

2009-09-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Meg Whitman for Governor? Why on Earth? Give me even one reason. Another bored greedy executive with a radically inflated sense of their own talents throwing just a splash of the billions they made fleecing the public at another game they think, unwisely, they just may be good at. I will be writing more, much more, about this in the future.

But, let's just start with her experience. Basically, she ran eBay from a small friendly little auction house into to a very large loosely supervised, customer ignored and vicious Big Company.

Her biggest single accomplishment was to buy Skype for 3 billion, spend hundreds of millions to develop it only to see it sold as a disaster by the management who replaced her. Her second biggest deal was to buy a minority interest in Craigs List, through a dirty little back room transaction, where eBays involvement was unwanted, destructive and, finally, abandoned.

She did, in her favor, make the decision to buy PayPal. However, the developer of eBay, after spending time inside the eBay inferno, got disgusted and decided to take his most valuable commodity, creativity, with him. He is now selling the much sought after fast and electric Tessla cars he dreamed up, designed, built and is now selling faster than he can produce.
I wonder what eBay might have been like if he had been encouraged to stay and contribute under Whitman.

Whitman was so popular with eBay users that two years ago they canceled, and have never rescheduled their very popular and heavily attended annual conference/convention. The reason for the permanent cancellation? Too many eBayers were so upset with Whitman, the eBay "Community" of computers, and the general environment of "screw the users" that there were almost open riots when the users actually got to speak to a real person from eBay.

For a flavor of what I am talking about, just visit the eBay forums and see if you can go back as far as Whitmans' time and get a feel for the really pissed off customers in the eBay Community. Or you could just post a question asking about Whitman, at least you could before eBay hired some people to delete any negative comments from the forums.

It might not have been necessary to start deleting comments if, instead, they had hired some real people earlier on to talk to users instead of requiring all input to be in the form of messages that were subsequently read, interpreted and responded to by eBay computers....which is why the answers never really seemed to fit the original question. Or how about the quality control questionaires.."tell us how we are doing"....that were multiple choice with no place for negative comments or notations.

I can only dream what California might turn into if Whitman has her say. I can only dream bad dreams. Very bad dreams. Maybe the Terminator couldn't make much of a dent on California, but anybody that could create a wicked, vicious culture out of something as neat as the eBay concept probably can also do some serious damage to California. The only hope for California might turn out to be the Do Nothing political bureaucracy that has so frustrated the current governor and manages to stymie change at every turn.

California, as bad as it already is, does not need Meg Whitman. Thanks, Meg, but just take your Billions you earned off fleecing eBay users and go find another place to entertain yourself. Oh, and you might want to think about actually exercising your responsibility as a citizen to vote.

MAD Architects Use Solar Eco-Skin on Taiwanese Convention Center

2009-09-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Now this is an interesting development. Movable solar panels make for a really interesting concept.

We here at PopSci enjoy our green dreams for future buildings as much as any other geek. So imagine the excitement when Beijing-based MAD Ltd. unveiled its solar eco-skin design for the Taichung Convention Center in Taiwan.
The landmark building design aims to meld future tech with natural shapes that evoke mountains dotted with crater-like openings. We can only hope that a recovering post-apocalyptic landscape would look so pleasing.

See article in Popular Science here.

Can Nobody Stop This Madness?

2009-09-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

In my opinion the biggest culprit in events leading to the recent economic collapse were the rating services who, in spite of growing evidence to the contrary, continued to issue positive reports on clearly sinking credit default swaps and other dicey vehicles. They did it in exchange for very large fees. Had, instead, they issued more cautionary ratings, the whole situation might not have been averted but alarms would have been raised earlier and the landing a lot softer.

You'd think they'd stop, or if not, somebody would stop them. But, not according to former Moody's analyst Eric Kolchinsky in todays Wall Street Journal

Here's more from Reuters:

"With nearly $3 trillion of rated bonds, the insurance industry is the largest sector of the U.S. financial services industry to rely on capital ratings, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
The three leading ratings firms -- Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's -- have been criticized for fueling the financial crisis by assigning and maintaining high ratings on mortgage-backed securities, even as concerns about the health of the U.S. home market grew.

The NAIC, which represents state insurance regulators, wants to lessen its reliance on the ratings firms, according to a March report. The group has also held discussions over whether to launch its own system for assigning ratings."
Can nobody put a stop to this?
Read the entire article in Wall Street Journal here
Or, read a summary of this in Huffington Post here

Backwards Truck Paint Job Would Make Anyone Slow Down

2009-09-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

This would wake you up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Jalopnik. See the original here.

What the.......................... ???????

2009-09-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

Amazing, just when you think you're pretty much up on all the new trends.

If you're already getting bored of traditional football this season then there's an alternative that is uniformed in "lingerie". Yes, lingerie football. Denver has a team, LA has a team, Seattle has a team, San Diego has a team... the list goes on and on. On Friday night the Denver Dream played the Los Angeles Temptation in Denver. Despite the altitude advantage for the Denver Dream the ladies were defeated 26-19 by the Temptation. Below is a slideshow showing some game highlights. If you want to read more about the game then go here. Click on! SEE MORE HERE

The Funniest Protest Signs of 2009, or Maybe Not So Funny

2009-09-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

See the rest of the signs here, on Huffington Post

The New McCarthyism

2009-09-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are paving the way for a return of McCarthyism with their hysterical and shrill denunciations of President Obama and his administration as secret Communists and Marxists and Fascists who actually hate America and are trying to destroy it from the inside. Crooks and Liars highlights this well-done video juxtaposing the conspiracy theorists on the right with the disgraced Senator Joseph McCarthy. The result is pretty revealing.

See the Video here

Welcome Toy Zone! 15 Bizarre Motorcycle Sidecars

2009-09-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

I just added Toy Zone to our RSS fees because of their great list of 15 Bizarre Motorcycle Side Cars.
Toy Zone Feed can be found on the right down by Gadgets. Check out some of their other great lists....

Welcome, People of Walmart!

2009-09-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

I've added a new RSS Feed from PeopleofWalmart.com It can be found on the lower right between the feeds from People Magazine and Jalopnik. Thanks to Jalopnik who located this site through their collection of The Cars of Wa lmart.

9 Most Unusual Pets

2009-09-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

You can always rely on Oddee.com to come up with the most unusual lists.
Check out their 9 Most Unusual Pets list here.

The Best Way to Get Around the Frankfurt Auto Show

2009-09-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

See More at Jalopnik, obsessed with the cult of cars here

2009-09-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

See the original article in Discover Magazine here.

France or America, Who is Calling Who Socialist?

2009-09-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

Roger Cohen, who I gather spends a lot of time in France, wrote an interesting article in the New York Times a couple days ago. By his accurate perspective, the US and France actually are more similar than dissimilar.

Most (French) would be shocked to hear about American social security, let alone Medicare and Medicaid, the government-run health care systems for the elderly and the poor that together form one of the largest publicly financed health systems in the world.

Americans obsess less about France than vice-versa but when they do they tend to suffer from equally delusional ideas. The French — like many Europeans — loom as a feckless multitude coddled by a nanny state that’s so big it must be socialist.

In fact, ever since President Mitterrand tried broad nationalizations in the early 1980s with catastrophic results, France, like most of Europe, has been on a steady march toward freer markets, trade and competition. In its way, it has been Americanizing.

Both we and the French really know very little about the other, although ignorance doesn't seem to get in the way of our loudly voiced opionions of the other. The two countries actually have more in common than not.

Read the entire article here.

2009-09-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Carving TOO BIG TO FAIL down to "too small to care."

2009-09-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Neither the Republicans or Democrats, left or right, are representing the common citizen, only their own self-interests, which are not coincidentally, the self-interests of the rich and powerful. I hold up as an example the total lack of controls or restructuring we were promised on Wall Street so this could not happen again. Bernanke, Paulson and Geitner have given them them the tools, but the politicians refuse to use them.

Fairly easy to fix, I think.

1) Establish a consumer financial protection agency.

2) Closer regulation of the credit rating agencies.

3) Initiate laws that protect the system from banks that are "too big to fail.". Personally, I think breaking up the companies into smaller components would be an idea worth considering.

4) Put some teeth back in Shareholders Rights so stockholders can actually have some say in who runs their company and how much they get paid. The government should not be involved in this decision.

5) Devise some way to make it more painful to foreclose on responsible qualified homeowners than to re-negotiate an equitable loan

6) Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act.

7) And to keep all the Rats from gnawing through the baseboards, and around new legislation, implement real campaign finance reform so politicians do not need to raise massive amounts of money just to stay in their jobs. Then lobbyists will have nothing to offer a politician except a point of view.

From Today's News on the Same Subject.

Robert Reich, Pat Buchanan Agree: We Should Have Let Some Big Banks Fail (VIDEO)

Reich: “You know it's interesting Pat Buchanan, I start worrying about my own convictions when I hear you repeating back to me exactly what I believe. We ought to have either had kind of a restructuring of all of these big banks based upon something like Chapter 11, or we should have had a kind of temporary receivership, but we have the worst of both worlds. Taxpayers bailed them out so right now they know they were going to get a bailout next time. Before they didn't even know they were going to get a bailout, now they're making these wild trades they're doing the same risky stuff they were doing before, and now they know that if they get in trouble the government is going to bail them out because they are, quote, "too big to fail." Nothing in capitalism, no entity should be too big to fail.”

Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman

“In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,” Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. “The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.”

Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’sStanley Fischer, who suggested last month that governments may want to discourage financial institutions from growing “excessively.”

Elizabeth Warren: "Until We Have A Credible Liquidation Threat, We Don't Have Capitalism In America" (VIDEO)

TARP watchog Elizabeth Warren has been critical of how the bank bailouts have been handled, but in an interview with MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Monday morning she praised Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner for some of his recent testimony before Congress:

The question of regulatory reform is really on the table now. He was saying, in effect, if we don't change the rules going forward... we're not going to be able to get ourselves out of this crisis without some risk of falling right back into it. That was a very strong and very different message from the one he delivered last time we were talking.

She concluded with three things she would like to see implemented:

1) a consumer financial protection agency.

2) regulation of the credit rating agencies.

3) new laws that protect the system from banks that are "too big to fail."

Warren told Ratigan: "Until we have a credible liquidation threat, we don't have capitalism in America. It just doesn't work without that."

Arianna Huffington: Why Obama Won't Be Able to Reform Wall Street

There was a moment in the president's speech today that spoke volumes about the high hurdle financial reform is facing. The White House had sent a copy of the president's remarks to reporters and I was underlining key parts of it as he spoke. In the speech as written, he was supposed to call on Wall Street "to embrace serious financial reform, not fight it." But when the president actually delivered the line, he edited it, saying instead that Wall Street should "embrace serious reform, not resist it." That one-word change says everything you need to know about why all the president's well-intentioned pronouncements won't actually lead to fundamental reform. Because he's utterly misreading the opponents of reform. They are not passively resisting; they are aggressively fighting against reform with every weapon they have in their extremely well-funded arsenal.

The Continuing Disaster of Wall Street, One Year Later, Robert Reich

Let's be clear: The Street today is up to the same tricks it was playing before its near-death experience. Derivatives, derivatives of derivatives, fancy-dance trading schemes, high-risk bets. "Our model really never changed, we've said very consistently that our business model remained the same," says Goldman Sach's chief financial officer.

The only difference now is that the Street's biggest banks know for sure they'll be bailed out by the federal government if their bets turn sour -- which means even bigger bets and bigger bucks."

Judge Overturns Bank Of America-SEC Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses

"U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff held up his approval of the settlement, however, and ordered the SEC last month to explain why it didn't pursue charges against specific executives at Bank of America over the accusations.

Rakoff, was concerned that Bank of America was paying the penalty with Shareholders money, when it was the shareholders who had suffered form the actions of Bank of America. In another recent case Rakoff ruled that the penalty, instead of going to the SEC, should go directly to the shareholders.

Rakoff, in his ruling, found that the settlement "suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the SEC gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger, the bank's management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth."

2009-09-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

Larry Flynt Proposes a NATIONAL STRIKE DAY - Count Me In!

2009-09-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

Been a little too busy to post much the last few days. Sorry. However, I did post the following on the Newsreel Blog Porn Kingpin Larry Flynt Broadcasts Political Fantasies in HuffPo Debut

The above blog was in response to Larry Flynt's Huffington Post Posting, Common Sense 2009 As I say I don't know much about Larry Flynt's politics, except he supported the other guy for president, but I do agree with him that it is time to do something and this just might be a good start.

My comments were.

Whoa Nelly!

Are you folks actually saying that the rich and powerful do not have excessive influence over governement? That, in a world where a US Senator has to raise about $90,000 per day for re-election , he is more interested in what is right for his constituents and the country than raising money? Does anybody really believe Democrat and Republicans, no matter how sincere their original Intentions, have not been totally corrupted by the immense power and prestige they are afforded?

Can you really say this in a world where the Pentagon requests a single $64 Million Gulfstream and the oversight committee throws in another 3 Gulfstreams, over the protests of the Pentagon, all because Nancy Pelosi couldn't get a $5,000/hour Gulfstream to ride home last Christmas ? I don't know much about Larry Flynts politics and I don't care. I do know that civility and adult supervision is lacking in DC and it is our responsibility as citizens to do insert some controls since our representatives won't.

Immigrants. Hang them or give them $1 Million dollars and a passport, I am past caring. Nothing could be worse than this limbo of decision avoidance that goes on and on and on. Health Care, Social Security, Wall Street, Budget and the other serious issues of last 20 years...... Nothing ever gets done. Just make the tough decisions and get it behind us; It isn't going away. Lord of the Flies on Steroids. "Well, if the other guy hadn't .........." Bull! If Billy Jack, you remember Billy Jack?, were here he'd suggest hanging one at random and telling them that he was going to be back in 30 days to see how they were doing. That would get some bipartisanship action. The politicians have the ability. They don't have the will. We need to give them the will or they are going to keep sailing this Ship of State right into the iceberg field.

Count me in for any strike, march or other demonstration that lets them know how frustrated we are and we are not afraid to organize. This has nothing to do with left or right. It is about representative government. I will march shoulder to shoulder with the Devil, if necessary, on this. We can bicker later on how our representatives should represent us .....after they start actually doing so.

In the words of Mark Twain, I would have written a shorter letter but I didn't have the time.

2009-09-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Maybe Now is a Good Time to Talk About Afghanistan

2009-09-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

AboutWe are supporting a corrupt government who does not have popular support and may only be winning the current election because of election fraud. Our soldiers are dying while their soldiers are steering clear of the dangerous action. We are spending a lot of money. Their politicians are getting rich off of corruption. Their culture is as alien to us as our is to them. We have no clear definition of what our goals are and how will define victory. Our military leaders are asking for more troops and more money.

Does this ring a familiar bell? It does to me. Sounds a lot like it to me. Before we get further involved, I think it is time for some sort of dialogue to, at a minimum, define what we want to accomplish, how we will measure our progress and what we will do if we start to fall short of our goals.

Goerge Will, in todays Washington Post, is recommending we withdraw,

U.S. forces are being increased by 21,000, to 68,000, bringing the coalition total to 110,000. About 9,000 are from Britain, where support for the war is waning. Counterinsurgency theory concerning the time and the ratio of forces required to protect the population indicates that, nationwide, Afghanistan would need hundreds of thousands of coalition troops, perhaps for a decade or more. That is inconceivable.

I am not yet advocating withdrawal. But, it is time for our leaders explain clearly why we should be in Afghanistan, what we want to accomplish, how we will measure our success and how much it will cost in lives and money. Public support is already waning and will only get worse. We can not win a 10 year war without strong public support. And, if we can't win, why start? Or, at least, narrow our focus.

Keeping the Weeds out of the Grass. Not the Feds Job

2009-08-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hope you saw Brancachio and Moyers last night on Health Care. Some really good stuff. I really like T R Reid. who wrote "The healing of Ameica" "It doesn't matter whether it is government or private. What matters is that a nation decides it is going to agree to take care of all it citizens. The rest is easy. Whether it is Japan with 3,000 private insurance companies or the UK with a substantially government run program. Nothing will happen until the nation agrees that is where they want to go. We haven't reached that point yet." In hindsight, I think Obama might have been wiser to have this dialogue first. I think he would have gotten agreement on this, easily. Then should have come the discussion about how to do it. But, I did say hindsight.

Well, on to your radio show.

www.kpfa.org/archive/show/34

Ok. listened to your radio show. Frankly, I have only listened to videos, never radio before...have to look around and see what else is out there. Back to Hudson. Thought provoking. I need some time to digest his economic thoughts.

I totally support and agree with Hudsons underlying premise. One of the commentors wrote it best..."People just don't realize that our economy is run for the benefit of a tiny, privileged minority," Although, I prefer an analogy to HG Wells' "The Time Machine" where the Eloi are left to wander freely in a land of plenty and the Morlocks come out every night to harvest them for food.

But, even more interesting to think about.......Hudson and I both agree on his basic premise. But, Hudson uses a fuzzy circular illogical and factually vapid argument, that I totally disagree with, to reach the exact same underlying conclusion as I do. I am just as sure we would differ on the solution. Irreconcilable differences with somebody I actually agree with. Is one of us crazy? Fascinating.

I refer you to Mom's splurge (weed) problem in the back lawn . It is clear the splurge is gobbling up all the soil formerly occupied by the grass....no room for doubt there. Hudson would attribute it to a coordinated conspiracy by the splurge. I say the grass and splurge are just doing what is in their nature...the problem is lax oversight by the gardener (politicians) poorly supervised by the owner (you and I, citizen...well, OK Mom). Of course, the real problem is that Mom doesn't water the grass enough ....but, that totally messes up the analogy

Examples...

Hudson keeps talking about $13 trillion in bail outs when the entire national debt is only $9 trillion. TARP was only $700 Billion . Where does $13 trillion in bail outs come from. (Only??? I must be crazy....Vietnam only cost $50 Billion a year) Wish he had either taken it upon himself to support that number or the interviewer had called him on it, instead of mooning over his greatness.

As to Bernanke. Does the man not understand that Bernanke has absolutely no power over Wall street or policy? This oversight is the responsibility of Secty of Treasury, DOJ and Congress.....Bernanke has only 3 functions that I am aware of..

Oversee FDIC insured institutions to insure they are in compliance with the law he didn't write and can't change. Take them over and sell or close them if they are not.
Control the supply of money in the economy through setting overnight borrowing rates, issuing of currency and all the confusing computer/paper money used in TARP (The sole target of these is to keep inflation within acceptable boundaries..which is why Volcker had to raise interest so high to prevent inflation after the government spent so much in Vietnam ...think I have my history and timing correct here). The money supply faucet is the central control over economic growth. Growth of more than 4-6% annually is optimum to provide jobs for a growing population. Sustained growth of 8-10% for a period of 7 - 10 years will result in inflation growing faster than economic growth, referred to as the economy heating up and eventually a collapse in proportion to how far the two got out of balance, as happened in Asia in the 90's. Too little growth means not enough jobs are provided for the growing number of workers. Incidentally, this money supply lever, in the hands of a politically independent Fed, is what your pal Friedman got his Nobel Prize for thinking through, and also got paid for teaching to governments. Not all the mumbo jumbo stuff he preached on the side. Friedman did this after the political/oligarch rats chewed their way around Thorsten Veblens Controls. Steiglitz got his Nobel for a pointing out how the rats are chewing through Friedmans controls.
The Fed, and all 12 of its geographic subsidiaries generate forests of economic and money supply data and provide and interpretation of it.

Oversight of Wall Street is not within Bernankes power except in instances where FDIC funds are involved. However, I will read more on this as maybe I have it wrong....a lot of people are saying the same thing, which doesn't necessarlily make it correct. Mark Twain was wrong. Just because there is smoke does not mean there is a smoke machine behind it. It may only be a liberal or a Republican. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"

Hudsons read on Latvia and Iceland were total baloney and actually not even close to factual (at least the Iceland version) two economically failed states because they put too much of their money in the fancy mortgage stuff. Now the IMF, the Devil of Last Resort , comes in and gets the blame for saying "I'll loan you money to get you out of this mess, but you have to show me how you can pay it back because it's not really my money and the guys I borrow from are already bitching and may not loan me any more because they got problems of their own and then there won't be any money for the next fool who pisses away all his cash without thinking it through, so ya gotta either raise income or cut costs, buddy..Fairs got nuttin to do wit it. Dis is bidness"

Hudsons entire discussion was full of nonsense like the above, but we reach the same underlying conclusion. Curious. Maybe it is the backgrounds. Hudsons academic and resume credentials are in order. They are excellent. But, I guess it is perfectly logical to assume a guy with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, a PHD in economics and who was the Harvard Peabody research fellow in Babylonian economics would see things differently than me who is, well, me.

Have to read and think more about this. Thanks for the reference.

BUT,

The big problem is that, as Hudson says (although incorrectly placing blame on the Fed), and the following articles indicate and I agree....our leaders are going to do absolutely nothing about cutting back the companies Too Big To Fail or regulating the circumstances..It just isn't going to happen and that is a a whole different book. Oh, they'll pass some laws and play a few fiddle songs, but nothing with teeth.

The other big problem is that the politicians seem hell-bent with this Fed audit bill (the Fed is already audited enough...No secrets there) which is really an attempt to take over control of the money supply. We're really going to be in a pickle (what exactly does that mean anyway?) when the politicians control the money supply. This way, lies the Vortex.

The following current articles are on the same subject and, in my opinion, a little more based in reality .

Status of TARP investments

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214096?from=rss

Doubts about Bernanke

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214132?from=rss

Krugman ..Debt may actually be a good thing.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/02/paul_krugman_de.html

Also, the following might be entertaining, in a cute kind of way.

Comments of the Moment

“ Let's get fiscal, fiscal,
I wanna get fiscal, let's get into fiscal.
Let me hear your budget talk,
Your budget talk, let me hear your budget talk.”

“ Hopefully, the attempt to restore 1953 America will not turn into an attempt to impose 1933 Germany.”

“ If ignorance is bliss, why are these people so angry?”

“ Simply put, take some of the profit-motive out of healthcare and one ends up with a better and more affordable healthcare system, as numerous Western industrialized nations have discovered and benefited from for years.”

“ Somewhere in this great nation of ours, Bill O'Reilly's math teachers are sobbing.”

“ In the free market of ideas everyone has a price.”

“ I am a descendant of holocaust survivors and as such I am often disgusted by casual comparisons of everyday things to the holocaust. At the same time ... when things truly do resemble the situations that led to the holocaust they should be pointed out. ”

Republicans - All That Remains is Hate.

2009-08-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Joe Klein has written his thoughts about the state of the Republican party in The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists

How very sad that a once great party, instead of regrouping and recreating itself as the Grand Old Party of the People, instead continues to stick its head further and further into the sand. To misquote somebody, I can't recall who, "It is not enough that I fail. I must pull the rest of the world down with me."

Instead of disagreeing honorably and fighting for what they believe is right they have become the part of NO. Lies, distortion and deception are their new standards. Is there no honor left in this party? Is Rush Limbaugh the best they can come up with? Sad. Ronald Reagan must be turning over in his grave. This is a charade, he would never have stooped to. Ronald Reagan would have spoken out for what he believed in, not what he knew to be a lie. Sad.

To paraphrase the Republican lawyer Joseph Welch to Joseph McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sirs, at long last?"

French Jails Review - Bad Food! Great Drugs!

2009-08-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

Thought you might be interested in the few insights into the French jails the following e-mail yields. Got this from my friend in Bangkok

The Scot referred to here is Chang Noi (Littile Elephant) a character about 5' 5" who weighs about 350 pounds. An American about 45 - 50 who putters around on a tiny motor scooter. Has actually made a very small name for himself as a bit actor in Thai commercials. Can fix any computer problem and works for about $15 per day. Is a hell of a guitar player and singer and keeps organizing bands that fall apart because he gets drunk and stoned on grass and plays what HE wants the the volume HE wants. Actually booked two gigs on New Years a couple years ago ...about 1/4 mile apart. Set up two bands and shuttled back and forth on his scooter. Played a few songs with one band and then, wheeze, wheeze, shuttled to the other gig for a couple songs. Most bar owners foolish enough to hire him fire him after a couple weeks. Just too damn loud. But, he really is incredible. Need a fancy amplifier or sound system. No problem he disapears into the Chinatown alleys and comes back with about $50 worth of stuff that sounds like $1,000. Smokes way too much dope in a country that will put Americans in jail for 20 years. His 30 day visa was about 8 years overstayed when I knew him. I remember the sound of him coming to my office down the long echo packed hall. Wheeze Wheeze "ow" Wheeze "ow" "ugh" Wheeze. Bad knees at his weight and height. In hie former life he had been an engineer (fix-it type) all over the world. I remember once I was sitting in my bar when a Russian hooker happened to come in and started trying to pick me up. I was playing along "Yes, my first time Thailand" with her broken English just to see what would happen when up comes Chang Noi, sits down and asks if he can have a free Chivas. Never had any money but would only drink Chivas and talk about himself. I introduce the two and damned if he doesn't start rattling away in Russian with her. Color me surprised. Scott is very good at making bad choices. His last girlfriend moved out not only with all her stuff and all his stuff, including his clothes, but also his motorcycle. Apparently, he was in France because he was being paid $500 to accompany a Thai girl, for appearences sake, with a dodgy visa and got caught. Don't know the details

Another time I will tell you about the Suit guy. About 6 1/2 feet Dark complexion; English teacher I believe. He had a different color for every day of the week. Monday was yellow, Tuesday was green, Wednesday was red, etc. And when I say color. I mean neon! Shoes, socks, suit, shirt, tie, sunglasses. All not only the same color but the same shade. Even had a business card with the same color ink as the day. Strange!

Doug,

Ron and Charlie spotted Scott last Sunday and had a beer with him. He had recently returned from a week in America - the French deported him to his home Country after he had done his jail time.

It seems we found out that he was in a French jail way after the actual event (PJ was the bearer of the news). Scott spent 4 months 5 days in jail before they let him out early for "being a good boy". He said it wasn't all that bad except the food wasn't great. He worked every day, so time disappeared quickly. Ron said that Scott has lost a lot of weight - perhaps he will get smart and keep most of it off.

The other thing Scott commented on was that whilst "inside" he saw more dope that he had seen in his whole life. Someone must be making a good living servicing the inmates!!!

Well that's the update, hope you're doing OK.

Ciao,
John

Finally! Health Insurance Simplified!

2009-08-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Finally! Health Insurance Simplified!

Alec MacGillis, in todays Washington Post, explains the Health Care conundrum in 1,300 words of clarity that our politicians have failed to explain in 1,000 pages of confusion. His article Your Handy Health Care Cheat Sheet, is excellent, honest and sticks to the facts. There may be devils in the solution, but the problem is elementary, my dear citizen.

Health Care now devours 16% of our economy. Insurance rates spiral beyond the cost of a house. Soon premiums will explode beyond the budgets of even the wealthy; Affordable only by the super rich or as benefits to senior government employees, politicians and retired Presidents. It will be necessary to reverse laws that requiring hospital treatment to all who enter. There just won't be enough money.

But, you say, the United States has the best health care in The World! Absolutely true. We do have the best health care available. Available to World Leaders, Drug Dealers, Despots, Financial Barons, Dictators, US Politicians, Russian Oligarchs and the rest of the Mega Yacht Crowd who pay outrageous bills with minivans stuffed full of cash, government checks or premier insurance policies costing $3,000 - $5,000 per month. Our puny Blue Cross, Kaiser and Cigna policies won't even get us past their security details. What's in your wallet, citzen?

The World Health Organization, who studies these sorts of things, ranks the United States 37th in overall health care, just above Cuba. In overall health we rank 71st, earning us a seat at the back of the Third World Club. Compared to our peer countries, we live 5 years less and 5 times as many of our babies die before their 1st Birthday. 280% more of us are unable to earn a living because of repairable disabilities. Compared to the #1 ranked French, we pay almost twice as much of our GNP to treat 47% of our citizens as the French pay to treat 100% of theirs. Are the French smarter? Or is it something in the wine?

Something must be done.....about 25 years ago. Every day there is news of cures for disease and body repair; All the nasty things that shortened our ancestors lives is on the run. Within the next 50 years, the super rich will be living healthy, active and alert lives well past 100. Why? Because they can afford it. You and I, citizen, will be dropping dead from simple curable diseases or dieing from minor injuries before we hit 40. The last time people lived such meager lives was over a thousand years ago during the Dark Ages when the prescribed cure for everything, except heresy, was bleeding by leeches. You think I'm rattling off science fiction nonsense? Wait and see. We don't need no stinking Death Panels. We'll do it for ourselves.

Something must be done. I am not urging you to support, or not support, Obamacare. I am urging you to read Alec MacGillis's article. and consider the best and smartest course of action that makes sense to you. Keep in mind, citizen, we live in a Democracy, and our fellow passengers also have places they want to go and some mighty peculiar ideas about how to get there. But, holding the present course will soon bring us upon the Shoals of Status Quo and we will be smashed into 300 million pieces. Obamacare may be the best solution or just another bad idea. It may be the first wobbly leg in the right direction. Or not.

But, all this silliness about Death Panels, granny killing, Nazis, funny hats and missing Birth Certificates must go, replaced by serious dialog. The voices of those standing up, yelling passionate nonsense, must be joined by our own voices speaking passionate common sense. We don't have to agree on a solution today, but we must commit to a solution tomorrow.

Once we consent on a true course the trick will be to keep our politicians running the course we have set them. Simple folk, these politicians, can't help rowing in crazy circles without an occasional taste of the whip lash from us, their leaders. After all, they already have the really really good insurance...for free.

Think about it, citizen.

AdSense NonSense

2009-08-14T10:47:00.001-07:00

For more information about the meaning of this image click Here and Here

So Why Shouldn't I Tell My Congressman He's an Ass?

2009-08-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this unruly bad manners at Town Hall meetings. At first I wanted to go punch them out, talk them down or stand next to them in a clown suit. But the more I thought about it the more I am cheering on the yelling and screaming. I have decided it is a good thing these insulated politicians are finally having to face the people they represent while traveling first class or in private jets from one hoi paloy event to another, living in a rarefied atmosphere of privilege about on a level with the Wall Street Oligarchs or Louis XVI.....far far above the tiny meaningless lives down below.

The nerve of those guys trying to sneak through three $65 Million Gulfstreams the Pentagon said they didn't want or need, when many citizens weren't even sure they were going to have a job to drive to tomorrow, much less a jet. All because during last years Christmas holidays there weren't enough Gulfstreams to go around and Pelosi threw a hissy fit because all the big guys got to got to the really cool planes first. Make 'em ride on military transports or Greyhound is my idea. They'd at least meet some real people that way.

I think a good thing is happening. This is symptomatic of the sense of alienation people have from their government. The masters and the servants have gotten a bit mixed up in recent years and some adjustments need to be made. The people are frustrated and confused. All this money being spent, no understanding of why or where. And nobody really trying to explain to why Wall Street got the big bucks instead of Main Street in what I am just now beginning to understand was one of the most brilliant chess moves in the history of money.

I am not kidding. I think one of the luckiest things to ever happen to this undeserving country was to have not only a brilliant quiet Fed Chairman who spent the last 40 years studying the mistakes of the Great Depression teamed with a brilliant 6'4"ex-football hero tough-as-nails-mean-as-a-snake-SOB Secty of Treasury who helped invent half the crooked tricks on Wall Street. Secretary Paulson, with Bernankes Big Guns at his back, wasn't shy about blackmailing , bluffing or breaking some really big knee caps, forcing Financial moguls to bend over for a $700 Billion smoke and mirrors enema. It really cost us nothing but paper promises to put some spine back in the economy and some major Juevos de Oligarch in Uncle Sams watch pocket. The only mistake they made in this whole confusing Tango of Uncertainty was losing Lehman Brothers. They walking into a meeting with big UK Bank who finally said no to Paulson. Plan A disintegrated, there was no Plan B an Paulson lost one of the biggest deals of his big deal career.

Anyway, back to the peasants, uh err, citizens being treated like cattle whose only function is to work hard to make money, and borrow more, to pump into the big money machine. $32 Billion last year in bank overdraft fees? Give me a break! You can't change a telephone or any other service without punching numbers and waiting for 20 minutes. And then it is either impossible or you have to pay money to do it. Yes, American companies are more efficient. Because the citizens have to do more and settle for less from their companies.

You can't call a cop out for being a jerk for fear of getting arrested or worse. Out of one war and into another with no clear understanding of what is happening or why our boys continue to die after we were promised it was over. People are losing their houses, their jobs and their pride. Politicians are buying new Gulfstreams, have unlimited health care and expense accounts greater than most peoples salaries.

Republicans and Democrats are operating without any clear adult supervision, talking nonsense in stupid partisan prattling, putting off decisions about Medicare, Social Security and Immigration that should have been dealt with decades ago when they actually may have been tamable. These same politicians, unwilling to learn from previous mistakes are hell bent on making an sticky mess of Health Insurance, providing a nonsense mishmash without addressing the bigger issues of efficiency, cost and competition.

The hooligans will win. They will cover another 50 - 60 Million citizens with only minimal changes in business as usual, my hands in your pocket fashion. Politicians will deliver an insurance system bought and paid for by the central villian in the show. It won't work. Some day this will all come back, not to haunt us, but to rip out our economic jugulars and tread on us.

I know there is a lot of craziness in the air. People on Medicare saying they don't want government run health care. I especially loved the sign I saw somewhere today that showed an old couple on a sofa, "Will the government spend millions of dollars on my grandparents when they get sick like they do for a rich, overweight, alcoholics with brain cancer?" Of course the obvious answer is "Yeah, so who will take care of Gramps without Obamacare?" But they do have a teachable point. Why do all these guys get all the neat perks and toys; All we get is the privilege of paying for it and a stupid T-shirt.

Did you see the AARP meeting where the AARP representative got mad and closed the meeting because the old farts wouldn't sit quietly and listen to her prepared remarks about what AARP was doing on their behalf. They had the umbrage to ask why they had never once been asked what they wanted done on their behalf. She looked mighty foolish, after already ending the meeting, walking for her microphone after the crowd took over the meeting trying to sort out Health Care, without her. This really is Democracy at its best and at its ugliest. We may actually start listening to each other...or not.

Speaking of nonsense waddaya think of Sarah Palins Death Panel comments? What exactly does everybody think is happening now with the insurance companies? You Betcha!

Yeah, the insurance companies and Republicans are responsible for sowing the seeds of discontent, but the seeds are falling on very very fertile ground. Yeah, it's a loud rude minority who doesn't fully understand the issues, but so are the kids on the street in Iran and Burma, so was I in the late 60's and so were our founding fathers. I still feel we may have a revolt, of some sort, peaceful or not, before this is over. But this really isn't much about insurance anymore than Gettysburg was about the grass. This about the creeping plague of bad governance that has slowly been creeping up on us since we first started letting it.

Maybe there is hope. Americans may actually wake up and start expecting their politicians to represent them. Politicians may actually start identifying with their citizens and that Bridge in Brooklyn may actually change hands. Its not a Republican or Democratic thing. The Democrats are in power so they get the heat. But, whoever started it, they may have trouble getting it to lay down quietly and sleep.

I am glad to see people standing up and saying "I'm mad as hell and not going to take it any more!" Even if they have their facts and their logic upside down. At least they understand they have a right to be mad as hell. Of course it would help if the Democrats actually had a firm proposal on the table instead vague bundle of confusing Senate, House and White House concepts, ill defined and conflicting.

And what the hell was this deal with Big Pharma and the Hospitals? Is this what we voted for? Explain to me how this is Change we can live with? Unless we get some leadership soon we are are going to end up with a big sloppy expensive mess of goo that won't help much and will break our backs.

Haven't quite integrated my thoughts on Obama winning the election and being black and throwing that whole thing into the stew. Not sure how much that has to do with anything except it gives everybody something to focus on when they really haven't figured out yet what they are so pissed about.

Obama and the Democrats must start showing firm leadership if they are going to walk away with anything useful or even survive the next election.

Well, that's my evening cup of cheer. Better publish this before I think better of it.

Death Panels? They're already here.

2009-08-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a little tired of hearing about Death Panels under any possible under the proposed insurance reform. First, anybody who is talking about Death Panels under any version of the proposed insurance reforms either is just passing along information they have heard without fact checking or they are trying to manipulate peoples opinions by knowingly passing on false facts.

But, with the above in mind, who are we kidding? Every health insurance company, cooperative or government program including medicare already has a Death Panel. What else would you call the policy makers who develop policies that refuse applicants for any reason, deny a procedure, cancel a policy, raise premiums or, in any way, limit a participants treatment. They are already deciding who gets what and to what limit.

People do actually die because of these policies. If that is not a death panel, then what is? The only way to avoid these Death Panels is to provided unlimited coverage to 100% of the people, including illegal immigrants for free. As long as one person is being told what they can and can't have somebody else is deciding their fate. Even the politicians who deny 100% coverage for everybody are enforcing a policy that results in death.

A Very Excellent Primer on Health Care Reform

2009-08-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Complicated and Confusing. That is the status of pending Health Care Legislation. Todays New York Times has just published an excellent Primer on who the players are, what's true and what's not. This article will get you back up to speed.

Now Everybody is Opposed to New Jets For Congress

2009-08-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

It is now almost impossible to find a Congressman who is for spending $550 Million for several new luxury jets for Congress. Everybody seems to be coming out with a statement about how it is unnecessary and a poor use of Taxpayer money. It seems impossible to find anybody who was actually for the expenditure.

I wonder how many of these same politicians would have come out against the expenditure if The Wall Street Journal had not done their excellent series exposing it?

Read more about this here

Who Is This Man ???- Note the Swastika

2009-08-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

This is Charles Manson...Read about what he did then and what he is doing now - here

Barefoot Running Shoes - Catching on....

2009-08-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

File under: Things I Knew Absolutely Nothing About Until I Read About It Here.

BOULDER, Colo. — Kristen Campbell spent most of her 20s wearing soft leather moccasins everywhere she went, even on extended backpacking trips. But when she “grew up,” she reluctantly moved on to “real” shoes.

“I had to move out of the hippie ranks,” says the avid, 39-year-old distance runner, perhaps a little ruefully. “I had to stop being a dirtbag.”

So she was intrigued when she learned of a small but growing movement that advocates running barefoot, or something close to it. In Boulder, following the publication of “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall this spring — which, among many other things, wages war against thick-soled modern running shoes — the trend of running in “barefoot” or “minimal” shoes has taken off as fast as Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

After reading the book, Campbell bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers shoes mentioned by McDougall. The shoes have virtually no support, offering only a tough, thin sole and individual pockets for each toe.

“They are so much fun to wear,” she says. “I feel the ground more ... They make for a more intimate running experience.”

See more pictures of them here.

Saturdays Summary

2009-08-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Obama headed to Mexico to talk about Drug Wars. Here

Susan Boyle's new makover not loved by everybody. Here

Karzai courts Warlords in Afghan vote. Here

Obama makes mistakes in Health Care Strategy. Here

What are the rules at political town hall meetings? Here

Goldman Sachs land on their feet, again....Lords of Time. Here

France fights the high cost of health care Here.

Lawmakers & Spouses go on global luxury jaunts to study Global Warming

2009-08-08T08:09:00.001-07:00

Brody Mullins and the New York Times continue to look at why Congress needs so many luxury private jets.

When 10 members of Congress wanted to study climate change, they did more than just dip their toes into the subject: They went diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. They also rode a cable car through the Australian rain forest, visited a penguin rookery and flew to the South Pole.
The 11-day trip -- with six spouses traveling along as well -- took place over New Year's 2008. Details are only now coming to light as part of a Wall Street Journal analysis piecing together the specifics of the excursion.
It's tough to calculate the travel bills racked up by members of Congress, but one thing's for sure: They use a lot of airplanes. In recent days, House of Representatives members allocated $550 million to upgrade the fleet of luxury Air Force jets used for trips like these -- even though the Defense Department said they don't need any more new planes.

Read the rest of this article here

Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

2009-08-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. But I exercise all the time, and since I ended that relationship and cut most of those desserts, my weight has returned to the same 163 lb. it has been most of my adult life. I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn't all the exercise wiping it out?

Read the rest of this article

In Marriage, Worse First Can Mean Better Later

2009-08-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

Just a few months before John Gottman, a leading American marriage researcher and psychologist, was to be married, his father died, leaving Gottman to contend with overwhelming loss during what should have been one of the happiest times of his life. No one would have blamed him for putting the wedding on hold. But in the end, Gottman says, the strain of dealing with his grief made him that much more devoted to his future bride. "My wife helped me through it," he says. "I was able to cope with the loss, and it was really a bonding experience."

Few couples would choose to marry during periods of severe relationship stress, but then, trials come unexpectedly — you can't plan for layoffs, illness or a raging wildfire that forces a change in wedding venue 24 hours before the big event. That bad start, however, can have benefits.

Read the rest of this article in Time

Billy Mays....It was cocaine!

2009-08-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Numerous news sites are reporting that the autopsy is in and while TV Adman Billy Mays died of heart problems, cocaine was a "contributory "cause of death" according to the Hillsborough County autopsy results.

Another one......................Such a waste.

Read more about it here.

I Stand Corrected. Congress not asking for $200 Million for private jets.

2009-08-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

They are asking for $550 Million!

When Detroit flew to Washington, congress made a really really big deal of them all flying in to town on private jets. In fact, the CEO of General Motors eventually lost his job over it, and for failing to turn General Motors around.

Today the Brody Mullins in the Wall Street Journal writes that The Pentagon, who is responsible for providing transportation for congress, requested $66 Million money for one additional jet Gulfstream jet the same as Arnold Schwarzenegger flies around in. Congress, always diligent with their use of taxpayer money, carefully considered the need for the jet and then threw in and addional $484 Million!

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn't request the additional planes and doesn't need them. "We ask for what we need and only what we need," he told reporters Wednesday. "We've always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for."

Read the rest of this article here.

Sotomayor Confirmed To Supreme Court

2009-08-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sonia Sotomayor has just been confirmed as the 111th justice, third woman and first hispanic on the Supreme Court. The vote was 68-31.

Before all the ruckus starts again, lets just take a moment to congratulate her for her accomplishments and wish her, and out justice system, well in the face of coming challenges.

And Fade

2009-08-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

John Bolton makes a Good Thing into a Bad Thing

Some people really do live in another universe. Not saying they are wrong, mind you, just saying I don't want to pack up and go live there.

Todays Washington Post has a little piece Clintons Unwise Trip to North Korea by John Bolton

Now, I personally think John Bolton is one of the glibbest people on the planet. I wish I had his talent to express my opinions accurately in words. I also think he is a real horse's ass and disagree with almost everything he says. I don't even list him as one of the people I would like to sit down and have a beer with and that list is legion.

I thought is was a conservative premise that the old ways are always the best ways. That is what the word conservative means, isn't it? Well, one of the oldest, and best grist for movies, American mantras used to be "We will protect Americans from being mishandled anywhere on the planet". Of course this is no longer true, but what in the world is Bolton thinking about? I thought, as much as I usually disagree with him, that he was a man of strong principles. I did not think he would stoop to playground politics, "If the other guy scores , it must be because he broke the rules."

I guess the best answer to this neocons flip flop is, "What would Teddy Roosevelt have done?"

New Gulfstram Jets for Congress? How fast the good feelings fade.

2009-08-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Congress has just approved the purchase of 3 additional G550 Gulfstream Jets for their use. Price tag? $200 Million. This is the same jet Arnold Schwarzenegger flies. Life is good at the top. The Military, who takes care of Congress's air chauffeuring had requested one, but when it got to the appropriations committee they opted to throw in another two.

Each Gulfstream costs about $65 Million and about $5000 per hour to fly. I understand the need for security, which is generally the reason given for this excess. But, why can't Congress fly on standard military transport just like everybody else. They just might get a chance to interface with some real people occasionally.

From the Gulfstream Web Site
The Gulfstream G550 is a luxury business jet, which the company advertises as featuring long-range flight capacity that “easily links Washington, D.C., with Dubai, London with Singapore and Tokyo with Paris.” The company’s promotional materials say, “The cabin aboard the G550 combines productivity with exceptional comfort. It features up to four distinct living areas, three temperature zones, a choice of 12 floor plan configurations with seating for up to 18 passengers.”

Read all about it here.

Thank You Somebody! Today I feel good about the world!

2009-08-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

This blog is a labor of love. It has to be. I can't even get AdSense to unsort themselves out enough to try for Beer money.

I try to post, at least one comment a day. on what I think about the messy illogical world we all live in. Usually, my thoughts lean toward the critical or pessimistic. The last couple days I have been a bit busy on my real job and haven't devoted as much time as I would like. But, today, I just had to take a couple minutes to write about the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

I am sure as the truth, and the untruths, unfold we will find the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea has layers of intrigue, complexity and ulterior motives by all the players. Articles will be written, reporters will camp, inconveniently on front lawns and political hay will be made by the elected BS farmers in Washington,

But, just for today, let's all relax, bask in the moment and thank whatever stars we follow that somehow, someway and for some reason, a good deed was done by somebody. Two people I don't know and never even heard of before their ordeal are back with their families and loved ones. Today is a good day.

Huffington Post has some really terrifiic pictures of the homecoming here.

Whatever, Whoever and However........Thank you...

Senate Republicans push Cash for Clunkers off the Cliff

2009-08-03T15:47:00.002-07:00

By Doug Hardin

The CARS, better known as Cash for Clunkers, program that was supposed to provide up to $4,500 to each person who trades in an old gas hog for a newer fuel efficient car may be headed for a crash because the Republicans have now decided to block refunding.

The original program was provided with a fund of $1 Billion that was supposed to carry it until about November. However, the program has been so successful that the funds have apparently been exhausted after only one long weekend. The administration has asked for at least $2 Billion more to keep the program active. Republicans are taking advantage of the summer recess to block additional funding using the recess as a tool to stymie voting.

Are they crazy? Their largest complaint by the Republicans about the recovery efforts initiated under George Bush and passed on to Barack Obama has been that, in addition to being too expensive, it was taking too long to get the money into action, the normal citizen is not sharing in any of the action and the program makes no sense.

So, along comes a program that gets over 1$ Billion out in a week, puts the money directly into citizens garages, creates jobs (somebody is going to have to build the approximately 250,000 cars sold last weekend), gets some CO2 belching gas guzzling iron heaps off the streets, makes everybody feel just a little bit better about the economy and has the premium benefit of getting a lotta folks a nice new set of greener wheels. I didn't think economic recovery could get any better, or faster, than that.

Apparently, the problem is that the Republicans didn't think of it first so if they can't take credit for it. I'm not exactly saying the Republicans are 100% the bad guys here because I'm fairly sure that, if the shoes were reversed, it would be the Democrats playing the part of the spoilers.

I'm really starting to have fonder memories of Tom Laughlin, the creator of the hero Billy Jack movies. Remember when he went to the leader of the motorcycle gang and said "Who's in charge here?" When the leader said, "I am." Billy Jack shot him and said again. "Who's in charge here?" The next bad guy steps up and says " You are."

Well, maybe we should send Billy Jack to DC. Be interesting to see what he might come up with

6.9 Earthquake off Baja / San Diego

2009-08-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Details are still vague, but there were a series of earthquakes in the 5 to 6 magnitude off San Diego about 11 AM California time this morning. Shocks were felt as far away as Arizona and it is reported one building in San Diego was evacuated. No tsunami warning has been issued.

More information will be available here as the situation develops

Indeed, What Has Private Insurance Done For Us?

2009-08-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

I usually try to write for myself. In fact yesterday I wrote a bit about the evil ways of private insurance. But when somebody says exactly what I wanted to say and says it better, I yield the floor. So, please read Michael Hiltziks' piece in todays Los Angeles Times. This piece is Spot On.

What's So Great About Private Health Insurance?

The firms take billions of dollars out of the U.S. healthcare wallet as profits, while imposing enormous administrative costs on doctors, hospitals, employers and patients. They've introduced complexity into the system at every level. Your doctor has to fight them to get approval for the treatment he or she thinks is best for you. Your hospital has to fight them for approval for every day you're laid up. Then they have to fight them to get their bills paid, and you do too.

Kenya Birth Certificate -

2009-08-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

Will This Birthers Pandemic Never Die?

Now we have a Kenyan Birth Certificate for Obama? This mornings Huffington Post provides photos and details on a Kenyan birth certificate that has now turned up. It has been submitted in the ongoing legal mess on whether Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States. This certificate has, of course, been immediately accepted as the long awaited holy grail missing link of the growing Birther movement. This, in spite of the fact that there a few "technical" details with the document;
Kenya was a Dominion the date this certificate was allegedly issued and would not become a republic for 8 months.

Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya.

Obama's father's village would be nearer to Nairobi, not Mombasa.

The number 47O44-- 47 is Obama's age when he became president, followed by the letter O (not a zero) followed by 44--he is the 44th president.

EF Lavender is a laundry detergent.

The same folks that expect us to believe that The State of Hawaii, Two Hawaiian Newspapers, the entire Obama family, a bunch of government agencies, the Democratic party, The President himself and legions of other co-conspirators worked in close unison to make it look like Obama was a citizen when, in fact he was actually born in Kenya, now expect us to accept this piece of dreck as a legitimate document?

Even Karl Rove has chimed in on twitter that believed the document is likely a forgery.

I am beginning to think there may be more behind this farce than a universal surge of patriotism to enforce the US Constitution. I wonder what it could be? I am sure I can live with the amateur attempts. I am not so sure I can accept the underlying motivations and the apparent growing numbers of converts.

And where is the conservative leadership voices in all this? Certainly not standing on any moral high ground. Or, at least I can't see them from down here in the pit.

Health Care Battle - Obama Finally Fighting Back

2009-08-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

By Doug Hardin

Well, it's about time. Mondays New York Times is coming out with an article that Obama is finally going to be fighting back over health care. For way too long he has been making polite with the insurance companies. For what? In the hopes they would start to see the light of day?
You betcha!

First there was the joint press conference with Obama and the insurance CEO's all making nice and celebrating a pact that the insurance companies were all going to cut some costs and make it all better for the citizens. Well, that lasted about 18 hours until the insurance companies said, "Well, that isn't exactly what we meant."

Come on, lets start telling it as it is. These guys have been Swift Boating insurance reform since before there were Swift Boats. Let's talk about a couple services they regularly perform for the citizen,

Raise the premiums on insured when there is a serious long term problem. What are they gonna do go to another company?
As soon as an insured reports they may have a serious health issue they have people who pore over the policy, prior medical records and almost literally go through their trash to find a reason, any reason, to cancel the policy because of a previous condition or deceit on the application. Deceit could be as simple as transposing numbers on a telephone number. Doesn't matter. Deceit is deceit.
They also have people especially trained to just say no to every procedure and cost.
If a small company has an employee who has some serious medical costs, they will either raise the premium or, hopefully, twist the arm of the small businessman to figure a way to get rid of his now-expensive employee.
Write their policies in such a way that it looks like you're insured for anything, but if you actually need the coverage you find out that you purchased a 15 page piece of swiss cheese.

There's more, but you get the idea. Is this news to anybody? Why are we tolerating it and claiming we have the medical care in the world. Well, maybe we do, but only for the super rich with $40,000 per year actually get any of that good stuff.

We in the cheap seats get nada and it's about time the president starts fighting back on this. I don't much like Nancy Pelosi. not sure why, but she is right. These guys are scavengers living quite well on our money and our misery.

More later about why we are ranked 31s in health care, how any politician could not possibly want to put these guys in prison and the whole scam

Burmese Motorcycle Diaries

2009-08-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

I just ran across this in Natural History Magazine. It is about a naturalist who died of a snakebite on 9/11. His buddy just recently completed a motorcycle trip mapping out his adventures. Excellent article.

Following the trail of an adventurous scientist to its—and his—end
By Jamie James

Like mystics and soldiers of fortune, field biologists are fond of exotic, far-flung places. It's partly scientific: the study of wildlife requires wilderness. Yet sometimes there's an irrational, almost addictive edge to the attachment. Joe Slowinski, a curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences, had such a bond with Myanmar—or Burma, as much of the world still calls that Southeast Asian nation, preferring tradition over a name foisted on it by a military regime. Burma is about as far from San Francisco as it's possible to be flung. In eleven trips beginning in 1997, Slowinski led expeditions throughout the country. To biologists, he is probably best known for his identification, with herpetologist Wolfgang Wüster of Bangor University in Wales, of the first new species of cobra to be described since 1922: Naja mandalayensis, the Burmese spitting cobra. Slowinski also cofounded, with the Smithsonian Institution's George R. Zug, the Myanmar Herpetological Survey, one of the country's few stable scientific institutions.

Dobbs' Ratings Take A Hit Over "Birther" Controversy

2009-08-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Jason Linkins reports on his blog...

Backing the "Birthers" may be a good way to gain notoriety and attract criticism, but it's proving to be ratings poison for Lou Dobbs. The New York Observer's Felix Gillette crunches the numbers, and the bottom line is Dobbs is bottoming out:

Mr. Dobbs' first began reporting on Obama birth certificate conspiracy theories on the night of Wednesday, July 15. In the roughly two weeks since then, from July 15 through July 28, Mr. Dobbs' 7 p.m. show on CNN has averaged 653,000 total viewers and 157,000 in the 25-54 demo.

By contrast, during the first two weeks of the month (July 1 to July 14) Mr. Dobbs averaged 771,000 total viewers and 218,000 in the 25-54 demo. In other words, Mr. Dobbs' audience has decreased 15 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo since the start of the controversy.

Read More about this on Jason Linkins Blog

India rejects emissions cuts for a decade

2009-08-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

From Todays Financial Times.....It's controversial to say this but people really ought to be a lot more sure about Climate change before they start dictating to other countries what they should change.

India will not discuss signing up to legally binding obligations to make absolute cuts in greenhouse gas emissions for at least 10 years, Jairam Ramesh, the country’s environment minister, said on Friday.
“In 2020, it’s conceivable that we might look at a limited target. But in 2009, no way,” said Mr Ramesh.

Read the rest of this article here.

51 Headless Vikings Found in English Execution Pit?

2009-08-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

From National Geographic come this fascinating story of ancient history and the modern science used to unravel it.

Naked, beheaded, and tangled, the bodies of 51 young men-their heads stacked neatly to the side-have been found in a thousand-year-old pit in southern England, according to carbon-dating results released earlier this month.
The mass burial took place at a time when the English were battling Viking invaders, say archaeologists who are now trying to verify the identity of the slain.
The dead are thought to have been war captives, possibly Vikings, whose heads were hacked off with swords or axes, according to excavation leader David Score of Oxford Archaeology, an archaeological-services company.

Read the rest of this article in National Geographic

Hamas Ready to Talk

2009-08-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

From today s Wall Street Journal. Their conditions included allowing all Palestinians to return to their lands and other unlikely-to-be-granted demands but it is a small small start. Let's hope somebody is sharp enough to take them up on it.

DAMASCUS -- The chief of Palestinian militant group Hamas said his organization is prepared to cooperate with the U.S. in promoting a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict if the White House can secure an Israeli settlement freeze and a lifting of the economic and military blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Read the rest of this article in the Wall Street Journal

2009-08-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

America’s Not-So-Fast Trains

2009-08-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Todays New York Times has an editorial on Trains. So, why does all of Europe, Japan and China have such great train service while the train service in the US is terrible. I live in central California. To go 220 miles south to Los Angeles or San Francisco by train I leave my home in a nice shiny train and then switch to a bus for the last part of the ride.

100 years ago, we our emerging economy on the rails of the best train system in the world. What happened? How are we going to compete in the next 100 years. A single train car gets the equivalent of about 400 miles per gallon and carries the same load as a Truck getting 10 miles per gallon. Where's the logic?

“It’s happening now,” he said. “The problem is that it is happening elsewhere.” Japan, Spain, China and Germany are among those with superspeedy trains that rival air travel and easily eclipse the irritations of a car trip. Yet America has only one high-speed corridor, from Boston to Washington, where the Acela Express is often forced by conditions to slow down to average speeds of around 70 miles per hour. Europe’s bullet trains can run at an average of about 130 m.p.h., and Japan’s zip through the countryside at an average of 180 m.p.h.

Read the entire editorial here.

So this is what all the fuss was about?

2009-08-01T07:59:00.001-07:00

On April 27, 2009 Air Force One and a couple fighter escorts buzzed New York and the Statue of Liberty in a botched PR campaign to update.

All appropriate clearances had been obtained and government authorities notified so there would be no surprise.

But nobody thought it important to notify New Yorkers or Mayor Bloomburg. The 911 calls started coming in as soon as the panicked New Yorkers caught a glimpse of the Big Bird flying low over their city. That cost some Big Shots their jobs.

So, you be the judge. Was it worth it? Above is the new photo (yes, that little bitty green thing waayyyy down there is the Statue of Liberty. Below is the old stock photo of Air Force One flying over Mt Rushmore.

This Preposterous Week - Paul Slansky's News Index By Paul Slansky

2009-07-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

By Paul Slansky Friday, Jul. 31, 2009

Beck, Glenn
• Obama is doltishly called a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people" by

beer
• much ado about

Berens, Ricky
• exposed butt of

birthers
• description of by Stephen Colbert as "decent, old-fashioned Americans who just want to overturn a democratic election"
• desperate need of to cast Obama presidency as illegitimate
• imbecility of is so blatant that even the far right is denouncing

Borowitz, Andy
• America is deemed "less safe" by now that Palin is "no longer keeping an eye on Russia"

Cohen, Richard
• self-pitying column by is appropriately savaged

Cunningham, Merce
• death of

Daniels, Stormy
• campaign by for adulterer David Vitter's Senate seat suffers setback with arrest of for battering husband after becoming "upset because the way the laundry had been done"

Denny's
• excessively salt-laden meals served by result in lawsuit against

Dobbs, Lou
• disingenuous defense of by CNN president Jonathan Klein

Foxx, Rep. Virginia
• debunking of claims by that Obama's health care plan will "put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government"

Hill, Clayton
• obituary of praises performance in Dawn of the Dead as "one of the most convincing zombies of the bunch"

Jackson, Michael
• doctor who administered fatal injection of propofol to — because, come on, how's a person supposed to fall asleep without an anesthetic drip? — is a candidate for a manslaughter charge
• missing nose of
• rabbi friend of once asked Katie Couric if she was available to go on a date with
• signers of online petitions calling for Nobel Peace Prize nomination for seem destined to be disappointed

Kristol, Bill
• Obama is called "arrogant" by, which is hilarious because, you know, there are those who'd say his predecessor was the walking — scratch that, strutting — embodiment of that particular adjective

Madonna
• terrifying arms of

McCain, Cindy
• opportunity is provided by for all of us to thank husband of for gifting us with Sarah Palin, though it's unclear if your message will be delivered unless you also give him money

Newsweek
• guffaw-inducing proposal is seriously made by

Ojofeitimi, Oyindamola
• scalding water is poured over genitals of unhappily surprised ("I didn't anticipate this at all") sleeping husband by

Palin, Sarah
• bill banning a beloved pastime of — shooting defenseless animals from aircraft — is introduced in the Senate
• Clear Channel is not interested in syndicating a radio show hosted by, so we may never get to hear blithering twaddle like this
• demagoguery of is noted by Carl Bernstein and Maureen Dowd
• hated reporters are told by that "our troops are willing to die for you" so "how 'bout ya quit makin' things up" in honor of the American soldiers so grotesquely exploited by
• quitting speech of is ridiculed by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart and William Shatner and this blogger, and that blogger, and this other blogger, but maybe everyone's just being super mean for no reason and you should see the whole thing here, or read the transcript here, and decide for yourself

Rock, Kid
• assessment of Twitter as "gay" by

Rove, Karl
• claims of lack of involvement in firings of federal prosecutors turn out to be, according to newly obtained emails ... well, let's call them "misleading" for now and wait for Justice Department attorneys to weigh in

Shuster, David
• denial by of having a meltdown after accidental on-camera exposure of the bald spot of

Slansky, Paul
• regrets of for accidentally omitting from last week's index David Gregory's nauseating e-mail begging Mark Sanford to come on Meet the Press, the show that "allows you to frame the conversation how you really want to"

Stanley, Paul
• Tennessee state Senate is resigned from by "due to recent events," among them the revelation that an extramarital affair with a 22-year-old intern was had by

tanning beds
• study finds that cancer is caused by

texting truck drivers
• study finds that collision risk of is 23 times greater than that of non-texting truck drivers

Trout, Robert
• closing arguments of in bribery trial of former Rep. William Jefferson suggest that client of has been punished enough by losing his seat and becoming "the object of a national joke about money in the freezer," and besides, everyone in Congress is corrupt so isn't it a little unfair to single out this one guy just because his illegal demands for money were caught on tape?

Vereen, Rodell
• arrest of in 2007 for buggering a horse is followed two years later by arrest of for videotaped buggering of the same horse

Voinovich, Sen. George
• blame for the downfall of the Republican party — "We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns. It's the southerners" — is placed by

Wikipedia
Rorshach test images are posted by, creating unhappiness among psychologists

Livescribe Pulse smartpen - I Gotta Have This!

2009-07-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Taking notes during class — even with the most rapid-fire professor — just got a whole lot easier. The Livescribe Pulse smartpen may look like your average pen (it's about the size of a Sharpie), but it also packs in a voice recorder and up to 2 GB of storage. So far so good, but here's the really cool part: not only does the Pulse remember everything you've written in digital form (you can sync your handwritten notes onto your PC or Mac and even share them online), it also keeps track of whatever was being said while you were scribbling a detail — just tap a word to hear all of what Professor Motormouth was saying at that particular moment. What's the trick? The Pulse smartpen's infrared sensor uses the tiny dots on the custom (and required) Livescribe notebook paper as reference points.

Read more about this here

Franken feuds with T. Boone Pickens

2009-07-31T17:37:00.000-07:00

Five years after he put his money behind the Swift Boat ads that helped tank John Kerry’s presidential campaign, Senate Democrats gave T. Boone Pickens a warm welcome at their weekly policy lunch Thursday.

Or at least most of them did.

Kerry skipped the regularly scheduled lunch; his staff said the Massachusetts Democrat “was unable to attend because he had a long scheduled lunch with his interns and pages.”

Sen. Al Franken managed to make time for the lunch — but then let Pickens have it afterward.

According to a source, the wealthy oil and gas magnate and author of “The First Billion Is the Hardest” stepped up to introduce himself to Franken in a room just off the Senate Floor after the lunch ended

Franken, who was seated talking to someone else, did not stand when Pickens said hello. Instead, Franken began to berate him about the billionaire’s financing of the Swift Boat ads in 2004.

According to a source, the confrontation grew heated.

Said Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh: “It was a lively conversation.”

Pickens was on the Hill to address the Senate Democratic Policy Committee lunch about his plans to use wind energy to lower the nation’s dependence on oil and gas. But the thought of Pickens being invited to a Democratic event angered some on the Hill and in the liberal blog

Health Care Realities

2009-07-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

Yet private markets for health insurance, left to their own devices, work very badly: insurers deny as many claims as possible, and they also try to avoid covering people who are likely to need care. Horror stories are legion: the insurance company that refused to pay for urgently needed cancer surgery because of questions about the patient’s acne treatment; the healthy young woman denied coverage because she briefly saw a psychologist after breaking up with her boyfriend.

Read the rest of this article here

Ghost of former premier haunts India

2009-07-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

MUMBAI - The mysterious death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, one of India's most popular prime ministers, has returned to haunt the Indian government 43 years later.

Shastri passed away hours after signing a controversial peace accord with Pakistan in a summit meeting in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The pact formally ended the 1965 war between the two sub-continental neighbors.

Shastri, 61, died under strange circumstances in Tashkent, now the capital of Uzbekistan and one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, on January 11, 1966, soon after signing the Tashkent pact with then Pakistan president Mohammad Ayub Khan. (He assumed office in June 1964.)

You can read the rest of the article here

House Approves an Additional $2 Billion For Cash For Clunkers Program

2009-07-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — The House has voted to rush an additional $2 billion into the popular but financially strapped "cash for clunkers" car purchase program.

The bill was approved on a vote of 316-109. House members acted within hours of learning from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the program was running out of money.

Called the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS, the program is designed to help the economy and the environment by spurring new car sales. Car owners can receive federal subsidies of up to $4,500 for trading in their old cars for new ones that achieve significantly higher gas mileage.

You can read the rest of this article here.

Economist: U.S. More Permissive Of Torture Than China

2009-07-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, The Economist posted poll numbers on global attitudes towards torture, pulled from 2008 research conducted by World Public Opinion. The Economist notes: "Surprisingly, democracies are not necessarily more hostile to the practice than non-democracies. According to the polls, Americans are more willing to tolerate the use of torture than are Chinese."

You can read the rest of this article here

2009-07-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

As McCain pal and Republican strategist Mike Murphy so sagely observed recently: “If Sarah Palin looked like Golda Meir, would we even be talking about her today?”

Read the Column this came from here

Crocodile picks beauty queen over chicken dinner

2009-07-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

Sydney - Australian beauty queen Rachel Finch was jetting to the Miss Universe contest in the Bahamas Friday hoping the judges would single her out just like one monster crocodile did earlier in the week when she visited Darwin's Crocodylus Park.

"As soon as I saw him move I got nervous," Finch said of Wednesday's heart-stopping encounter with 5-metre Eric.

And with good reason: rather than go for the chicken a keeper dangled in front of those massive jaws, Eric lunged for Finch instead.

Her celebrity had secured Finch a photo opportunity with Eric, one of the biggest and oldest crocs at the far-north tourist attraction. But the beauty-and-the-beast tableau didn't go well.

"There's always an element of, you know, something not going to plan," keeper Charlie Manolis told the Northern Territory News. "He's a nice old croc but I wouldn't like to be on the wrong end of him."

In the Bahamas, Finch is hoping to match the performance of fellow Australian Jennifer Hawkins, who was crowned Miss Universe in 2004.//dpa

Cafe White House - Lunch is on You!

2009-07-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

By EAMON JAVERS Politico

Jarrett said the dinners with Emanuel aren’t free, either: Attendees split the tab.

The sessions, Jarrett said, are held “to make sure we are creating the kind of environment where CEOs are creating jobs. It’s to make sure we have the best information to turn the economy around.”

The discussion at the June 25 lunch was open ended, with no set agenda item, and touched on health care, education and the economic recovery

. Jarrett said the four companies were chosen because they are each dominant global corporations. “The president had recently returned from a trip overseas and he was eager to talk to these four huge global corporations about how they see the world economic situation.”

Fed Audit Supported By 75% Of Americans

2009-07-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

This Is a Very Bad Idea
by Doug Hardin

Now this is one of those things that, on the surface, sounds like a good idea. But, actually, this is just the sort of thing that could tank our entire economic future. The Federal Reserve Bank was set up shortly after the Great Depression to keep our monetary policy stable. The Fed has many responsibilities, but its primary function is to influence interest rates in its monthly meeting.

Our economy is always steering a course between inflation and unemployment. Grow too fast and we get we get inflation. Grow too slowly and the economy shrinks resulting in unemployment. If the managers of the Fed think we are growing to fast, thus headed into inflation, they will increase interest rates to slow things down. If, on the other hand they think the economy needs a bit more growth to remain stable they reduce interest rates. If they are happy with our situation or not convinced that action is required, they leave the rate untouched. If they adjust too fast, in the wrong direction, or both fast and wrong, it will take more effort to get back on course. Wait to long for a course adjustment and it will also take more effort to get back on course. It would take several years, and somebody a lot smarter than me, to explain how they determine what is going on and which direction to steer. But, basically the analysis of keeping a steady hand on the tiller explains a complex set of calculations simply.

The Fed was initially set up to be independent of politics. The Chairman is confirmed by the Senate and serves a 4 year term. He can not be fired during his term, so he is free to act as conscience, experience and wisdom advise. However, this has not stopped every President and politician, since the beginning, trying to influence decisions. Every politician knows you win elections if the economy is growing, so "take your foot off the brake, we'll worry about the speed later."

Now an audit doesn't sound too harmless. After all it is a lot of money and why not audit it? The fact is this is really not an audit. The Fed is already audited and provides freight trains of financial information to Congress and The White House.

What this bill will actually do is subject the Fed to intense scrutiny, including public hearings, over what their next decision should be. Quiet deliberation will be replaced by the Circus we are now seeing over Health Care. The Congress will have the ability to life so difficult for the Fed to act independently, without telegraphing their intent, that it will essentially become a puppet of the politicians. Do we really want the clowns at the wheel of the economy?

This would be a very bad thing. Keep the politicians out of the deep end of the pool. Let the professionals do their job quietly and independent of politic winds. The Fed was, self admittedly, a bit slow catching on to the seriousness of the mortgage crisis, we all were. But, long after the Fed was trying to sort things out, the politicians were still pounding on the podiums chanting, "The Fundamentals of Our Economy are Strong".

The following article recently appeared in the Huffington Post

Fed Audit Supported By 75% Of Americans

The calls to audit the Federal Reserve have come fast and furious in the last few weeks. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is continuing to push back against a House bill that would give the Comptroller General - the head of the Government Accountability Office - the power to audit the central bank.

But, judging by the results of a new survey, the vast majority of Americans already support a Fed audit. 75 percent of Americans back auditing the Federal Reserve, according to Rassmussen Reports.

Opponents of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act Of 2009 - introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) - say that putting the Fed under the control of Congress would limit the bank's independence. (The bill has gained support from over half of the House of Representatives).

There is also growing concern from Fed supporters that Congress could exert political influence over monetary policy - though, many would argue that the Fed is already influenced by politics. But, according to the Rasmussen survey, only nine percent of adults surveyed were against the idea of a Fed audit.
Read the rest of the article here

Pelosi: Health Insurance Companies The Real "Villains"

2009-07-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Forget the Blue Dogs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday. The real "villains" in the fight for health care reform are insurance companies.

"They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way," Pelosi said of the insurance industry after her weekly press conference. "It's almost immoral, what they are doing," she said, referring to industry lobbying against a public insurance plan option. "Of course, they've been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it."

The current system works so well for insurers that they don't even want subsidies, Pelosi claimed. "They've had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country," she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. "This is the fight of our lives."

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Organic food is no healthier, study finds

2009-07-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

An article in Reuters reviews 162 studies that shows organic food has no more nutrition than other food. Nothing said, however, about the effect of pesticides and preservatives in non-organic food.

LONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007.

A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.

"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors.

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Why does Congress get so much vacation?

2009-07-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Recess!

By Christopher Beam

Unless Nancy Pelosi says otherwise, Congress will break for its annual recess on Aug. 3 and return Sept. 4. Lawmakers already enjoyed weeklong breaks this year in February and May, plus a two-week hiatus in April. Why does Congress get so much vacation?
To meet with constituents. Members of Congress don't like to think of themselves as on vacation, which is why they call their recesses "work breaks" or "home-district periods" rather than "time off." Depending on how safe their seat is—and the proximity of the next election—members will probably spend some portion of the recess attending town halls, meeting with community leaders, or visiting local haunts like barbershops to take their district's temperature. But they're free to do as they please—like stay in Washington, D.C., travel abroad with congressional delegations, or work on a tan.
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2009-07-30T12:16:00.001-07:00

Could we be wrong about global warming?

2009-07-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

In USA Today, By Doyle Rice

Could the best climate models -- the ones used to predict global warming -- all be wrong?Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during a natural climate change 55 million years ago can be explained by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What caused the remainder of the warming is a mystery

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Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites

2009-07-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Geologist Ian Plimer takes a contrary view, arguing that man-made climate change is a con trick perpetuated by environmentalists

Ian Plimer has outraged the ayatollahs of purist environmentalism, the Torquemadas of the doctrine of global warming, and he seems to relish the damnation they heap on him.
Plimer is a geologist, professor of mining geology at Adelaide University, and he may well be Australia's best-known and most notorious academic.
Plimer, you see, is an unremitting critic of "anthropogenic global warming" -- man-made climate change to you and me -- and the current environmental orthodoxy that if we change our polluting ways, global warming can be reversed.
It is, of course, not new to have a highly qualified scientist saying that global warming is an entirely natural phenomenon with many precedents in history. Many have made the argument, too, that it is rubbish to contend human behaviour is causing the current climate change. And it has often been well argued that it is totally ridiculous to suppose that changes in human behaviour -- cleaning up our act through expensive slight-of-hand taxation tricks -- can reverse the trend.
But most of these scientific and academic voices have fallen silent in the face of environmental Jacobinism. Purging humankind of its supposed sins of environmental degradation has become a religion with a fanatical and often intolerant priesthood, especially among the First World urban elites.
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Real Canadians Stick Up For Universal Health Care

2009-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Anyone who cries 'Socialism!' or 'Communism!' to prevent Americans from achieving universal health care is a liar and a thief -- and more to the point, has plenty of money of his own. He's got his!" wrote Lori Covington. "I just hope the American people won't be dumb enough to continue falling for the line that socialized health care means a loss of personal freedom. In fact, it's quite the opposite."

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It's All In the Blood! Gates and Crowley Are Related!

2009-07-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black professor at the center of the racial story involving his arrest outside his Harvard University-owned house, has spoken proudly of his Irish roots.

Strangely enough, he and the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages.

In a PBS series on African-American ancestry that he hosted in 2008, Gates discovered his Irish roots when he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl.

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2009-07-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

50 Essential Travel Tips

2009-07-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

By BRAD TUTTLE AND ERIK TORKELLS, Time

Travel is full of pitfalls. One wrong step and your vacation could be ruined by a seedy hotel room, an overpriced restaurant, a wasted afternoon at a tourist-trap attraction or an overnight flight crammed in the middle seat. So, guarantee a smooth trip by planning thoroughly. Here's how to make all the right moves.

Click on the links below for details on each tip

Planning

Booking

Flying

Lodging

Cruising

On the Ground

Inside Bush and Cheney's Final Days

2009-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

By Massimo Calabresi and Michael Weisskopf Friday, Jul. 24, 2009

Hours before they were to leave office after eight troubled years, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney had one final and painful piece of business to conclude. For over a month Cheney had been pleading, cajoling, even pestering Bush to pardon the Vice President's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Libby had been convicted nearly two years earlier of obstructing an investigation into the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity by senior White House officials. The Libby pardon, aides reported, had become something of a crusade for Cheney, who seemed prepared to push his nine-year-old relationship with Bush to the breaking point — and perhaps past it — over the fate of his former aide. "We don't want to leave anyone on the battlefield," Cheney argued.

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Rolls-Royce Unveils a Recession-Ready Limousine

2009-07-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

By: Thomas K. Grose / London Time

To put a slight spin on the name of a popular folk song from the Great Depression, "How can a rich man stand such times and live?" He could buy a smaller car, for starters, such as the about-to-be-released Rolls-Royce Ghost, the first lower-cost limousine to be produced by the world's luxury automaker in more than a decade

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In France, a New Generation of Women Says Non to Nude Sunbathing

2009-07-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

By: Bruce Crumley, Paris, Time

For decades, the French have relished any opportunity to mock Americans for their supposed childish Yankee puritanisme when it comes to matters of sex. These days, though, France is experiencing its own blush of youthful prudishness as an entire generation of younger French women says non, merci to the summer tradition of topless sunbathing.

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Concerns rise as El Nino approaches

2009-07-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

By Steff Gaulter - Al Jazeera

The waters of the Pacific are moving and in Australia farmers are getting nervous. El Niño, the natural phenomenon known to bring turmoil to global weather patterns, is back.

Over the last couple of months the waters of the Pacific have shifted and the first impacts are already being seen.

During a 'normal' year, the prevailing winds push the warm surface waters of the Pacific toward Indonesia. This makes the waters there about 8°C warmer and half a metre higher than the waters along the west coast of South America.

During El Niño, the winds ease and this allows warmer waters to well up along the west coast of South America, around Peru and Ecuador.

The change is tiny, just a couple of degrees Celsius, but it has a dramatic affect.

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Virgin's 'Eve' Wows Starry-Eyed Crowd

2009-07-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo, nicknamed "Eve" for Richard Branson's mother, soared across the sky above an air show in OshKosh, Wis., on Monday, delighting observers on the ground and chalking up another achievement for commercial space travel. The craft is designed to launch spaceships carrying tourists beyond Earth's atmosphere.

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