Milton Harper and Patricia Harper | People You'll See In Hell

Milton Harper and Patricia Harper | People You'll See In Hell: "The home that they’d been given, free and clear - free and clear from taxes even - is now going to be foreclosed on. The house that hundreds of their neighbors banded together to build, the house that so many people worked hard on with no expectation of reward, is in foreclosure.

How you can lose $450,000 in 15 months is beyond my feeble understanding, although I’d give it the old college try if you challenged and financed me. Take the home remodeling business, for example. You get a project, the client pays 50% up front. You buy materials. You do the job. You get paid the rest on completion. As long as you’re reasonably economical about things, both your up-front expenses and the risks involved are relatively low.

Unless, of course, you’re greedy. Like the Harpers."

The Red Sea | Can it really be bridged? | Economist.com

The Red Sea | Can it really be bridged? | Economist.com: "ONE OF Osama bin Laden’s many half-brothers, Tarek bin Laden, this week signed a deal with tiny Djibouti which may—or may not—mark the start of one of the world’s boldest engineering projects. Djibouti’s president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, promised Mr bin Laden 500 sq km (193 sq miles) of land to start building Noor City, the first of a hundred “Cities of Light” the vast Saudi Binladen Group plans around the world. “A hope for all humanity, the first environmental city of the 21st century,” gushed the promotional video at the signing. The audience, mostly American military contractors near retirement age, clapped enthusiastically. Engineers elsewhere say the scheme is a fantasy."

The Corrupting Influence Of Oil Money

Click here for the mobile edition | Problems viewing this email? Click here for the online edition July 31, 2008 by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, and Brad Johnson Contact Us | Tell-a-Friend | Archives | Permalink | Subscribe to Feed ENERGY The Corrupting Influence Of Oil Money The world has never looked better for the Big Five oil companies. This morning, Exxon Mobil, the world's largest corporation, announced its "second-quarter profit rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever profit by an American company. Exxon broke its own record." Joining Exxon Mobil as the only oil companies to "earn more than $10 billion in a single quarter, Royal Dutch Shell said its profit rose to $11.56 billion." ConocoPhillips and BP last week reported their "massive second-quarter profits." The fifth oil major, Chevron, will release its earnings report tomorrow. Yesterday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced "a new five-year leasing plan for offshore oil drilling" to give oil companies a "head start" on attacking protected waters, should the Congress follows President Bush, who recently lifted the presidential moratorium on offshore drilling "first issued by his father in 1990." Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) described Kempthorne's announcement as a "Going Out of Business Sale" on behalf of Big Oil. The unprecedented profits for Big Oil come at the expense of practically everyone else in the form of a collapsing economy, international instability, rampant commodity inflation, and deadly climate change. However, Big Oil's windfall has also meant largesse -- and criminal levels of corruption -- for some in Washington. RECORD PRICES, RECORD PROFITS: Since 2001, gasoline prices have more than doubled, and oil companies have made more than half a trillion dollars in profits. The price of oil has surged from below $30 a barrel to over $125, a fourfold increase. The Big Five oil companies could make a "projected $168 billion in profits" this year alone. The United States has only two percent of the world's oil reserves but consumes 25 percent of the world's oil. "At current oil prices," conservative oil man T. Boone Pickens argued, "we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone." If we continue on the same path for the next ten years, "the cost will be $10 trillion -- it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind," he added. The surging price of oil is due in part to demand growing faster than supply, but also to factors such as "the war in Iraq and the value of the dollar" and unregulated, Enron-like speculation. Instead of investing in 21st century energy, the oil companies are plowing most of their profits into stock buybacks, a windfall for their rich investors.  OIL'S GIFTS: In a "state-shattering tremor in an earthquake of change in Alaska politics," Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) "was charged on Tuesday with concealing more than $250,000 worth of gifts, including home renovations, that he received from an Alaska oil services company," VECO Corp, "the top Alaska-based contributor to federal politics for at least five election cycles." The federal indictment "accuses Stevens, a former chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee and the longest-serving Republican senator ever, of using his position and office in the Senate on behalf of VECO between 2001 and 2006." Uncle Ted's indictment represents the culmination of a multiyear oil corruption scandal of  Alaska's "bullying, nepotistic political culture": five state legislators (including Stevens's son Ben), four other officials, and Alaska's congressman Don Young (R) have also been implicated for their involvement with VECO CEO Bill Allen (Allen once told a state lawmaker, "I own your ass").  Over his career, Stevens has funneled over ten million dollars from his oil-funded war chest to other conservative politicians. Politicians who benefited from the $340,000 in campaign contributions from Ted Stevens's Northern Lights PAC this year alone are being pressured to return the money. Senate conservatives met yesterday to fill the positions vacated by Stevens, whose indictment forced him to give up "his plum committee posts." MCCAIN'S EMBRACE: On June 13, 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) declared, "I am very angry, frankly, at the oil companies not only because of the obscene profits they've made but at their failure to invest in alternate energy to help us eliminate our dependence on foreign oil." Since then, McCain's tenor on Big Oil  has completely changed, now championing the views of "oil executives." "My friends, we have to drill offshore. We have to do it. ... The oil executives say within a couple of years we could be seeing results from it. So why not do it?" he said recently. McCain's reversal took place on June 16, when he headed to Texas for oil-sponsored fundraisers and "declared support for offshore drilling." In the following month, his campaign's embrace of a Big Oil agenda has grown tighter. The campaign arranged an oil-field photo shoot after McCain had to cancel a planned visit to an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico because of a hurricane and an "untimely" oil spill. And Big Oil has embraced McCain, now that he has climbed aboard the Big Oil express. The day after his speech, "McCain raised $1.3 million at a closed-door luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club." The Washington Post reported recently, "Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June. ... Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May." ENVIRONMENT -- STATES AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS TO SUE EPA TO GET EMISSIONS RULES: A coalition of states and environmental groups intends to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "if it does not act soon to reduce pollution from ships, aircraft and off-road vehicles." California Attorney General Jerry Brown is set to send a letter to the EPA in which he will "accuse the Bush administration of ignoring their requests to set restrictions" on greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA will have 180 days to respond. Under the Clean Air Act, "a U.S. district court can compel the EPA to take action to protect the public's welfare if the agency delays doing so for an unreasonably long time." "It's a necessary pressure to get the job done," Brown said of the lawsuit. "The issue of reducing our energy dependence and greenhouse gas emissions is so challenging and so important that we have to follow this judicial pathway." In the last year, states have also sued the EPA for dragging its heels in regulating carbon dioxide and for having lax smog standards. This week, lawmakers called on EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to resign because he has become "a secretive and dangerous ally of polluters." ECONOMY -- NEW YORK AND MARYLAND GOVERNORS URGE FEDERAL ACTION ON ECONOMY: Citing President Bush's record deficit, rising food and energy costs, high unemployment, stagnant wages, and a "shell-shocked stock market," Govs. Martin O'Malley (D-MD) and David Patterson (D-NY) write in a Washington Post op-ed today that they have come to Washington, D.C. "to call on the federal government to help all states navigate an economic crisis the likes of which we have not witnessed since the Great Depression." They note that in their respective states, they have "stepped up where the federal government has fallen down" by investing in clean, renewable energy, education, infrastructure and health care. O'Malley and Patterson urge the federal government to "pass a second stimulus package that includes investments in our nation's infrastructure" and provides "additional extension of unemployment insurance and assistance for low-income Americans." They also demand fiscal responsibility from the federal government and urge it to examine its "irresponsible spending" over the last seven years. O'Malley will discuss his views on progressive fiscal responsibility today at the Center for American Progress.  JUSTICE -- WHITE HOUSE DIRECTED AGENCIES TO HIRE 108 PEOPLE WHO 'LOYALLY SERVED THE PRESIDENT': A "little-noticed" passage in Monday's Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) report on the politicization of the department revealed an e-mail from the White House political affairs office clearly urging federal agencies to hire Bush loyalists. The May 2005 e-mail directs agencies to find jobs for 108 people on a list of "priority candidates" who "loyally served the president." "We simply want to place as many of our Bush loyalists as possible," the e-mail said. The New York Times notes that the message "urged administration officials to 'get creative' in finding the patronage positions." Two days later, the White House's liaison to the Justice Department replied exuberantly, "We pledge 7 slots within 40 days and 40 nights. Let the games begin!" Yesterday, IG Glenn Fine testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "said he wasn't aware of what was going on" in his agency. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino refused to say whether President Bush is "disappointed" in Gonzales. Exxon Mobil broke its own record for "the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company," as second-quarter profits rose 14 percent. "Net income in the quarter rose to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, last year." Citing reductions in violence in Iraq, President Bush said this morning that "combat tour lengths for U.S. troops will be reduced to 12 months from 15 months." While 147,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, Bush said troop reductions might be possible because the "terrorists are 'are on the run.'" Senate conservatives debated yesterday whether to threaten a government shutdown as a way to force a vote on offshore drilling. Congress would have to pass a continuing resolution in September to keep the government functioning, and conservatives are mulling a filibuster. The Department of Health and Human Services is "reviewing a draft regulation that would deny federal funding to any hospital, clinic, health plan or other entity" that does not allow employees to opt out of providing birth-control pills, IUDs, and the Plan B contraceptive. The draft considers certain contraceptives as destroying "the life of a human being." Iraq and the U.S. "are close to a deal on a sensitive security agreement" that satisfies Iraq's "desire to be treated as sovereign and independent." The agreement "guarantee[s] that there would no longer be foreign troops visible on their land -- and leaves room for them to discreetly ask for an extended American presence should security deteriorate." 11: The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month. That is "the lowest monthly toll since the 2003 invasion, according Pentagon figures, highlighting what US commanders say is a marked drop in overall violence." More than 3.7 million Americans have had their full-time jobs cut to part time because of weak business, which is "the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago." The loss of pay has reinforced "the downturn gripping the economy" for millions of American families because "paychecks are shrinking just as home prices plunge and gas prices soar." And finally: Grassley prescribes a legislative laxative. Yesterday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) complained about "Democratic leaders stymieing his tax-extenders legislation" by using "a metaphor to which many of his silver-haired colleagues could relate." "Issues are building up," said Grassley. "The Senate is constipated. This body needs a...laxative." "President Bush on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping rescue package aimed at resurrecting the housing market from its worst slump since the Great Depression." The new law "launches a $300 billion government initiative to refinance troubled mortgages and boosts oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." ALASKA: State legislature votes to hire independent investigator to see whether Gov. Sarah Palin (R) abused her office by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job. ECONOMY: States "face gaping budget deficits that total at least $40.3 billion, almost triple the shortfall the previous year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures." EDUCATION: "Interest in environmental education appears to be soaring, buoyed in part by alarms over global warming and concerns over energy prices." THINK PROGRESS: Pentagon attempted to cover-up KBR's negligence in the electrocution of a U.S. soldier. WONK ROOM: Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) obstructionism leaves 44,000 paralyzed veterans in the lurch. TPM MUCKRAKER: The Bush administration wants to block the ACLU from wiretapping law litigation. "When we had Katrina and Rita....there was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment." -- Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, 7/30/08 VERSUS "A Houston Chronicle review of data from the National Response Center shows that the two storms caused at least 595 spills, incidents that released untold amounts of oil, natural gas and other chemicals into the air, onto land and into the water." -- Houston Chronicle, 11/13/05 thinkprogress.org | contact us | unsubscribe | archives

Media Matters - Reporters whine about Obama; ignore McCain attacks on the press

Media Matters - Reporters whine about Obama; ignore McCain attacks on the press

ABC News: Strapped College Kids Turn to Food Banks

ABC News: Strapped College Kids Turn to Food Banks

Just blocks from the University of Washington, a line of people shuffle toward a food pantry, awaiting handouts such as milk and bread.

Saad Hopkins, entering the University of Washington as a junior in the fall, gets groceries at the...

Saad Hopkins, entering the University of Washington as a junior in the fall, gets groceries at the University District Food Bank in this July 15, 2008 file photo in Seattle. In the past year, the price of groceries has jumped nearly 5 percent and the costs some staples like milk and bread--the core of a college diet--have shot up by more than 30 percent. That's driving up demand at food banks and prompting some students to apply for food stamps.

(Elaine Thompson/AP Photo)

For years, the small University District pantry has offered help to the working poor and single parents in this neighborhood of campus rentals. Now rising food prices are bringing another group: Struggling college students.

"Right now, with things the way they are, a lot of students just can't afford to eat," said Terry Capleton, who started a Facebook group called "I Ain't Afraid to be on Food Stamps" when he was a student at Benedict College in South Carolina.

Some of the students are working their way through college with grants, loans and part-time jobs. Others are just reluctant to ask parents for more money.

"More and more, it's just the typical traditional student, about 18 to 22, that's feeling this crunch," said Larry Brickner-Wood, director of the Cornucopia Food Pantry at the University of New Hampshire.

The Hill's Pundits Blog » McCain Lies About Obama and Wounded Troops

The Hill's Pundits Blog » McCain Lies About Obama and Wounded Troops
bring reporters, cameras and campaign aides to a meeting with wounded troops in Germany.

When he said this, John McCain was lying. Let me spell this correctly: L-Y-I-N-G.

Obama never intended to bring reporters, period. That is a lie. Obama never intended to bring cameras. That is a lie. Obama never intended to bring "his campaign staffers" (to use McCain's words). That, too, is a lie. The only person Obama intended to bring was retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who is an unpaid military adviser.

Credit to Dan Balz in The Washington Post today for laying out the facts. Shame on many in the political, cable, pundit and commentariat classes who have allowed McCain to get away with what are several clear, unmitigated and outright lies (spell that L-I-E-S) about Obama and wounded troops.

One can understand McCain's frustration. He taunted Obama to make the trip and it was a major success. One can understand McCain's anger. He was reduced to a photo-op on an oil rig that was canceled by a hurricane, and while he dished his talking points at Schmidt's sausage factory, Obama was greeted by a quarter of a million people, many waving American flags, and praised extravagantly by the conservative leaders of Germany and France.

One can understand McCain's problem. His record on veterans’ issues over many years is far weaker than that of most Democrats and most Republicans. He recently unsuccessfully opposed the strong version of Sen. Jim Webb's (D-Va.) new GI Bill, irritating many veterans’ groups, again, while the bill passed with bipartisan support over McCain's objection.

That is no excuse for lying. That is no excuse for repeating the lie in campaign statements and paid television ads approved by McCain.

While credit is due to the front page of The Washington Post for reporting the facts in the paper this morning, it is an outrage that many in the media, whom McCain has long called part of his political base, fail to report this story with integrity, clarity, facts and truth.

A new attack on birth control - The Boston Globe

A new attack on birth control - The Boston Globe

WITH JUST a few months left in office, President Bush is still doing the bidding of social conservatives who oppose women's reproductive freedoms. Under the guise of rules to protect antiabortion nurses and doctors from discrimination in hiring, a proposed new regulation would expand the definition of abortion to include any form of contraception that can work by stopping implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. This can include common birth-control pills, emergency contraception, and the intra-uterine device, or IUD. Doctors who refuse to perform abortions for reasons of personal conscience already are protected by law.

The potential impact of this new rule on the more than 500,000 hospitals, family planning clinics, and medical offices that receive any form of federal funding could be dramatic. The rule could also undercut many state laws - including one in Massachusetts requiring hospitals to provide emergency contraception for rape victims - and laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to include contraceptives. Massachusetts passed such a law in 2002.

The draft proposed rule highlights the fact that many antiabortion groups also oppose one good method of preventing the unplanned pregnancies that lead to abortions - birth control. At some point in their lives, 98 percent of US women use birth control.

4 Senate Dems urge EPA chief to resign / He's accused of misleading Congress

4 Senate Dems urge EPA chief to resign / He's accused of misleading Congress

Four Senate Democrats called on EPA chief Stephen Johnson to resign Tuesday, alleging that he gave misleading testimony to Congress and repeatedly bowed to pressure from the White House to avoid regulating greenhouse gases.

California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and three other Democrats on the panel - Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey - also announced they are urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate whether Johnson made false statements to Congress. Mukasey's office said it was still reviewing the request late Tuesday.

16 electrocuted in Iraq; DOD and KBR officials can't figure out what went wrong | BuzzFlash.org

16 electrocuted in Iraq; DOD and KBR officials can't figure out what went wrong | BuzzFlash.org

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Amy Weiss

Defense Department officials and a senior employee from defense contractor KBR testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Wednesday about the electrocution deaths of 16 soldiers in Iraq due to shoddy, unstable electrical systems on military facilities, many of which still exist from the Saddam Hussein regime.

Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, one of the soldiers killed, was electrocuted in the shower on January 2, 2008 at his residence at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex (RPC) in Baghdad. Sergeant Justin Hummer was stationed in the same room and used the same shower as Sgt. Maseth from June to October 2007, before Sgt. Maseth moved in. During that time, Sgt. Hummer was shocked in the shower four or five times and once used a wooden handle to turn off the shower nozzle because the current was so strong. Each time a work order was filed to have the electrical problem repaired.

At the hearing, KBR Theater Engineering and Construction Manager Tom Bruni told the Committee that KBR's contract stipulated that individual buildings would be classified as one of two levels of maintenance service: A or B. Under level A, KBR inspects facilities and automatically makes repairs. Under level B, KBR is authorized to inspect the facility but then turns over reports to the military officials who must authorize KBR to make repairs.

Army Contracting Command Executive Director Jeffrey Parsons told the Committee the "Mayor" of the RPC would have been the person who designated Sgt. Maseth's facility as level B and would have been the person to authorize repairs. Although he could only say that this person was a military officer, no one on the panel could tell the Committee who the mayor was or what the chain of command responsible for Sgts. Hummer and Maseth was. Parsons agreed with committee members that there were "gaps" in the process. All the panel members asked to testify agreed with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), a former Army officer, that the initial responsibility fell to commanders on the ground charged with protecting their soldiers.

Ranking Minority Member Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) pressed Bruni significantly on whom he thought was responsible for Sgt. Maseth's death. If KBR isn't to blame, Davis pushed, then it must be the Army -- who else could it be? After several rounds of verbal sidestepping, Bruni admitted, "Responsibility lies with the Army."

Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said at the conclusion of the questioning, "I can't say after this hearing I feel assured that any of you are on top of the situation." Waxman and other members requested further documents and answers from the panel. Department of Defense Acting Inspector General Gordon Heddell said documents obtained by the Committee have changed his mind about statements in a preliminary report sent to the Committee Monday and suggest KBR and the Army were aware of dangerous conditions in Sgt. Maseth's shower. Heddell expects to finish a full report in October.

Waxman was also critical of Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell for holding a press conference Tuesday night in anticipation of the hearing in which he said KBR and the Pentagon were being falsely blamed. Morrell called it "flat out wrong" to imply the DOD and KBR "are so negligent or callous that we have failed to address these dangers."

All documents related to the hearing are available on the Committee's Web site here.

Joseph Romm: McCain Lies About Oil Drilling and the Media Yawns

Joseph Romm: McCain Lies About Oil Drilling and the Media Yawns

I don't really see how there is any serious prospect for solving either our energy security problem or our climate problem if the traditional media doesn't do any policing whatsoever of statements by major politicians. Here is McCain yesterday:

"... it will be vital that we continue oil production at a high level including offshore drilling. Now, the briefings that I have had with the oil producers, there are some instances that within a matter of months, they could be getting additional oil."

Standing in front of a large California oil drill, in what appears to be filming of a new movie, There Will Be Lies, McCain went so far as to say:

But there's abundant resources in the view of the people who are in the business that could be exploited within a period of months. So offshore drilling is something we have to do.

Okay, I can understand why he believes whatever stuff the oil producers make up -- they are lining his pockets now. And I understand the three reasons that McCain would lie to the public:

1. His original "placebo" argument wasn't very compelling: "Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have a psychological impact that I think is beneficial."


2. The truth is even less compelling: Ending the moratorium on coastal drilling holds no serious promise of reducing gasoline prices for US consumers even a single penny two decades from now according to Bush's own energy analysts (see "The cruel offshore-drilling hoax").


3. Since he has no actual plan for getting us out of the economic mess Bush got us into, McCain is now going so far as "framing his support for expanded offshore drilling and other energy proposals as economic stimulants in an effort to woo voters concerned about the floundering economy" (Greenwire 7/29, subs. req'd). Seriously!

But why does the media let a major party candidates get away with such disinformation? And it is disinformation. As a U.S. Energy Information Administration analyst told me earlier this month:




... the constraints on offshore drilling have little to do with the price of oil, but a lot to do with timing. Once the leases are available, it is a 5 to 10 years before you get to exploratory drilling. There is a tremendous shortage of drilling rigs and manpower. Plus, offshore drilling is so expensive, you don't want to make any mistakes. So you spend do a lot of seismic analysis to minimize your chances of a dry well.


And it is probably another five or more years from drilling your exploratory well to getting significant production from the area -- and that assumes you didn't dig a dry well. If you did, then you are probably going to be even more cautious. And all that assumes you have developed a pipeline infrastructure for delivering the oil. But the Atlantic Coast lacks such an infrastructure, so who knows how long it would take to get its oil?

On top of that, California won't allow drilling off its coast anytime soon. And Sen. Martinez won't allow drilling off Florida's coast anytime soon. And Big Oil has tens of billions of barrels of oil yet to find and retrieve from the Gulf of Mexico leases that were opened up two years ago.

So McCain's claim is spin wrapped in a lie wrapped in a hoax.

If there is no penalty in the public arena for lying, then we're just going to get more and more of it.

William Bradley: 13 Things To Know About The 3rd Straight Mac Attack Ad

William Bradley: 13 Things To Know About The 3rd Straight Mac Attack Ad

Political Affairs Magazine - The Economic Crisis: Greed is the Cause

Political Affairs Magazine - The Economic Crisis: Greed is the Cause
This is a fantastic article summating where we are and why - please read it!

AVERAGE INCOME IN 2006 UP $60,000 FOR TOP 1 PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, JUST $430 FOR BOTTOM 90 PERCENT

AVERAGE INCOME IN 2006 UP $60,000 FOR TOP 1 PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, JUST $430 FOR BOTTOM 90 PERCENT
Income Concentration at Highest Level Since 1928, New Analysis Shows
By Chye-Ching Huang and Chad Stone

The shares of the nation's income flowing to the top 1 percent and top 0.1 percent of households were higher in 2006 than in any year since 1928, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Average pre-tax incomes in 2006 jumped by about $60,000 (5.8 percent) for the top 1 percent of households, but just $430 (1.4 percent) for the bottom 90 percent, after adjusting for inflation.

This report is posted to:
http://www.cbpp.org/3-27-08tax2.htm
http://www.cbpp.org/3-27-08tax2.pdf 3pp.

cryptogon.com » Archives » America’s House Price Time Bomb

cryptogon.com » Archives » America’s House Price Time Bomb

Via: BBC:

With the American housing market in its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Bush is expected to sign into law a massive new government intervention designed to slow the slide.

The intervention would come as a little known quirk of US law threatens to drive down house prices even faster.

Faced with seemingly never-ending falls in the value of their properties, some American home-owners are taking radical action; they are choosing to walk away from homes and their mortgages.

…

Professor Wachter believes that, to date, most people have had their homes repossessed because they could not manage the repayments.

The trend of people now positively choosing to walk away because it makes financial sense to do so is a worrying new development.

“The dangers are extraordinary,” Professor Wachter says.

“If all that is needed is that the house value is less than the mortgage value, there is a large number of homeowners in the United States who are in that situation”.

…

It is impossible to know for sure how many of the people who are now walking away from their homes could have gone on paying their mortgages.

But Professor Nouriel Roubini of New York University, one of the first economists to warn of the dangers of the American house price boom, believes the number of people positively choosing to walk away is growing rapidly.

“This is becoming a tsunami of voluntary defaults,” Professor Roubini says.

“The losses for the financial system from people walking away could be of the order of one trillion dollars when the entire capital of the US banking system is only $1.3 trillion.

“You could have most of the US banking system wiped out, so this is a total disaster.”

Which is why it is not just US policymakers who are hoping America’s new, multi-billion dollar initiative to stabilise the housing market will succeed in its aims and thus make walking away less attractive.

Because if it fails, the economic fallout could be felt far beyond America’s shores.

t r u t h o u t | Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart

t r u t h o u t | Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart
Chicago - The young law professor stood apart in too many ways to count. At a school where economic analysis was all the rage, he taught rights, race and gender. Other faculty members dreamed of tenured positions; he turned them down. While most colleagues published by the pound, he never completed a single work of legal scholarship.
At a formal institution, Barack Obama was a loose presence, joking with students about their romantic prospects, using first names, referring to case law one moment and "The Godfather" the next. He was also an enigmatic one, often leaving fellow faculty members guessing about his precise views.

Nice...

Freeze, Motherfucker: Sometimes Defamer ... [Let The Punishment Fit The Crime]

from Defamer by STV

Freeze, Motherfucker: Sometimes Defamer just has to take a stand, as we hope our recent efforts on behalf of Victims of George Lucas reflects. And such crusades are always made easier by the knowledge we're not alone. For instance, take the kindred spirit who enacted the fantasy of beleaguered Star Wars and Indiana Jones fans everywhere with this model of Lucas encased in carbonite — a riff on Han Solo's mode of transport following his enemy capture in The Empire Strikes Back. We can probably conjure lesser penalties for Lucas, but click the image for a more detailed rendering of the short-term fix that suits us just fine. [/Film]

Happy Birthday Arnuld......and other headlines

It's Arnold's birthday: Call him today before he slashes wages

from Crooks and Liars by Julia Rosen

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Popout

I wanted to report back on my post from Friday, warning that Gov. Schwarzengger was about to cut over 200,000 state worker's salaries down to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 — a ploy in a political game being played by the Governor. He's trying to hold state workers hostage to try and place pressure on the Democrats instead of the Republicans who are holding up the budget.

Today, I have good news and bad news. It's Arnold's birthday. No, that's not the good news.

The good news is that over 28,000 of you stepped up and signed the petition to Schwarzenegger. The same day, he delayed signing the executive order that would have put the policy into effect.

The bad news is that he only delayed it to Thursday.

We delivered your petitions to the Governor on Monday and created a funny, snarky video you can see above, about our adventure trying to get someone to accept the darn petitions. It helped to have an Assemblymember along with us and a bunch of cameras and reporters, or else we would have been sent straight to the mailroom.

We have about 24 hours until the Governor signs the executive order. Which means we still have time today to pressure Arnold to stop holding state workers hostage to his political budget negotiation games.

On behalf of hundreds of thousands of state workers, please pick up your phone right now and call Arnold. Click here for the phone number and a form to report back your call.

UPDATE: We've already received some interesting call reports, like this one from Gary:

Staff member tried to convince me that things will be alright with our finances because my partner, who is a teacher, can get a zero-interest loan since the banks know that the employees will be getting the money eventually. I told her that we didn't want to be pawns in their political games and that the governor & legislature need to work it out. She said she would pass it along.

Riders Overcharged for CTA Fare Cards

from Chicagoist by Margaret Lyons

If you've paid your CTA fares through an Express Farecard vending machine between March until the middle of July, you might want to double-check your credit card and bank statements.

For the past five months, Express Farecard machines across the city failed to perform debit and credit card payments completely…that is, until the transactions caught up with themselves Friday, and all the accumulated charges were taken out of cardholders' bank accounts at once.

Metavante, the Milwaukee-based company that processes the electronic payments at CTA fare card vending machines, overcharged some 400 CTA customers $9000 collectively, and the CTA says another 35,000 people may have also felt consequences of the technological hiccup.

Metavante reversed all overcharges upon their discovery, and they've agreed to cover any overdrafts fees that may have resulted from the error. If you're one of the unfortunately affected CTA riders, you can reach Metavante at (800) 371 – 2709 from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday; make sure you've got bank documentation to back up any overdraft claims. [Trib, photo by What I'm Seeing Dot Com] —Ana Bolotin

House of Representatives Issues Formal Apology for Slavery

from Truthout - All Articles

    Washington - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.

    "Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

read more

TSA Ramps Up Program to Psychologically Screen Airline Passengers

from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by Chip

TSA ramps up program to psychologically screen airline passengers
Nick Langewis and David Edwards | Raw Story

In addition to having your bags scanned, taking off your shoes and emptying your pockets on the way to your plane, prepare to have an on-the-spot psychoanalysis as well.

The TSA is in the process of training "behavior detection officers" to seek out involuntary physical and physiological signs of "stress, fear or deception" among air passengers to help determine who to subject to additional screening at airport security checkpoints.

read more

House Judiciary Committee Approves Contempt of Congress Charge for Karl Rove

from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by Chip

House panel votes to cite Rove for contempt
By LAURIE KELLMAN | Associated Press

A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to answer questions about the dismissals of several federal prosecutors as its Senate counterpart explored punishments for an array of alleged Bush administration misdeeds.

Voting 20-14 along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats such as former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

read more

European Trip

from Crooks and Liars by Nicole Belle

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t Heather)

The earth spun slightly off from its axis on Monday, because Mrs. Alan Greenspan actually defended Barack Obama's European trip from John McCain's spurious attack ads.  

MITCHELL: Did he make a bad call deciding not to go to Ramstein? He had every right to go to Ramstein, to visit the troops in Landstuhl. He had already been to visit the troops in Iraq. Without cameras, without an entourage. And he got-his people, rather-got so backed off by warnings from the Pentagon. Now please be careful, don't bring your military aide, because he's now a political aide. The Pentagon was way too aggressive probably in that. And they got so nervous: oh this is going to look political. And they were damned if they did or damned if they didn't. Let me just finish what I was saying…just this one point…there was never any intention-let me be absolutely clear about this-the entourage was never going to go. There was never an intention to make this political. But by tacking it on to the tail end of a political-the political leg of the trip, they opened themselves up they feared to the criticism, and if they'd gone, they'd be criticized and not going, they were criticized and the McCain commercial on this subject is completely wrong! Factually wrong.

House Panel Votes to Cite Rove for Contempt

from Truthout - All Articles

    Washington - A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress as its Senate counterpart publicly pursued possible punishments for an array of alleged past and present Bush administration misdeeds.

    Voting along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broken the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats.

read more

Police Raid Wrong House, Shoot at Family, Receive Medals

from cryptogon.com by Kevin

Via: Star Tribune: First, the city apologized. Then it gave awards. Eight Minneapolis officers received medals in City Hall Monday for their valor in a botched raid that the city apologized for last year. That isn't sitting well with the family shot at multiple times by the officers. "I'm shocked that they're receiving awards for that night," said [...]

Fed Extends Emergency Loan Program for Wall Street

from cryptogon.com by Kevin

Via: AP: The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it is extending its emergency borrowing program to Wall Street firms and is taking other steps to ease a severe credit crunch that has hobbled the national economy. The Fed said the program, where investment houses can tap the central bank for a quick source of cash, will now be [...]

Trish Is Just One of FPL's 39,000 Suckers

from Pensito Review by Buck

My co-editor Trish is a nice person with good intentions who wants to save the environment. Which is why she signed up a couple of years ago for Florida Power & Light's Sunshine Energy program that was intended to support development of alternative energy sources. About 39,000 other Floridians joined Trish in adding an additional $9.75 per month to their electric bill to support wind farms in Montana, among other things FPL was supposedly doing to develop "green" power sources.

Sorry, Trish, but according to the Miami Herald, the state's Public Service Commission has put the kibosh on the program because, well — and I hope you're sitting down when you read this — FPL didn't do what it said it was going to do with the money. Ahem, your money.

See Trish, of your $9.75 a month, only about 20 percent — less than $2 — was actually being spent on developing alternative electrical resources. The rest was going … somewhere. It wasn't really clear where that 80 percent was going. There was vague talk about administrative expenses and marketing, but the PSC was just bumfuzzled about where the money went because — get this — the accounting by the subcontractor that was supposed to buy the green energy was so poor.

But to hear FPL tell it, the company did nothing legally or morally wrong:

The utility had acknowledged in regulatory filings that the program could be improved and it volunteered to do so, but it said Sunshine Energy met the requirements laid down by the commission in a formal document called a tariff, which did not specify what percentage of contributions should go directly to renewable energy.

WMDs Finally Found

from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by davidswanson

Kentucky weapons depot confirms mustard gas leak

LEXINGTON, KY (AP) - Officials at Blue Grass Army depot have confirmed another vapor leak at the chemical weapons stockpile in Richmond. This time the leak involves blister agent H, known as mustard.

The leak was discovered during a routine weekly check of the air inside one of the storage igloos. It's the first confirmed detection of H-agent in more than three years. At least two other vapor leaks involving sarin have been detected in the past year.

Depot officials say the latest leak doesn't present a danger to the community or environment. They've put the igloo under continuous filtration to prevent any of the contaminated air from escaping into the outside atmosphere.

j

More on the McCain connected bank collapse and a connection to Charles Keating

Another McCain Involved In Bank Collapse?

from Crooks and Liars by Nicole Belle

It appears the apple doesn't fall far from the McSame. The Political Base:

Almost exactly 20 years ago — in the middle of the saving and loan crisis — federal regulators seized Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. The takeover took place more than a year after five United States senators had tried to hold-off a government investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board into Lincoln's risky loan practices regarding home loans.

Those five senators included Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the chairman of Lincoln was Charles Keating – who was not only a top McCain donor but was Cindy McCain's business partner in a real estate deal in Arizona (as I detailed earlier this year). This scandal — known as The Keating 5 — remains an albatross for McCain's political career.

As a result of Lincoln's collapse, American taxpayers lost more than $2 billion on the bailout and more than 21,000 mostly elderly investors lost their life savings as a result of bankruptcy of Lincoln's parent company.[..]

Well, 20 years later, we're back in the middle of another banking crisis and federal regulators have already begun seizing insolvent banks, and this advisory ran on the wires over the weekend:

Silver State Bancorp (NASDAQ:SSBX), the holding company for Silver State Bank, announced today that Andrew K. McCain submitted his resignation today as a director on the Boards of Directors of Silver State Bancorp and Silver State Bank, citing personal reasons.

Mr. McCain previously served as a director of Choice Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona from 2006 to April 1, 2008 when Choice Bank merged into Silver State Bank. Mr. McCain had been appointed to the Boards of the Company and Silver State Bank in February, 2008 and had served on the Audit Committee.

Andrew is none other than the son of John McCain.

ABC: Without 'creative White House accounting,' Bush's deficit is actually $600 billion.

from Think Progress by Matt

Yesterday, the White House "increased its estimate for next year's deficit to nearly $490 billion, a record figure that will saddle the next president with deepening budget problems in his first year in office." But, on ABC News's Good Morning America today, Claire Shipman reported that the deficit is actually much higher because "creative White House accounting" didn't include the war, the unemployment costs, Medicare fees, or the housing bill in its calculations. If those numbers are included, it brings "the grand total to about $600 billion." Watch it:

To illustrate how big the deficit is, Shipman explained: "If every American were to pitch in 2,000 dollars, we could pay off this year's deficit. Or if we handed over each of us 500 gallons gasoline. Or, in terms we can all really understand, if every American gave up 666 lattes for a year."

Financial Disclosure Forms at Center of Steven's False Statements

from TPMmuckraker by Kate Klonick

The recent indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is up in TPMmuckraker's document collection, but here's a quick and dirty summary of the seven counts of false statements which are based on his personal financial disclosure forms from 1999 to 2006.

According to the indictment, Stevens concealed "things of value," estimated at around $250,000, from his publicly filed personal financial disclosure forms over the past seven years. It is this concealment, and not the legality of accepting those "things of value," that is at issue.

We've reported extensively on those gifts from VECO and VECO's former CEO Bill Allen which are the primary exchanges named in the indictment.

While Allen pleaded guilty to bribery charges over these gifts in 2007, it's important to note that no bribery charges are being filed against Stevens.

Poor Reception? "Go To The Hilltop" Sprint Tells Customer [Sprint]

from Consumerist by Ben Popken

"Go outside, or to hilltop to make calls from your cell phone. Sprint does not guarantee call quality in buildings or homes," a Sprint customer service rep told reader Nathan shortly before he canceled service.

Microsoft's plans for post-Windows OS revealed (David Worthington/SD Times On The Web)

from Techmeme

David Worthington / SD Times On The Web:
Microsoft's plans for post-Windows OS revealed  —  Microsoft is incubating a componentized non-Windows operating system known as Midori, which is being architected from the ground up to tackle challenges that Redmond has determined cannot be met by simply evolving its existing technology.

Housing Market Continues To Plunge

from 24/7 Wall St. by 24/7 Wall St.

The housing market continues to be in freefall. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index plunged 15.8 percent in May, the biggest decline since records began being kept in 2001. All 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) measured by the index fell. Nine of the MSAs are showing record lows and 10 had double-digit declines.

Senators Call for Resignation of EPA Administrator Johnson

from TPMmuckraker by Kate Klonick

Democratic Senators from the Environment and Public Works Committee called for the resignation of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, in a press release published this afternoon.

Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) was joined by committee members Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) in charging that Johnson had given "misleading testimony before Congress," "refused to cooperate" with Oversight investigations and had politicized decisions before the EPA.

O'Reilly: Richest 1% would have to finance 'folks who…smoke reefers 24/7.'

from Think Progress by Igor

Today, in a Washington Times op-ed, Bill O'Reilly complains that if President Bush's tax cuts "on those making $250,000 or more" are repealed, "me and other rich folks" would have to finance "folks who dropped out of school, who are too lazy to hold a job, who smoke reefers 24/7." He adds, "I am part of the 1 percent of Americans that paid an astounding 40 percent of all federal income tax in 2006," But, as the Wall Street Journal recently noted, "the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years." The Wonk Room has more here.

I just contributed some cash to this charity.....

Please check them out and help if you can.


http://www.smiletrain.org/site/PageServer

12 Good Deeds
Are Staring You Right In The Face.

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We're the world's largest and most cost-effective cleft charity. The Smile Train is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit recognized by the IRS. Meets extensive standards of America's most experienced charity evaluator.

Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling - washingtonpost.com

Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling - washingtonpost.com

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.

McCain said the policy reversal came as a response to rising voter anger over soaring energy prices. At the time, about three-quarters of voters responding to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said prices at the pump were causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.

Opening vast stretches of the country's coastline to oil exploration would help America eliminate its dependence on foreign oil, McCain said.

"We have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production," he said. "It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions."

McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.

"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."

Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on drilling policy "completely absurd." Rogers noted that oil and gas money in June still accounted for a very small fraction of the $48 million raised by the campaign and by the Republican National Committee through its Victory Fund.

"John McCain takes positions because he thinks it's the right thing to do for America," Rogers said. "He has a long track record of doing that. And he's often made decisions that hurt with his fundraising base."

Oil and gas executives have not traditionally been a major source of campaign money for McCain. A breakdown of giving by the Center for Responsive Politics shows the industry falls 12th on a list of top donors, well behind securities firms, lawyers, banks, and real estate and health professionals.

McCain has historically sided against a number of the industry's interests, opposing efforts to open certain public lands to drilling and embracing proposals aimed at tackling global warming well before oil executives were ready to do so.

Patrick C. Oxford, chairman of the Texas-based law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, said there has been a contrast between the way the industry embraced George W. Bush, a favorite son, and McCain. Oxford said that until recently oil industry officials were motivated to back McCain because of talk by Sen. Barack Obama "about needing to tax the hell out of the oil companies."

That started changing in mid-June, he said. McCain's speech and subsequent visit to Texas served the purpose of reintroducing him to the oil industry. Oxford, whose law firm represents several large oil companies, wrote his first check to McCain on June 27.

Charting the political donations of oil executives may be the best way to evaluate the industry's level of interest in a presidential candidate, said Robin West, chairman of PFC Energy, an industry adviser. Unlike other businesses, oil and gas companies do not have a large labor force that can provide a candidate an army of volunteers. And oil and gas concerns are geographically confined, largely in states that are not viewed as central to a presidential election strategy.

"It's for those reasons that the oil industry has always tried to be a substantial contributor," West said.

And West said he thinks McCain gave energy executives what they needed to get more solidly in his corner -- a pledge to reverse a federal policy that has frustrated the industry for years.

"I think people thought it was a sensible thing that was long due," West said. "I think the industry was very appreciative."

Activist group protests at McCain headquarters - CBS 21

Activist group protests at McCain headquarters - CBS 21

A presidential candidate's relationship with the oil companies is coming under fire across the country.

On Monday members of the political activist group MoveOn.org gathered at John McCain's downtown Harrisburg headquarters where they stuck for sale signs on the building.

"He has sold his presidency to big oil, and what we will see in the future are solutions to problems big oil favors," says Doug Lorenzen with MoveOn.org.

The organization held 150 of these protests across the country. MoveOn members say they support Senator Barack Obama's run for presidency, saying he has an energy plan that does not cater to oil companies, and supports alternative energy plans.

Oil Money: John McCain's Close Ties to The Petroleum Industry | Public Campaign Action Fund

Oil Money: John McCain's Close Ties to The Petroleum Industry | Public Campaign Action Fund

A FACTSHEET FROM CAMPAIGN MONEY WATCH
Last Updated July 11, 2008

With oil prices skyrocketing and the economy on the brink of a recession, Americans are looking for candidates up and down the ballot to introduce meaningful plans to provide relief at the pump and put the economy back on track. Yet not all candidates have the American people’s interests foremost in mind. For those like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) who receive large campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries, helping corporate donors is the top priority. After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Since 1989, John McCain has raised more than $1 million dollars from the oil and gas industries (1)

• Employees and PACs of oil and gas companies have donated $1,316,145 to John McCain’s campaigns and leadership PAC since 1989.
  
  
• McCain has received substantial donations from executives and PACs of some of the country’s largest oil and gas companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
  
  

  Company	Gave McCain
  Hess Corp.	$68,700
  Exxon Mobil	$46,251
  Chveron Corp.	$30,000
  Moncrief Oil International	$18,300
  Southwest Gas	$18,250

  
  
• McCain has received more than twice as much money from the oil and gas industries in the 2008 cycle than in all other cycles since 1989.
  

Thirty-three McCain staffers and fundraisers have received $9.65 million in lobbying fees from at least 30 oil and gas industry corporations and associations. These lobbying clients’ executives and PACs have donated $225,651 to McCain’s campaigns. They include:

• John Green, McCain’s campaign liaison to Congress, has lobbied for Chevron, Hess, and the American Petroleum Institute, among others. This work, which took place between 2002 and 2008, earned Green and his firm $3,450,000. Employees and PACs of his clients have given McCain a total of $106,050 since 1989.
  
  
• Wayne Berman, a leading McCain bundler, has lobbied for Chevron, Amerada Hess, and the American Petroleum Institute, among others. This work, which took place between 2004 and 2008, earned Berman and his firm $3,170,000. Employees and PACs of his clients have given McCain a total of $105,300 since 1989.
  
  
• Steve Phillips, a leading McCain bundler, has lobbied for eight different oil and gas entities, including BP and Occidental Petroleum. This work, which took place between 2000 and 2007, earned Phillips and his firm $3,130,000. Employees and PACs of his clients have given McCain $40,950 since 1989.
  
  
• Charlie Black, a senior McCain advisor, has lobbied for Occidental Petroleum and Yukos Oil. This work, which took place between 2001 and 2007, earned Black and his firm $1,725,000. Employees and PACs of his clients have given McCain $18,550 since 1989.
  
  
• James Hyland, a McCain bundler, has lobbied for BP, the Independent Fuel Operators Association, the New England Fuel Institute, and Occidental Petroleum. This work, which took place between 2001 and 2004, earned Hyland and his firm $1,300,000. Employees and PACs of his clients have given McCain $34,050 since 1989.
  
  
• Rebecca Anderson, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has lobbied for three oil and gas companies: Bass Brothers Enterprises, Cheniere Energy, and Sunoco. This work, which took place between 2002 and 2007, earned Anderson and her firm $1,280,000. Employees of her clients have given McCain a total of $15,800 since 1989.
  
  
• Frank Donatelli, deputy chairman of the RNC, has lobbied for Exxon Mobil. This work, which took place between 1998 and 1999, earned Donatelli and his firm $1,120,000. Employees and PACs of his clients have given McCain $46,751 since 1989.
  
  
• Robert Asher, a bundler for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for WMPI Pty., a fuel supplier. This work, which took place between 2003 and 2005, earned Ascher and his firm $750,000.
  
  
• Kevin Fay, a fundraiser for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Orion Refining. This work, which took place between 1998 and 2002, earned Fay and his firm $650,000.
  
  
• Tom Loeffler, McCain’s former national finance co-chairman, has lobbied for Tetco. This work, which took place between 2005 and 2007, earned Loeffler and his firm $620,000.
  
  
• Richard Hohlt, a fundraiser for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Chevron. This work, which took place between 2006 and 2008, earned Hohlt and his firm $241,500. Chevron employees and PACs have given McCain $30,000 since 1989.
  
  
• Jack Oliver, a bundler for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Shell Oil. This work, which took place between 2006 and 2007, earned Oliver and his firm $240,000. Shell employees and PACs have given McCain $7,050 since 1989.
  
  
• Dick Zimmer, McCain New Jersey honorary co-chair, has lobbied for Schlumberger Ltd. This work, which took place between 2002 and 2005, earned Zimmer and his firm $240,000.
  
  
• Sloan Rappoport, a bundler for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Koch Industries. This work, which took place between 2005 and 2006, earned Rappoport and his firm $200,000. Employees of Koch Industries have given McCain $9,000 since 1989.
  
  
• Kirsten Chadwick, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has lobbied for Atlantic Richfield. This work, which took place between 1999 and 2000, earned Chadwick and her firm $160,000. Employees and PACs of Atlantic Richfield have given McCain $13,000 since 1989.
  
  
• Peter Madigan, a bundler for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Shell Oil and Michael F. Barrett. This work, which took place between 1998 and 2002, earned Madigan and his firm $140,000. Employees of Shell Oil have given McCain $7,050 since 1989.
  
  
• James Pitts, a bundler for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition. This work, which took place in 2004, earned Pitts and his firm $140,000.
  
  
• Eric Burgeson, a fundraiser for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for BP. This work, which took place between 1999 and 2000, earned Burgeson and his firm $120,000. Employees and PACs of BP have given McCain $15,500 since 1989.
  
  
• Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s defense and foreign policy coordinator, has lobbied for BP. This work, which took place between 1999 and 2000, earned Scheunemann and his firm $120,000. Employees and PACs of BP have given McCain $15,500 since 1989.
  
  
• Jeffrey Weiss, a fundraiser for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Yukos Oil. This work, which took place in 2004, earned Weiss and his firm $115,000.
  
  
• Ashley Davis, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has lobbied for TORP Technology. This work, which took place between 2006 and 2007, earned Davis and her firm $80,000.
  
  
• James Courter, a bundler for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for the New England Fuel Institute. This work, which took place in 2000, earned Courter and his firm $60,000.
  
  
• Vicki Hart, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has lobbied for Enron, the New England Fuel Institute, and Petroport. This work, which took place between 1998 and 2000, earned Hart and her firm at least $60,000. Employees and PACs of Enron have given McCain $11,500 since 1989.
  
  
• Elise Finley Pickering, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has lobbied for Koch Industries. This work, which took place between 2007 and 2008, earned Pickering and her firm $50,000 since 1989.
  
  
• Carlos Bonilla, an economic policy advisor to the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Oceaneering Intl. This work, which took place in 2008, earned Bonilla and his firm $40,000.
  
  
• Kerry Cammack, a fundraiser for the McCain campaign, has lobbied for Exxon Mobil. This work, which took place in 2006, earned Cammack and his firm $40,000. Employees and PACs of Exxon Mobil have given McCain $46,751 since 1989.
  
  
• Melissa Edwards, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has lobbied for Oceaneering Intl. This work, which took place in 2008, earned Edwards and her firm $40,000.
  
  
• Susan Molinari, a member of the Women for McCain Steering Committee, has also lobbied for Oceaneering Intl. This work, which took place in 2008, earned Molinari and her firm $40,000.
  
  
• Doug Davenport, a former McCain regional campaign manager, has lobbied for Welldog. This work, which took place in 2005, earned Davenport and his firm $20,000.

Rick Jacobs: Schwarzenegger and McCain Lead America's Yacht Party

Rick Jacobs: Schwarzenegger and McCain Lead America's Yacht Party: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an ardent backer of John McCain's presidential bid, showed us his real vision of a 'post-partisan' future, only it looks very much like the Bush/Rove past. California, like the nation, faces enormous fiscal challenges. But California is one of only three states that require a two-thirds majority to pass a budget. This lunacy gives the Republican minority, led by the governor, veto power over the budget. It's like having the equivalent of Mitch McConnell, David Dreier and John Boehner's Gucci-clad feet on the throat of the seventh largest economy in the world."

Governor Schwarzenegger, true to form, figured out a great Republican solution. He announced that he would sign an executive order to reduce the pay of some 200,000 state workers to the Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. That's $13,000 or so a year or about $1,083 a month. That's below even this government's poverty line for a family of two. Try living in Los Angeles on $1,000 a month. Just try.

Or try it in Sacramento. The govenror lives at the (non-union) Hyatt, where his accommodation for the past five or so years has cost about $400,000. That's at the negotiated "governor's special" of $239 per night. And even then, it's all paid for through a shadowy front organization that allows donors anonumously to pay for the governor's 500 thread count sheets and pillow cases without our knowing who they are or what they get for cradling the acting governor's head. We did a little math. At the governor's proposed rate of $6.55 per hour for state workers, it'd take just about a full work week to pya for one night at the Hyatt. That's before taxes and fees are deducted. Sounds good to me!

Yes, the governor says that he'll provide back pay to the workers once the budget is passed, but how much will that mean to people who barely make due on their salaries as is? In a time of record foreclosures, bank failures and gas prices, how precisely does Governor Schwarzenegger think these folks, on whose lives many in this state depend, will make it?

In the meantime, John McCain is due in San Francisco today (Monday) to enjoy a $100,000 per person fundraiser for his peoples' campaign. I'm betting a lot of state workers will be at that one.

The Courage Campaign launched a petition today, now signed by over 12,000 people including our briliant Speaker Karen Bass and President Pro Tem-Elect Darrell Steinberg demanding that the governor stop trying to wring cash flow out of workers who just don't have the cash to flow. This follows our two videos that brand the Republican Party as the Yacht Party for its consistent support of a loophole in the tax law that allows yacht and private jet owners to avoid paying sales taxes. It's only about $26 million a year -probably about Arnold's annual income-- but it makes a clear point. Schwarzenegger and McCain and Dreier and the whole crew would rather subsidize the rich than lead.

Post-partisan Arnold is total recall of a highly partisan Bush/McCain administration. The workers and people of California cannot afford four more years of Bush any more than can the nation. McCain-Schwarzenegger: More subsidies for the rich. No leadership. No clue.

UPDATE: I'll be in Sacramento today, July 28 2:00PM to present over 25,000 signed petitions to the governor. Assemblymember Dave Jones, who has led on this issue, will join us. We'll walk the petitions over to the Hyatt and ask the concierge to take them up to the governor's suite. Maybe he'll do a little light reading before bed. If he does, he'll see comments like this one, from Michele in Santa Barbara, who signed the Stop Arnold petition and said, "I have worked 38 years for the State and served the people with compassion and integrity. I will lose my home without my pay... Please do not use the workers to balance the budget!"

MORE NEWS...

Report: Loyal Bushie Monica Goodling Fired US Attorney on Mistaken Belief Attorney Was Gay

from Pensito Review by Jon Ponder

In April, NPR reported that Department of Justice investigators were pursuing charges that, Monica Goodling, the political hack installed by the GOP at the department who famously used an applicants' qualification as a "loyal Bushie" as a litmus test for employment, had fired a senior official because Goodling suspected the woman was gay.

Now, according to a report from the DOJ inspector general, it appears that the rumor was true:

In the second of a series of reports on the politically charged tenure of former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, the department's inspector general found that two former Justice aides used sexual orientation as a litmus test in deciding whom they would hire or fire.

The report describes an alleged "sexual relationship" between a career prosecutor and a U.S. attorney, who were not named. Margaret M. Chiara, the former U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., said in an interview with The Times that she now believed she was fired because of the erroneous belief that she was having a relationship with career prosecutor Leslie Hagen.

"I could not begin to understand how I found myself sharing the misfortune of my former colleagues," Chiara said of the eight other U.S. attorneys who were fired. "Now I understand."

Justice officials said after her firing that Chiara was let go because of mismanagement and because she had caused morale in her office to sink. Chiara said Monday she believed those concerns were raised by the same people who spread rumors about her and Hagen.

"I guess now I am persuaded with deep regret that this is what was the basis," she added. "There is nothing else."

The investigators found that Hagen lost a coveted assignment in Washington after rumors of the supposed relationship reached Gonzales aide Monica M. Goodling.

And:

Monday's report also said that Goodling used an Internet search that included the words "gay" and "homosexual" to screen candidates and their backgrounds.

Investigators found that Goodling used the same search parameters as Jan Williams, who served as White House liaison before Goodling. The report said that Williams had used the string in late 2005 and early 2006 to research candidates for positions on a national advisory commission on violence against women.

Goodling, a graduate of a college operated by televangelist Pat Robertson, was also found to have nixed the hiring of a terrorism expert because his wife was a Democrat.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) indicted on seven felony counts

from Crooks and Liars by SilentPatriot

or: Ted Stevens: So Dirty Even The Bush Administration Had To Indict Him.

The Justice Department has just handed down a grand jury indictment against Republican Senator Ted Stevens (.pdf) consisting of seven felony counts of making false statements. Basically Stevens is being charged for failing to disclose over $250,000 in gifts he received from 1999-2006, as well as improperly favoring fishing legislation that would benefit his son. For more on the specifics, PBS NOW covered the story extensively in November of last year.

EPA Tells Its Staff: Don't Answer Watchdogs' Queries

from Truthout - All Articles

    Washington - The Environmental Protection Agency has told its staff not to answer questions from the agency's internal watchdog, news reporters or the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, according an internal memo that an environmental group released Monday.

read more

Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk [Good Luck With Your Hell Demons]

from Gawker by Richard

No, Lizzie Grubman's still alive. This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island," but unless the government is trying to design horrible Montauk monsters that will eat IEDs and fart fire at bad Iraqis, we're not sure why they would create such an unthinkable beast. Our guess is that it's viral marketing for something. Ali Lohan's new album perhaps. Click thru for larger dino-damage.

MORE NEWS...

BREAKING: U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens Indicted in Federal Court

from TPMmuckraker by Kate Klonick

From Reuters:

Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, the longest serving U.S. Republican senator ever, was indicted on seven counts related to his holding of public office, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Late update: It's worth noting that this comes a few days before the one year anniversary of the date federal agents raided Stevens' Girdwood home.

Ted Stevens has been a frequent character on TPMmuckraker. For a good profile on the indicted Senator, see here.

No one answered at Stevens' Senate Office in D.C. and the answering machine recording said that the office was closed. In a call to his Anchorage campaign office, the staffer who answered responded, "What?" when asked for a comment on the indictment, followed by a long silence. The staffer would not give further comment on whether or not the office knew that the indictment was handed down today.

Late late update: From McClatchy:
The Justice Department will be making a statement at 1:20 to announce the indictment. The Anchorage Daily Newsreports that the indictment comes from a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.

Late late late update: The AP is reporting the indictments are seven counts of false statements.

Our calls to Brendan Sullivan, Steven's attorney, were not immediately returned.

U2 Set Sale For a New Horizon

from News @U2

Exclusive: New Studio Album & Tracklist Revealed It's the beautiful day millions of U2 fans around the globe have waited patiently to see for the past four years. Now we can reveal details of the supergroup's long-awaited new album. It is believed to be titled No Line On The Horizon and will be on sale in music stores on November 14. The band's record company Universal has already registered the internet domain name nolineonthehorizon.com - prompting speculation this will be the new record.

Optical storage goes deep: 1TB stored in three dimensions

from Ars Technica by zeotherm@gmail.com (Matt Ford)

Researchers in California report on the creation of a standard sized optical disc (120mm x 1.2mm) that is capable of holding up to 1 Terabyte of data. The added storage comes from using all three dimensions instead of encoding data on the surface of the disc.

Read More...

No More Ultimate Nachos For You

from Chicagoist by Chuck Sudo

Say goodbye to Bennigan's. The chain is shutting down restaurants nationwide, with the exception of independently-owned franchise locations. CBS2 confirmed that the Bennigan's at 150 S. Michigan, once dubbed the "busiest Bennigan's in the world" and the location where Michael Jordan met his now ex-wife Juanita, is among the ones closing. [CBS2]

The Cubs-White Sox Feud Comes To Sesame Street [MLB]

from Deadspin by Rick Chandler

So it's three more Cubs fans in the hoosegow, another White Sox fan in the hospital, and life goes on in this strange, strange land we call "Illinois." When will the senseless violence end? My deepest regret is that Ernie and Bert had to see this.

From the Chicago Tribune:

McHenry County authorities say three Chicago Cubs fans face felony battery charges after allegedly beating a Chicago White Sox fan so badly he lost his right eye. The men are accused of beating 32-year-old Robert Steele of Gurnee during a 2-year-old girl's Sesame Street-themed birthday party. Police said Monday the men were drinking alcohol at the July 19th party and taunting Steele.

Look, if this is the way you're going to behave, we're not going to let both of your teams be good during the same season ever again.

And where is so-called Super Grover when you actually need him?

Cubs Fans Accused Of Beating White Sox Fan [Chicago Tribune]

Top Russian diplomat: 'We're not interested in what McCain has to say.'

from Think Progress by Satyam

On Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) defended his plan to kick Russia out of the G8, a policy that Fareed Zakaria called "the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years." Today, a top Russian diplomat dismissed McCain's threat, claiming McCain was trying to turn Russia into a "scapegoat":

"We can afford to cut off relations with any of our partners if that's what they want … We're not interested in what McCain has to say. Let him become president first, then we'll listen to him," the diplomat told reporters.

"We want the American electorate to answer for the choice it will make … At the moment, they are turning Russia into a scapegoat for the mistakes of their foreign policy," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The United States "is on the verge of an existential crisis," he added.

Senator: DoD must eliminate sexual assaults

from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by davidswanson

By Rick Maze, Army Times

A Pennsylvania lawmaker who says he continues to hear many complaints about sexual harassment and abuse from women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan wants the Defense Department to do more to stop mistreatment and provide more care for victims.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said in a Monday letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that harassment and assault of military women, especially in combat zones, is a "scourge" that needs to be eliminated.

Casey is particularly interested in how the military handles complaints from women in the National Guard and reserve, whose cases may be harder to investigate than those of women on full-time active duty and in the federal civilian workforce.

read more

Another Spooked-Up BushCo Crony Dabbling in Kurdistan

from Emptywheel by emptywheel

It was bad enough that PFIAB member and Bush uber-donor Ray Hunt was doing business in Kurdistan. That put one of the President's top private advisors on intelligence, someone who has access to a great deal of classified intelligence, and someone whose privately held company evades all kinds of public scrutiny, setting up shop in Iraq and potentially contributing to its destabilization.

But now we learn that Richard Perle has joined Hunt in the oil rush in Kurdistan (h/t egregious).

Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.

It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan.

SOME NEWS HEADLINES....

Draft-Dodger Cheney's Security Requirements Too Much for Disabled Vets Convention

from Pensito Review by Jon Ponder

During the Vietnam war, Dick Cheney applied for and received no less than five deferments from the draft. Decades later he told a reporter that he had "other priorities" that outweighed going to Vietnam. So because Dick Cheney sat out the war, another young man went in his place, and that soldier may have been among the 58,000 who died or the 300,000 who were permanently disabled in Vietnam.
During his Senate confirmation hearings as defense secretary in 1989, Cheney falsely claimed under oath, "I would have obviously been happy to serve had I been called."
This is an interesting historical footnote today in light of news that the Disabled Veterans of American, better known as the DAV, has rescinded its invitation to Cheney to speak at their convention next month because his security requirements would have caused extreme physical strain on DAV members.

Cheney would have required the predominantly elderly veterans, many of whom lost limbs in battle, to assemble in the meeting hall at 6:30 a.m., after which the doors would be closed and no one could leave the room, even to go to the restroom, until after Cheney's speech. Since Cheney was scheduled to begin his remarks at 8:30 a.m., and probably would have spoken for the better part of an hour, the vets would have been trapped in the room for nearly three hours.

NOW on PBS: John Edwards on Poverty

from Crooks and Liars by Nicole Belle

  NOW on PBS:

Even though he's no longer running for president, John Edwards is still a man with a mission: to cut poverty in the United States by 50 percent in 10 years. This week, NOW's David Brancaccio talks with Edwards about how he plans to achieve this ambitious goal and what role it may and should have on the upcoming presidential election.

"What's happening in America today is middle class workers, people who are like my parents and my family, the family that I grew up in, they are having a terrible time," Edwards tells NOW.

The current economic crisis has Edwards and his followers more committed than ever, but will their efforts gain enough momentum to make a difference?

The entire program is available in streaming video or audio at their website.  NOW also provides John McCain and Barack Obama's positions on poverty. 

NASA established fifty years ago

from kottke.org remaindered links by jason@kottke.org

After the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in late 1957 awoke the US to the possibility of a developing outer space "gap" with the Russkies, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law on July 29, 1958, thereby creating NASA. Only 11 years later, NASA landed men on the moon. Happy birthday, NASA.

(link)

Rampant politicization of the Justice Department gets total silence from Fox News.

from Think Progress by Ali

Yesterday, the Department of Justice released a report concluding that agency officials "violated both federal law and Department policy" by basing the hiring, firing, and promoting of some Department applicants and officials on politics. Though the report could result in criminal perjury charges against some DOJ officials, Fox News has decided the report is not worth highlighting. The station devoted three sentences to the report yesterday, in the middle of the day; none of the prime-time shows covered the report. Both CNN and MSNBC devoted prime-time coverage to the story.

Krauthammer Links Obama's Berlin Speech To Hitler's Nazi Rallies

from Think Progress by Ben

Last night on Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume asked the "All-Star Panel" for "help" in determining whether or not Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) got "a bounce" in the polls as a result of his recent trip to the Middle East and Europe.

Referring to Obama's Berlin speech that was reportedly in front of more than 200,000 people, neo-conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said he did not get a bounce because apparently, Americans don't like it when politicians emulate Adolf Hitler at a Nazi rally:

HUME: Panel, help. Did [Obama] get a bounce from the trip or not? […]

KRAUTHAMMER: I'm not sure — I don't think he got a bounce. I'm not sure it was his intention. You don't get a bounce out of standing in front of 200,000 Germans at a rally who are chanting your name. Bad vibes sometimes, historically.

Sirius Completes XM Merger; Shares Off 42% In 4 Days

from BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily - Barron's Online by Eric Savitz

Sirius (SIRI) and XM (XMSR) this morning completed their merger, at long last. Terms of the deal called for XM holders to get 4.6 SIRI shares for each share of XMSR.

But are investors are celebrating? No, they are not. Instead, they are in a selling frenzy. SIRI shares, in fact, are down 32 cents, or 17%, to $1.56, and have now now dropped 42% in the last four trading days.

Sirius this morning repeated its previous forecast that the company expects to generate $400 million in synergies in 2009. It expects to post adjusted EBITDA of more than $300 million in 2009, and to reach positive free cash flow, before satellite expenditures, for the full year in 2009.

So why so much pressure on the stock? I suspect there are a number of contributing factors, including the unwinding of positions by risk arbs, the impact of the large hedging-related stock offering announced this week, and some general concerns about the prospects for the merged companies.

Some more news...

This is interesting because the bank McCain's son resigned from is, to put it mildly, in the crapper. It will be interesting to watch as this develops into another bank bailout.

McCain's son resigns from Silver State Bank board

from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis by Michael Shedlock

ReviewJournal is reporting McCain's son resigns from boards of Henderson bank.

Silver State Bancorp, the Henderson-based holding company for the similarly named bank, reported that Andrew McCain, son of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, resigned today from the boards of directors of the bank and bank holding company.

The company cited "personal reasons" for McCain's resignation, and a Silver State spokesman declined further comment.

Long-Frozen Alaska Tundra Thaws

from Drudge Retort by rcade

As tundra that was frozen for thousands of years heats up in Alaska, scientists are gathering to determine whether the long-buried carbon will increase or decrease global warming. "[T]he rate of change is alarming," said biologist Chris Luecke. "Species can't adapt or keep up in an evolutionary sense because everything is happening so fast."

McCain Adviser's Horrifying Iraq Track Record: Will the Press Notice?

from TPMmuckraker by Zachary Roth

Over the weekend, The New York Times noted that some of John McCain's foreign policy advisers from the "realist" camp are uneasy with the amount of influence enjoyed by neoconservatives like Randy Scheunemann, who's been serving as McCain's chief foreign policy aide and spokesman.

But it isn't only his internal rivals who have reason to worry about Scheunemann. Not only does he have McCain's ear, he also has a track record of being consistently wrong on the major foreign policy question of the day -- Iraq. Of all the hawkish Washington foreign-policy types pushing both before and after 9/11 for war with Iraq -- a war that an overwhelming majority of Americans now considers a mistake -- Scheunemann, though not a marquee name, was among the most energetic and influential. And in the invasion's aftermath, he consistently opposed steps that might have helped stabilize the country.

DOJ Misconduct Included Preparing False Statements For A Reporter

from TPMmuckraker by Andrew Tilghman

When a reporter last year asked about political litmus tests for Department of Justice officials, a guy in the press office said that's "crap."

But he was lying.

That amounts to "misconduct," according to the DOJ Inspector General's report today.

The press flack was John Nowacki, who is now the deputy director for the Executive Office for United States Attorneys' Staffs. He's one of the only DOJ officials named in today's report who is still working for the department.

Nowacki was a staunch defender for Monica Goodling. She helped hire him at DOJ and both are graduates of Regent University, the evangelical school in Virginia founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.

Nowicki is reportedly on assignment in Iraq and was unable to be reached for comment.

Small Business Admin. Couldn't Explain Why It Approved Small Business Status For Blackwater

from TPMmuckraker by Andrew Tilghman

Private military contractor Blackwater and its affiliates may have wrongly received more than $100 million in contracts that were supposed to be set aside for small businesses, according to an inspector general's report released today.

At issue was a November 2006 determination by the Small Business Administration that a Blackwater affiliate, Presidential Airways, was a small business with less than 1,500 employees.

Blackwater contended, and the agency agreed, that its more than 1,000 workers providing security for the State Department overseas were not employees, but independent contractors. That made the company appear smaller on paper than it actually is.

The SBA Inspector General said that assessment was incorrect, based on SBA regulations.

How the agency made that determination regarding Blackwater is unclear, the report concluded.

"We're not sure how that happened," Glenn Harris, chief counsel for the SBA inspector general's office, said in an interview with TPMmuckraker. "We're not saying there was misrepresentation. ... It could be contracting-officer error."

Gates: War With Iran 'Would Be Disasterous,' It's 'The Last Thing We Need'

from Think Progress by Ben

In the most recent issue of the Army War College's quarterly journal "Parameters," Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote an article (pdf) titled "Reflections on Leadership," in which he examines the "three principles of war for a democracy" espoused by General Fox Conner — "a tutor and mentor to both" General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General George Marshall.

Gates applied one of Conner's principles — "never fight unless you have to" — to the current situation with Iran:

Conner's axiom — never fight unless you have to — looms over policy discussions today regarding rogue nations like Iran that support terrorism; that is a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia and, in my judgment, is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need. In fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels.

XM-Sirius merger officially approved by the FCC

from Neowin.net / All by Simon Andrews

There's no stopping it now: the marriage of XM and Sirius has been cleared by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under a few conditions. The deal is said to offer subscribers better choice in the channels they listen to by the two companies and the FCC, but its criticizers see it as anticompetitive, taking the two major Satellite Radio providers and making them one mega company. While the FCC admits this in their press release, they also say that the new conditions make the deal fair and in the public interest.

Among the highlights of the conditions the two companies face in their merger are a 3-year price cap (to be reviewed 6 months prior to its expiry), a requirement to offer customers new programming packages within three months of the merger taking place, and a mandatory application to extend the service into Puerto Rico, also within 3 months.

Much more information is available directly from the FCC.

FCC Press Release

Audit Finds Millions Wasted in Iraq Reconstruction Contract

from Truthout - All Articles

    Washington - Millions of dollars were likely wasted on a $900 million army contract to build courthouses, prisons, police and other security facilities in Iraq, an audit released Monday has found.

    The audit by the congressionally appointed Special Inspector General for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, found that the contractor, Parsons Delaware Inc., completed only about a third of 53 planned construction projects.

    "Although the failure to complete some of the work is understandable because of its complex nature and the

read more

Suicide Hot Line Got Calls From 22,000 Veterans

from digg

More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says.

and finally............................................

Come to da drk side

from Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? by ichctcf

Come to da drk side we has cheezburgerz

wow - Sign up for Comcast, get a free Wii.....

Comcast: Free Nintendo Wii with new Triple Play sign-up

from dealnews - 20 most recent deals. by dealnews.com

According to a recent press release, Comcast offers new customers a free Nintendo Wii when they sign up for its Preferred Plus or Premier Triple Play packages. It's the only such console deal we've seen from this company. "Triple Play" plans offer a combination of high-speed Internet, digital TV cable, and digital phone service. These combos are not available in all areas. Deal ends August 17.

Kevin Smith Does Batman

from /Film by orfilms@gmail.com (slashfilm.com)

We missed this in the madness of Comic Con, but Kevin Smith announced that he is co-writing a new Batman miniseries with pal Walt Flanagan (who View Askewers will know from Walt and Steve-Dave fame: "You Tell Em Steve-Dave!). The three issue mini-series will re-introduce Onomatopoeia, a villain Smith created on his Green Arrow run. Not much is known about the character, only the he can perfectly imitate the sounds around him, rarely speaks and is skilled with weaponry.

While screenwriters in comics is now part of the norm, Smith was one of the first Hollywood writers to cross over to the comic book world with a highly acclaimed run on Daredevil. Smith later lost the good will of comic fans when he became late on a couple issues due to his Hollywood obligations. But apparently the scripts for this upcoming miniseries are already in hand, and the comics will begin hitting stores in November 2008.

Real Estate: Fine print in housing bill mutes benefits to consumers

from MarketWatch.com - Top Stories – Sponsored by: CyberTrader

One of the highlights of the housing bill waiting to be signed by President Bush is a tax credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers. But read a little closer and it doesn't seem quite as appealing for buyers: that credit has to be paid back.

Countrywide Home Loans Wins Consumerist's Worst Company In America Contest [Worst Company In America]

from Consumerist by Ben Popken

Duhn duhn da duhn! Envelope please... yes, America has voted and... the Worst Company in America award goes to.... Countrywide Home Loans (now owned by Bank of America)! The final vote was...

...6098 to 4826, a solid trouncing of Comcast, which had been favored to win by many commenters. After 67 rounds and five months of fierce battling, Countrywide climbed to the top of the poop pile and affirmed its well-deserved status as the absolute nadir of capitalism. It looks like in the end, we all decided that the destruction of a giant chunk of the American economy by greed and fraud was more reprehensible than an unsatisfactory internet experience.

The Lucky Golden Shit award will get shipped to Angelo "Golden Boy" Mozilo, former Countrywide CEO, who steered the ship of financial doom from its inception to the height of its unfettered raping of the American Dream, just as soon as we find a good mailing address for him. The receipt for the Lucky Golden Ship will get mailed to Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis, along with a certificate of completion.

Citibank: Sorry We Illegally Ruined Everything You Own Because Your Landlord Was In Foreclosure [Illegal Evictions]

from Consumerist by Meg Marco

Do you know what your rights are if your landlord is in foreclosure and people show up at your door to try to evict you instead of him? What if they load all your crap onto a truck and lock you out? No? Neither did "Tabitha," a renter whose landlord was in foreclosure and whose possessions were destroyed as movers kept illegally loading them onto and off trucks over and over again.

The nonsense began when attorneys for Citi Residential Lending (now CitiMortgage) obtained a court order to evict Tabitha's landlord from the brownstone that he owned and was renting to Tabitha. To that end, the bank hired a Realtor and the sheriff's office to evict the landlord. The Realtor, "Jax Realtors and REO Group," knew that Tabitha and not her landlord lived in the property, according to the Chicago Reporter, but they decided to evict her anyway, (despite the fact that this is illegal in Illinois.)

and finally:

Meow mix

from Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? by ichctcf

Meow mix

Happiest

from Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? by ichctcf

Happiest Nom Ever

In Cook County, IL I believe we have the highest county tax in the United States so wh the fuck do we put up with this bullshit?

Readers outside IL may or may not care but I am glad our friends at Gawker wrote about this. It is news like this that really hurts the county commissioners that run the county because the residents of Cook County are too stupid to vote them out. I live in Cook County and am offended that Todd Stronger is in office. He represents much of what ails Chicago and Cook County politics: bloat and corruption.

Happy Magazine Shuttered For Bad Grammar, Sad [Mistakes]

from Gawker by Hamilton Nolan

Sick of the negativity rampant in the liberal mainstream media, the Cook County (IL) Board paid $25K to produce its own magazine—one that would ensure "regular, positive press." But the initial run of 5,000 copies, which has already been printed, will never be distributed, because the magazine had too many misspellings and grammatical errors. Your government at work, ladies and gentlemen. "I have to find a way to get rid of them," said the county's spokesperson. Build a fort? It probably won't be too much of a loss, considering:

The cover story is an interview with [Cook County Board president Todd] Stroger that starts by asking him, "How are you feeling these days?" There's also a short obituary for Stroger's late father and predecessor as county board president, John H. Stroger Jr., who died in January. It misspells his name.

[Sun-Times via Folio]

Republicans block heating aid bill and other news....

Female suicide Bombers kill 57, wound 300 in Iraq

from Crooks and Liars by John Amato

The Iraq security forces couldn't stop these attacks.

Female suicide bombers struck a Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad and a Kurdish protest rally in northern Iraq on Monday, killing at least 57 people and wounding nearly 300, police said.

Three women detonated their explosive vests in the middle of pilgrims in Baghdad, moments after a roadside bomb attack, killing at least 32 people and wounding 102, Iraqi officials said.

Authorities clamped a 3 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew on the city, which is home to Kurds, Turkomen, Arabs and smaller groups.

The bombings - among the deadliest this year - were a devastating blow to the Iraqi public's growing confidence in recent security gains that have seen violence in Iraq drop to its lowest levels in more than four years…read on

Chuck Hagel on McCain attack ad: He's "treading on some very thin ground here"

from Crooks and Liars by SilentPatriot

Sens Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed appeared on "Face The Nation" Sunday to talk about their recent trip overseas with Barack Obama, and although they may hail from different political parties, both senators agreed that John McCain's latest misleading ad is divisive and inappropriate.

 Download | Play  Download | Play

Hagel: "I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives and when we start to get into, `You're less patriotic than me. I'm more patriotic.' I admire, respect John McCain very much, I have a good relationship–to this day we do, we talk often. I talked to him right before I went to Iraq, matter of fact. John's better than that."

As he states very clearly, Chuck Hagel has been friends with John McCain for a long time. I think it speaks volumes when even he condemns these ads and says "John's better than that."

The most ironic part about this whole attack against Obama is that while Team McCain is accusing him of disrespecting the troops for not going to see them — which itself is a bald-faced lie — it is actually the McCain campaign who is disrespecting the troops by using them as political pawns. Had Obama made the visit while on the official campaign leg of the trip, he would have been accused of inappropriately using the soldiers for a photo-op. When he correctly decided it was wrong to make the visit while on a political trip, the McCain team then accused him of snubbing our wounded warriors.

In other words, he would have been criticized no matter he did. I'm happy to see senators from both parties willing to point that out and condemn McCain for his opportunistic and shameless smear.

Full transcript below (.pdf):

Novak Diagnosed With Brain Tumor

from Chicagoist by Marcus Gilmer

Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak was diagnosed over the weekend with a brain tumor. Novak was with his wife in Cape Cod, Massachusetts on Sunday visiting his daughter when he fell ill. He was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital where the diagnosis was made. Novak issued the following statement following the diagnosis:

On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I have been admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment. I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period.

Novak, who has been in the news before for controversy, made headlines last week when he struck a pedestrian with his car and continued driving. Doctors say it's too early to tell whether or not the tumor had anything to do with the incident. [Trib, S-T]

Senate Republicans Block Heating Aid Bill

from Truthout - All Articles

    Washington - Republicans on Saturday blocked the Senate from considering a bill next week that would nearly double federal aid to help the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills.

    Although a dozen Senate Republicans support the measure, most voted with GOP leaders who would rather spend the time trumpeting their call to expand offshore oil drilling before Congress takes six weeks off for vacation and the presidential nominating conventions.

read more

Injured vets tell pull Dick Cheney invitation over security demands

Injured vets tell pull Dick Cheney invitation over security demands: "WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney's invitation to address wounded combat veterans next month has been yanked because the group felt his security demands were Draconian and unreasonable.

The veep had planned to speak to the Disabled American Veterans at 8:30 a.m. at its August convention in Las Vegas.

His staff insisted the sick vets be sequestered for two hours before Cheney's arrival and couldn't leave until he'd finished talking, officials confirmed."

Record deficit to greet new president in '09 :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Nation

Record deficit to greet new president in '09 :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Nation: "WASHINGTON -- The White House has increased its estimate for next year's deficit to nearly $490 billion, a record figure that will saddle the next president with deepening budget problems in his first year in office, a report due out today shows.

The projected deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is being driven higher by the continuing economic slowdown and larger than anticipated costs of the two-year, $168 billion fiscal stimulus package passed by Congress, said two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the report.

In February, President Bush predicted the 2009 deficit would be $407 billion."

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com: "For six years, with few exceptions, the Washington press corps has been cheerleading for the Iraq War – and the pattern is continuing in Campaign 2008 with the endless demands that Barack Obama apologize for not supporting the troop “surge.”"

Even further out of the U.S. news media’s frame are uglier realities that Obama doesn’t mention:

--Brutal ethnic cleansing has succeeded in separating Sunnis and Shiites to such a degree that there are fewer targets to kill. Several million Iraqis are estimated to be refugees either in neighboring countries or within their own.

--Concrete walls built between Sunni and Shiite areas have made “death-squad” raids more difficult but also have “cantonized” much of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, making everyday life for Iraqis even more exhausting as they seek food or travel to work.

--Awesome U.S. firepower, concentrated on Iraqi insurgents and civilian bystanders for more than five years now, has slaughtered countless thousands of Iraqis and has intimidated many others to look simply to their own survival.

--With the total Iraqi death toll estimated in the hundreds of thousands and many more Iraqis horribly maimed, the society has been deeply traumatized. As tyrants have learned throughout history, at some point violent repression does work.

BuzzFlash.net - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

BuzzFlash.net - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/25/carbonemissions.c...
sent by protect_democracy since 2 days 4 hours 3 minutes, published about 1 day 15 hours 21 minutes

"Based on the evidence before him, the [EPA] administrator believes it is reasonable to conclude current and future emissions of greenhouse gases will contribute to future climate change," the proposal stated. "The US has a long and populous coastline," the EPA continued. "Sea level rise will continue and exacerbate storm surge flooding and coastline erosion … in areas where heat waves already occur, they are expected to be more intense, more frequent, and longer-lasting." The EPA proposal also predicted that warming temperatures would lead to more wildfires in western US states and "additional strain" on already overtaxed water resources in the dry south-east and western regions.

Big Bucks Buying Supreme Court Decisions? W. Va. Case Is Pending | BuzzFlash.org

Big Bucks Buying Supreme Court Decisions? W. Va. Case Is Pending | BuzzFlash.org: "ampaign Finance -- But We're Talking Judicial Races, Here.

Have you ever donated to the campaign coffers of a Supreme Court justice? Don't assume that others haven't.

Of course, US Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Scalia and company are presidential appointees, which presents problems of its own in terms of political bias. But many Supreme Court justices serving at the state level must run for office. Not surprisingly, corporate lobbyists have jumped into some of those races in a big way.

As The Chicago Tribune reported Monday, corporate campaign donations to state-level candidates for Supreme Court justice slots are soaring. And in some instances, big donations are rolling in from lobbyist/donors that stand to gain a lot from specific decisions that elected justices are slated to make.

The Tribune details troubling big-money judicial races in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana and West Virginia. They note that $165 million has been spent in Supreme Court races nationally in the 1999-207 election cycles. Two candidates, alone, competing for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, spent $6 million combined in their recent contest. Of that, $4.8 million came from 'outside groups.'"

Blackwater Misrepresents Itself as Mom and Pop Inc. to get Government Contracts | BuzzFlash.org

Blackwater Misrepresents Itself as Mom and Pop Inc. to get Government Contracts | BuzzFlash.org: "Pop quiz: Which multi-billion dollar defense contractor is actually classified as a small business? Here's a hint: It's facing a war crimes inquiry and its got 'Worldwide' in its name.

After prompting from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, the inspector general from the Small Business Administration (SBA) concluded in a report released Monday that the security company Blackwater Worldwide may have gotten as much as 39 contracts by misleadingly claiming they are a small business.

Though Blackwater is highly involved in the minutia of everyday operations of its employees (scheduling, etc.) the company tried to claim that the people working security were merely independent contractors, which brought the supposed number of employees down to small business size.

Also questioned in the SBA inspector general's report was revenue limitations. While Blackwater received 32 government contracts that had limited applicants to revenues of $6.5 million or less, the company has earned more than $1 billion in government contracts since 2002, mostly by providing security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McCain flip-flops on "divisive" affirmative action ballot initiatives | BuzzFlash.org

McCain flip-flops on "divisive" affirmative action ballot initiatives | BuzzFlash.org: "After flip-flopping on an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative, John McCain's own campaign will not confirm his position on the issue.

On 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos, McCain said he supported an Arizona ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to ban affirmative action. McCain told Stephanopoulos he does not believe in quotas, a position he has always held.

He has said in the past, however, that he would support affirmative action programs without quotas and that he did not approve of introducing ballot initiatives such as this one. He said of a similar Arizona proposal a decade ago, 'Rather than engage in divisive ballot initiatives, we must have a dialogue and cooperation and mutual efforts together to provide for every child in America to fulfill their expectations.'"

DOJ: Gonzales Aides Violated Federal Law

DOJ: Gonzales Aides Violated Federal Law: "WASHINGTON — Former Justice Department officials broke the law by letting Bush administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, according to an internal investigation released Monday.

For nearly two years, top advisers to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discriminated against applicants for career jobs who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists, the Justice report found.

At times, their search for GOP activists to fill judgeships threatened to clog courts and potentially delay deporting illegal immigrants, the report said."

Justice Dept. Finds Laws Broken in Hiring Inquiry - NYTimes.com

Justice Dept. Finds Laws Broken in Hiring Inquiry - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by letting politics influence the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges at the Justice Department, says an internal report released Monday.

Gonzales was largely unaware of the hiring decisions by two of his most trusted aides, according to the report by Justice's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility.

But it singles out his former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, for violating federal law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists."

Firedoglake » Republicans Vote Against Lower Oil and Gas Prices and for Illegal Immigration and More American Troop Deaths

Firedoglake » Republicans Vote Against Lower Oil and Gas Prices and for Illegal Immigration and More American Troop Deaths: "On Friday Republicans blocked a bill in the Senate meant to give regulators more ability to reign in oil speculation (h/t The Zoo). While there's some dispute how much if any of the price of oil is based on speculation, there's reason to think it could be a lot. And current law means that a lot of oil futures trading is done in such a way that we don't even know how much is being done, let alone if it's having any effect. At this point the current law is effectively 'we don't even look to see if a crime could be occuring.'"

Headlines

Pimping Out America's Coastlines: McCain Gives the Speech, Oil Companies Give Him the Bucks

from Pensito Review by Trish

Straight talkin' maverick John McCain has a knack for sniffing out money. First he married it, now he's trying to sell out America's coastlines for it.

And it's working.

Campaign finance reform expert: "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."

Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban…

McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club…

"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."

How do McCain's handlers react to charges he's a sleezy, spineless, Bush knock-off, money whore?

Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on drilling policy "completely absurd."

…"John McCain takes positions because he thinks it's the right thing to do for America," Rogers said…

Oil and gas executives have not traditionally been a major source of campaign money for McCain.

But they are now. Mission accomplished!

Report: Empty prison in Iraq a $40M 'failure'

from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by Chip

Report: Empty prison in Iraq a $40M 'failure'
By BRIAN MURPHY and PAULINE JELINEK | Yahoo! News

BAGHDAD - In the flatlands north of Baghdad sits a prison with no prisoners. It holds something else: a chronicle of U.S. government waste, misguided planning and construction shortcuts costing $40 million and stretching back to the American overseers who replaced Saddam Hussein.

"It's a bit of a monument in the desert right now because it's not going to be used as a prison," said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, whose office plans to release a report Monday detailing the litany of problems at the vacant detention center in Khan Bani Saad.

read more

More Guns in the News

from Chicagoist by Kevin Robinson

While the city was preparing to buyback nearly 6,000 guns this weekend, some Chicago suburbs are repealing their handgun bans. Morton Grove, who was sued by the National Rifle Association along with Chicago, repealed its handgun ban, and Wilmette has followed suit as well. Daley, however, remained adamant that Chicago would not be next. "I don't look at this lightly—that, 'Oh, because the Supreme Court's done it we're just gonna dismiss it and all of a sudden people can arm themselves,'" he said. "Morton Grove can do anything that it wants."

And while the city is trying to make sure that people aren't arming themselves in their homes, Alderman Dick Mell and former Attorney General Roland Burris were taking advantage of Chicago's firearms registration amnesty. But according to police, few others are. Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond told the Sun-Times that "either the public is unaware or they just haven't had an opportunity to come in and register," noting that only 25 people have come in to re-register so far.

Struggling College Students Turn to Food Banks

from Truthout - All Articles

    Seattle - Just blocks from the University of Washington, a line of people shuffle toward a food pantry, awaiting handouts such as milk and bread.

    For years, the small University District pantry has offered help to the working poor and single parents in this neighborhood of campus rentals. Now rising food prices are bringing another group: Struggling college students.

read more

The Bush Administration's Secret Biowarfare Agenda

from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by davidswanson

By Stephen Lendman

When it comes to observing US and international laws, treaties and norms, the Bush administration is a serial offender. Since 2001, it's:

-- spurned efforts for nuclear disarmament to advance its weapons program and retain current stockpiles;

-- renounced the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and asserted the right to develop and test new weapons;

-- abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) because it expressly forbids the development, testing and deployment of missile defenses like its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and other programs;

-- refuses to adopt a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) that would prohibit further weapons-grade uranium and plutonium production and prevent new nuclear weapons to be added to present stockpiles - already dangerously too high;

read more

Flip-Flopping On Oil Drilling Proves Lucrative For McCain

from Crooks and Liars by Nicole Belle

Popout

WaPo: 

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban — compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.

McCain said the policy reversal came as a response to rising voter anger over soaring energy prices. At the time, about three-quarters of voters responding to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said prices at the pump were causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.[..]

McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.

"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.  Of course, John McCain has been getting substantial donations from lobbyists all along.  Methinks this report "Embedded or In Bed: John McCain and His Lobbyist Problem" (.pdf) needs to be updated. 

BooMan and JedReport has more…