Rep. Ryan: Democrats have a ‘right’ to use budget reconciliaton. from Think Progress

Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration have floated using "budget reconciliation" to pass health care reform -- where only 51 votes would be required for approval of a bill -- to bypass the increasing number of Republican filibuster threats. In response, Senate Republicans have said they would "grind the Senate to a virtual halt"; Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) explained that reconciliation would be "the nuclear war." Today, GOP up-and-comer Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), however, said it is Democrats' "right" to use budget reconciliation:

"It's their right. They did win the election," said Ryan, R-Wis. "That's what I tell all my constituents who are worried about this. They won the election. They did run on these ideas. They did run on nationalizing health care. So, you're right about that. They have the votes with reconciliation. They nailed down the process so that they can make sure they have the votes and that they can get this thing through really fast. It is their right. It is what they can do."

Notably, much of President Bush's agenda was passed in Republican-controlled Congresses using budget reconciliation. At the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky writes that reconciliation is the key to achieving health care reform.

Obama Tells Lawmakers in Private Meetng He won't Support Torture Probe from TPR: The Public Record

President Barack Obama has backtracked on statements he made earlier this week in which he indicated he was open to a 9/11-type commission to investigate the Bush administration's use of torture, telling lawmakers at a meeting at the White House Thursday he now doesn't support the idea.

Underscoring Obama's new stance on the issue, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters: "the president determined the concept didn't seem altogether workable in this case."
"The last few days might be evidence of why something like this might just become a political back and forth," Gibbs said.

Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also said on Thursday he no longer supported the idea of an independent panel to investigate torture. Reid said the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been "reviewing" the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program to determine whether the techniques were effective in thwarting terrorist plots against the U.S., should continue its work. The intelligence committee's chairman, Dianne Feinstein, said her committee expects to complete its review in six to eight months.

"I think it would be very unwise, from my perspective, to start having commissions, boards, tribunals, until we find out what the facts are," Reid said. "And I don't know a better way of getting the facts than through the Intelligence Committee."

On Tuesday, in a departure from statements he has made since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Obama said he was open to the idea of a 9/11-type bipartisan commission to probe the Bush administration's torture policies, but he said he was concerned "about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively, and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations."

But that changed over the past two days as Republicans stepped up their criticism of Obama in numerous op-ed columns in major publications and on cable news programs.

Republicans have hammered Obama since he decided to release four "torture" memos last week from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that authorized CIA interrogators  to waterboard and brutally beat "high-value" detainees.

On Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee released a long-awaited report that show the seeds for the Bush administration's policy of torture were planted in December 2001, nearly a year before the Justice Department issued its first legal opinion. The report states that the creation of the policy involved senior Bush administration officials officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In a statement accompanying the report, committee chairman Carl Levin said he has recommended that Attorney General Eric Holder "select a distinguished individual or individuals - either inside or outside the Justice Department, such as retired federal judges - to look at the volumes of evidence relating to treatment of detainees, including evidence in the Senate Armed Services Committee's report, and to recommend what steps, if any, should be taken to establish accountability of high-level officials - including lawyers."

At a congressional hearing Thursday, Holder told lawmakers that he would not "permit the criminalization of policy differences. However, it is my responsibility as the attorney general to enforce the law.

"If I see wrongdoing, I will pursue it to the full extent of the law," Holder said.

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is due to release a report that is said to be critical of former attorneys who created the legal framework for the White House's torture policy.

Other Democratic lawmakers who have stepped up their calls for an independent investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Sen. Russ Feingold, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler.

Conyers and Leahy have both formally proposed an independent commission to probe the Bush administration's interrogation tactics. But Conyers has also said that Holder should appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a probe simulataneously.

On Thursday, civil liberties groups presented Holder with a petition signed by 250,000 people demanding he appoint a special prosecutor to further probe the policy of torture enacted by the Bush administration.

But at the White House meeting Thursday, attended by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including Pelosi and Rep. John Boehner, Obama said he would not support any attempt to investigate the Bush administration's "war on terror" policies.

Whether Congress decides to act in defiance of Obama's wishes remains to be seen.

Trader Joe's Salmon Comes With Delectable Organic Free-Range Worm [Gross] from Consumerist

Reader David was eating his dinner of Trader Joe's Chimichurri salmon when he found an unexpected garnish: a rather dead and fully cooked worm. It was brown and roughly an inch long. He e-mailed the company, then brought the fish (and worm) back to the store for a refund. While the store supervisor's handling of the situation was stellar, the reaction from Trader Joe's corporate has been...nonexistent.

Last Friday (April 17th), he wrote to Consumerist:

The other day, I was enjoying some Trader Joe's Chimichurri Salmon. I have been eating this for the past couple years, and it is actually pretty tasty.

Needless to say, I was a bit perturbed when, on my second to last bite, I noticed a little brown thing curled up on the fish. After further inspection, I discovered the little brown thing to be some sort of worm.

Utterly disgusted, I sent an email to TJ's. This was Wed night. I have yet to hear back. However, not wanting to wait for a reply, I called the store and spoke to a wonderfully apologetic supervisor. He told me to, if possible, bring the fish (and worm) into the store so they could have their people research it. The following day, I brought our little friend and fish in and spoke with the same supervisor. He promptly refunded my money and told me to pick out any bottle of wine. While I was deciding on a bottle, he also brought over a bouquet of flowers. Certainly a nice gesture. I figure it is important to report on good customer service as well as the bad and wanted to inform your readers of how TJ's does value its customers. Or at least the individual stores!

This week, I wrote back to David to see whether he had learned anything about the origin of the worm, and whether other customers could be affected. Nothing from Trader Joe's yet. Hats off to the local store, but why, after more than a week, hasn't he heard back?

Republicans Threaten To Become Bigger Assholes from Open Left - Front Page

If Democrats provide cheaper and more accessible health care to Americans, Republicans have promised to publicly turn themselves into the biggest partisan assholes of the last forty years.

Seriously. That is the actual political calculation Senate Democrats face on health care reform right now. It is the most obvious win-win political calculation Democrats have been presented with during my entire lifetime.

If Democrats use the budget reconciliation process, which denies Republicans a filibuster option, to invest two-thirds of a trillion dollars into health care, Republicans are "threatening" to do the following:

The GOP might first go after White House nominations. Republicans could require each appointee to get a separate hearing and a separate roll call vote. They could stop attending committee hearings, and decline to provide "unanimous consent" to move forward on even the most benign issues or routine Senate business. Republicans could also demand that the text of bills, which are often hundreds of pages long, be read aloud.

Yeah, that will really be a big electoral winner for Republicans. While Democrats give Americans cheaper and more affordable health care, Republicans give America extreme partisan gridlock. Oh please, please don't do this to us Republicans! How can we Democrats ever survive as a political party if Republicans were to engage in such brilliant political tactics?

Even Republicans know that these tactics won't work. If they did think that these gridlock tactics were a good idea, then they would be using them right now. The last three months have largely been dominated by Democrats passing legislation that Republicans claim they hate. As such, why didn't Republicans use these tactics to stop that legislation? Oh, that's right--because they knew that using these tactics to stop legislation that Americans want would make them look like even bigger assholes than they already are.

This isn't a threat from Republicans. This is handing Democrats a third consecutive landslide election on a silver platter. We would be idiotic not to take the opportunity and run.

Late Night: Only Socialism Can Save Conservatives Now from Firedoglake

Conservatives have nothing left but socialism. As a form of name calling, of course, not as policy. They don't do policy anymore, if they ever did, which they didn't, apart from "start wars and cut taxes," which is unfortunately more a spasmodic symptom (the disease known as "stupidity") than a program for responsible government, when you get right down to it. Not that name calling has been working out very well for them lately. But of course, in Greater Wingnuttia, the absence of ponies is merely a surefire sign that you need to shovel shit faster. Hence:

Republican state party leaders are rebelling against new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele for failing to dub President Obama and the Democrats as "socialists." And the rebels insist that the label matters.

Even though Mr. Steele has called his Democratic adversaries "collectivists," at least 16 state leaders say the term lacks the pejorative punch needed to sway public opinion and want all 168 members of the Republican National Committee to debate and vote on it.

Right, because that's their problem, that Michael Steele isn't saying "socialism" enough. Or "fascism," even.

Their problem is that they are crazy. That would be the long and the short of it. And you sort of have to gaze in wonder at the slightly less crazy crazies who are dubious about the name-calling approach, like this puppy-Malkin, or Stratass, or, Lord help 'em, Charles Johnson (to whom I will never link, even by bankshot). Because "slightly less crazy" does not mean "not crazy." And because of the total failure to understand that the vaunted Conservative Messaging Machine has created powerful disincentives to not be crazy. Look, even 20% of the population is a lot of people, and 20% of the population happens to be comprised of shithead mouthbreathing hardcore wingnuts of the sort who think Sean Hannity isn't an asshole. You can get rich off the crazy, you know. Is it insane to think Tim McVeigh was obeying Bin Laden? Yes! But so? Will this video make money? Yes! Will shit like that help wingnuts get back every branch of government? No! That would be insane! But, again, ... so?

"Conservatism" now isn't about winning elections. It's about making hucksters rich. That the most successful and well paid hucksters (Hannity, Limbaugh, Ailes) are probably also quite sincere hardly changes anything. The crazy made them rich. Why dial it down just because it won't win the GOP any elections anytime in the foreseeable future? That would create cash flow problems.

It's interesting that we have the photo negative problem over here on the left, where a fuck of a lot of us who have had a fuck of a lot to do with the Democrats actually winning elections aren't exactly rolling in the dough right about now. Like freedom, sanity and principle aren't free, I suppose, but they sure seem to not pay very well.

The Myth Of Lenny Dykstra Completely Unravels [Lenny Dykstra] from Deadspin

ESPN's Mike Fish punctures the final holes into Lenny Dykstra's supposed financial genius with swift, purposeful blows. Hopefully, this is the last we'll hear about Dykstra for a long, long time.

The benefit of the doubt everyone from Bernard Goldberg to The New Yorker gave Dykstra last year about his investments, Fish shows all the evidence that completely undermines those stories with disturbing facts. One of the most disturbing: Dykstra recently used his mother's credit card to charge $23,000 to order to charter a plane ride back to his home in California from Cleveland. She has not been paid back. Nor have his brothers, many of his business partners, and plenty of other people who became seduced by Dykstra's supposed business acumen. Although it's not quite Madoffian, Dykstra's financial recklessness is lengthy and deliberate, dating back to his car wash days.

Some of the carnage:

• "Just in the past two years, Dykstra has been the subject of at least 24 legal actions, including 18 since November. Three suits hit the courts on Jan. 29. He's been sued by publishers and print companies, by three different groups of pilots and by a Maryland-based financial and litigation consulting firm that offered expert testimony on his behalf in an earlier lawsuit. He's even been sued by a die-hard Mets fan who was the best man at his wedding 20-some years ago, though that New York investor claims there is no bad blood."

• "Dr. Festus Dada, a Nigerian-born gastric bypass specialist, who filed a fraud/breach of contract suit and alleges Dykstra kept a $500,000 deposit after a deal fell apart to purchase a Southern California car wash and retail center then owned by Dykstra. Dada walked away from the transaction, claiming in the suit that Dykstra had made significant changes to the final escrow agreement, including the insertion of a five-year contract for Dykstra's old Phillies teammate, Pete Incaviglia, to serve as general manager under the new ownership."

• "Two Players Club vice presidents filed claims for unpaid wages after they quit in January. The Minneapolis-based firm hired to design his Players Club Web site alleges Dykstra stiffed it on a $1 million contract, and then bounced two separate $125,000 checks."

• "Dykstra borrowed $250,000 from New York literary agent David Vigliano last May with an agreement to repay him $300,000 in November — a robust 40 percent annual percentage rate. Vigliano filed suit after Dykstra didn't come up with the money."

• "The high-powered global law firm K&L Gates, which waged many of the legal skirmishes on Dykstra's behalf, withdrew its representation late last year because it was "not paid current," according to his former lead counsel, David Schack."

• "The Gretzky estate that Dykstra bought for $18.5 million — he planned to flip it for a sweet profit before the housing market belly flopped — now sits vacant and is listed at $16.5 million. According to public records, four notes and deeds of trust are held against the property, totaling more than $13 million. One of the note holders, Index Investors LLC, filed a default notice in March, alleging Dykstra was behind on his payments in the amount of $422,436."

That's not all. Fish isn't charitable at all with Dykstra's unpolished demeanor — the dude-isms, the farts, the loopy mannerisms — and keeps them in the proper context at all times.

What's sad is that I know people who have their money tied up in Dykstra's "Nails On The Numbers" financial scheme. The newsletter costs $1,000 a year and is something that Dykstra has handed off to many of his magazine employees in lieu of actual payment for work. One person — a well known newspaperman — swears up and down that he's made money from Lenny's options picking. But this person has also been enmeshed in all of the magazine chaos that Kevin Coughlin highlighted in the GQ article last month. I asked this individual if that article was accurate and he said, if anything, it didn't come close to revealing some of the bizarre things Dykstra pulled with The Player's Club: non-payment, constant dropping of racial epithets, overpaid employees, underpaid employees, and an utter lack of any sort of editorial vision or oversight. It's a disaster of epic proportions and is hurting a lot of people Dykystra's used everyone in his family to funnel money and, according to my friend, paid him for one story out of the checking account from his son, Cutter Dykstra. Here is a copy of one of the recent "Nails On The Numbers" newsletters. This is what you get:

Go make money, dudes!

Bottom line is — Lenny Dykstra is a reprehensible human being. He lives, as Fish says, in a fantasy world. And he's been very successful at deluding people into thinking that they too will become millionaires if they stick by him. Some people have made money, but many have not and have not been paid and have lost precious time working for that stupid magazine to take off . Hopefully, for the rest of his life, people will finally realize that Dykstra is every bit the fraud he's always appeared to be.

UPDATE: A finance expert dissects "Nails On the Numbers"

FYI - I find it either hard to believe your buddy has made money with Lenny or was just straight lucky. Anyone who has more than a basic understanding of options quickly realizes that Lenny's strategy is inherently flawed. In many ways his strategy is similar to Blackjack's Martingale betting system. The result is you rack up a large number of winners (e.g 99 times out out 100). The problem is that the one lose quite often wipes out the winnings of all your other trades. Look in the scorecard that Lenny posted and you will see that the Amdoc's loss nearly does that. Lenny even tried to pull some bullshit with that as shown here:

Other problems that occur is he doesn't mark his portfolio - so even through he realized $56,000 in wins, he could be sitting on $200,000 of unrealized losses, but he would still claim he is making money. He even says it is not a loss until you take it. (Under that theory, he hasn't lost anything on Wayne's house). He also doesn't actually trade his recommendations. That creates an interesting scenario where Lenny could "own" 250 option contracts in his newsletter and there might only be 1000 in existence. When one contract sells at his price he counts all he owns as sold. Great in theory, but in reality it doesn't work as you probably wouldn't be able to get that large of a trade executed at your price (without slippage).

Dykstra's Business: A Bed Of "Nails" [ESPN]

Lawrence Summers Is Asleep at All Times [Naps] from Gawker

Financial genius Lawrence Summers, the man who is saving our economy, fell asleep at a White House meeting today. Again!

Cause remember, back in February Lawrence Summers fell asleep at a "fiscal responsibility summit." NOT THAT THAT'S AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT OR ANYTHING, LARRY, EH? Why doesn't Larry Summers get eight hours of sleep per night as recommended?

Here he is waking up.

Oh, he fell asleep again.

[Pics: Getty]

How Comcast Bought Its Way Into Boing Boing's Good Graces [Blogging For Dollars] from Gawker

Until today, if edgy digerati blog Boing Boing mentioned Comcast, it was with a sneer that was practically house style. Suddenly Boing Boing has fallen in love with the "bumbing, evil" cable guys. Why? Money.

Boing Boing blogger David Pescovitz writes about Comcast Town, a virtual world:

Comcast (a BB sponsor) ...

We stopped reading there, too. Pescovitz invites users to judge Boing Boing's entry into Comcast's virtual-world contest. Readers are eager to judge Boing Boing, but not about that.

They have wasted no time reminding Pescovitz of the only Comcast stories they're prepared to hear: Tales of FCC hearings packed with Comcast shills, installers falling asleep on Comcast customers' couches, and the evils of Comcast's war on file sharing and other bandwidth-heavy uses of their network.

It makes everyone look stupid: The Boing Boingers, for thinking they could take Comcast's money and escape criticism; Comcast, for entering the lion's den already smeared in blood; and Boing Boing readers, for thinking the blog had any credibility left to get up in arms about. We'll give the Boingers this much: At least it wasn't a promo for their latest book.

Greenwald: "Jane Harman: Angry, partisan, civil liberties extremist"

from http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/22/greenwald-jane-harma.html

Rep. Jane Harman (D-California) thinks warrantless wiretaps are swell. Now she is upset that the government eavesdropped on her private conversations. I guess she must be mad that they used a warrant. From Salon's Glenn Greenwald:

So if I understand this correctly -- and I'm pretty sure I do -- when the U.S. Government eavesdropped for years on American citizens with no warrants and in violation of the law, that was "both legal and necessary" as well as "essential to U.S. national security," and it was the "despicable" whistle-blowers (such as Thomas Tamm) who disclosed that crime and the newspapers which reported it who should have been criminally investigated, but not the lawbreaking government officials. But when the U.S. Government legally and with warrants eavesdrops on Jane Harman, that is an outrageous invasion of privacy and a violent assault on her rights as an American citizen, and full-scale investigations must be commenced immediately to get to the bottom of this abuse of power. Behold Jane Harman's overnight transformation from Very Serious Champion of the Lawless Surveillance State to shrill civil liberties extremist.

Jane Harman: Angry, partisan, civil liberties extremist

Christian fundamentalists hijack Singaporean feminist group

from http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/23/christian-fundamenta.html

AWARE, a 25-year-old Singaporean women's right organization, recently found itself in turmoil after a coup orchestrated by conservative fundamentalist Christians who signed up in large numbers just before the annual general meeting, then elected a new executive that immediately purged the organization of all its traditional leadership down to the subcommittee chairs.

AWARE held its annual general meeting (AGM) on 28 March 2009. There were over 100 people present. Of them, about 80 had only joined the organisation between January and March, one to three months before the meeting. Nine out of 12 executive committee (EXCO) places, including four Office Bearer positions, went to newcomers, who were voted in by wide majorities. There are wide-ranging suspicions that this "leadership grab" has been orchestrated by a well-organised group who do not share AWARE's values and who are seeking to use the name and the resources of a well-respected institution to further their own agenda. These concerns have been expressed not only by onlookers, but by older members of Aware...

# The new president, Josie Lau and 5 other Exco members belong to the same church, Church of Our Saviour. Given this, it is very likely, in our view, that they have acted in concert to take over AWARE. We do not know why as they have refused to disclose their reasons to either members of AWARE or to the press and this makes us even more worried. They, or persons whom they have been associated with, have written homophobic letters to the press. While that is their personal conviction to which they are entitled, we do not want AWARE to be made into a vehicle for any hidden agenda.

# Josie Lau, was in charge of the DBS Charity Drive in support of Focus On The Family, US-based Christian organisation that is opposed to abortion and equal rights for sexual minorities. This created a controversy last year which was well-documented.

# 160 members, including former AWARE committee members and founder members, petitioned for an extraordinary general meeting to consider a vote of no confidence in the New Exco on the basis that the New Exco has not acted and is not acting in the best interest of AWARE; does not appreciate or share the values of AWARE and does not have the requisite experience of carrying out AWARE's work or is otherwise inadequate to further AWARE's objectives. An EGM will be held on 2 May 2009.

WHAT HAPPENED (via IZ Reloaded)

UAE royal caught torturing man on video

from http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/23/uae-royal-caught-tor.html

A video showing a member of the United Arab Emirates' royal family torturing a man with whips, electrocution and a nail-spiked board has been released. The Minister of the Interior (one of the torturer's brothers) reviewed the recording and concluded "all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department."

A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man's wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.

In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.

ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh (via Digg)

Like All Great Presidents, Obama Has a Terrible and Embarrassing Brother from Gawker

Barack Obama's half-brother, Samson Obama, was reportedly arrested in England last November for attempting to sexually assault a 13-year-old girl.

Samson Obama is one of Barack Obama's eleven half-siblings; they share a father. He lives in Kenya, but in November, according to the News of the World, British police arrested him for harassing a group of girls in Berkshire:

Samson - who manages a mobile phone shop just outside Nairobi - was the same man arrested by British police after he approached a group of young girls, including a 13 year-old, and allegedly tried to sexually assault one of them.

He then followed them into a cafe where he became aggressive and was asked to leave by the owner. That's when police were called and Samson was arrested.

Samson gave the arresting officers a false identity, according to the paper, claiming to be a political asylum-seeker. He was not charged with a crime, and left the country soon after the incident.

But in January, while he was on his way from Kenya to the United States for his half-brother's inauguration, Samson tried to stop over in England to visit relatives. When he applied for a visa, British officials ran his fingerprints through a database and discovered that he was the same handsy Kenyan that cops had arrested in Berkshire back in November. They denied him a visa, and the guy who wasn't good enough to even step foot in the UK continued on to America to hang out with the president of the United States.

The Rotten, Horrible People of Palm Beach, Florida [Kill The Rich] from Gawker

The New York Times' David Segal has gone to Palm Beach, the collapsing redoubt of vile and petty aristocrats, and brings an alternatively joyous and revolting tale of corroded souls and disappearing fortunes.

There has been much reportage on Palm Beach lately, both as ground zero of Bernie Madoff's crimes and as a barometer of the recession's impact, such as it is, on ostentatious wealth. But nothing so far has captured so well the mixture of entitlement, defensiveness, and rank opportunism on display among those in the overclass who, having lost fortunes yet remaining wealthy beyond all reason, feel permitted to participate in the national sense of despair over our calamity. Segal describes it as "catastrophic loss in the midst of spectacular plenty," but the loss in question is, in most cases, the diminution of a marginal amount of wealth that afforded its owners not things—they already had enough to buy whatever they wanted—but a sense of self. When he asked a local shop owner why local millionaires have cut back on jewelry purchases even though they could still afford them, he answers that "you'd need a shrink to get to the bottom of it."

Or a burning cop car. It stirs the blood to revolution. Here's an extended passage, from Segal's canvassing of ludicrously high-end retailers along Palm Beach's Worth Avenue (pictured above) to find out how shrinking hedge fund accounts have impacted sales of $6,800 jackets:

At a men's store called Crease Liberty, a longtime customer recently told Jennifer Inga, a saleswoman, that he wouldn't be buying anything for a while, because his net worth had dropped to $12 million from $30 million.

"He said, 'Now is not the time.' It's mind-boggling to me," Ms. Inga said. "How can someone with $12 million feel like they can't afford a new pair of pants?"

As she was talking, another businessman, Bruce Beal of Boston, came out of a dressing room, barefoot, in a pair of trousers he was trying on. He'd overheard the question and he had a very detailed answer.

He imagined a hypothetical couple, in their 60s, who started last year with $15 million—one-third with Madoff, one-third in the stock market and one-third in bonds. The Madoff millions are gone; the stock market money is down 40 percent. Maybe they've got $350,000 a year in income from bonds and dividends.

They've also got expenses. "Taxes and maintenance on their New York co-op and their Palm Beach house are $150,000 a year. They belong to two country clubs, at $50,000." Plus taxes, living expenses, medical, cars, charitable commitments. And perhaps they have children and grandchildren who depend on them.

"It doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to see how these people feel poor," Mr. Beal says. "One feels poor the day you spend a dollar more than your income."

Soon after, a man who Ms. Inga says is a member of the Palm Beach Country Club - where the initiation fee is reportedly $300,000 - entered the store. He looked over the merchandise on sale, then turned to the full-price stuff and asked for a 50 percent discount.

Blood will run in the streets, brothers and sisters. There's much more, including some great anti-semetism and an encounter with Madoff's $2,000 pants. Read it.

Two Days After Defending Waterboarding, Lieberman Now Claims He’s ‘Strongly Opposed’ To It from Think Progress

In a letter to President Obama today, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) asked him to resist prosecuting Bush administration officials who wrote legal memos authorizing torture. "Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects," wrote the three senators.

Acknowledging that the Office of Legal Counsel memos were "deeply flawed," the three senators claim that they have always been "strongly opposed" to torturous interrogation tactics like waterboarding:

We disagree, however, with Administration statements suggesting that the lawyers who provided such counsel may now be open to prosecution. Some of the legal analysis included in the OLC memos released last week was, we believe, deeply flawed. We have also strongly opposed the overly coercive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that these memos deemed legal. We do not believe, however, that legal analysis should be criminalized, as proposals to prosecute government lawyers suggest.

The idea that Lieberman would sign his name to a letter claiming that he has always been "strongly opposed" to waterboarding is surprising. In fact, just two days ago, he told Fox News that in some situations "we ought to be able to use something like waterboarding":

Q: First of all, is waterboarding torture?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I take a minority position on this. Most people think it's definitely torture. The truth is, it has mostly a psychological impact on people. It's a terrible thing to do. ... I want the president of the United States in a given circumstance where we believe somebody we've got in our control may have information that could help us stop an attack, an imminent attack on the United States like 9/11 or, god forbid, worse, we ought to be able to use something like waterboarding.

Watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSceMUiORbU

In the past, Lieberman has defended the use of waterboarding in select situations. "You want to be able to use emergency tech to try to get the information out of that person," said Lieberman, adding that "it is not like putting burning coals on people's bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological."

GOP: Party Of No New Faces from Daily Kos

The Hill's Reid Wilson reports that the DNC's latest branding effort is particularly vicious: they seek to paint the GOP as a party under the erratic stewardship of guys like Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove.

Though none of the Three Stooges actually holds any position of power or significance any more, they can't seem to resist getting up on TV at every opportunity, so the branding effort may have legs:

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday released a Web ad featuring Cheney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Bush political strategist Karl Rove. The ad characterizes the trio as the face of the Republican Party.

"Meet the new GOP," the ad says. "Same as the old GOP."

"We're going to come back to this repeatedly," said DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse. "It's a growing theme: Party of no, party of no new ideas, and now party of no new leaders."

Will it work? The Republicans are awfully worried that it will. Emphasis added:

"The conservatism of the 21st century should be divorced from personality politics and simply be about ideas," said Craig Shirley, a biographer of former President Reagan. "But since the GOP appears to be bankrupt of ideas, this line of attack will be effective from the standpoint of putting them on the defensive again."

Yikes.

Things are not coming up Milhouse for the GOP, when even Saint Ronnie biographers concede that the party is bereft of ideas or direction..

Late Nite: A Wingnut and His Money are Really Easily Parted from Firedoglake

An infection more tenacious than the most virulent strain of tuberculosis is headed toward New Jersey:

TRENTON, NJ (AP) -- Joe the Plumber will be stumping for a New Jersey Republican who is running for governor.
. . .
Lonegan's campaign is charging $1,000 for a private meeting with the one-time plumber and the candidate.

Okay, I give up. What drooling half-wit is going to part with a thousand ameros for the "opportunity" to listen to this walking political cold sore extemporize on the devilish intricacies of the Internal Revenue Code, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or any other errant subject that might mistakenly wander into his cranial dead zone? Is it really worth $1,000 to hear him tell you that he's horny?

And then, at the other end of the spectrum, the rich, incestuous wingnuts continue to financially reward their own dauphins. Today we learned that Bill Kristol, the Jethro Bodine of the Conservative Set, the monomaniac PNAC groupie who cozied his way into a column for the New York Times, received an award for . . . something:

Kristol, the dumb son of a smart conservative who went crazy, is a lazy thinker, a terrible writer, and, as we mentioned, he has always been completely wrong about everything.

So because there is essentially an extensive and quite well-funded private welfare fund for hacks who get everything wrong, the Bradley Foundation is going to straight-up give him $250,000 for no fucking reason.

Two hundred and fifty grand sure does buy a lot of cocktail weenies.

But let's not forget those right-wing organizations that are willing to burn $150,000 to hear George W. Bush reminisce on his "joyous" eight years as President of the United States. . . .

Jeezus. And people call the lottery a tax on the innumerate? That scratch-off ticket is still a sounder investment than a night with Joe the Plumber.

Contact ING Direct Executive Customer Service [Phone Numbers] from Consumerist

ceocorner@ingdirect.com Office of the CEO, Arkadi Kuhlmann
rroberts@ingdirect.com - Rick Roberts, assistant to Kuhlmann
302-255-3704 - Rick Roberts direct dial

Amazon Deletes Reviews That Mention Pay For Play Review Schemes [Amazon] from Consumerist

After buying an anti-snoring mouthpiece from a third-party seller on Amazon, reader Bob received an email from the company offering him a free mouthpiece in exchange for a five-star review. He noted this attempted bribe in his Amazon review, and Amazon deleted it. Twice.

After his review was deleted the second time, he got in touch with Amazon customer service to find out what the problem was. The rep told Bob that his review "didn't follow [Amazon's] posting guidelines," and suggested an edited version that was only one sentence and didn't mention the bribe.

Bob wrote back and asked for more clarification, explaining his problems with a company offering gifts in exchange for positive reviews, and asking Amazon whether they supported sellers giving free stuff to customers who write five-star reviews generally, and in this particular case, whether Amazon was ethically and legally okay with letting fake five-star reviews of a medical product (that other reviews had complained caused pain and discomfort) influence a customer's decision.

Amazon wrote back, ignoring the ethical question and writing only that "we do not post comments regarding time specific material, for example about the sellers, price, sourcing, experience with the website other than review of this item and experience with the product in our Customer Reviews." Amazon also suggested another edited version of the review, which again left out any mention of bribed reviews.

We don't like this at all. Amazon's review system is already such a mess that it's hard to know who to trust. We've also seen that it's not just small third-party sellers that do fake, bribed, or paid reviews; computer accessory maker Belkin was caught paying for reviews earlier this year. If Amazon is now going to delete or edit reviews that mention the shenanigans, consumers will be even less confident that the product they're looking at is rated honestly and fairly.

Rose is NBA's Top Rookie from Chicagoist

from http://chicagoist.com/2009/04/22/rose_is_nbas_top_rookie.php

AP Photo/Stephan Savoia

Some great - if not sorta unsurprising - news for Bulls fans as the team will announce at a 2 p.m. press conference today that rookie sensation Derrick Rose is the NBA's 2008-2009 Rookie of the Year. Rose started 80 of the Bulls 82 games, averaging 37 minutes per game. For the season, he averaged 16.8 points a game (second amongst rookies), 6.3 assists a game (first amongst rookies), and 3.9 rebounds a game. Rose provided a much-needed energy for the Bulls and showed an immediate impact, no only helping them back to the postseason, but also so far in the postseason, where his 36 point performance in game one against the Celtics propelled the Bulls to an upset win. Rose is the third Bull to win the award, after Elton Brand and His Royal Airness. But there won't be much time to celebrate as the Bulls host the Celtics in a pivotal game three of their first-round playoff series tomorrow night. [Tribune, ESPN]

Dow Chemical-Sponsored Walleye Festival to Donate Toxic Fish to Food Banks from The Washington Independent

from http://washingtonindependent.com/39948/dow-chemical-sponsored-walleye-festival-to-donate-toxic-fish-to-food-banks

It's Earth Day, and over at TWI's sister site, The Michigan Messenger, Eartha Jane Melzer reports that dioxin-contaminated fish caught from the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers during an annual Walleye Festival sponsored by Dow Chemical could find its way to the dinner tables of poor people.

This year's event features a Special Olympics hot dog cook-out, a teen dance and battle of the bands, a rummage sale and beer tent. But the centerpiece of the festival is the walleye tournament — a competition to see who can catch the largest fish from the river.

Doyle said that the people fishing for walleye are aware of the state fish advisories. "The fishermen all know about the advisories 'cause they are posted when you buy a permit," he said.

"We don't serve any walleye caught in river," he said, adding that the fish served during the Friday evening fish fry is "probably pollock." Doyle estimates that 80 percent of the Walleye Fest competitors will keep and use the fish they catch.

"Other people donate them to food banks," he said. "If people don't want the fish we will filet the fish and donate them to different food organizations that want them."

Dioxin remediation work three miles downstream from Freeland in Saginaw Township's West Michigan Park will not impact the river-wide festival, Doyle said.

In 2001, the National Institute of Health listed the family of chemicals known as dioxins as "known human carcinogens" — and while the jury is still out on the chemicals' level of toxicity, a 2003 Environmental Protection Agency report said dioxin is a "dangerous carcinogen."

You can read Eartha Jane's full story here.

Hearing footsteps: Rove sounds freaked out at notion of torture prosecutions from Crooks and Liars

from http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/hearing-footsteps-rove-freaks-out

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Karl was positively freaking out yesterday afternoon over the prospect that some of his ex-colleagues at the White House might wind up being prosecuted -- or held responsible publicly -- for helping George W. Bush install a torture regime during his tenure, after President Obama's statement earlier in the day indicating he'd leave the decision up to the Attorney General.

Rove, appearing on Sean Hannity's Fox News show, was particularly frantic -- and when Rove gets frantic, he gets nasty:

Rove: Sure, as long as they've released the limits to which America will go to extract this information, let's share the information that was extracted, and saved America from further attacks. We know, for example -- it's already a part of the public record -- that the interrogation of these high-value targets kept them from being able to attack Los Angeles by flying airplanes into the Liberty tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles, which was one of their plans.

But look, let's step back for a minute. What the Obama administration has done in the last several days is very dangerous. What they've essentially said is, If we have policy disagreements with our predecessors, what we're going to do is we're going to turn ourselves into the moral equivalent of a Latin American country run colonels in mirrored sunglasses. And what we're going to do is prosecute, systematically, the previous administration, or threaten prosecutions against the previous administration, based on policy differences.

Is that what we've come to in this country? That if we have a change in administration from one party to another, that we then use the tools of the government to go systematically after the policy disagreements that we have with the previous administration? Now that may be fine in some little Latin American country that's run by, you know, the latest junta. It may be the way that they do things in Chicago. But that's not the way we do things here in America.

Hmmmm. Last I looked, Chicago was here in America.

But more to the point: Karl's sounding like someone who's already looking over his shoulder at congressional subpoenas.

And even more to the point: Sorry, Karl, but working for the White House is not a Get Out of Jail Free card. If you broke the law -- and particularly if you and your pals are war criminals according to American law for having not merely permitted but avidly constructed a torture regime -- the appropriate justice needs meting out.

Of course, we keep hearing about how Torture Saved Us From Terrorists -- notably the overhyped and debunked "Los Angeles Tower plot."

Funny thing about that -- back in 2006, it was Wiretapping Saved Us From Terrorists.

Yes, the same overhyped "plot."

Rove will have to do better than that if he wants to stay ahead of those rapidly gaining footsteps.

IMF: 'Deeper' recession ahead from Raw Story Breaking News

from http://rawstory.com/news/2008/IMF_forecasts_severe_global_recession_in_0422.html

Global economy set to decline 1.3% in '09, 1st recession since WW2.

WASHINGTON – The International Monetary Fund Wednesday forecast the global economy will contract a punishing 1.3 percent this year because the financial crisis is proving more entrenched than expected.

"The global economy is in a severe recession inflicted by a massive financial crisis and acute loss of confidence," the IMF said in its semi-annual World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.

The IMF warned the outlook was "exceptionally uncertain," with risks weighing on the downside, in its assessment that the world economy was sliding into "the deepest post-World War II recession by far."

It was the third time the IMF has slashed its 2009 world growth estimate this year. In January, the multilateral institution saw growth of 0.5 percent, but by March it had forecast a contraction of between 0.5 percent and 1.0 percent.

According to IMF economists, the global economic and financial crisis will hammer the advanced economies the hardest, with their gross domestic product (GDP) -- a measure of a country's goods and services output -- shrinking at an annual rate of 3.8 percent this year.

Emerging market and developing countries would generate weak growth of 1.6 percent.

The spreading downturn, stemming from a dramatic escalation of the global financial crisis last September following the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, would affect countries representing three-quarters of the global economy, it said.

"Underlying the downgrade to the current forecast is the recognition that financial stabilization will take longer than previously envisaged, given the complexities involved in dealing with bad assets and restoring confidence in bank balance sheets, especially against the backdrop of a deepening downturn in activity that continues to expand losses on a wide range of bank assets," the 185-nation institution said.

The grim report came as finance chiefs gather in Washington for this weekend's meetings of the IMF and its sister institution, the World Bank.

The IMF predicted a slow recovery next year, with the rate of contraction expected to "moderate" from the second quarter onward.

"Growth is projected to reemerge in 2010, but at 1.9 percent it would be sluggish relative to past recoveries," it said.

The growth in 2010 would come entirely from the emerging market and developing countries, at 4.0 percent, while developed countries' economies were expected to stagnate.

But the IMF warned: "Achieving this turnaround will depend on stepping up efforts to heal the financial sector, while continuing to support demand with monetary and fiscal easing.

"The dominant concern is that policies will continue to be insufficient to arrest the negative feedback between deteriorating financial conditions and weakening economies, particularly in the face of limited public support for policy action."

On Tuesday, the IMF estimated the cost of the global economic crisis at more than four trillion dollars.

Banks and other financial institutions in the United States, the eurozone, Britain and Japan would have to write down a 4.05 trillion dollars in soured credit, according to an estimate covering the period from the onset of the financial crisis, in mid-2007, to 2010.

The crisis has slammed international trade, with volume expected to plunge 11 percent this year before eking out 0.6 percent growth in 2010.

Consumer prices in developed countries were under pressure and would fall 0.2 percent in 2009.

The IMF warned of a difficult transition for the financial system and called on policymakers to take actions "with a long-term vision of a healthy, efficient, and dynamic financial system.

The I Shit You Not File: Banks Bewail Prepayment Penalties & Pro-Wiretap Dem Laments Wiretapping from Open Left - Front Page

from http://www.openleft.com/diary/12973/the-i-shit-you-not-file-banks-bewail-prepayment-penalties-prowiretap-dem-laments-wiretapping

Two important stories today out of the I Shit You Not File, one from the banks, the other from one of the worst Democratic members of Congress in recent memory.

First, the banks: You know how it has become standard procedure for the vultures in the banking industry to try to fleece you with so-called "prepayment penalties" if you pay back your mortgage earlier than they want you to pay it back? And you know how many banks charge excessively high interest rates? Well, now, according to the Wall Street Journal, the same banking industry is claiming the federal government is trying to charge excessive interest rates via  a "prepayment penalty" when the banks pay back their bailout funds and  - and that banking industry is actually complaining about the situation:

At issue are "warrants" the government received when it bought preferred stock in roughly 500 banks over the past six months as part of TARP...Many banks want to return their TARP money and, as part of that effort, want to expunge the warrants. To do that, banks must either buy them back from the government or allow the Treasury to sell them to private investors.

Bankers say it is unfair to charge what amounts to a "prepayment penalty," which makes it additionally onerous to escape TARP. Bank representatives say the cost of buying back the warrants could be equivalent to paying 60% annual interest on short-term loans. That, they argue, would exacerbate banks' existing problems.

This hypocrisy is topped only by scandal-plagued Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), who has the nerve to complain about being caught in an NSA wiretapping scheme after she spent years as the Democratic Party's chief defender of the Bush administration's extralegal NSA wiretapping program:

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) is ensnared in what critics say was the very danger of the warrantless wiretapping legislation she supported. Harman has led the charge among Democrats for expanded surveillance powers, despite the arguments of her more liberal colleagues that U.S. citizens would improperly get caught in the surveillance dragnet.

Now, having been eavesdropped upon, Harman says she's "outraged" at the federal government's abuse of power...Harman sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder protesting the wiretapping of her conversations as "outrageous."

In both these cases, the culprits in question are publicly demanding a different standard for themselves than they have used their power to create for everyone else. I mean, really - banks complaining about prepayment penalties and pro-wiretap Democrats upset about being wiretapped? This sounds like parody - but it's real. I shit you not.

"Hizzhonor:" Chicago Politics Under Richard M. Daley from AfterDowningStreet.org

from http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41936

"Hizzhonor:" Chicago Politics Under Richard M. Daley
By Stephen Lendman

First the father, Richard J. (mayor from April 20, 1955 - December 20, 1976), now the son. To Chicagoans - "Hizzhonor," and for some - "Hizzhonor Da Mare." Authors Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor called the elder an "American Pharaoh." For former Chicago columnist, Mike Royko, he was "Boss" in his 1971 book by that title. When he died on December 20, 1976, Royko wrote:

"If ever a man reflected a city, it was Richard J. Daley," for better or worse. He was "strong (and) hard-driving" with Texas-sized ambitions, but also "arrogant, crude, conniving, ruthless, suspicious, intolerant, raucous, hot-tempered, devious, big and powerful." He was Chicago.

Now the son - mayor since April 24, 1989. His official biography reads:

Now in his sixth mayoral term, "Richard M. Daley has earned a national reputation for his innovative, community-based programs (on) education, public safety, neighborhood development and other challenges facing American cities." More on that below.

On April 25, 2005. Time magazine called him "the nation's top urban executive." A week earlier, it said:

"He wields near-imperial power" (in) steer(ing) the Windy City into a period of impressive stability, with declining unemployment and splashy growth." Never mind that the facts belie the hyperbole. More on that as well.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal praised him as "a fix-it, problem-solving man" and most recently in a February 7 interview as: "The President's Mayor....whose personality and history are inseparable from Chicago('s) political culture....successful and enormously popular." He hopes bringing the 2016 Olympics to Chicago will "showcase the city (as a) gleaming tourist destination (and) At this stage in the process, the city's bid is not just Chicago anymore. It's the United States of America." Indeed, and like the nation, Chicago and Illinois reek with problems, corruption, and are for sale to the highest bidders, business ones, of course.

According to the Corporate Crime Reporter, Illinois ranks sixth worst in the nation on corruption after Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama and Ohio. In the wake of the governor Blagojevich scandal, The New York Times (on December 13) said Illinois has "a tradition (since the 19th century) of corruption" (because) the state's unusually lax (campaign finance) laws" allow it, and local citizens say it's just the way it is.

On February 3, Dick Simpson, Thomas Gradel, and Andris Zimelis (below Simpson et al) from the University of Illinois Chicago's Political Science Department published: "Curing Corruption in Illinois - Anti-Corruption Report Number 1."

They call it "an unfortunate aspect of Illinois (and Chicago) politics for a century and a half," in citing one example after another - like former secretary of state Paul Powell's $800,000 stash found in shoe boxes when he died, 13 judges caught for fixing court cases, and a state auditor's embezzlement of over $1.5 million to buy two planes, four cars, and two homes.

Since 1972, three governors (besides Blagojevich), state legislators, two congressmen, 19 Cook County judges, 30 aldermen, and many others were convicted of corruption. In all since 1970, around 1000 public officials and businessmen were caught and convicted.

It's a tradition as far back as the 1860s, and mainly in Chicago where its large immigrant population helped politicians gain power. Needing housing and work, they turned public office into a bizaar. It's called patronage, and in return, politicos got support. Businessmen as well with bribes and payoffs for lucrative contracts, free from "troublesome city inspectors."

Former Chicago alderman Paddy Bauler said it best: "Chicago ain't ready for reform," and he was right. Richard J. Daley modernized machine politics, and while mayor, many of his subordinates were jailed. Under Richard M., the machine "simply adjusted to draw its power from interest groups, corporations, unions, and the global economy instead of ethnic communities." Everything changes, yet stays the same.

The 2004 - 05 Hired Truck Program involved private trucks for city work, but was phased out after a Chicago Sun-Times investigation uncovered companies being paid for little or no work and having mob and city officials' ties. Daley's patronage chief Robert Sorich was involved. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to 46 months in prison with US District Court Judge David Coar saying he ran a corruption operation "with a capital C."

Simpson et al calls Chicago "a one-party system where Democrats control the city" but govern like Republicans. They also explained that while many Daley aides were convicted of corruption, "neither father or son" was ever indicted. Yet, "corruption continues unabated in city, county, suburban, and state" politics. Paddy Bauler was right, and it's no different today. Here's more:

• the FBI's Operation Safebet investigation into political corruption and organized crime's control of prostitution throughout metropolitan Chicago snared over 75 individuals;
• Operation Gambat targeted First Ward connections to organized crime with 24 individuals convicted or pleading guilty;
• Operation Incubator on City Hall corruption involved bribes to win city contracts for collecting unpaid parking tickets and water bills; convicted were four aldermen, a former state senator, a deputy water commissioner, and an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington;
• Operation Greylord into Chicago's court system netted 87 court personnel and attorney convictions and guilty pleas, including 13 judges;
• Operation Haunted Hall about City Hall ghost payrolls yielded 38 indictments and 35 convictions, including four aldermen, a Cook County treasurer, and a state senator;
• Operation Silver Shovel probed city government and netted 18 convictions and guilty pleas from public employees and six aldermen;
• Operation Board Games into public corruption of insider deals, peddling, and kickbacks involving state government boards; and
• much more systemic corruption for decades, including under both Daleys.

Simpson et al explained while corruption permeates Illinois, "the most notorious and persistent (kinds are in) Chicago('s) City Council." The guilty aldermen range from "bumblers (to) the most brilliant (and powerful) politicians" like Tom Keane and Richard J. Daley's floor leader, "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak.

In the past 35 years, 30 alderman were indicted and convicted of bribery, extortion, embezzlement, conspiracy, mail fraud, and income tax evasion - three Republicans and 26 Democrats. Three others were indicted. Two died before going to trial, and the other was too sick to proceed. Several others weren't indicted but resigned after media investigations.

"In most cases, the Chicago political machine taught the crooked aldermen the fine art of graft." They learned from the grassroots up. "They saw political officials amass power and get rich over time by playing the game, keeping quiet, and delivering votes and campaign funds for the party." Locally, heads only rolled if exposed in the media. "The Cook County States Attorney or Illinois Attorney General almost never investigated or prosecuted political corruption." The task fell to federal attorneys, postal inspectors, FBI, and IRS agents.

The convicted are a who's who in Chicago and state politics, and the game is as old as the system - "Pay-to-Play" and "quid pro quo" with the latter very hard to prove, but it made millionaires out of the players.

These crimes persisted for decades, so it's clear Chicago and Illinois house "a thriving culture of corruption." Fixing something this embedded will take decades of committed change, no simple task after a century and a half of plundering public coffers for personal gain.

Simpson et al put it this way:

"Corruption is not funny (or) free. It costs taxpayers more than $300 million a year. (What's called) 'The Chicago Way' has also undermined the sense of political efficacy in voters. Why apply for a city or state job if you know only patronage employees or politicians' relatives will be hired anyway? Why report corrupt officials, if you know they won't be punished (unless the Feds do it), and they may turn the powers of government on you?"

Voters become apathetic because they know the "fix is in." After a tradition of corruption, it's time "to become the land of Lincoln rather than the land of "Where's Mine."

Richard M. Daley's Machine

Simpson and four assocates (Ola Adeoye, Daniel Bliss, Kevin Navratil, and Rebecca Raines) wrote earlier about "The New Daley Machine: 1989 - 2004" and compared it to the old one under his father - from 1955 - 1976.

Elder Daley's was characterized by "patronage, slate-making, and alliances" to Chicago's business community. Richard M.'s new version continues some of the old ways, "but patronage precinct captains are supplemented by candidate-based, synthetic campaigns using large sums of money from the global economy to purchase professional political consultants, public opinion polls, paid television ads, and direct mail."

In government, it's enforced by a "rubber stamp city council and public policies that benefit the new global economy more than the older developer" one. From 1955 to the present, two Daleys, father and son, have run Chicago for over 40 years and show no sign of stepping down with Richard M. a still youthful 66 and likely to run for a seventh term in February 2011.

He solidified power with strong business and trade union backing, especially from construction, real estate, finance, law, lobbying, and tourism related interests. His "regime is composed of traditional (rubber stamp city council backing along with) developers, city contractors, construction unions, real estate firms (plus) major contributors from the new global (economy), including banks, lawyers, and international manufacturing firms."

Combined, it's less democracy and more centralized power under the new "Chicago Machine." In city council votes, mayoral support runs about 90%. In elections, it's mainly from Whites and Latinos who are rewarded for their backing.

An old-fashioned political machine runs city precincts and the government, but private business instituted important changes. One is "turning over major public decisions either entirely to the private sector (with minimal government supervision) or to quasi-independent governmental agencies appointed by the mayor and governor."

In the 1990s, Chicago, like other cities, renovated a corporate-centered downtown and expanded its service economy. It became "the Midwest capital of the global economy," for example in tourism and conventions with millions of annual visitors and growing annual tax revenues as a result. "Most tourist, convention, and major development decisions are made behind closed doors with little public input" and considerable private sector influence. On the one hand, business greatly benefits at the discretion of an imperial mayor heading a powerful Chicago Machine.

It's active in elections where it crushes a "poorly organized opposition. In the 2003 aldermanic elections, all but five (of 50) incumbents were re-elected, most by landslide totals, and those that lost (got) tepid machine support in the face of strong community opposition." At the same time, ward committeemen won in "mostly uncontested romps."

With less power than his father, Richard M. still runs Chicago unchallenged. Democrats dominate city politics. The last Republican mayor ("Big Bill" Thompson) left office in 1931. The Great Depression ended their rule when Anton Cermak took over, built a strong constituency among African Americans, and consigned Republicans to small pockets on the city's far northwest side and suburban growth post-war.

As for regaining power in Chicago, they face "the prospect of a long wait," according to one observer. Democrats are well entrenched, and business loves them. Why not, they're more Republican than Republicans and voters hardly notice. They should as topics below explain.

Growing Poverty in Chicago

Last year, the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights (HA) prepared a "2008 Report on Illinois Poverty: Chicago Area Snapshot." It quotes federal poverty monetary threshold guidelines (FPL). In each case, they're woefully inadequate, given the city's true cost of living. FPLs are:

• $10,400 for a single person;
• $14,400 for a family of two;
• $17,600 for three;
• $21,200 for four; and
• $24,800 for five.

From 1980 - 2008, greater Chicago experienced a 114.5% increase in poverty. Up to last year, it affected 400,000 suburban residents and over 570,000 Chicagoans or 21.2% of the population. Given the global economic crisis and massive monthly job losses, these numbers are rising dramatically at a time basic necessities like food, housing, health care, energy costs, and more are less affordable for many.

Like most major cities, Chicago is greatly impacted. HA reports 977,320 Chicagoans as low income poor and 1.2 million "at risk of experiencing poverty," meaning they struggle daily to meet basic needs and are dangerously close to the edge. One negative event (like job loss) alone can push them over.

Latinos and especially blacks are far more impoverished than whites. Women are more affected than men. So are children, the disabled, one wage-earner households, and anyone "without education past high school." One-fourth of Chicagoans have no health insurance. Being employed is no guarantee against poverty. Over 56,000 full-time workers are impoverished and nearly 210,000 part-time ones. From 2000 - 2006 alone, when adjusted for inflation, Chicagoans' median annual household income declined by $3515 besides greater erosion since the 1970s. The changing job market and lost benefits are to blame, and conditions keep worsening with one-third of all northeastern Illinois jobs classified as "low-wage service" ones.

Affordable housing is shrinking, and the percent of renters paying over half their income for shelter rose substantially from 2000 - 2006 to around 30% of the population, leaving fewer resources for other needs. Critically important is that "the vast majority" of people needing help get none. Since 2000, under the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, welfare rolls dropped 77%, meaning tens of thousands of Chicagoans are on their own and can't make it. Less housing aid is also provided because vouchers from nine of the 12 Public Housing Authorities aren't available. For many, the situation is critical.

The result is extreme poverty is rising. It reached almost 10% in 2006 and now is much higher given the economic crisis. In January, Feeding America (FA) reported that Obama's economic stimulus plan provides nothing for the hungry when growing numbers are needy and desperate.

Chicago and other city food banks report a 30% demand increase for their services. Many are newly unemployed, currently don't qualify for food stamps, or are waiting for benefits to be approved. FA's president, Vicki Escarra, said "Americans are going hungry, we're in crisis," and government help isn't forthcoming. "Food banks are on the front lines feeding people," so they're typically an early warning sign of what's to come. In December, 70% of them couldn't meet community needs, and that percentage is rising as resources can't match demand.

In a December report, Chicago Community Trust reported that local conditions are far worse than a year earlier:

• 6000 Chicagoans face homelessness each month;
• 350,000 Cook County residents depend on food pantries to survive; tens of thousands more monthly are joining them; 625,000 rely on food stamps;
• 440,000 Illinois workers are unemployed and more layoffs are announced daily; and
• metropolitan area home foreclosures doubled from autumn 2007 to autumn 2008.

The Decline of Public Housing in Chicago

Last July, the Chicago Tribune ran a lengthy report on "Public housing limbo" in which it asked "What went wrong with Chicago's grand experiment." Thousands of families were displaced despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent after the Daley administration let private developers shape public housing's future for the city's poor under the Chicago Housing Authority's (CHA) Plan for Transformation.

CHA calls it "a blueprint for positive change (to) improve the appearance, quality and culture of (Chicago's) public housing." Tribune reporters Jason Grotto, Laurie Cohen and Sara Olkon called it a "virtual giveaway of public land" so real estate developers could displace poor residents and gentrify neighborhoods for profit. In the past decade, Chicago saw a surge in upscale development with many working-class and poor neighborhoods transformed for the well-off.

In the 1960s, sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term "gentrification" to describe the invasion of middle and upper income households into areas no longer affordable for the poor. Upscale condos replaced low-cost housing with people displaced to what Marquitta Campbell discovered - substandard construction, leaky ceilings, mold, awful odors, and much more making new quarters worse than the old ones.

Also low-cost housing proceeded slowly and got bogged down by bureaucracy, politics, and complex financing made all the worse by today's crisis. With a glut of unsold upscale properties, developers won't build low-profit ones for the poor.

The result is thousands of displaced Chicagoans have waited years for new public housing, and since 2001 no new applicants have been accepted. The trend goes far beyond Chicago in the wake of the Bush administration prodding dozens of cities to adopt similar plans to dump their poor, shift them to shoddy new buildings, and concentrate on gentrifying neighborhoods for profit.

Recently, many projects stalled as the economy faltered, but it hit Chicago hardest. Under ambitious Daley plans, it undertook the nation's largest public housing redevelopment with the idea of reshaping the city and enriching builders.

Stateway Gardens was typical. It was once some of the nation's worst public housing. It's demolition made it prime real estate for Allison Davis, a developer with close Daley ties. His Park Boulevard project is close to US Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, but it's in trouble. Construction bogged down and one development team member went bankrupt.

At Plan for Transformation's launching, Daley vowed to replace Chicago public housing eyesores with 25,000 new units for the poor. But housing advocates worried that displacing thousands quickly spelled trouble, and so it has. Horizontal ghettos replaced vertical ones, made up mainly of impoverished black families.

Daley promised to "rebuild lives." Meanwhile, demolition proceeded, new construction slowed, and stringent employment rules and background checks prevented most residents from returning to refurbished neighborhoods. Most took federal housing vouchers, were told they'd be back in five years, were forced to move numerous times since the plan started, and are no closer now to getting new housing than before.

Stateway Gardens was supposed to be a bustling neighborhood with new buildings, businesses, and a renaissance for Chicago's South Side. Instead, most of the 33-acre site is vacant with dirt and brick pallets astride unfinished sidewalks and homes.

The Daley administration approved the plan to mix public housing with for-sale condos in the same buildings. It required selling market-rate homes first. Under financing terms, developers can't build affordable housing until it's pre-sold half its upper-scale units. When housing peaked and imploded, so did construction for the poor.

One development team promised to build 439 public housing units by September 2008. The number so far is 53 and no new development is planned. For its part, Chicago's CHA offered free land and paid to clean up property and tear down old high-rises. The city also spent millions for new roads, water pipes and sewers.

If housing stayed healthy, developers stood to profit handsomely with all kinds of sweeteners at public and former residents' expense. They donate heavily to the Machine and are well compensated in return. As for the poor, Francine Washington summed it up saying: "The only thing wrong with Park Boulevard is the management." City government as well the way it always is.

Chicago: "The National Capital of Police Repression"

That's how Frank Donner characterized Chicago in his 1990 book "Protectors of Privilege." As an ACLU attorney, he explained how city police and US intelligence agencies targeted alleged internal subversion, and while it operated "was the outstanding example of its kind in the United States (in terms of) size, number, and range of targets or operational scope and diversity."

He referred to "wide-open, no-holds-barred style surveillance" unmatched anywhere in the country. For years, "Chicago-style official vigilantism (waged) guerrilla warfare against substantial sectors of the city's population." He called it "institutionalized aggression, unique in the annals of any American city. Its (methods) were flamboyantly illegal and in many instances criminal."

Law enforcement employed intimidation, physical confrontation, and outright abuse. That was then. What about now. CNN reported that between 2002 - 2004 alone, "more than 10,000 complaints - many involving brutality and assault - were filed against Chicago police officers." Yet only 18 of them resulted in disciplinary action, according to attorney Craig Futterman who uncovered the data while researching a client's claim.

Diane Bond sued the city and police on charges physical and sexual assault. The administration settled for $150,000, admitted no wrongdoing, reprimanded no officers, two were later promoted, and this case is typical of many.

For years, community activists accused the Department's Office of Professional Standards (its investigative unit) of indifference and poor oversight. The Daley administration did nothing to change things.

On November 15, 2007, The New York Times headlined: "Chicago Police Cases Exceed Average." Writer Susan Saulny explained that city police "are the subject of more brutality complaints per officer than the national average, and the Police Department is far less likely to pursue" them, according to a University of Chicago report titled "The Chicago Police Department's Broken System."

It's detailed and damning in citing extensive abuse, a broken disciplinary and supervisory system, and a practice of impunity. Under the Daley administration (much like others that preceded him), cops can get away with anything and they do.

Listed were police brutality, illegal searches, false arrests, racial targeting, sexual abuse, shoddy investigations, a culture of silence, and apartheid justice. The data is conclusive. It:

• "demonstrates the existence of deficient disciplinary and supervisory policies;
• provides powerful evidence of deliberate indifference - the affirmative efforts that policymakers must make not to know about individual and group patterns of abuse and the egregious harm caused by (it); and
• supports several theories of causation, including demonstrating that minimally effective practices would have identified and stopped (these things instead of) encourag(ing them through a culture of indifference, silence, and impunity)."

The report called the Chicago Police a "regime of not knowing," and accomplishing that requires considerable effort. "It (takes) a deep commitment to the machinery of denial, including denying incidents of brutality, turning a blind eye to patterns of abuse, refusing to look at data that is just a key stroke or two away, and passively encouraging a culture of silence in the face of abuse perpetrated by officers."

As expected, those most affected are blacks, Latinos, and the city's poor and disadvantaged. The report asks: "Does a different Constitution apply in inner city minority (and poor) communities?....How great is the loss of life, liberty, and property? The loss of hope and opportunity? The loss of family? Loss of justice? Loss of faith in our political institutions?" How important is it that Richard Daley is as silent as the police?

Why is he letting Chicago police equip 500 rank-and-file officers with military assault weapons, according to a March 25 Chicago Public Radio report? In question is the purchase of 500 M-4 semi-automatic rifles powerful enough to penetrate walls and cars, both sides of a military helmet at 600 meters, and travel up to two miles, meaning stray bullets may kill anyone and likely will, especially in poor neighborhoods where they'll be used.

Destroying Public Education in Chicago

Under Richard Daley, Chicago took the lead in destroying public education nationally through privatization schemes for profit. Two previous articles by this writer covered them. Below is material from them.

As Chicago Public Schools (CPS) "CEO" before becoming Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan
led Chicago's Renaissance 2010 Turnaround strategy for 100 new "high-performing" elementary and high schools in the city by that date. Under five year contracts, they'll "be held accountable....to create innovative learning environments" under one of three "governance structures:"

-- charter schools under the 1996 Illinois Charter Schools Law; they're called "public schools of choice, selected by students and parents....to take responsible risks and create new, innovative and more flexible ways of educating children within the public school system;" in 1997, the Illinois General Assembly approved 60 state charter schools; Chicago was authorized 30, the suburbs 15 more, and 15 others downstate. The city bent the rules, initially operated about 53 charter "campuses," and now has nearly 100.

Charter schools aren't magnet ones that require students in some cases to have special skills or pass admissions tests. However, they have specific organizing themes and educational philosophies and may target certain learning problems, development needs, or educational possibilities. In all states, they're legislatively authorized; near-autonomous in their operations; free to choose their students and exclude unwanted ones; and up to now are quasi-public with no religious affiliation. Administration and corporate schemes assure they won't stay that way because that's the sinister plan. Duncan was a key part of it, and so is his successor.

George Bush praised these schools in April 2007 when he declared April 29 through May 5 National Charter Schools Week. He said they provide more "choice," are a "valuable educational alternative," and he thanked "educational entrepreneurs for supporting" these schools around the country.

Here's what the president praised. Lisa Delpit is executive director of the Center for Urban Education & Innovation. In her capacity, she studies charter school performance and cited evidence from a 2005 Department of Education report. Her conclusion: "charter schools....are less likely than public schools to meet state education goals." Case study examples in five states showed they underperform, and are "less likely than traditional public (ones) to employ teachers meeting state certification standards."

Other underperformance evidence came from an unexpected source - an October 1994 Money magazine report on 70 public and private schools. It concluded that "students who attend the best public schools outperform most private school students, that the best public schools offer a more challenging curriculum than most private schools, and that the private school advantage in test scores is due to their selective admission policies."

Clearly a failing grade on what's spreading nationally en route to total privatization and the triumph of the market over educating the nation's youths.

In 1991, Minnesota passed the first charter school law. California followed in 1992, and it's been off to the races since. By 1995, 19 states had them, and in 2007 there were over 4000 charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia with more than one million students in them and growing.

Chicago's two other "governance structures" are:

• contract (privatized) schools run by "independent nonprofit organizations;" they operate under a Performance Agreement between the "organization" and Board of Education; and
• performance schools under Chicago Public Schools (CPS) management "with freedom and flexibility on many district initiatives and policies;" unmentioned is Delay's close ties to the Bush and Obama administrations and their preference for marketplace education; the idea isn't new, but it accelerated rapidly in recent years.

Another part of the scheme is also in play, in Chicago and throughout the country. Inner city schools are being closed. Remaining ones are neglected and decrepit. Classroom sizes are increasing, and children and parents are being sacrificed on the alter of marketplace triumphalism.

Consider recent events under Daley. Last February 27, the city's Board of Education unanimously and without discussion voted to close, relocate or otherwise target 19 public schools, fire teachers, and leave students in the cold. Thousands of parents protested, were ignored and denied access to the Board of Ed meeting where the decision came down pro forma and quick. It wasn't the first time and won't be the last. For years under the current mayor, Chicago closed or privatized more schools than anywhere else in the country, and the trend is accelerating. Since July 2001, 59 elementary and secondary schools were closed or replaced with charter or contract ones.

The trend continues in Chicago and across the country to "reform" education nationally, hand it to business profiteers, destroy teacher unions, end public education, commodify it, educate the well-off, cheat underprivileged kids, consign them to low-wage, no benefit service jobs, and end the American dream for millions.

Arne Duncan is doing it as Obama's Education Secretary with schemes like the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) that became law on January 8, 2002. It succeeded the 1994 Goals 2000: Educate America Act that set eight outcomes-based goals for the year 2000 but failed on all counts to meet them. Goals 2000, in turn, goes back to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and specifically its Title I provisions for funding schools and districts with a high percentage of low-income family students.

NCLB is outrageous, and Duncan administered the worst of it in Chicago. It's long on testing, school choice, and market-based "reforms" but short on real achievement. It's built around rote learning, standardized tests, requiring teachers to "teach to the test," assessing results by Average Yearly Progress (AYP) scores, and punishing failure harshly - firing teachers and principals, closing schools and transforming them from public to charter or for-profit ones.

Critics denounce NCLB as "an endless regimen of test-preparation drills" for poor children. Others call it underfunded and a thinly veiled scheme to privatize education and transfer its costs and responsibilities from Washington to individuals and impoverished school districts. Mostly, it reflects current era thinking that anything government does business does better, so let it. And Democrats (like Obama, Duncan and his successor) are as supportive as Republicans.

So far, NCLB renewal bills are stalled in both Houses, election year politics intervened, and final resolution will be for the new administration and 111th Congress to decide. For critics, that's positive because the law failed to deliver as promised. Its sponsors claimed it would close the achievement gap between inner city and rural schools and more affluent suburban ones. It's real aim, however, is to commodify education, end government responsibility for it, and make it another business profit center.

Obama promised to fix "the broken promises of" NCLB. Whatever's done will affect millions of students already harmed with little chance that the worst of this act will be changed. Nonetheless, National Education Association (NEA) president, Dennis Van Roekel, is hopeful that the new administration will be "the beginning of a promising new period for public education in this country."

Arne Duncan won't let it. He told Congress that NCLB funding "should be doubled within five years, and that the law must be amended to give schools the maximum amount of flexibility possible...." Repealing the law, ending the funding and privatization schemes, and fostering policies to educate all kids equally regardless of socioeconomic status is what's needed. Obama and Arne Duncan won't let it. They've consigned poor kids to the trash bin of no future.

Below are some Duncan policy initiatives, now run by new CPS "CEO," and former Chicago Transit Authority head Ron Huberman:

• using the CPS's $5.5 billion budget for no-bid contracts to cronies for all sorts of goods and services; Huberman now recommends them to the seven-member board, and nearly always they're approved unanimously with no discussion or debate;
• militarizing Chicago high schools (perhaps most in the country) on the pretext of offering students "choice;" JROTC programs were institutionalized, and high schools were established entirely for military studies; poor minorities comprise the overwhelming majority of affected students;
• while still in Chicago, Duncan litigated to be freed from an early 1980s federal desegregation consent decree; he claimed he did everything possible to comply even though city students are predominantly black and over 90% black and Latino; Chicago has over 300 segregated black schools plus 40 or more all-Latino ones;
• Duncan opposed and litigated against federal oversight of special education programs; he violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ignored parents' wishes, the needs of the children, and forced teachers to go along; and
• Chicago has nearly 100 quasi-private charter schools, many of them run by for-profit companies; less than 10% of them are integrated; the city is notorious for violating the education needs of minority students; their schools are sub-standard and abysmal.

Under "Renaissance 2010," 59 public schools were closed, and 2009 plans call for shuttering at least another 22. In its February issue, Substance News headlined: "End Ren 2010! echoes across city....Chicago protests grow." Backing them against closure and privatization is an alliance of parents, teachers, students, grandparents, and community leaders. Even cold winter mornings and nights haven't kept them off the streets - downtown outside, and inside, the Board of Education headquarters. Their mission - save Chicago public education from a rapacious scheme to privatize it.

With no background or knowledge of education, it's Ron Huberman's job to do it. As new CPS CEO, he's in charge of:

• gutting the city's public system in favor of privatization schemes for profit;
• continuing the process of militarizing them;
• neutralizing the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU);
• educating the well-off, not minorities or the poor; and
• wrecking the dream of disadvantaged kids who'll be sacrificed on the alter of marketplace education the way Richard Daley and Washington mandate.

"The President's Mayor," nationally known for his "innovative, community-based programs (on) education, public safety, neighborhood development and other challenges facing American cities." After 20 years in office, he's just months away from equaling his father's reign as Chicago's longest serving mayor.

"Hizzhonor," the most prominent of today's big city bosses with no sign of stepping down or changing decades of Chicago-style politics.

###

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He's lived in Chicago for the past 40 years and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Donna Dunnings, Welcome to Cook County from Chicagoist

from http://chicagoist.com/2009/04/22/donna_dunnings_welcome_to_cook_coun.php

Todd Stroger's figured out that he may be in some deep trouble come election day in Cook County. There are myriad reasons for this, from the exorbitant tax hikes we've suffered to the lack of quality county services we're ostensibly paying for, to the sheer arrogance of his administration as they've filled the county's payroll with friends and family while calling critics racists. But Stroger isn't worried about any of that, at least not if his latest series of personnel moves are any indication. To wit, Stroger personally hired convicted check-kiter and one-time steakhouse busboy Tony Cole. Cole, who was convicted of writing bad checks in Georgia, was hired as a $58,000-a-year administrative assistant in the budget department and later promoted to a $61,000-a-year human resources assistant posistion in the highway department. Stroger fired Cole when the Sun-Times revealed the conviction. Late last week Stroger fired his Chief Financial Officer and cousin, Donna Dunnings, because of "explosive" and "not flattering" allegations that Cole made, which Stroger felt would interfere with her ability to do her job.

Now, Dunnings has spoken out. In an exclusive interview with the Sun-Times, Dunnings said that she loves Stroger, but that he's left her in a tough position. Because not only does she suffer from multiple sclerosis, she's a single mother struggling to raise two daughters, one of whom has a traumatic brain injury. Being out of work with the burden of a chronic health condition and the responsibility of caring for two children doesn't worry her, though. She's hopeful that she'll have a new job lined up by July. "Am I worried about having health insurance for my kids? There are some concerns there, but no fear," Dunnings told the Sun-Times. And Dunnings is right to have no fear, considering the county's expansive and well-managed public health care system. Since her tenure as the county's financial steward helped keep many neighborhood clinics open, all of which are easily accessible by public transportation, Dunnings needn't worry about having to head all the way to the Medical District to see a doctor at the County Hospital. Welcome to Cook County, Donna Dunnings! It's a great place to live when you're not a patronage worker.

GOP Congressman: Cap-and-Trade Biggest Threat to Democracy and Freedom from The Washington Independent

from http://washingtonindependent.com/40034/gop-congressman-cap-and-trade-biggest-threat-to-freedom-and-democracy

During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing to discuss newly proposed climate change legislation from Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) just said this about cap-and-trade programs to limit carbon emissions:

This is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I've ever experienced. I've lived through some tough times in Congress. We've seen two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above.

You may recall Shimkus from some of his other rational, non-hyperbolic arguments, such as the time he publicly reasoned that high carbon dioxide levels might not be so bad. After all, the dinosaurs didn't seem to mind.

New Adventures in Spokes-hackery from The Washington Independent

from http://washingtonindependent.com/40032/new-adventures-in-spokeshackery

I admire former Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant's ability to push a meme, but this is sort of ridiculous.

With the 100-day anniversary just one week away, it's notable that almost all of Obama's accomplishments so far have been rhetorical, rather than policy-based.

Let's see … there was the passage of the stimulus bill, the passage of the SCHIP bill, the Afghan surge, the various abortion and stem cell executive orders, etc. and etc.

Now, there have been high-profile setbacks, like the Employee Free Choice Act stalemate and the slow-walking of health care as (in part) a function of President Obama's troubled nominees, and a case can be made that President George W. Bush had a better first 100 days (the Jim Jeffords switch did not happen until May), but any attempt to equate Obama's huge rhetorical PR blitzes with a lack of accomplishments is sort of foolish. Republicans are getting rolled on most of the president's priorities.

Freddie Mac’s Acting CFO Found Dead from Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

from http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090422_freddie_macs_acting_cfo_found_dead/

The acting chief financial officer for housing lender Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, was found dead in an apparent suicide Wednesday morning. If proven to be suicide, Kellermann would be the seventh high-profile financial services executive to take his own life under stress from the current economic crisis.

The Guardian:

The acting chief financial officer of troubled US mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead in an apparent suicide this morning.

David Kellermann, 41, was found dead in his home in Vienna, Virginia on the outskirts of Washington, before dawn. Fairfax county, Virginia police said no foul play was evident and that the cause and manner of death was under investigation by the state medical examiner. CNN reported Kellermann had hung himself, citing a law enforcement source. Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said police responded to the house just before 5am (10am BST). She would not say who called police but said others were in the house.

Kellermann was named acting chief financial officer in September, after Anthony Piszel resigned following a government-takeover of the firm and a dramatic internal shake-up of the management. He reported directly to Chief Executive Officer John Koskinen. Before that he was senior vice-president and led the company's accounting and finance operations.

Read more

Begala pwns Ari Fleischer over Bush lying about his torture regime from Crooks and Liars

from http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/cspanjunkie/begala-pwns-ari-fleischer-torture

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April 21, 2009 CNN

Dave N: Paul Begala and Ari Fleischer debated the release of the Bush torture memos -- and President Obama's indication that prosecutions of the architects of the torture regime may yet face prosecution -- on Anderson Cooper's 360 yesterday.

The fireworks erupted when Fleischer decided that the best defense was to claim that waterboarding really isn't torture:

FLEISCHER: No, again, Anderson, your premise is that it is torture. And I think the only people who can determine that are people from the Department of Justice.

COOPER: But it's interesting, though...

FLEISCHER: If it is torture, if it is torture...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: ... when the Khmer Rouge did it, when the Khmer Rouge did it at Tuol Sleng prison, and you can go there, and you can see the instruments they used to water-board people, I mean, we labeled it as torture.

FLEISCHER: And, Anderson, that's why I said the only people who are in a position to make an authoritative judgment on it should be career, independent-minded people at the Department of Justice, without anybody at the White House interfering or anybody else interfering.

And then, if they decide it was, then they have got a very careful decision to make about how far and extensive do you prosecute people. Is it the people who did it? Is it the Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill who were briefed on it and didn't object to it? And who in the administration would you have to apply that standard to?

This is where this whole thing can go.

But, going back to the memo, and going back to bipartisanship, you know, it's not just the Bush people who said it was wrong to release that memo. Bill Clinton's head of the CIA said it was wrong to release those memos, because you're teaching al Qaeda operatives exactly what our techniques are.

And why do we want anybody in al Qaeda to know what the limits of our techniques are, Paul?

BEGALA: The techniques that -- the techniques that we no longer use, the techniques that were in "The New York Review of Books" and half of the newspapers and magazines in North America, Ari. I mean, it is...

FLEISCHER: Paul, it was your administration's head of the CIA who objected to the release of those memos.

BEGALA: It doesn't -- it doesn't make...

FLEISCHER: It's a Clinton official who said that.

BEGALA: It doesn't make him right. Torture is always wrong, Ari. We executed...

FLEISCHER: I agree with you that torture is always wrong.

BEGALA: Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Let Paul finish.

BEGALA: We -- our country executed Japanese soldiers who water- boarded American POWs. We executed them for the same crime that we are now committing ourselves. How do you defend that?

The most awkward silence imaginable follows. Finally, Fleischer is able to eke out:

FLEISCHER: Well, again, Paul, I guess you already are the jury, the prosecutor, the judge, and a citizen all rolled into one. You have already pronounced judgment that it is a crime.

Actually, Fleischer could have countered Begala by pointing out that we didn't actually execute the Japanese soldiers convicted of the war crime of waterboarding American prisoners -- we just sentenced them to 15 years' hard labor.

But then, as the New York Times reports this morning, this White House's legal team didn't even bother to research the legal history of waterboarding before issuing their Excuse From Mom.

Waterboarding always was a crime -- until these characters came along. Maybe that's why Ari didn't really try to argue the point any further ...

Insuring All Americans Is a Critical Component of an Efficient, High Quality Health Care System

By January Angeles

"Extending coverage to all Americans is a necessary (but not a sufficient) condition to improving the quality and efficiency of our health care system. 

Universal coverage would decrease the likelihood that individuals delay seeking care, make early detection and treatment of problems more feasible, reduce reliance on costly emergency room care, and also reduce underwriting if the system is designed well....If millions of Americans continue to lack access to affordable coverage, the system will continue to have large inefficiencies built into it. 

Debates about health reform should focus on the intertwined goals of coverage, cost, and quality."

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2794
http://www.cbpp.org/files/4-21-09health.pdf  3pp.

Disgraced Hoops Star In Illinois Political Scandal from SPORTSbyBROOKS

from http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/disgraced-hoops-star-in-illinois-political-scandal-23414

Whenever you need to be depressed about the state of democracy in this fair country, you can depend on Illinois politics to put you in a miserable place. The CHICAGO TRIBUNE says that the latest scandal involves nepotism, really bad judgment and a disgraced former college basketball star. Oh, Illinois politics, you never fail to amaze.

To say that Tony Cole has a checkered past is probably giving him too much credit. He was kicked off the Georgia basketball team after allegations by his girlfriend that he was involved in gang-raping her (the charges were later dropped). He was also a catalyst in blowing the whistle in the grade-fixing scandal that eventually cost Jim Harrick his job, and recently was charged with hitting his girlfriend and later threatening her over the phone.

Which probably explains why Cole was working as a busboy at a Chicago-area Ruth's Chris Steak House when he was "discovered" by Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, who decided that clearing tables of dirty dishes and refilling water was the perfect background for becoming a human resources assistant in the county's Highway Department, giving him a $58,000 a year job - all without doing a background check (or even searching Google).

So no one probably should have been shocked when Cole was arrested on Tuesday for violating the terms of his bail, but when the news came out, Stroger went into panic mode. Despite the fact that he was the one who hired Cole despite his lack of qualifications, Stroger forced Donna Dunnings - the county's chief financial officer - to resign, who also happened to be his cousin.

At this rate, you can expect J.R. Rider to be getting a job in Oakland city government any time soon - perhaps in the communications office. After all, with the "East Bay Funk" it's hard to find someone who did more to promote the area.

Citifield and the new Yankee Stadium are expensive. Plus, a ballpark is a place for baseball from The Scores Report

from http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/04/19/citifield-and-the-new-yankee-stadium-are-expensive-plus-a-ballpark-is-a-place-for-baseball/

Sports Illustrated's Norman Chad has a new column up about New York's new ballparks:

New York, the most sophisticated sports town in Sports Nation, brings us two spectacularly expensive new stadiums this month — rent-free and property tax-free for the Mets and the Yankees — largely subsidized by public money on city-owned land.

The Mets' new Citi Field, a.k.a. Belly-Up Ballpark, cost $850 million.

The new Yankee Stadium — boy, that old Yankee Stadium was a real stinker, eh? — cost $1.5 billion.

Amazingly, in a city faced with myriad budget problems, the Mets and the Yankees not only successfully solicited public financing, both clubs came back with their hand out a second time — and got more money.

Schools? No money.

Subway? No money.

Stadiums? How much do you need? Thank you sir, may I have another.

Sports fans have been faced with a lot of stadium changes in recent years. I for one never got a chance to see a game in Tigers Stadium, but rather enjoyed the spacious Comerica Park (I even rode the carousel once!). It's great to be able to go into some of the nation's new sports arenas and let yourself be distracted by all the glitzy new opportunities to forget that the reason you came there was to watch sports.

The onus of blame too, is not even on the owners of teams like the Yankees, Mets, and anybody else looking to cash in on public money. They're greedy. Surprise, surprise. Why wouldn't they be? They're running a business. The politicians with the power to stop or confound their attempts to exploit the public are the people that it is necessary to get angry at.

There's another problem within this too, and that is the corporate sponsorship that has become part and parcel with the games we love. Even the names of the venues reflect the loss of our ability to give something a name that tells us even a little about what happens within the building. Who knows what incredible chairs, pens, and whiteboards we can see inside the Staples Center? I've just never been able to accept the white-washing that has been happening. Even as a kid in Tennessee, I couldn't understand what was wrong with Fulton County Stadium, and how anyone would let Ted Turner name the new field after himself.

OK, Yankee Stadium was old, it didn't work well as a modern baseball field and didn't lend itself to the needs of modern baseball. So what? It's f-ing Yankee Stadium! The house that Ruth built and where numerous other important baseball and even important historical events occurred. We are in danger of taking all traces of character out of our ball games. I still can't call Comiskey Park U.S. Cellular Field, and I doubt I ever will. There's even been talk about tearing down Wrigley (admittedly a brand name too) Field and Dodgers Stadium. Next time I visit New York maybe I can go see the Citibank Statue of Liberty brought to you by Citibank.

It's important not to flip out over change I suppose. Corporate sponsorship and manipulation of public funds aren't exactly new things to baseball. The sponsorship brings revenue to the team, thereby allowing them to spend money on players, and hopefully win championships. A successful team also brings in revenue from ticket and merchandise sales, and the public interest itself creates profits for related businesses within the city and the surrounding area. In a matter of looking at it, it helps everyone involved. But I can't realistically believe that it's better.

Again maybe I'm seeing a domino effect where there isn't one, but I worry about all the brand names my kids will have to remember just to talk about sports.

Bad Boss's Get-Back-To-Work Email Sparks Online Revenge from Gawker

from http://gawker.com/5212228/bad-bosss-get+back+to+work-email-sparks-online-revenge

When times are tough, bad bosses lash out. After John Soden III, a managing director at Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco, sent a hectoring email ordering employees into the office, his underlings struck back.

The email, which questioned why anyone who wasn't "orthodox" might take Good Friday off, is now circulating online, with this preface:

This is an email from one of the MD's in the Healthcare Group at Thomas Weisel Partners where I used to work. He is one of the most unpleasant people I've ever worked with.

Soden's email:
Always amusing to have someone with a "III" after their name lecture employees about the importance of hard work. According to Soden's profile on Thomas Weisel's website, he's not exactly keeping busy doing deals himself. Soden is providing endless entertainment for his workers, though, in the form of a fake Twitter account one prankster set up:

Ten Lamentations of a TARP Wife [Class War] from Gawker

from http://gawker.com/5221482/ten-lamentations-of-a-tarp-wife

Luckily for you, the wife of the "CEO of one of the biggest TARP recipients" has unwisely chosen to write an anonymous diatribe about the hardships of life as a "TARP wife." Class rage ahead:

We'll note up front that this piece is not nearly as offensive as it could have been; the anonowife acknowledges that hers are "luxury problems." That said, she never should have written this, for chrissakes. Daily Intel beat us to the "Guess Who?" angle here, ID'ing the writer as (probably) Liz Peek, a former NY Sun business writer and wife of CIT Group's Jeffrey Peek (pictured). Liz, if it was you—you should have known the angry media hordes better than to go and write about troubles like these:

1. "[I] am using my credit balances at all the major department stores for important gifts and other necessities."

2. "I haven't even looked at spring clothes... Like so many others, I'm shopping in my closet."

3. "If I buy a present for someone, I have the package sent to their home. I don't want to be spotted climbing into a taxi, laden with Bergdorf Goodman shopping bags."

4. "This year, of course, entertaining our crowd [for my husband's birthday] at our usual multi-star Michelin hotspots would simply not do...We ultimately picked the cozier restaurant-even though it ended up costing us more, so eager was the more chic outfit to host the party. Why spend the extra bucks? Because our chosen place is distinctly low-profile and rarely mentioned in the press."

5. "We've picked up new habits, like making donations anonymously and sneaking in late to black-tie galas after society photographer Patrick McMullan has packed up his camera and gone home."

6. "Like most Americans, we are worried about money. Our net worth is tied up in stock that is down 95 percent."

7. "In an effort to conserve cash, we are eating out less frequently, meaning that I've been turning out some pretty dreadful lasagna."

8. "I drive the family crazy by switching off the lights every time we leave a room."

9. "Using the company plane is now out of bounds; we've heard there are reporters staking out the private airports."

10. "One daughter recently mused about going back to business school. I hope she didn't notice my instantly negative reaction, stemming completely from concern about the cost."

Sounds awful. If only there were some good news too. Oh, what, there is? "The good news is that Americans have short attention spans. Before long, some other group will come along to absorb all the frustration and anger."

Such as: Rich wives.

Social Security Does Not Face a Near-Term “Reckoning”

Alarmists' Claims Are Unjustified, But Action Is Needed to Restore Long-Term Solvency

By Kathy Ruffing and Paul N. Van de Water

"In recent weeks, several analysts, journalists, and legislators have sounded an alarm about the effect of the current recession on Social Security's near-term prospects, which has fostered an impression that the program may face serious problems in the next few years. Fortunately, this is not the case.

The recession has affected the system's finances, and the next report of the Social Security Trustees...is expected to show some deterioration in the program's financial outlook. But Social Security faces no immediate threat. The program continues to run large surpluses and remains capable of paying scheduled benefits in full for the next three decades or so."

Note: The Social Security Board of Trustees will soon release its annual report.  The Center plans to issue an analysis of that report at that time.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2793
http://www.cbpp.org/files/4-21-09socsec.pdf  4pp.

Fox News Does Not Sponsor Racist Rallies, So Stop Saying That! [Image File] from Gawker

from http://gawker.com/5214588/fox-news-does-not-sponsor-racist-rallies-so-stop-saying-that

The sign over Sean Hannity's right shoulder reads: "STOP WASTEFUL SPENDING. IMPEACH THE KENYAN PIRATE AND HIS CREW."