September 15, 2009 archive

1. The Guardian reports that acording to Europe, the United States is planning to weaken a Copenhagen climate deal. “Key differences have emerged between the US and Europe over the structure of a new worldwide treaty on global warming. Sources on the European side say the US approach could undermine the new treaty and weaken the world’s ability to cut carbon emissions.”

   The dispute between the US and Europe is over the way national carbon reduction targets would be counted. Europe has been pushing to retain structures and systems set up under the Kyoto protocol, the existing global treaty on climate change. US negotiators have told European counterparts that the Obama administration intends to sweep away almost all of the Kyoto architecture and replace it with a system of its own design…

   It could take several years to negotiate a replacement framework, … a delay that could strike a terminal blow at efforts to prevent dangerous climate change…

   Europe is unlikely to stand up to the US…

   The US is pushing instead for each country to set its own rules and to decide unilaterally how to meet its target… Legal experts say the phrase is designed to protect the US from being forced to implement international action it does not agree with.

Four at Four continues with Afghanistan, Somalia, a tortured al-Zaidi free from Iraqi prison, and Bush’s PDB overcompensation for past inadequacies.

I received this message today about the state of Health Care Reform efforts in Congress. It is important to understand what is about to go down, and why our voices need to be louder and angrier right now than any “teabagger”.  Let Harry Reid and Rahm Emanual feel our wrath!

I’ll let Dennis Kucinich take over from here:

Dear Friends,

It is said one should not ask how sausage or laws are made. Are you concerned about a public option? Let me share with you some insight about health care legislation which may not be good for your health.

The Kucinich Prediction: Here’s what’s going to happen …

• House will make a big deal about keeping/putting a public option in HR3200 because it competes with insurance companies and will keep insurance rates low.
• The White House will refer to the President’s speech last week where he spoke favorably of the public option.
• The Senate will kill the competitive public option in favor of non-competitive “co-ops”. Senate leaders like Kent Conrad have said the votes to pass a public option were never there in the Senate.
• The bill will come to a House-Senate Conference Committee without the public option.  

  House Democrats will be told to support the conference report on the legislation to “support the President”.

• The bill will pass, not with a “public option” but with a private mandate requiring 30 million uninsured to buy private health insurance   (if one doesn’t already have it). If you are broke, you may get a subsidy. If you are not broke, you will get a fine if you do not purchase insurance.
• This legislative sausage will be celebrated as a “new breakthrough” and will be packaged as health insurance reform.

  However, the bill may require a Surgeon General’s warning label: Your Money or Your Life!

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Cross-Posted at Dkos http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Also cross-posted at MyDD and Openleft.

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In the Wall Street Journal on September 13, the two Repubs and one former Democrat wholeheartedly endorsed sending more of our troops to eat $#!t sandwiches in Afghanistan.

We are confident that not only is it winnable, but that we have no choice. We must prevail in Afghanistan.

snip

However, we need more than the right team and the right strategy. This team must also have the resources it needs to succeed-including a significant increase in U.S. forces.

Lots of Fear Remains Over Economy, Job Losses



By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Despite fresh signs that the worst may be over for the beleaguered U.S. economy, there has been no letup in public fears about possible financial hardship ahead and there is broad concern that not enough is being done to avert another meltdown, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Painful personal experiences over the past year continue to dampen the outlook of many Americans. About two-thirds of those polled say they have been hurt financially by the recession, with extensive reports that job losses and pay reductions are hitting home. Most call the economic situation a source of stress in their lives, and that anxiety also stems from apprehension of what may lie ahead for their families.

Codes, symbols and conspiracies: you’ve read it all before, but who cares?

Dan Brown’s follow-up to ‘The Da Vinci Code’ went on sale at midnight. Janet Maslin delivers her instant verdict

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

As a man whose ideas have had their share of physical effects, Dan Brown is well aware of how widely read and closely scrutinised The Lost Symbol will be. He even lets a character joke about this book’s guaranteed popularity. Dr Katherine Solomon specialises in noetic science, with its focus on mind-body connections. She admits that her field is not widely known. But when her story comes out, she suggests, noetics could get the kind of public relations bump that Mr Brown gave to the Holy Grail.

Dr Solomon accompanies Robert Langdon, the rare symbologist who warrants the word dashing as both noun and verb, through much of this novel, his third rip-snorting adventure. As Browniacs have long predicted, the chase involves the secrets of Freemasonry and is set in Washington, where some of those secrets are built into the architecture and are thus hidden in plain sight. Browniacs also guessed right in supposing that The Lost Symbol at one point was called “The Solomon Key”. That’s a much better title than the generic one it got.

Open Thread