February 2009 archive

How Stupid

Can You Be Gate

See Republican Party  

Bipartisan Push to Trim Size of Stimulus Plan



By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: February 5, 2009

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of senators worked furiously in backroom negotiations on Thursday to cut the cost of the more than $920 billion economic stimulus plan. Senate Democratic leaders said they would await the outcome of those talks before calling for a final vote on the measure, perhaps on Friday.

Members of the bipartisan group, led by Senators Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said they wanted to trim provisions that would not quickly create jobs or encourage spending by consumers and businesses. They spent much of the day scrutinizing the 736-page bill and wrangling over what to cut.

Japan’s Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson for U.S.



By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: February 5, 2009

HAMADA, Japan – The Hamada Marine Bridge soars majestically over this small fishing harbor, so much larger than the squid boats anchored below that it seems out of place.

And it is not just the bridge. Two decades of generous public works spending have showered this city of 61,000 mostly graying residents with a highway, a two-lane bypass, a university, a prison, a children’s art museum, the Sun Village Hamada sports center, a bright red welcome center, a ski resort and an aquarium featuring three ring-blowing Beluga whales.

USA

Suspect Peanuts Sent to Schools

Despite Salmonella, Firm Sold to USDA

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, February 6, 2009; Page A01

Peanut Corporation of America sold 32 truckloads of roasted peanuts and peanut butter to the federal government for a free-lunch program for poor children even as the company’s internal tests showed that its products were contaminated with salmonella bacteria.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture abruptly suspended its contract with the company, which is at the center of an outbreak of salmonella illness that has killed eight people, sickened 575 and triggered one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

Its Just Rock N’Roll

George Thorogood I Drink Alone

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

The voice of him that cryeth in the Wilderness

Isaiah 40:3

Ut oh.  Ut oh.  Ut oh.  I’m wondering whether my little, disorganized, spontaneous, repetitive campaign to require the new Attorney General to review the 49 pending federal death penalty cases and to decide that federal prosecutors shouldn’t be seeking the death penalty in these cases, has worn out my readership, my welcome, and any remaining goodwill.  That’s how it is, sometimes, when there’s more persistence than creativity.  But I soldier on, vox clamatis in deserto.

The petition now has 75 signatures, for which I am incredibly thankful.  If you haven’t signed it yet, please do so.  It is a concrete way to ask Attorney General Holder to review all of the 49 pending federal death penalty cases and to decide that his prosecutors have no business seeking the death penalty in these cases.

And many, many people have sent Attorney General emails at Whitehouse.gov or via [email protected], the Justice Department’s email address, encouraging him to review these 49 cases and not to seek the death penalty in them.  Again, please do so, too.

Please join me in the wilderness.  

No, it isn’t what the title sounds like, and it’s dangerous to read things into it that may not be there, but what Obama did do on Thursday, February 05, 2009, according to a report in The Washington Times (yes, yes, I know…) was signal his support of the International Criminal Court indicting and arresting Sudanese President Omar Bashir for war crimes.

And an Obama national security spokesman used some very interesting language in the announcements.

“We support the ICC in its pursuit of those who’ve perpetrated war crimes. We see no reason to support deferral [of the indictment] at this time,” said Ben Chang, a spokesman for Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones.

The Obama administration has signaled awareness of potential blowback if a warrant is issued.

[snip…]

The Obama administration has a more favorable attitude toward the ICC [than the Bush administration did], although it is reviewing whether it should re-sign the treaty and seek Senate ratification.

“It is in our country’s interest that the most heinous of criminals, like the perpetrators of the genocide in Darfur, are held accountable,” said Mr. Chang, the National Security Council spokesman.

At the same time, he said, Mr. Obama, as commander in chief, “wants to make sure that [U.S.] troops have maximum protection” against politically motivated indictments.

The president “will consult thoroughly across the whole government, including with the military, and also examine the full track record of the court, before reaching a decision on how to move forward,” Mr. Chang said.

Dangerous to read into it of course… but a rose or a president committing war crimes by any other name is still a rose or a president committing war crimes, no?

*emphasis added…

Banks are more than broken, they have become ongoing criminal enterprises. This goes beyond simple bookkeeping errors to systemic criminality. Want to fix the mortgage problem? Start auditing banks and prosecuting under RICO. Giant bonuses, trips to Vegas and Super Bowl sponsorship are really the LEAST of the problems with banks. Follow me below the fold for what they aren’t talking about on Morning Joe, or any of the MSM.  

1. The Washington Post reports New jobless claims surge to 626,000. “The number represents a larger-than-expected increase over the 591,000 people who filed for benefits the week before, and it sets the stage for another jump in the January unemployment rate when it is released Friday.”

   Meanwhile the AP reports Productivity surges and labor pressures ease.

   Productivity was increasing at the end of last year at three times the expected pace while labor costs slowed significantly, underscoring that a deepening recession has taken away the threat of inflation.

   The Labor Department said Thursday that productivity rose at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the final three months of last year, far above the 1.1 percent rise that economists had expected. The increase was double the 1.5 percent rise in productivity in the third quarter.

   Americans are working harder for less money.

2. The CS Monitor reports From Minnesota to Texas, wind power sweeps new jobs into old-tech towns. “Before the nation’s financial crisis hit, wind manufacturing was on a roll. Riding a wave of wind-farm development, some 55 new or expanded facilities popped up nationwide just last year – from blade manufacturers to bearing makers – in what some describe as a new north-south wind manufacturing corridor running roughly from Minnesota to Texas.”

   “Nationwide, wind-turbine manufacturing added 13,000 jobs for a total of 85,000 wind workers last year… Even amid the economic gloom, demand is still soaring in one wind-energy area: wind-turbine technicians. Wind-farm growth has come on so fast worldwide that huge demand remains for technicians to maintain them.”

   But, The Guardian reports gloom from one of the companies featured in the Monitor’s article — a Californian wind turbine firm axes staff as recession hits renewables sector. “Clipper Windpower said in a trading update that 90 staff would be laid off and production levels cut by up to a fifth… Clipper had been ramping up its production facilities at its main manufacturing base at Cedar Rapids in Iowa in anticipation of new demand. But the company said it was now ‘reducing overall operating expenses, component purchases and working capital balances to align with the lower production levels, including an 11% workforce reduction.'”

Four at Four continues with Wall Street pay, Treasury Department over paying for bailout ‘assets’, Dawa party’s big win in Iraq, and the U.S. Navy’s wargame plans for Oregon.

This is just being reported,

Army reports alarming rise in suicides last month

There has been a small sprinkling of reports about the Military Suicides in the last couple of months, most of those found only if one is hitting a number of news outlets but not making National News, even as those who serve do so for the Country not a Community located near a base or where their from.