Tag: 4@4

1. The Chicago Tribune reports Obama-sponsored mercury-storage bill sent to President Bush. The legislation would ban export of mercury as of 2013.

   Stockpiles of toxic mercury kept by industry soon will be stored safely in the United States instead of ending up on the world market where it might pollute the environment.

   Under bipartisan legislation Congress sent to President George W. Bush Monday for his expected signature, mercury exports would be banned in 2013 and the Energy Department would be required to store the heavy metal permanently.

   The bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Barack Obama, introduced the bill in response to a 2005 Tribune series about mercury contamination in fish.

2. McClatchy Newspapers report Those who remember the Depression fear its return. “For those who lived it, the Great Depression has been seared into them like a scar or worn like a talisman they can touch any time they want… At the depths of the Depression, over one-quarter of the American workforce was out of work.”

   Geneva Spickard is pretty sure America today couldn’t do again what America did to live through its hardest economic times and reign as the financial power it has.
   

   Turner Hinkle agrees. We simply don’t know how.

   “I’m afraid if the next depression that hits is like the one in the ’30s, we would not long have a democracy,” says Turner Hinkle. “I don’t think the government can let it be. People are too used to having everything handed to them.”

   At 91, she is plagued by arthritis of the spine. She is proud of her two sons, one who became a stockbroker, one who became a doctor.

   But a woman who was never afraid during the Depression is afraid now. She is afraid for her great grandchildren and for the world they have been born into.

   She calls it “cruel.”

   Then adds, “God help them.”

Four at Four continues with young Chinese losing their religion and the Brazilian government facing criminal charges for Amazon deforestation.

1. The NY Times reports Treasury would emerge with vast new power.

   The draft legislation, which will be put to a House vote on Monday, gives Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and his successor extraordinary power to decide how the $700 billion bailout fund is spent…

   Mr. Paulson can choose to buy from any financial institution that does business in the United States, or from pension funds, with wide discretion over what he will buy and how much he will pay. Under most circumstances, banks owned by foreign governments are not eligible for the money, but under some conditions, the secretary can choose to bail out foreign central banks.

   Under the bill, the Treasury is to buy the securities at prices he deems appropriate. Mr. Paulson may set prices through auctions but is not required to do so.

   Rarely if ever has one man had such broad authority to spend government money as he sees fit, with no rules requiring him to seek out the lowest possible price for assets being purchased.

   The LA Times reports Paulson will have no peer.

   Buried beneath the 100-plus pages of detail that Paulson’s financial rescue plan has picked up during its 10-day journey from a Bush administration wish list to a bipartisan congressional compromise is the striking fact that the Treasury secretary got almost everything he sought — an eventual $700 billion and the authority to spend it largely as he sees fit…

   Whether that turns out to be a big problem remains to be seen, however, and for the rest, Paulson’s new powers will be almost breathtaking in their scope.

   He and his successor will have the right to buy not just mortgage-related securities at the heart of the crisis, according to the language of the bill, but under some conditions could buy any financial instrument “the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability.” …

   It even gives him the politically explosive power to cut deals with foreign, not just U.S., banks in some cases.

   AlterNet has lots of pictures as Bailout Protesters Send a Strong Message from Wall Street. In the first round of voting, the House defeated, by a 205-228 vote, the Economic Enabling Act of 2008. A new vote is planned, likely timed for after another stunt by McCain. Meanwhile, stocks are cratering and oil prices have dropped sharply.

Four at Four continues with Mukasey appointing a special prosecutor, high-ranking former CIA official pleads guilty to fraud, and labor unions work to counter members’ racism against Obama.

1. The LA Times reports U.S. blames Iran for delay in Iraq pact. The United Nation mandate that authores U.S. troops in Iraq expires on December 31. Unable to work out an agreement with the Iraqis letting the U.S. stay indefinitely, the Bush administration is trying to get an extension on the U.N. mandate. The Iraqis only want the American troops until 2011.

   U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker claimed Iran is “pushing very hard” to block the U.N. mandate extension. Iran, of course, has denied any interference. “In an interview in Baghdad this month, however, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, made it clear that his country deeply opposes the security agreement on the table as ‘one-sided.'”

   Despite the anti-Iranian rhetoric, what really is holding up the U.N. extension is the U.S. insistence on immunity for U.S. troops. Both the Americans and the Iraqis want an agreement. “My clear sense is that the prime minister is focused on Iraqi concerns,” Crocker said, “not what Tehran or any other regional capital might be saying.”

2. The Washington Post reports Carbon is building up in our atmosphere faster than was predicted. “The rise in global carbon dioxide emissions last year outpaced international researchers’ most dire projections”.

   In 2007, carbon released from burning fossil fuels and producing cement increased 2.9 percent over that released in 2006, to a total of 8.47 gigatons…

   This output is at the very high end of scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and could translate into a global temperature rise of more than 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to the panel’s estimates…

   Moreover, new scientific research suggests Earth is already destined for a greater worldwide temperature rise than previously predicted. Last month, two scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California at San Diego published research showing that even if humans stopped generating greenhouse gases immediately, the world’s average temperature would “most likely” increase by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they based their calculations on the fact that new air-quality measures worldwide are reducing the amount of fine particles, or aerosols, in the atmosphere and diminishing their cooling effect.

   The IPCC has warned that an increase of between 3.2 and 9.7 degrees Fahrenheit could trigger massive environmental changes, including major melting of the Greenland ice sheet, the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers and summer sea ice in the Arctic.

Four at Four continues with gas shortages in the Southeast, suspected terrorists arrested in Germany, and a bonus story on Namibia’s sunken treasure.

1. The NY Times reports Lawmakers agree on outline of bailout. Details are yet sketchy and the Republicans seem to be planning on letting only the Democrats support the bailout, setting them up for election disaster. Despite this:

   Lawmakers in both parties said that few substantive differences and no major obstacles remained. They said the bill would authorize the full $700 billion requested by… Bush, but that Congress was intent on disbursing the money in installments.

   One plan under consideration would release $250 billion immediately, with another $100 billion available at the discretion of the president.

   They also said that there would be limits on pay packages for executives whose firms seek assistance from the government and a mechanism for the government to be given an equity stake in some firms so that taxpayers have a chance to profit if the companies prosper in the months and years ahead.

   The Hill reports the House Republicans claiming They have leverage on bailout. “Republicans in the lower chamber are balking at the bailout package, saying that Democrats will be solely responsible for the ramifications of what they see as a flawed compromise.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “made it clear that… House Republicans would not be a part of” the bailout since it does not deregulate Wall Street nor provide capital gains tax cuts.

   The Washington Post quotes Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, saying that “the negotiators were ‘able to accommodate the bulk’ of Democratic concerns about the plan ‘in very responsible ways’ and that “we are on track, I believe, to pass this.'”

   Frank said lawmakers “are responding, I think, to the central thrust” of the administration’s $700 billion bailout request “but adding collectively a number of things that will make people legitimately feel better about the overall vote.” Noting that some lawmakers have been invited to a meeting at the White House today “to try to break a deadlock,” Frank said he was “glad that we’ll be able to go and tell them that there’s not much of a deadlock to break.”

   This bailout has the hallmarks of a Democratic election loser.

Four at Four continues with Pakistan and U.S. troops fighting each other on the border, Afghans growing nostalgic for Taliban rule, Republican efforts in election fraud, and a bonus story about the nation’s first CO2 pollution permit auction.

1. McClatchy Newspapers report Iraq’s parliament approves landmark elections law. Iraq’s parliament unanimously passed the provincial elections law after months of fighting. “A debate over who will control Kirkuk, an oil-rich northern city, was the main sticking point delaying an agreement during the last legislative session.” Parliament decided to sidestep this concern, and postpone elections in Kirkuk.

   The passage of the law means elections to choose provincial and local leaders across Iraq can move forward. It’s unclear whether they will be held by the end of the year, as the United States had hoped.

   The NY Times adds “In passing the bill, the lawmakers simply delayed dealing with the two most divisive issues they faced: how to resolve a quarrel among ethnic groups over the control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the north and how best to achieve political representation for Iraq’s Christians and other minorities.”

   The elections are to be held by the end of January 2009. A report on how best to resolve the Kirkuk dispute is due to the parliament by March 31.

   Meanwhile, the LA Times adds In Baqubah, an ambush on a police checkpoint leaves 22 dead. “The U.S. military said the death toll was 14 policemen; as well as eight members of the Sons of Iraq movement. Police officials in Baghdad said two colonels and a lieutenant colonel were among the dead police officers. The military said rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns were used in the attack.”

Four at Four continues with North Korea restarting its nuclear program, power from cows and the sea (but not sea cows), and a shipwreck finally being removed off Oregon’s coast.

1. The LA Times reports Financial industry’s campaign donations could help it in bailout.

   Since 2002, the sector has contributed more than $1.1 billion to congressional candidates, with Republicans getting an edge during that period, according to federal lobbying records. The figure does not include millions more donated to the favored charities of prominent politicians and the hundreds of millions spent on lobbying. The sector is among the biggest donors overall; by comparison, another major category, lawyers and lobbyists, gave $646 million during the same period…

   In the 2008 election cycle, the list of the top recipients of donations from the financial services, insurance and real estate sectors (all likely to be affected in varying degrees by the legislation) included the leading presidential candidates….

   “If you trace the movement of Wall Street money through Washington, it pretty well tells the story behind this and any other piece of legislation,” said Lynn Turner, former chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission. “The way Washington works, it is the lobbyists and the executives who hire them that get what they want. And it is the taxpayer who usually ends up getting fleeced.“

   The fix is in.

2. The Washington Post reports Japanese Banks Snap Up Wall Street Holdings.

   Major Japanese banks, fat with cash and nearly free of toxic investments, are spotting opportunity in the global financial mess and snapping up substantial holdings on Wall Street.

   Because many Japanese banks and brokerage houses have vast amounts of cash while U.S. banks are increasingly desperate for it, analysts here say more major purchases are likely in coming days and weeks as the financial crisis churns on…

   “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Kenichi Watanabe, president and chief executive of Nomura, said in a statement. He added that “our ability to capitalize on this opportunity in spite of such volatile markets reflects our financial strength.”

   Um, I thought Wall Street was having difficulty finding buyers?

Four at Four continues with declining U.S. immigration, Obama backing off campaign promises, and bonus story about ignoring the real crisis.

1. The Washington Post reports on A sense of resentment amid the ‘For Sale’ signs. “The bailout doesn’t smell right to the people” and “this may be a Main Street bailout backlash in the making… the central fact of the matter hasn’t been lost on anyone”.

   The taxpayers are on the hook for the bad judgment of others. And they say they don’t like it.

   They didn’t break it, but now they’ve bought it. Political leaders and financial titans say the bailout is necessary to save the economy, but on the ground, … people think that the bailout will reward the wrong people…

   The anti-bailout sentiment appears to cut across class lines.

   Meanwhile, the bailout is growing bigger. The NY Times reports Terms are set as bailout debate begins.

   Financial companies were already lobbying to broaden the plan. And the Bush administration did indeed widen the scope by allowing the government to buy out assets other than mortgage-related securities as well as making foreign companies eligible for government assistance.

   That’s right, American taxpayers are being asked to bailout foreign financial firms. From the Treasury Fact Sheet:

   Asset and Institutional Eligibility for the Program. To qualify for the program, assets must have been originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008. Participating financial institutions must have significant operations in the U.S., unless the Secretary makes a determination, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, that broader eligibility is necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.

   As Calculated Risk remarks that not only does this taxpayer “bailout covers any securities issued on or before last week… but the second sentence is even more surprising: eligibility has been changed from ‘financial institution having its headquarters in the United States’ to ‘significant operations in the U.S.’ – and even ‘broader eligibility’ if Paulson so decides.”

   The NY Times headline reads the Two presidential candidates back bailout, but with caveats, but McCain “would press on with his plan to extend the Bush tax cuts and to cut others. Contrary to the warnings of fiscal analysts” and Obama “would press ahead with his plans to overhaul the health care system to insure more people, make college tuition more affordable, give a tax cut to the middle class and raise taxes on those making over $250,000 a year.”

   This kind of talk is silly in light, as The Hill reported on Friday, the Wall Street bailout could ‘cripple’ federal budget. “This cripples the domestic policy priorities of the next president, whoever it is, because it soaks up so much cash,” said Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee and a former investment banker.

   Throw in that Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, said “The nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course.” The CBO assessment made before the current surge in bailouts was announced. So taken together, any promises made now are about akin to the big stinky pile of crap that is the U.S. financial system.

Four at Four continues with the American Dream alive and well in Brazil, Viktor Bout’s extradition hearing, and the stealthy creep of conservatism on college campuses.

1. Words fail me. We the People are getting the short end of the stick here.

   The NY Times reports the U.S. acts to shore up money funds and temporarily limits short selling.

   America’s Gang of Four Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, George Wanker Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.

   Realizing that its case-by-case approach was not sufficient, the federal government has started to put in place a sweeping plan to restore confidence in the financial markets…

   The actions began to unfold Thursday with discussions between the Treasury, Federal Reserve and Congressional leaders on what could become the biggest bailout in United States history, a plan likely to authorize the government to buy distressed mortgages at deep discounts from banks and other institutions…

   In a move against traders who have sought to profit from the financial crisis by betting against bank shares, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a temporary ban on short sales of 799 financial stocks, following similar action in Britain on Thursday.

   And the Treasury, moving to restore confidence in another financial bedrock, said that it would guarantee, at least temporarily, money market funds up to an amount of $50 billion in order to ensure their solvency, a startling intervention into an area that had been considered among the safest investments.

   Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Bush Urges Congress to Enact Rescue Package

   President Bush, warning that urgent steps are needed to “to preserve America’s financial system,” asked Congress today to put aside partisan differences and enact a historic rescue package now being finalized by his administration…

   Bush also shot back at growing criticism of the administration’s role in the meltdown from Capitol Hill and both major presidential campaigns.

   “There will be ample time to debate the origins of this problem,” Bush said…

   Bush, who portrays himself as a conservative free-market advocate, also defended steps that have put billions of taxpayer dollars at risk. “Government intervention is not only warranted; it is essential,” he said.

   No accountability for the bankers and politicians responsible for this capitalist meltdown and the workers are left holding a big bag of bad debt.

Four at Four continues with news of food shortages in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s pollution war, and a Mozart discovery.

1. The Washington Post suspects High turnout and new procedures may mean an election day mess. “Election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot.”

   Premier Election Solutions, the company that makes many of the nation’s voting machines, last month acknowledged that software used in 34 states, including Virginia and Maryland, could cause votes to be dropped. The company, formerly called Diebold, said it has no fix for the problem now, but election officials can catch the errors and recover the votes through a routine process of double-checking electronic memory cards.

2. The LA Times reports Tempers flare as Hurricane Ike relief efforts continue. Bolivar Peninsula northeast of Galveston “has essentially become an island” and 200 to 250 people in the area refuse to leave. Tens of thousands of people from the region remain in shelters. The death toll has risen to 50 people. The Houston-area death toll is at 23.

   Over 1 million people in the Houston area are still without electricity. “State officials worry that it will take weeks to restore basic utilities in towns like Galveston and communities near the Texas-Louisiana border because power substations have been demolished and key infrastructure systems are down.”

   The Houston Chronicle reports Galveston may have power in 10 days and FEMA is being criticized by the city of Houston.

   FEMA took another round of criticism today from the Houston mayor’s office after ready-to-eat meals ran out at a distribution center at the University of Houston’s Robertson Stadium.

   Deputy chief of staff Terrence Fontaine’s outburst came shortly after noon when, after serving about 8,000 meals, the center ran out of food.

   “I’m trying to figure out right now where the truck is,” he fumed. “I’ve been waiting on it for three hours. We need it to come from the command station at Reliant (Park). FEMA is saying nothing – nothing. Not yet. I’m waiting on the product to come up the line. . . .All I’ve heard is, the product is on the way.”

Four at Four continues with news from Afghanistan and Iraq, Mexico’s violent drug war, and a 2 for 1 bonus environmental disaster news from the Arctic and Pacific coast.

1. The Washington Post reports McCain Able to Skirt Limits of Federal Financing. Despite “Obama’s record $66 million haul in August” and “McCain’s decision to finance his bid with a single $84 million infusion from the federal government — has not given Obama a clear financial edge.”

   “Senator Obama’s advantage is not emerging as people thought,” said Lawrence M. Noble, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and an Obama supporter.

   The reason has less to do with Obama’s fundraising… than it does with McCain’s ability to maneuver within the confines of the Watergate-era funding program, Noble said.

   With backing from the Republican National Committee, McCain has taken advantage of loopholes such as “hybrid” television advertisements and joint fundraising committees that may keep him close to financial parity with Obama…

   The hybrid ads and the use of joint fundraising committees are, in Noble’s view, “the final distortion” of a presidential financing system that many have considered outdated for years. Because McCain has found other ways to both raise and spend money during the general-election race, Noble said, “it effectively means he is getting an $84 million subsidy for his campaign.”

Four at Four continues with two stories of the decline of the United States on the international stage and a report from the American Physical Society.

1. The Guardian reports Pakistan orders troops to fire on US cross-border raids. “Pakistan’s military said today its forces had received orders to fire on US troops if they entered Pakistani territory, after a cross-border raid inflamed public opinion.”

   “The orders are clear,” General Athar Abbas, an Pakistan Army spokesman, said. “In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no ambiguity, across the border, on ground or in the air: open fire.”

   Yesterday there were reports that Pakistani troops fired warning shots over the heads of U.S. soldiers near the border. According to BBC News, “Reports say the firing lasted for several hours. Local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains.” (Hat tip Edgar.)

   [UPDATE] The NY Times is now reporting, Top Pentagon official makes a surprise visit to Pakistan. “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s top military official, made a hastily arranged visit to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks about a recent incursion by American commandos based in neighboring Afghanistan. The visit by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, came as an uproar continued to grow in Pakistan about the incursion on Sept. 3…” Pakistan stated there was “no change in policy”.

Four at Four continues with Iraq standing up (so American can stand down), CYA GOP, and John McCain invented the Blackberry.

1. An update on our two wars. Starting with the most recent, Patrick Cockburn of The Indpendent reports Iraq Violence is down – but not because of America’s ‘surge’

   Ongoing violence is down, but Iraq is still the most dangerous country in the world. On Friday a car bomb exploded in the Shia market town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding 43 others. “The smoke filled my house and the shrapnel broke some of the windows,” said Hussein al-Dujaili. “I went outside the house and saw two dead bodies at the gate which had been thrown there by the explosion. Some people were in panic and others were crying.”

   Playing down such killings, the Iraqi government and the US have launched a largely successful propaganda campaign to convince the world that “things are better” in Iraq and that life is returning to normal. One Iraqi journalist recorded his fury at watching newspapers around the world pick up a story that the world’s largest Ferris wheel was to be built in Baghdad, a city where there is usually only two hours of electricity a day…

   The perception in the US that the tide has turned in Iraq is in part because of a change in the attitude of the foreign, largely American, media. The war in Iraq has now been going on for five years, longer than the First World War, and the world is bored with it. US television networks maintain expensive bureaux in Baghdad, but little of what they produce gets on the air. When it does, viewers turn off. US newspaper bureaux are being cut in size. The result of all this is that the American voter hears less of violence in Iraq and can suppose that America’s military adventure there is finally coming good.

   And Afghanistan is in its worst shape since 2001, reports the International Herald Tribune.

   One of the most experienced Western envoys in Afghanistan delivered a depressing review Sunday of the situation there, calling it the worst since 2001 and urging concerted American and foreign action even before a new U.S. administration takes office to avoid “a very hot winter for all of us.”

   Francesc Vendrell, who has just stepped down as European Union envoy in Afghanistan and has eight years of experience in the country, in particular criticized the growing number of civilian deaths in attacks by U.S. and international forces. These have created “a great deal of antipathy,” and helped widen the growing distance between the Afghan government and its citizens, he said…

   Bluntly, Vendrell traced what he called a long series of foreign mistakes in Afghanistan, and recommended action to ensure that the local Afghan authorities and foreign agencies followed up any military successes against the Taliban with concrete assistance to local citizens, to convince them that Westerners and the Kabul government can deliver security and some minimal well-being…

   It was a mistake by the United Nations to limit the mandate of foreign soldiers to Kabul, and for the world to get distracted by the war in Iraq, Vendrell said.

   Just thought somebody would be interested…

Four at Four continues with warning shots from Pakistan at U.S. troops, Hurricane Ike’s aftermath, and growing doubts about Georgia’s version concerning South Ossetia.