Friday Mashup (3/12/10)

(And I also posted here.)

1) Is anybody else out there as shocked over this story as I am, including the following...

Amnesty International may be best known to American audiences for bringing to light horror stories abroad such as the disappearance of political activists in Argentina or the abysmal conditions inside South African prisons under apartheid. But in a new report on pregnancy and childbirth care in the U.S., Amnesty details the maternal-health care crisis in this country as part of a systemic violation of women's rights.

The report, titled "Deadly Delivery," notes that the likelihood of a woman's dying in childbirth in the U.S. is five times as great as in Greece, four times as great as in Germany and three times as great as in Spain. Every day in the U.S., more than two women die of pregnancy-related causes, with the maternal mortality ratio doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006. (And as shocking as these figures are, Amnesty notes that the actual number of maternal deaths in the U.S. may be a lot higher, since there are no federal requirements to report these outcomes and since data collection at the state and local levels needs to be improved.) "In the U.S., we spend more than any country on health care, yet American women are at greater risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes than in 40 other countries," says Nan Strauss, the report's co-author, who spent two years investigating the issue of maternal mortality worldwide. "We thought that was scandalous."

I very definitely agree. And without getting into particulars, which I am not at liberty to do, I will only say that it is critical for pregnant women to be mindful of their blood pressure. I know very well how important an issue that can be in the event that there are complications (all I'll say about that is that we ended up OK, but it was a real scare).

And while I don't have any kind of "smoking gun, cause and effect" numbers on this, it would stand to reason that emphasizing pre-natal care makes particular sense to try and reverse this over-20-year downward trend of an increased maternal mortality rate.

However, the forces of stupidity have marshaled themselves on this issue, as they have with so many others. Witness Jon Kyl of Arizona here…

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, cited statistics showing that nearly 60 percent of insurance plans sold on the individual market do not offer maternity care. "For the women in these plans, or who are attempting to get insurance, no amount of money can buy maternity care that they need."

For Ms. Stabenow, her speech on maternity care was a return to an issue that led to one of the more pointed exchanges during the Senate Finance Committee's recent debate over the health care legislation.

Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, said during the debate that he disagreed with the idea of requiring insurers to provide maternity care because it would raise costs for people who don't need or want the coverage. "I don't need maternity care," Mr. Kyl said. "And so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive."

Ms. Stabenow interjected: "I think your mom probably did." Mr. Kyl shot back, "Yeah, over 60 years ago my mom did."

Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, in her floor speech…said: "Only 14 states in America require insurance companies to cover maternity care. Imagine, in a country that puts family values first, only 14 states. That will change…"

So, as far as I'm concerned, file all of this under "you get what you pay for" (or, more precisely – and as Kyl, among others, would have it – what you don't pay for).

2) Somebody named Jay Richards over at the AEI blog inflicted the following (here)…

There's something to be said for economies of scale, infrastructure, and military might when it comes to humanitarian aid. But there's also something to be said for local knowledge, religious conviction, and on-the-ground experience.

But not all humanitarian aid programs work so well. In fact, the world's largest one doesn't work so well. The New York Times reports that according to the United Nations' own study, its World Food Program is having a terrible time in Somalia:

As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff members, according to a new Security Council report.

Well, I have a feeling that Richards, the Times and the Security Council should take a look at this…

The World Food Program is challenging a U.N. report that alleges as much as half of the WFP food destined for the needy in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors and Islamist militants. WFP officials say there are a number of inaccuracies contained in the report.

In a statement e-mailed to VOA, a WFP official said the U.N. food agency would welcome an independent investigation into allegations that local WFP contractors and staff members are diverting food and selling them for profit, sometimes to al-Shabab, a radical Islamist movement that is believed to be proxy for al-Qaida in Somalia.

The food diversion allegations against the World Food Program first surfaced last year, prompting the United States to reduce its funding to the agency last year amid concerns that the aid might fall into the hands of extremists.

The WFP official says many of the issues raised in the U.N. Somalia Monitoring Group's report have already been addressed, while parts of the report contain inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims.

According to the World Food Program, the report, for example, alleges corruption inside the food agency by stating that last year it steered $200 million, or 80 percent of its transportation contracts, to only three Somali businessmen. The World Food Program says the three men received only $41.4 million, or 22 percent of the transportation contracts.

The story also tells us that, concerning 1,000 metric tons of food stolen at a supposedly staged incident in Mogadishu, "the looting incident was not staged and the local contractor subsequently replaced all of the missing food."

Besides, as far as I'm concerned, some pundit purporting to speak on behalf of this country has no right to lecture anyone else in the world about properly dispensing foreign aid, considering this item (from 2004)…

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (IPS) - Three U.S. senators have called on Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to account for 8.8 billion dollars entrusted to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq earlier this year but now gone missing.

In a letter Thursday, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Byron L Dorgan of North Dakota and Tom Harkin of Iowa, all opposition Democrats, demanded a "full, written account" of the money that was channeled to Iraqi ministries and authorities by the CPA, which was the governing body in the occupied country until Jun. 30.

The loss was uncovered in an audit by the CPA's inspector general. It has not yet been released publicly and was initially reported on the website of journalist and retired U.S. Army Col David Hackworth.

The CPA was terminated at the end of July to make way for an interim Iraqi government, which is in turn scheduled to be replaced by an elected body early in 2005.

"We are requesting a full, written account of the 8.8 billion dollars transferred earlier this year from the CPA to the Iraqi ministries, including the amount each ministry received and the way in which the ministry spent the money," said the letter.

(More of this utterly depressing history is detailed here.)

Here's a thought – Rummy could begin to pay back the dough from the book sales of his autobiography, and the remaining balance should be attached to any further income generated by his estate in perpetuity (as a taxpayer who was ripped off, that's an "economy of scale" that works for me).

3) And finally, here is some wailing and gnashing of teeth from The Moonie Times as another pillar of Bushco malfeasance falls to the ground, as it were…

The Obama administration promised increased transparency in government but has rolled back rules proposed by the Bush administration that expanded the financial disclosure statements required of labor unions and their leaders.

Since President Obama took office, the Labor Department has rescinded or delayed three sets of rules proposed by the George W. Bush administration that would have required unions and their leaders to more specifically detail their finances, according to a review of records by The Washington Times.

The rules were rolled back while the Obama administration was seeking more stringent regulation of corporate America, including banks, insurance companies, health care providers and publicly traded companies.

The proposed Bush rules would have required labor unions to identify from whom they were buying and selling assets, forced union leaders and employees to file more detailed conflict-of-interest forms, and required unions to reveal the finances of hundreds of so-called labor trusts - largely unregulated entities set up to provide benefits for members.

Former Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, one of the architects of the expanded Bush rules, said the Obama administration is "making a mockery of the regulations" and is giving "preferential treatment" to the unions.

The only "mockery" here is the eight-year battle waged by Mrs. Mitch McConnell (call her that and then watch her pitch a fit) as Labor Secretary against working men and women in this country, seeing as how those are the people she should have represented instead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their pals; as noted here (with much more on Puffy Chao here)…

While the new regulations could help union members deal with corruption, they appear to be intended to undermine a union's ability to act politically. This is particularly troubling in light of the spate of political attacks on workers and unions in recent years.

Forcing unions to report what percentage of staff time and total expenditures are made for political action and lobbying will make it easier to allege that unions which engage in vigorous efforts to elect pro-union candidates or support pro-worker initiatives have violated campaign finance restrictions.

Additionally, the breakdown of expenditures may result in more agency fee payers, those who choose to pay only that portion of dues used for collective bargaining purposes, demanding a larger share of their money back.

Memo to The Dragon Lady – elections have consequences.

Thursday Stuff

OK now, for the hundred and fiftieth time, I have no problem with earmarks as long as they're disclosed (as opposed to, ahem, this one)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of "Déjà Vu" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, here are David Crosby and Stephen Stills from '91 performing the title track (with Essra Mohawk standing in for Graham Nash - the audio is good, but it could have been better).

Thursday Mashup (3/11/10)

(And I also posted here.)

1) Leave it to Fix Noise to keep its figurative finger on the pulse of America’s news heartbeat (or whatever – here, and yes, that is snark)…

If you want to know just what your kids are learning from their history books, all you have to do is apply the "Reagan test," says Professor Larry Schweikart.

As the Texas textbook battle continues to simmer, Schweikart says the first thing he does to determine whether a book is politically slanted is to go to any section discussing President Ronald Reagan. What you'll find there, he says, will tell you everything you need to know, he says.

Schweikart says the majority of books he’s examined credit former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev with ending the Cold War, and not Reagan. That's “a joke,” Schweikart says. “I lived through the Reagan years, I remember.”

You want to hear a joke, Professor Schweikart? Check this out, in which former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that giving Reagan credit for ending the cold war is like giving credit for the sunrise to the rooster’s cackle (Ooooh, snap!). And I know it’s true, because I “lived through the Reagan years” too.

And Think Progress tells us here that the Texas Education Agency (the people in charge of the textbooks) actually took issue with Fix Noise for the latter’s “fear mongering.”

Still, though, the Texas Board of Education (dominated by Repugs, of course) is bound to come up with some real humdingers in those books I’m sure, particularly since coverage of Ted Kennedy and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is apparently going to be optional.

Well, in keeping with this prior post, allow me to provide more fun facts about perhaps the reddest of the red states…

- The “Anahuac Disturbances” were noteworthy because it marked the initial news appearance of George W. Bush; he was mauled in a kegger fight between two rival state high school football teams.

- The “yellow rose of Texas” gained popularity when it was presented by Mexican immigrants crossing over the border to the US.

- Dallas’s Love Field airport was named after Kurt Cobain’s widow.

- Sammy Sosa of the Texas Rangers played all nine positions the year the team won the World Series in 1990.

- Molly Ivins was elected governor of Texas and served for 40 years; she stepped down from office in 1995.

I said it before and I’ll say it again – please secede already.

Update 3/12/10: I guess it was because of that icky sex with Sally Hemings, huh...morons (here).

2) And speaking of education, Armstrong Williams of The Hill is back with more right-wing dreck (here)…

Inner cities…are characterized by less-educated, lower-earning and less education-minded folks who don’t provide as much of a tax base for better-funded schools, not to mention the fact that they demand less of their teachers and even less of their children in terms of school performance.

Welcome to the Armstrong Williams Demagogic Generalization Festival, my fellow prisoners.

Oh, and by the way, I think the following itsy bitsy teenie weenie little fact about Williams should be noted from here, as long as we’re talking about education…

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.

Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."

Hell, I “believe” in making a lot of money too, but that doesn’t mean I’d pretend to be impartial while I was trying to persuade people to come around to my point of view.

3) And finally, Daniel Henninger of the Murdoch Street Journal, opining on health care reform (yes, this issue will eventually be resolved one way or the other someday), told us the following from here (on the matter of trying to pass reform with 51 votes in the Senate – sort of tangentially related to Texas in that he compares Obama to LBJ)…

“Reconciliation could damage the institution of the Senate for years.”

As Jamison Foser of Media Matters tells us here, all we heard from the people with initials for names who bring us the news was the sound of crickets when the Repugs ran the show and did the same thing not too long ago, only a whole lot more times than the Democrats plan to do (and here is another moment of pundit piffle from Henninger).

Wednesday Stuff

What thoughtful sentiments from our allies who claim to desire peace (more here)...



Update 3/12/10: You go, Hil (here)...

...and if you wish to draw a connection between this video and the prior one - well, have at it.

Teddy Would Be Proud

And this guy is LEAVING??!! Hell, he should get a promotion for this!

(And oh yeah, I was stuck in a hospital waiting room yesterday and watched the news loop about the guy whose Prius went out of control and Letterman's blackmailer, and I would call it about 20 instances of the same footage for each story. Nothing on Afghanistan, though.)



Update: Some utterly predictable spin here...

Tuesday Stuff

Yes, health care reform remains a vitally important issue, and yes, I'm probably as tired of mentioning it as you are of reading about it, but I'm including this video of Chris Hayes (sitting in for Rachel Maddow) interviewing Howard Dean to publicize the pro-health care rally today in Washington, to try and offset somewhat our corporate media's love affair with those teabaggin' wingnuts...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and today is the 100th birthday of composer Samuel Barber; here is his most famous work performed on September 15, 2001.

Try A New Metaphor, U.S. News

The headline of this U.S. News story is "Bullets Flying Over Abortion Coverage In Health Reform Bill."

Given what happened to this man, I think that's in very poor taste (sorry it took a few days to get to this).

(Also, more flaky blogging for awhile...)

Monday Stuff

I will never forgive Ken Starr for the Clinton inquisition, and he should spare us his disgusting platitudes concerning his friends Hangin' Judge JR and Kristol Mess, but otherwise, I have to be fair and give him credit for this (I didn't pay much attention to the wingnut ad in question, but yep, even for them, it's pretty low).

And if you want to gauge the depth of the moral bankruptcy of our corporate media, consider that Bill Kristol is still treated seriously in their circles. This, let's not forget, is the guy who not only led the pundit drumbeat for Iraq War II louder than anyone else with the possible exception of Little Tommy Friedman, but also led the effort to scuttle health care reform in the '90s. Their complicity in not treating Kristol like the moral leper that he is speaks volumes...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Update 3/9/10: Related posts are here and here (hat tip to Atrios for both).

...and happy 65th birthday to Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, the novelty act that, for a time, became an actual band (don't know if they're still touring anywhere or not).

Turning "The Page" On More Obama Wankery

(And I also posted here…also, Halperin’s blog is referenced in the post title.)

Thank goodness we have Mark Halperin to warn us when our president isn’t performing as expected by our political-media-industrial complex.

Here, he tells us that President Obama is “making the same mistakes as Bush,” what with Number 44’s policies on Wall Street and Afghanistan “alienating the left.” In response, I am providing this link to a Quinnipiac poll from January which more or less splits Obama’s approval at 50-50 or 60-40 across the board (which, to me, means that there is ample ebb and flow out there when it comes to public opinion that no one demographic holds an edge…I’d like to think that Halperin’s mythical “left” could decisively sway an electoral outcome this cycle, but I know better).

So how exactly is President Obama acting like Dubya, according to Halperin? Does the intrepid Time commentator draw a sadly apt comparison between Number 43 and Obama’s waffling on the issue of whether or not to try accused terrorists in civilian courts?

Uh, no.

Yep, you guessed it – Halperin gives us a bunch of “conventional wisdom” navel gazing instead…

No Chief Economic Spokesperson. Quick: Name all three of Bush's Treasury Secretaries. Hard to do, isn't it? Like Bush, Obama has failed to install an economics commander in chief who can serve as the public face and the in-house honcho of the Administration's financial team.

Halperin is worried about “the public face” of Obama economic policy? Gee, then, I guess all of those Capitol Hill hearings involving Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were a figment of my imagination (as well as those involving Bushco Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson…and to answer the trivia question, the other two Bushies Halperin asks about here are Paul O’Neill and John “Snidely” Snow).

Again, Halperin misses a chance to draw the line between Geithner and Paulson, two Goldman Sachs refugees who have ensured the rather pathetic equivalency between the two administrations when it comes to failing to hold to account the rapacious pirates on Wall Street who have very nearly led our economy to ruin (And Obama needs “a Robert Rubin figure”? As in, the deregulation architect who set the dominos falling in the first place, with Alan Greenspan’s approval? Are you kidding me??).

Halperin has some other nonsense to impart to us, such as Obama and Captain Clueless both “failing to empower cabinet members on domestic policy” (kind of hard to do that when the “Party of No” seeks to scuttle their initiatives and block appointment of administration officials) and “tying his administration’s fate too closely to his party’s congressional leadership” (uh…and how exactly is Obama supposed to avoid that when Congress is responsible for passing the legislation?).

I will give Halperin a little bit of an acknowledgement on one point, though, and that is “falling to integrate policy, politics and communication.” Message discipline has been a problem for this administration lately on some issues (whether or not to support a public option, whether or not John Yoo and Jay Bybee could be held criminally liable for authorizing torture, the previously mentioned terror trial question, etc.).

However, to a certain extent, I think that is a “boulder of Sisyphus” kind of insoluble task, particularly in our current anti-incumbency climate. There are a multitude of communication tools available for Obama, and I think he has utilized them effectively. But when you have a base in need of re-energization (word?) in no small part due to Repug congressional obstruction (and an American voting public with a notoriously short attention span), as well as a Dem Senate leadership that apparently believes progress is temporarily mollifying GOP obstruction in the name of the Beltway’s blessed notion of “bipartisanship,” all of these collectively are ingredients that spell trouble (though – and I hasten to emphasize this – not certain doom in and of themselves).

Really, though, what else could we expect from Halperin, seeing as how he was the guy who gave us this?

Some Random Oscar Thoughts

I'm just catching the show in between other stuff, and I just had some observations in no particular order:

From what I can see, the rest of the show hasn't been anywhere near as humorous as Neil Patrick Harris's double-entendre-filled musiclal number to open the program.

It's a shame that the hosts can't make too many topical references or give speeches promoting thier causes (yes, I think some of that is good) because no one will understand them and/or conservatives will get pissed off, so what passes for humor are remarks by Steve Martin and others about how vain they all are (that was amusing a few years ago, but it's merely tiresome now).

Is someone going to send Ben Stiller a memo telling them that his Oscar costumes aren't funny?

Nice job on the tribute to John Hughes, by the way.

And yes, I know the technical awards are boring, but the winners just get a group picture and no individual mention?

And finally, nice job to forget Patrick McGoohan in the "In Memoriam" segment (gee, "All Night Long"? "Ice Station Zebra"? "Mary, Queen Of Scots"? "Braveheart"? Any of those titles ring a bell?).

Also, memo to self - see "The Hurt Locker" ASAP.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (3/6/10)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (posting will continue to be flaky for a little while, and I still don't know what I'm going to do about the pic).

Antitrust exemption. Voting 406-19, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 4626) to end the health-insurance industry's 64-year-old federal antitrust exemption under the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Health insurers are regulated on the state level and are subject to state antitrust laws. Under this bill, the Justice Department would provide another layer of enforcement against monopolistic activities such as collusion in the setting of premium rates, allocating market shares, and rigging bids on contracts. The bill exempts medical-malpractice insurers.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Not voting: Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).

Interesting vote for Pitts to miss (and by the way, here is more info to consider on PA-16’s waste of space…and to do something about it, click here).

2010 spy budget. Voting 235-168, the House approved a classified 2010 U.S. intelligence budget unofficially estimated at $50 billion or higher. The bill (HR 2701) funds operations of the CIA, National Security Agency, and several other spy agencies. The bill awaits Senate action.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz, and Sestak.

Voting no: Castle, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Pitts, and Smith.

Not voting: Dent (official leave).

So the next time you hear Cheney or some other GOP sugar daddy yakking on the Sunday morning gab fests about how they’re supposedly the party to keep us safe as opposed to those bedwetting liberal Democrats, remember this vote in which they chose not to fund our spy operations.

Native Hawaiian sovereignty. Voting 245-164, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 2314) empowering Native Hawaiians to form a sovereign government comparable to the Native American and Native Alaskan nations in the United States.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Adler, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Sestak, and Schwartz.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Pitts, and Smith.

Not voting: Andrews.

I couldn’t hope to summarize the complex issue of Hawaiian sovereignty here even if I tried, but it looks like this bill sponsored by Dem Neil Abercrombie will set forward a process allowing Hawaii the right of self governance without undercutting Federal authority, very possibly en route to building casinos to generate revenue as noted here (though that is in dispute also, apparently).

Senate

Jobs creation. Voting 70-28, the Senate sent the House a bill (HR 2847) that would temporarily exempt businesses from having to pay the 6.2 percent employer's share of Social Security withholding taxes on workers they hire this year from the jobless ranks. Employers also would receive a $1,000 tax credit for each new hire that stays on the job for one year. The two incentives would cost the Treasury about $13 billion.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

Not voting: Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.).

Travel to America. Voting 78-18, the Senate sent President Obama a bill (HR 1299) that would establish a federal corporation to increase foreign travel to the United States. The Corporation for Travel Promotion would be funded initially by about $100 million in assessments on the U.S. hospitality industry and another $100 million in special visa fees collected by the Department of Homeland Security.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Menendez, and Specter.

Not voting: Lautenberg.

Establishing this agency is important for the following reason (noted here, and comparable to what other countries do, by the way)…

International travel to the United States took a significant hit after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, research shows.

Images of long lines and bomb-sniffing canines at U.S. airports have lingered. And while international travel boomed over the last decade - the U.S. Travel Association says 46 million more foreign travelers took long-haul trips in 2009 than in 2000 - this country lost visitors, welcoming 2.4 million fewer last year than in 2000.

The net loss, according to the travel group: 68 million visitors and more than $500 billion in total spending.

This week, the Senate took up a short-term extension of unemployment and COBRA health benefits for those who have lost jobs (after Jim Bunning decided to stop being an a-hole on this subject). The House schedule was to be announced.

Friday Stuff

(And by the way, I also posted here.)

Blanche Lincoln, in her own words (with some embellishment too, of course)...



...and here's the latest from Bill Halter...



...Rachel Maddow takes a crack at the latest in trying to repeal DADT, including that dumb Times Op-Ed by Gen. Merrill McPeak today (and don't forget Patrick Murphy's efforts on this in the House)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and I know you crazy kids have been asking for this, so here it is (can't get used to seeing these guys without the treadmills, though).

Thursday Stuff

Man, I'd love to see "Bush's Brain" go hunting with Dick Cheney one day - if ever there was someone who deserved some well-placed buckshot (and I think Col. Wilkerson makes the case for a war crimes tribunal against Bushco in about the last minute and a half here better than I ever could)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and Bart Stupak is back with the specter of his pro-sepsis amendment (sponsored with Pancake Joe Pitts, of course - more here and here)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and good for Jon Stewart for giving another boot to Fix Noise...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

...and yes, it's time for another crappy music video.

The Murdoch Street Journal "Strikes Out" On Obamanomics

I realize that, when you’re talking about this publication, you’re talking about the pre-eminent propaganda tool of the “pay no price, bear no burden” investor class, but some ripe fertilizer is too pungent to ignore.

And that is the best setup I can come up with for the following dreck from Daniel Henninger yesterday (here)…

The Senate passed a $15 billion "jobs bill." Its proudest piece is a tax credit for employers who hire a person out of work at least 60 days. The employer won't have to pay the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax for what remains of this year. If the worker stays on the job at least a year, the government will give the employer $1,000.

As to the earlier $787 billion stimulus bill, Vice President Joe Biden praised it in Orlando this week as an engine of job creation, while he stood before a pile of broken concrete and asphalt. The subject was highways.

Finally, Barack Obama's government now may force companies to raise wages and benefits by squeezing their federal contracts if they don't.

Maybe there's a better way.

***

Let's bring back the robber barons.

OK, so…by giving a tax credit to employers to encourage hiring, Henninger believes that “force(s) companies to raise wages and benefits”?

And by the way, as noted here, Henninger con-vee-niently failed to note that Biden was highlighting “part of a $20 million project to expand a 3.8-mile stretch of U.S. Route 27 from four to six lanes. It will create between 20 and 50 jobs at different stages.”

But of course, if you’re Henninger, why should you let the facts get in the way of your talking points?

What I really objected to, though, was Henninger’s typically rose-colored look at the people who fueled America’s industrialization during the late 1800s and early 1900s, and for the purposes of this post, I’m going to highlight James Hill, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, individuals who came to control the vital industries that fueled this country’s growth.

As Wikipedia tells us here, Hill was a railroad magnate who managed to build lines all across this country during The Industrial Age, often doing so on the backs (literally and figuratively) of his work force. So much so that…

…his hard micromanaging practices…eventually led to a railway-wide strike and the workers' unionization under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs. Hill and Debs agreed to arbitration by other business owners led by Charles Alfred Pillsbury. The result was restoration of the workers' wages to pre-(1893) depression levels.

And as far as Andrew Carnegie (steel) was concerned (here)…

The Homestead Strike was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. It is one of the most serious labor disputes in US history. The dispute occurred in the Pittsburgh-area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (the AA) and the Carnegie Steel Company.

The AA was an American labor union formed in 1876. It was a craft union representing skilled iron and steel workers.

The AA's membership was concentrated in ironworks west of the Allegheny Mountains. The union negotiated national uniform wage scales on an annual basis; helped regularize working hours, workload levels and work speeds; and helped improve working conditions. It also acted as a hiring hall, helping employers find scarce puddlers and rollers.^[1]

And as Wikipedia tells us, “puddling” was a means of manufacturing high-carbon and low-carbon steel, considered an art for that time.

And finally, I give you the Rockefellers, who owned the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, a mining company involved in the “Ludlow Massacre” (here) which was the culmination of the 1913-1914 mining strike organized by the United Mine Workers of America (20 people, including 11 children and 2 women, were killed). In response, the so-called Colorado Coalfield War led to the deaths of anywhere from 69 to 199 people.

The UMWA tried to achieve recognition by the mining companies to address grievances; even though they failed to do so…

…the (1913-1914) strike had a lasting impact both on conditions at the Colorado mines and on labor relations nationally. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. engaged labor relations experts and future Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King to help him develop reforms for the mines and towns, which included paved roads and recreational facilities, as well as worker representation on committees dealing with working conditions, safety, health, and recreation. There was to be no discrimination against workers who had belonged to unions, and the establishment of a company union. The Rockefeller plan was accepted by the miners in a vote.

So it can be argued that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (from a family that primarily made its fortune in oil, let’s not forget) ended up doing the right thing by his work force, but it took a strike to do it, as well as the deaths of scores of mine workers.

With all of this in mind, I can tell Henninger to keep his “robber barons.” Just because he works for one doesn’t mean the rest of us should be forced to do so also.

(And speaking of “three strikes,” I should note that the Phils edged the Yanks 3-2 in Grapefruit League play today – yaay!)

Debunking an Obama-Rama "Jack Attack"

(I’ll try doing something a bit different here – let’s see if it works…)

The New York Times reported the following yesterday (here)…

In his speech before about 300 people at Savannah Technical College, the president urged Congress to approve a $6 billion proposal to provide cash rebates to homeowners who replace windows, insulate or install energy-saving heating and cooling systems. The so-called cash-for-caulkers initiative — modeled after the popular cash-for-clunkers program for old cars — would offer rebates directly at stores.

Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, said it was refreshing to hear Mr. Obama set aside health care — even briefly — to discuss the economy, even if the two parties do not see eye to eye on all of the proposals to create job growth.

“As long as we’re talking about jobs, it’s a positive thing,” Mr. Kingston said. “It will really hurt the tone by shoving health care through. It will spill over to other very important issues, and it’s going to be harder for us to get other things done.”

Oh, and in the matter of health care “spill(ing) over to other very important issues” (as if health care somehow isn’t an important issue also), this tells us that the National Association of Free clinics (the amazing Nicole Lamoureaux’s organization) is coming to the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta on March 27 from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

And as far as Kingston is concerned, this tells us that he said the Dems’ “honeymoon” after the ’06 Congressional win “would explode on them like an IED” (nice), this tells us that he said our health care system “worked well” to Georgian Jim Parker even though Parker went bankrupt paying for his treatment, and here, Kingston claimed that the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington was “a partisan 527 organization” (referring to the section of the tax code designating that status) when, in fact, CREW is a nonpartisan and nonprofit (501)(c)(3) organization (and there are too many Kingston lies documented here from a 2008 appearance on “Real Time” to summarize in one sentence).

Oh, and by the way, I still can’t find a trace of Kingston’s flag lapel pin (here).

Wednesday Stuff

Just a reminder of how awful Blanche Lincoln is, in case we've somehow forgotten (and to do something about it, click here - and oh yeah, I also posted here)...



...and yeah, this is kind of talky, but I gotta tell ya' that I'm not paying a lot of attention to the words, if you know what I mean.

Tuesday Stuff

Gee, I wonder if those people who were quite rightly upset with Jim Bunning know that Rand Paul thought what Bunning did - holding up unemployment benefits, that is - was just fine (here...Trey Grayson agreed with Paul and Bunning as well, I should note)?

And God bless Sue Mason, and we wish her the best - I can't think of a word to describe how utterly vile it is to deny someone employment because they don't know a computer software program in their chosen field that they could no doubt be easily trained to use...

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...and congratulations to "Goodhair" Perry, as The Eternal Molly Ivins used to call him; Texas deserves him (and if that isn't a tongue-in-cheek remark, I don't know what is...and sorry, I don't get Rachel's "Man After Midnight" reference; Abba parodies? Really??)...

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...and I would say the title of this song definitely applies to Bunning (and Paul Jr., really)...



...and a hat tip goes out to Mrs. Doomsy for this; she brought to my attention the fact that yesterday would have been the 100th birthday of David Niven, and this clip of Oscar performances (which, shockingly, is still available - the "suits" haven't made sure this was taken down yet) includes Niven and the streaker at about 2:30 (and I'll be watching on Sunday - I think Steve Martin will do a good job, though I could do without Alec Baldwin).

A Summary Of Bushco Bungling On “The Dark Continent”

(Note: I will probably continue to have daytime ISP problems with IE and Blogger that will render me unable to post during the day - just an FYI...and I also posted here.)

This is some truly funny revisionist history from Kathryn Jean Lopez (here)…

In the tradition of the Bush administration, Dana Perino has a devotion to the people of Africa.

Sure, just like “in the tradition” of Bushco’s “devotion” to screwing over working families, the unemployed, women seeking family planning services, etc., as noted here.

This, though, does give me an excuse to debunk some more corporate media mythology on how much Number 43 and his pals supposedly paid attention to that continent.

I will grudgingly give Bushco credit for allocating approximately $48 billion for The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in the Hyde/Lantos bill from August of 2008, as noted here. However, I also pointed out that there really wasn’t any good reason to establish PEPFAR instead of contributing to the U.N. Global AIDS Fund, though PEPFAR funding was contingent on what I thought were some pretty idiotic requirements that assumed “abstinence only” behavior by sub-Saharan men, as well as the fact that PEPFAR specified brand drugs and disallowed use of generics in their place.

Also, this tells us that, as of 2006 (most current available information on this), the U.S. “maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world,” including “the genocide in Rwanda (and) the ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” as well as what very possibly is our role in “illegal (small arms) deals that have fueled conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone (and) Angola (also).”

This story also tells us that, despite the signage of 156 countries including every sub-Saharan African country except Somalia, the U.S. still refuses to sign the international Mine Ban Treaty (I blamed Dubya first for this, but the Obama Administration has now signed onto this wrongheaded policy also).

And no discussion of Bushco and Africa could be complete without noting Samuel Bodman, Bushco’s former energy secretary and head of Cabot Corporation; as noted here, the company was the subject of a report by “a United Nations Panel of Experts…accusing the company, along with several other US corporations, of helping to fuel the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) while (Bodman) ran Cabot by purchasing coltan from Congo during the conflict and illegally plundering the country's vast natural resources (coltan is "a heat resistant powder which has unique properties for storing electrical charge, heavily used for printed circuit boards included in cellphones").

Also, as noted here, Liberia's warlord Charles Taylor is currently facing the war crimes charges that Bushco should have to face one day (shockingly, though, it looks like Dubya and his pals did the right thing by rebuffing Pat Robertson, who lobbied the White House on Taylor's behalf in 2003...Robertson received a 1999 concession to run a gold-mining exploration in southeastern Liberia - interesting financial development for a self-proclaimed "man of God" if I do say so myself).

And all you need to know about the intellectual corruption of Bushco’s foreign policy is that they decided to blow Iraq to smithereens over lies but failed to put “boots in the ground” in Darfur, where a genuine human rights crisis was underway (here).

So in summary, I suppose you could argue that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History and his pals had a “devotion” to Africa, all right, in the same way any real or would-be occupying colonial power had a “devotion” to profit and ruination of a country and its people to the exclusion of any other desired outcome.

Monday Stuff

Yes, I’m plenty PO’ed at Harry Reid for the health care fiasco, and the man is an exciting as boiled asparagus, but he’s dead right here…and three guesses who objects at the end? Yep, the same guy who told reporters to get off his elevator here.

And in a “Political Memo” column yesterday in the Times, Carl Hulse said the Repugs would threaten a vote on holding terrorist trials in this country in response. Oooh, I’m sooo scared…



Update 1 3/2/10: The latest sad chapters in this mess are here and here.

Update 2 3/2/10: Took him long enough (here)...

...and it looks like Harold Ford is going to climb back into his helicopter from whence he descended to spend seven minutes in the Bronx, or something, based on this (have fun watching your manicured nails dry, Harold)...



...and Keith brings us an update on his dad tonight (powerful, important stuff)...

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…and even though I’m sure the tongue-in-cheek nature of this song would be lost on Jim Bunning for this (h/t Atrios) and this, and Jon Kyl for this, I want to dedicate this video to them anyway.

Support The Public Option, Bob

I give you Dem U.S. Senator Bob Casey from our illustrious commonwealth (here, last May)…

“Improving our health care system to increase quality and improve affordability is the ultimate and long-neglected goal,” said Sen. Casey. “A public option can help this effort by increasing competition in the market and maintaining patient choice.”

And I give you Casey from last November (here)…

He supports the public option to increase competition and reduce costs.

Funny thing, though – it seems that Casey was asked to support the public option here last June, but failed to do so.

And now, Casey is not one of the 30 (at last count) Democratic senators who has said they will support a public health insurance option in the pending health care reform legislation, whatever it may turn out to be (of course, maybe if the Catholic Church would utter a syllable of support too while it’s busy screaming about abortion, that would be useful also).

Show us that you’re as good as your word and support the public option, Senator Casey (click here to read and find out how).

Update 3/2/10: THANK YOU, SENATOR!

Sunday Stuff

Kudos to Dick Durbin for injecting more needed humanity into the health care free-for-all (I never would have imagined this would still be going on into March)...



...and as a tribute to The Great White North for winning Olympic hockey gold, I give you this from perhaps Canada's pre-eminent musical talent (a lot of the pics are from various religions, in case that's hard to grasp).