CNN anchor breaks down after hearing story of little girl's death in Haiti

Really quite moving.

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Petula Clark is 77, wow

She's 77 in this clip. Amazing.

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World Bank President - 'millions going hungry, sick' due to economic crisis

But what about the bankers? They desperately need their bonuses and for everyone to stop picking on them. So tens of millions die. At least the bonuses are being salvaged. Can't the poor, sick and dying think more about others? They can be so selfish sometimes.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Zoellick said the World Bank estimated that a further 64 million people would fall into extreme poverty between 2009 and 2010 as a result of the crisis.

"We continue to see negative fallout from the economic crisis," Zoellick told a news conference in Berlin.

"For developed countries, it is a matter of jobs and economic growth. For too many poor countries, it is the searing pain of millions going hungry, getting sick, with the impact being felt on a generation of children for many years."

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United joins Delta & Continental on baggage fee

Golly, how surprising that the number is exactly the same as the others. Collude much or does it just look that way to everyone? It's hard to say anything positive about the big US airlines who somehow manage to get away with shafting customers year after year. When they go bankrupt - as they always do - they find new ways to hammer the unions and pay the incompetent management even more money.

Bloomberg News is reporting that United Airlines plans to start charging $23 for a first piece of checked luggage, a 53 percent increase, to match fees by competitors Delta and Continental.

A second bag will cost $32, up from $25, Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based parent UAL Corp. told Bloomberg. The prices apply to online check-ins only, with airport transactions $2 more for the first bag and $3 more for the second.

How many days until the rest of the big carriers join the party? Read More......

Pam Spaulding on the White House and the gay community

Pam writing at Pam's House Blend:

Our movement has wasted the opening months of this administration trying to denigrate voices from the outside who knew our civil rights were going to get backburnered because of 1) health care, 2) the endless military debacles, 3) all other progressive causes waiting in line that have been out in the cold for years. The only way to move ahead in the line when it comes to civil rights and a group -- LGBTs -- is to stop the glad handing and to have a plan, not fret over the gay netroots.

The bottom line is that LGBT rights are not seen by the vast majority of potential allies as worthy of moving up the action chain because of the baseless perception that we are a political liability for elected officials and not really hurting. The black tie gladhanding is not seen as any indicator that hardball politics is going to be played. These elected officials drained our ATM to get elected. They work for us. The shuffling and tap dancing time is over, people....

OK. I have to ask a question here. Where has Brian Bond, the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (aka the LGBT liaison) been during all of this? He's nowhere in this piece and he's supposed to be the Obama administration's primary contact with our orgs all this time. (BTW, Brian never did get back to me about any further WH plans to interact with LGBT New Media/citizen journalists, as the WH has with other interest-group media. Take what you want from that. )

This does raise a broader, more structural problem about our connections to the White House, since there are allegedly so many pro-LGBT people on staff - what is has been done to facilitate action so that it didn't come to this point?

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CNBC: Ignore the losses and lack of guidance at JPMorgan

Um, wait a second. The profitable part of the business came from the free money that they received yet CNBC glosses over that quickly. The losses come from their bad business practices, which sadly, were generally better than others on Wall Street. Wall Street will use the high profits from their free money to justify their obscene bonuses and conveniently ignore the rest which is very troubling. Not being able to provide guidance in any certain way moving into 2010 is what should really stand out. It says a lot about their success last year. If their business was strong without those handouts, they wouldn't be so nervous about 2010, but they are. After the last few years the banks will be very hard pressed to find anyone, anywhere who will be interested in helping them any time soon.

This is good news?

The bank's large mortgage and credit card businesses have seen rising credit costs in the last year, offset only by record investment banking revenue.

JPMorgan said it set aside $4.2 billion to cover mortgage losses in the fourth quarter, up $653 million from the same quarter a year earlier.

Loan loss reserves in its commercial banking unit increased to $494 million from $190 million.

Prime mortgage net charge-offs -- loans the bank does not expect to be repaid -- soared to $568 million, or an annualized 3.81 percent of the book, from $195 million, or 1.2 percent, a year earlier.

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Scott Brown voted against aid to 9/11 volunteers

Wow. Scott Brown really is a GOP dick. On the day he's campaigning with Rudy Giuliani, we learn about Brown's slap to 9/11 rescue workers, just a month after the attacks. Via Greg Sargent:

One month after the September 11th attacks, Scott Brown was one of only three Massachusetts State Representatives to vote against a bill to provide financial assistance to Red Cross workers who had volunteered with 9/11 recovery efforts, we’ve learned.

The Brown campaign acknowledged the vote to us, claiming the measure would have taxed already-strained state finances.

Um, I don't seem to remember any other politician crying poverty in the weeks after 9/11. And, the vote was 148 - 3. Brown was one of those three. Classy guy. He'd fit right in with Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint and David Vitter. He can't win on Tuesday. Read More......

Obama is heading to Mass. on Sunday to campaign for Coakley

On Monday, we wrote that Obama should head to Massachusetts. But, on Monday, Robert Gibbs said it wasn't on the President's schedule. It is now. The President found some time to go to Massachusetts:

President Obama plans to visit the state Sunday to campaign for Senate candidate Martha Coakley, according to two senior Democratic officials.

A third Democratic source said that the event with Obama would likely be held in the Boston area, either in the city itself, or in one of two communities where Coakley is scheduled to campaign, Quincy and Framingham.

This should help. The teabagger types are already riled up. We need our voters to feel it. And, there will be plenty of time to play the blame game if Coakley loses (although we're hearing that some of the White House brain trust have been assigning blame already, as if they're immune from any of the current feelings of ill-will in the electorate.) Read More......

Harold Ford won't rule out an independent run at Gillibrand's Senate seat in NY

More Lieberman every day. Read More......

Citigroup bonuses to be on par with 2008

This is not moving in the right direction. This industry will not lead the US out of this terrible economy and it's not nearly as critical as it likes to think it is. Maybe it's time to increase the taxes on them until they wake up and realize how lucky they are to have jobs, let alone an industry. Reuters:

Officials at rival companies told Reuters that Citigroup employees will essentially receive at least 60 percent of their bonuses in cash or stock that can quickly be sold. That level is high compared to some rivals, which could help the bank retain employees.

But some Citigroup employees groused at the relatively low portion of the bonus that will come in cash.

Boo hoo. Greedy until the bitter end. Read More......

You should notice the home page content loading much faster

I hired a tech guy to try to fix the slow-loading problem that we've had for years. I think he actually did it. And yes, there are still some elements that take forever to load, but you won't visually notice them not loading - visually you'll see that the main content loads remarkably fast as compared to before. I hope :-) Read More......

WH increasingly alarmed about Coakley race in Mass., weighing benefits of last minute campaign visit by Prez

Joe asked on Monday, when the PPP poll showed the race virtually tied, and numerous political operatives in DC told Joe and me that the race could be in trouble, why the President wasn't considering a visit. Today, five days later, the White House is concerned, but still unsure about a visit.

The Haiti disaster complicates things now. You can't give rah-rah speeches when a human disaster is taking place just south of your border. But last Monday, Haiti hadn't yet occurred, and Gibbs made clear that the White House was not comfortable even talking about the possibility of sending Obama to campaign in-state to hold Kennedy's seat. And Joe and I learned a long time ago, watching Gibbs' response to gay questions, when the White House spokesman gets tongue tied, it's a sure sign that something bad is going on behind the scenes:

QUESTION: On politics, there are indications that Massachusetts Senate race is tightening up. The DNC sent a top staffer there today. Does the president have any intention of going up to Massachusetts to campaign on behalf of Martha Coakley?

GIBBS: The president doesn't have any travel plans to campaign in Massachusetts.

QUESTION: Robert, why isn't the president going to campaign for Martha Coakley? It's a tight race, very important to (inaudible) essentially?

GIBBS: It's not on our schedule to go to next week.

QUESTION: And why is it not on the schedule?

GIBBS: It's just not on the schedule....

QUESTION: So just -- just not on the schedule. It seems the scheduler actually who has decided not to send him.

GIBBS: All I can say was, you didn't ask me that. We just -- it's not on the schedule as a trip the president's going to make.

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In latest Mass. Senate polls, Brown leads Coakley or Coakley leads Brown

The latest poll in the Massachusetts Senate race shows the Republican, Scott Brown, leading Democrat Martha Coakley by a margin of 50% - 46%. This poll, which has a margin of error of +/- 4.4%, was conducted Monday through Wednesday.

Yesterday, Blue Mass Group released a poll showing Coakley leading by a margin of 49% - 41%. This poll was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesay and has a margin of error of +/- 4%.

What I'm hoping is that Brown has peaked. He was on a roll without much push back from the Democratic side. That changed this week. People in Massachusetts are paying attention and Brown was exposed as the hard-core, homophobic right-winger that he is. Yesterday, Brown showed his true colors again. He sided with the big banks by opposing the fee Obama proposed to recoup TARP costs.

In special elections, it's all about turnout and which side is motivated. Until this week, Brown had the advantage. That may have changed. Democrats in the Bay State (and Washington D.C.) have had a real wake up call. The alarm may have been sounded in time. I'm sure there are many Democrats in Mass. who may not have voted next week because they thought this was a sure thing for Coakley. In fact, I know some of them. But, not anymore. The thought of Scott Brown filling that seat held for so long by Ted Kennedy has become a motivating factor.

Here's a link to Coakley campaign events for those who to help out over the next couple days. Read More......

Pentagon considering whether gay troops need to be segregated 'separate but equal' style; secret gay meeting confirms 'there is no plan' on DADT

Bumped. This is important.

An important and disturbing update on the President's promise to repeal the military's anti-gay Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

From an article just published in the NYT we learn that not only has the White House not decided if it's going to push for the repeal of DADT, but it also hasn't decided what specifically it is going to push for, if anything. For example, the NYT reports that the Pentagon is considering whether we need to segregate gay servicemembers, "separate but equal" style, to keep them out of the showers and barracks of straight troops. (In addition to being supremely offensive, it's also supremely idiotic, as gay and lesbian servicemembers are already sharing showers and barracks with straight troops, without incident, and have been since before the Revolution.)

Just as troubling, Joe and I have learned the details of a secret meeting that took place this week among a number of top gay rights groups. At the meeting, the groups decided not to move ahead with a full-blown campaign to push for the repeal of DADT until the White House decides what it wants to do, hopefully sometime in the next month or two. This not only confirmed that the White House has no plan on DADT, after we'd been told for over half a year that they had a plan, but it also confirms that our groups are not at the table with the White House coming up with the repeal policy. Rather, our gay rights groups are just as out of the loop as the rest of us - are being kept out of the loop by the Obama White House - as if this were a hostile Republican administration, and not a self-proclaimed "fierce advocate."

I've got a much lengthier story about this, including more details of the secret meeting, on AMERICAblog Gay. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

John wrote an important post on Don't Ask, Don't Tell last night. There have been a lot of developments this week. But, at the end of this week, it doesn't feel like we're any closer to seeing that law repealed. In fact, as we learned last night, there really is no plan.

The President and Democratic leaders had a meeting another meeting at the White House last night, which last til after 1:00 A.M. They're still negotiating the health care bill. Obama is actively engaged. He wants this one. They would like to reach a deal by today. Unclear if that will happen. The goal is to have this legislation done before Obama delivers the State of the Union.

I had to force myself to stop watching CNN yesterday. The network's coverage of Haiti has been intense. I actually heard Wolf Blitzer say "Oh, my God" twice as some of the images came across the screen. The country is beyond devastated. But, again, it has been impressive to see the response from nations and people around the world.

Let's get threading... Read More......

Bank tax to 'recover every single dime' or at least within $10 or $20 billion

It's hard for any sane person to argue against taxing the banks after what we've witnessed the last few years. (Of course, Larry Kudlow of CNBC is doing just that, but I did say "sane.") Will it potentially slow their business and deter new hiring? Maybe, but looking at the "growth" that they exhibited during the bubble years, slowing down is not such a bad idea. The banks are too unstable and susceptible to wild swings that don't benefit anyone other than a few inside the bank.

The bankers argument against the tax is because it's unfair is amusing when you think about it. How unfair was it that everyone else had to save their industry yet at best are only breaking even? The bankers should consider themselves lucky that Obama is only asking for full payment instead of much more. It's a small step for the White House and hopefully it shows the direction for the future.

Striking a populist tone, Obama called for a fee on the biggest U.S banks to "recover every single dime" the government spent rescuing the financial sector from its worst crisis since the Great Depression.

"My determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at some of the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people," Obama said, reflecting increasingly harsh rhetoric toward the financial industry.

"We want our money back," he said.

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Human rights activists in China detail hacked Gmail accounts

Once again, the Beijing Olympics changed everything. Hacking into accounts in China is bad enough but now Tibetan activists based in the US are also describing similar problems. And people think you can do business with that government? At what cost? As disturbing as this is, it's equally disturbing that Google has only come around on this issue after failing miserably in China. For them it appears to be more of a PR stunt to lick their wounds and less about principle.

Google said its investigation also showed that the accounts of dozens of Gmail users in the US, China and Europe who are advocates of human rights in China had been routinely accessed by third parties. This had not happened through an intrusion into its infrastructure, but probably through phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.

Ai, who helped to design the Bird's Nest stadium for the Olympics, came under pressure from authorities after leading a volunteer attempt to list all the children who died when their schools collapsed in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan.

"We realised two months ago that our Gmail account [for the Sichuan investigation] had been invaded by someone who was transferring our emails so whatever we got, they got," he said. "Of course we changed the password but we later had problems again."

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