AIG employees make the case for letting them go bankrupt

What a bunch of arrogant, self-serving, ungrateful jerks. There's no sense of appreciation for the fact that their entire company - bonuses, salaries, insurance, etc - was saved by taxpayers who were already in trouble due to AIG's behavior. Screw your contracts folks. What kind of contract would they have had if the company no longer existed? The unemployment line doesn't pay quite as well. They still have no idea how angry the rest of the country really is.

But behind closed doors, employees at AIG's Financial Products division -- the very unit whose trading had hastened the insurance giant's collapse -- were defiant, saying they were merely getting what they were due, recoiling at public accusations that they were behind their capitalizing on the company's massive taxpayer bailout.

"I will stand behind every action I have taken in this company from Day One," one employee said, according to a newly obtained transcript of a conference call the division's head held last March with some of his staff.

But when another employee asked whether the staff would be getting a second round of bonuses promised for March 2010, his colleagues burst into laughter, apparently considering this a preposterous notion amid the public outrage.

But of course, those bonuses will be paid after all. None of the pampered Wall Street types felt very much of the financial pain they inflicted on the rest of the world so it's no wonder they have such a sense of entitlement. Not letting more companies fall or at least trashing every last contract before taking them over remains a major mistake of both the Bush and Obama administrations. Read More......

Dallas Fed President calling for breakup of 'too big to fail' banks

With healthcare in the lead right now, any movement on this subject won't happen immediately but it really needs to be a priority soon enough. The US economy is going to be stuck in low gear for a while courtesy of the poor policy of these banks so let's change it before the banking lobbyists kill it for good. CNBC:

On regulatory reform, Fisher called for an international agreement to break up oversized firms.

"The disagreeable but sound thing to do regarding institutions that are too big to fail is to dismantle them over time into institutions that can be prudently managed and regulated across borders,'' Fisher said in prepared remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations.

One prominent proposal for reform, known as the Volcker rule after Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman and White House economics adviser who devised it, would limit taxpayer backing for banks whose primary activities are speculative in nature.

"I align myself closer to Paul Volcker in this argument and would say that if we have to (break up banks) unilaterally, we should,'' Fisher said.

Read More......

FDA warns on false food labels

I'm really starting to like this new FDA. It's amazing what a new team can do.

U.S. health regulators warned units of Nestle and more than a dozen other foodmakers about overstating or misstating the nutritional value of baby food, nuts and other products on their labels.

Most of the letters made public on Wednesday accuse the companies of making claims on their food packages and websites over trans fat content, antioxidant advantages, and omega-3 benefits that fail to Food and Drug Administration guidelines.

The warnings come as the FDA is set to push for new package labeling to make it easier for people to understand the nutritional content of food.

Read More......

Shots fired outside Pentagon, building on lockdown

ABC:

Two police officers were injured by a gunman firing shots outside the Pentagon tonight. Hundreds of employees there were ordered to go into "Code Red" -- the entire building locked down, with no one allowed to enter or leave.

ABC's Steven Portnoy reported that Pentagon police had a suspect in custody. ABC's Martha Raddatz reported that three ambulances were on the scene, and all parking lots at the massive Defense Department headquarters were closed off.

The shooting occurred at the Pentagon Metro Station, which is just outside the Pentagon's main entrance.

Read More......

Shouldn't stimulus money for green technology benefit Americans?

Why is this even a debate? The stimulus money is American taxpayer money that is being used to help build the US economy. Last year when countries around the world (joined by the GOP) complained about "buy American" clauses, not a single one of those countries wasn't doing the exact same thing at home. Comparing it to the isolationist policies after the Great Depression is too extreme. When you look at the high growth potential (and lack of job growth in the US) green technology is an area that the US needs to promote. China is investing heavily in this area as are most industrialized countries.

Joined by Sens. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jon Tester (Mont.), Schumer said at a news conference that the Obama administration has ignored concerns about foreign involvement in the clean-energy program and should halt funding until Congress can pass legislation to deal with the problem.

Schumer and the other lawmakers focused particular criticism at Cielo Wind Power of Austin, which has said it may apply for up to $450 million in stimulus funding for a massive wind farm that would be powered by turbines built in China.

"It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas," Schumer said. "These wind projects have a lot of merit, but the manufacturing should be happening here, not in China."

Of course the GOP teabaggers are against this. They don't see anything wrong with the environment as they suck from the teet of Big Oil. Of course, once these businesses are generating money, the GOP will be first in line to take credit for them and ask for campaign contributions. Read More......

GOP Florida Senate candidate Marc Rubio denies $140 haircut, but he won't say what the tony salon charge was really for

Note his responses in the interview. He sounds rather panicked. What exactly was he spending $134 for at a tony salon? Read More......

Stupak again trying to kill HCR with abortion bs

Just like the Catholic Church, Stupak must hurt millions in order to save them.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., today said he and 11 other House members will not vote for the health care bill unless it includes more stringent language to prevent federal funding from going toward abortion services.

Some Dems want to remove public funding for abortions from Obama's proposal.
"We're not going to vote for this bill with that kind of language," Stupak told "Good Morning America's" George Stephanopoulos today, referring to the Senate health care bill, which includes less restrictive language than what the Democratic lawmaker proposed in the House.

Stupak said he is willing to take the criticism that will be hurled at him if he blocks the bill because of the abortion language, but that he won't back down on his principles.

They ought to rip his committee assignments away from him and support a primary challenger. Criticism? You're undercutting the President's number one item on his agenda. Either you pay a huge price, or it's open season on the President's priorities. And lately, it's been the latter. Read More......

Did Starbucks lie about security measures for gun related problems?

I wrote the other day about Starbucks permitting people to carry open guns in their stores. Starbucks claimed they had "safety measures" in their stores, just in case. Well, if there's a plan besides phoning the police, they haven't told the workers. Starbucks seems more interested in protecting the rights of gun extremists than their own workers. The Starbucks Workers Union has released a statement on the matter.

IWW Starbucks Workers Union Statement Regarding Open-Carry of Firearms in Starbucks Stores

A healthy and safe work environment is the highest priority of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. We also believe strongly that citizens exercising their rights under the law are entitled to respect.

Violence against fast food workers and customers is a common occurrence that cannot be overlooked, and Starbucks is no exception. We appreciate the vigorous debate taking place by principled individuals on both sides of this issue. However, to date we are not aware of any efforts by Starbucks to widely engage its workers who are directly affected by open-carry gun laws. We believe an appropriate solution cannot be reached without doing so. We remain open to all stakeholders working toward a positive resolution that respects Starbucks workers' right to a safe work environment.

Read More......

Obama summons waffling House Democrats to push for health care reform

Good. This is the kind of thing we've been arguing for over the past year, on health care reform, but also on gay rights and other top presidential priorities. Engage, lobbying, knock some heads together - don't just give a speech, then sit back and hope someone on the Hill follows through. This is what real President's do. And it's good to see Obama doing it. And, according to the story, Obama is meeting with House liberals and conservatives. Which is also a change from past White House practices of wracking liberal heads, but not pushing conservatives just as much. This is good all around. Let's see more of it on all of the President's promises. Read More......

Romney says that by making nice with the world Obama has made the world more anti-American

I fault this President for many things, but making the world "more anti-American" is not one of them. This is just crazy talk. But it's what the GOP does, and it works. They come up with an elaborate lie, something so bizarre that our side simply ignores it (to wit: he's a socialist!), and they repeat it again and again until it starts to stick, and then we have the President giving absurd interviews about how pro-capitalism he is. The White House and the Democratic Party need to get their messaging shops in order and start fighting back against the lies in a coordinated, and very ramped up, fashion. Whatever they're doing, it's not working. Read More......

An inauspicious beginning for Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal

Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal legislation was introduced yesterday. To mark the occasion, the chairman of the committee in question, Carl Levin, suggested that maybe we shouldn't pass the repeal at all. Kind of like introducing comprehensive health care reform, and then suggesting that maybe we simply pass out Band-Aids instead.

We need our President. We need the man we voted for. The man who promised us real change, and real hope. The man who told us he'd get DADT repealed, and asked for our votes and our money in exchange for that promise. The White House is now refusing to even say if they want to see DADT repealed this year, only a month after the President called for it in his State of the Union. Much like their approach to the public option, the President promises, the staff equivocates, no one lifts a finger to make the promise a reality, and it dies.

We're never going to see "change" until the President changes first. Read More......

More Jon Stewart on FOX 'News' & health care reform

(H/t E&P; in Exile) Read More......

Will anyone hold Karl Rove accountable for his lies this time?

This week, we're seeing the spectacle of GOPers blatantly lying about the reconciliation process. Just lying. It's a standard trick of the GOP, mastered by Karl Rove. He and his boss lied to get us into the Iraq war.

Now, Karl Rove has written a book and he's going to be pimping it pretty hard. In late 2002/early 2003, the traditional media were spoon fed the WMD lies and never challenged or questioned them. David Corn outlines the lies told by the Rove team to get us into the war in Iraq. There were plenty. And, he issues a challenge to the press who will interview Rove on his book tour. Hold him accountable for the lies:

It was a PR campaign girded with misrepresentations and false statements. Rove contends that his old boss did not knowingly bamboozle the public. (Bush, though, did in a January 2003 meeting with Tony Blair raise the idea of staging an incident—in which US reconnaissance planes painted in UN colors would fly over Iraq and try to draw fire—to provoke an excuse for war.) But Bush, Cheney, and other administration aides exercised a thoroughly reckless disregard for the truth, as they pushed an utterly phony and over-the-top case for invading Iraq.

As Rove makes the rounds on his book tour, he ought to be pressed on all this. There is no doubt that the Bush posse mischaracterized what was known and not known about WMDs in Iraq. It was easy—and useful—for them to do so, for they didn't care to get this right. (After all, as Rove writes, the Iraq war would have likely not occurred without the WMD argument: "Congress was very unlikely to have supported the use-of-force resolution without the WMD threat.") Bush and his aides, Rove included, were not looking to lead an informed debate based on the best information available; they were aiming to start a war. Almost by any means necessary. They spun the nation into Iraq—and now Rove is spinning to cover that up.

The traditional media types tend to fawn all over Rove. Watch them do it this time around, too. Read More......

Exposing the lies of Orrin Hatch and his fellow GOPers

Yesterday, the ever sanctimonious Republican Senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post trashing the use of reconciliation. But, as is typical with most GOPers, Hatch left out some key facts, including how often the Republicans used reconciliation.

Today, on the op-ed pages of the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne fills in the holes and calls the GOP's attack on reconciliation what it is -- "one big lie":

It is all, I am sorry to say, one big lie -- or, if you're sensitive, an astonishing exercise in hypocrisy.

In an op-ed in Tuesday's Post, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) offered an excellent example of this hypocrisy. Right off, the piece was wrong on a core fact. Hatch accused the Democrats of trying to, yes, "ram through the Senate a multitrillion-dollar health-care bill."

No. The health-care bill passed the Senate in December with 60 votes under the normal process. The only thing that would pass under a simple majority vote would be a series of amendments that fit comfortably under the "reconciliation" rules established to deal with money issues. Near the end of his column, Hatch conceded that reconciliation would be used for "only parts" of the bill. But why didn't he say that in the first place?

Maybe Hatch was lying for the lord. Republicans have gotten used to lying and not being called on it. Most of the traditional media types regurgitate the lies and will never use the word "lie." That's one lesson Republicans learned from Karl Rove.

But, Dionne called it a lie and further explained Hatch's falsehoods:

Hatch said that reconciliation should not be used for "substantive legislation" unless the legislation has "significant bipartisan support." But surely the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which were passed under reconciliation and increased the deficit by $1.7 trillion during his presidency, were "substantive legislation." The 2003 dividends tax cut could muster only 50 votes. Vice President Dick Cheney had to break the tie. Talk about "ramming through."

The underlying "principle" here seems to be that it's fine to pass tax cuts for the wealthy on narrow votes but an outrage to use reconciliation to help middle-income and poor people get health insurance.

There are no principles involved, except the prevailing GOP principle of putting politics over everything. They're blinded by it.

And, Orrin Hatch's op-ed was one of the clearest examples yet. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Well, Obama laid down the gauntlet yesterday (finally.) He wants Democrats in Congress to pass his health care reform bill. And, he wants them to use the reconciliation process to finish the job. The Democrats should have done that last fall. Instead, they've given Republicans months to hone their message and spew their usual lies about that process. Although, this time, the lies are so blatant that even some of the lapdogs in the traditional media have called them out. Republicans used reconciliation to pass the Bush tax cuts. Doesn't get much more partisan than that.

Living in the District of Columbia, I can report that the sky did not fall yesterday as same-sex couples obtained marriage licenses. So far, it seems like the institution of marriage was not destroyed. Perhaps the most damage has been done to the reputation of the Catholic Church, which decided to drop benefits for its own employees in order to punish the gays. That action shows homophobia trumps the Church's commitment to workers and justice.

What else is going on? Read More......

Dutch far right extremist wins in elections

This is a very bad sign for what's to come in the Netherlands. A few years ago when right wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen finished ahead of the Socialist candidate to make the two in the presidential campaign, voters united to crush him in the elections. Whether something like this happens in Holland remains to be seen. It's a serious blow to the general image of the Netherlands being a country of openness and tolerance. He makes the teabaggers look moderate.

The popularity of Wilders, who compares Islam to fascism and the Koran to Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf," has dented the image of the Netherlands as a country that has often portrayed itself in the past as a bastion of tolerance.

The PVV has been pitching its policies to a nation of 16 million that is turning increasingly inward as the economy struggles and social tensions rise. There are nearly 1 million Muslims in the Netherlands.

"The leftist elite still believes in multi-culturalism, coddling criminals, a European super-state and high taxes," Wilders told cheering supporters at a rally in Almere after polling ended Wednesday.

"But the rest of the Netherlands thinks differently. That silent majority now has a voice," he said.

Read More......

New South African president calls for end to Zimbabwe sanctions

Oh no. Another "gently, gently" approach to dealing with Robert Mugabe. Jacob Zuma was very active in blocking the shipment of weapons from China that were due to head through South Africa on their way to Zimbabwe but this is a step in the wrong direction. There have already been enough exceptions made to accommodate Mugabe and his band of criminals so easing the sanctions any more doesn't make sense. Why should the Mugabe-opposition in government be treated the same as Mugabe when they have not been starving and torturing and killing people?

Zuma told reporters in London that the travel bans and asset freezes imposed by the EU and the US on Robert Mugabe and his allies served only to divide the already fragile power-sharing government in Zimbabwe.

Repeating calls by the Southern African Development Community for a suspension of the sanctions, Zuma said: "Our view is that the unity government should be supported so that it can get out of the difficulties that face Zimbabwe ... We plead with the countries that have applied sanctions to lift [them]. That would give Zimbabwe the opportunity to move forward."

Zuma said Zimbabwe could not be expected to sort out its problems while its power-sharing overnment, made up of Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, was subject to two different sets of rules.

"It's going to be difficult [for the government] to get on with other matters if there are sanctions, because sanctions are one-sided," he said. "We have a government that's not treated equally by sanctions. Those who cannot travel freely feel that they are constrained."

Read More......