China's ability to censor the Internet is eroding

Steve Clemons of the Washington Note is over in China, and he reports that it's getting increasingly easy to get around China's official censorship of many Web sites:

I have been checking news and policy websites in the UK, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, Canada, Poland, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, and others to see significant blocks -- but the only newspaper I have not been able to get that I wanted to get was the Philadelphia Inquirer -- which a young person here showed me how to reach through a back channel site.

In fact, this young person walking through internet access issues with me said that Chinese young people can essentially access anything that the government might try and does block. This person who works in international affairs says that the ability of the Chinese government to significantly control access to web-based content is quickly eroding.

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US investors continue to support CEO pay

Hats off to the Brits who have voted against excessive CEO pay a few times this year and shame on the American investors. (Whether shame exists for them is another issue though.) Somehow US investors remain impressed with the bloated pay packages of the failed corporate leaders. If ever there was an example of why we need more shakeups on Wall Street, it's here. The incestuous relationships need to go. When Wall Street talks rolls out the old "if we don't give in, these people will leave" shtick, this is what they're supporting. The old relationships are rotten to the core and new people are desperately needed. Let the old guard leave. All of them. We'll survive and probably do better.

But so far during this spring's annual meeting season, there have been few examples of investors fighting back. Shareholders have yet to vote down a single executive pay plan at U.S. companies and only a handful of corporate directors have lost investor backing. Support for corporate management is still the status quo.

"It turns out (U.S.) shareholders may be more accepting of how things work than the perception really is," said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

In contrast, five companies in England already have lost shareholder votes on executive pay this year. The latest came Tuesday when oil company Royal Dutch Shell Group's pay plan was rejected. There was also significant dissent, though not by a majority, at three other British companies, according to RiskMetrics, a financial risk management company.

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RNC makes "pussy" joke about Speaker Pelosi

Seriously. They've just launched a new video called "Pelosi Galore," a take off of the Bond film "Pussy Galore." From Politico:

The wisdom of equating the first woman speaker of the House with a character whose first name also happens to be among the most vulgar terms for a part of the female anatomy might be debated – if the RNC were willing to do so, which it was not. An RNC spokesperson refused repeated requests by POLITICO to explain the point of the video, or the intended connection between Pelosi and Galore.

But what isn’t open to debate is that the waterboarding conflict has been accompanied by a cascade of attacks on the speaker, not as a leader or a legislator, but as a woman.

Earlier this week, Pittsburgh radio host Jim Quinn referred to the speaker on his program as “this bitch”; last week, syndicated radio host Neal Boortz opined “how fun it is to watch that hag out there twisting in the wind.”

There has also been a steady stream of taunts about the speaker’s appearance, and whether it’s been surgically enhanced. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said, “I think if Speaker Pelosi were still capable of human facial expression, we’d see she’d be embarrassed.”

And Ben Smith notes that, contrary to what the RNC is claiming, the video has not been taken down. Read More......

GOP: it's time to get back to polluting energy sources

Oh brother. Here we go again with the loonies and their energy ideas that somehow sound similar to the Big Oil dream list. Hard to even imagine, isn't it? They still lack the creativity to think outside of what Big Oil wants. The last thing anyone needs is investment into clean energy sources of the future when we could hand over the keys to the environment to the polluters.

"Democrats have focused solely on what they call green jobs. Those are jobs from alternative energy. I support green jobs, but why discriminate?" Barrasso said. "American energy means American jobs, which is why I support red-white-and-blue jobs."

He said renewable energy such as wind and solar power is important, noting that Wyoming has world-class wind resources. But Barrasso said wind and solar only account for about 1 percent of U.S. electricity, far below what is needed to meet the nation's energy needs.

Barrasso also said Democrats were misguided by ruling out the use of U.S. oil in places such as the Outer Continental Shelf and Alaska.

Don't discriminate...get it? Huh? Get it? Huh? Ya got it? Oh the yuks are there aplenty with this bunch. I'll bet their boondoggles with the Big Oil folks are a laugh a minute. Yes, what we really need today is oil shale extraction because the environment hasn't been punished enough in the cause of Big Oil profits. Nobody likes visiting the Rockies anyway and last time I checked, they don't get any tourist money so it should be fine to turn it into a dump for the cause of oil profits. Go team, go! Read More......

Is there something glorious about a lingering, painful death?

The argument against assisted suicide never adds up for me though admittedly, I'm not religious at all.

If there is something unambiguous in religion that forbids it and there are consequences, sure, I can see where a religious person would not want to do this. That's OK, don't do it. It seems reasonable to me that an individual should be able to at least choose whether they want nature to run its course or choose their own timing.

I watched my father die in a hospital bed and failed to see anything glorious or fortunate about it, as the religious moralists suggest. I doubt he would have chosen to take his own life (though he talked about it in the end while taking his morphine to ease the pain) but having the option would have been nice. People in that state feel helpless because their illness is dictating their life. What's so wrong about having options?

The 66-year-old woman with late-stage pancreatic cancer wanted to be clear-headed at death, so she became the first person to kill herself under Washington state's new assisted suicide law, known as "death with dignity."

"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death," Fleming said in a statement released Friday. "The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them."

With family members, her physician and her dog at her side, Fleming took a deadly dose of prescription barbiturates and died Thursday night at her home in Sequim, Wash.

I suspect most of our readers would agree that Fleming should have been permitted to take her own life. But I'm curious if anyone out there disagrees, and can explain to us, rationally, why this isn't a good thing. Read More......

Colin Powell is going to fire back at Cheney, LImbaugh

There may be some fireworks on this Memorial Day weekend -- intra-GOP fireworks.

Colin Powell may have been a successful military leader, but he's fighting a futile battle here. Cheney and Limbaugh are the leaders of the GOP now. And, those two are who the dwindling number of Republicans actually want to lead them:

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and former vice president Richard B. Cheney have attacked Powell in recent days as a traitor to his party.

"What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat, instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party," Limbaugh told listeners. And Cheney dryly commented: "I didn't know he was still a Republican."

Powell's turn will come this weekend. He is scheduled to appear on CBS's "Face the Nation" tomorrow and has told associates that he plans to answer his critics. Whether he will make an announcement about his party affiliation is unclear.

Sounds like the leaders of the GOP have already made a decision about Powell's party affiliation. They've kicked him out of their exclusive, right-wing club. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's a long holiday weekend -- and the holiday is Memorial Day.

Over this weekend, thousands of bikers pour into D.C. for "Rolling Thunder" to keep a focus on POW/MIA issues. It's a very impressive to see -- and hear -- the bikers roaring through this usually sedate town.

The president gave his weekly address about the holiday and what it means -- paying tribute to the men and women who server our nation -- especially those who died on our behalf. And, he also spoke about actually delivering on promises to veterans (something all those "Support The Troops" Republicans never really did.)



It should be a pretty slow news weekend, although, there's a chance we'll see Obama's Supreme Court nominee as early as Tuesday. Read More......

Aretha

This has to be one of the best in the YouTube vault. Read More......

New British Airways planes without first class

A sign of the times. Not surprisingly, BA led the world with the highest rate in Europe of first class bookings until the crisis. City banksters need their comfort and the pre-crisis Brits were bold, flashy spenders. It's a new era though and Europe's most awful large airline is changing with the times. Business travel - the primary driver for airlines - has been cut back so similar cuts may be coming for other airlines.

The review of seating layouts is taking place against the backdrop of a decline in business travel that poses a serious threat to long-haul airlines. BA relies on premium passengers for more than 50% of its revenues, more than any other major European airline. In an indication of the current mood of austerity, Walsh announced yesterday that he will work for no pay in July, and urged BA's 40,000 staff to take unpaid leave or work part-time. "This is no stunt. I do not easily give up anything I have earned," he said.

BA has seen premium bookings decline by 13% over the past six months with its north Atlantic routes, BA's main source of profits, badly hit by the crisis in the banking sector. Its rivals have fared just as badly, with premium travel since the start of the year slumping by nearly 20% across the industry. The International Air Transport Association expects business class bookings to recover once global trade picks up, but it is gloomier about the prospect of bankers flying again in the droves that have boosted BA's profits in recent years.

The recession has also reduced demand for corporate jets, emblems of excess whose use has caused serious embarrassment to companies bailed out by national governments, including some of the major American car manufacturers and RBS.

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Plastic bag bans can add up

In a country as large as China, the numbers can be very impressive. The Guardian:

Banning flimsy plastic bags has been dismissed as a drop in the ocean when it comes to dealing with the world's environment problems, but multiplied on a China scale, it appears to have made a big difference.

A new report suggests restrictions on bag usage in the world's most populous nation have saved the equivalent of 1.6 million tonnes of oil, in the year since it was introduced.

Just ahead of the first anniversary of the ban, the China Chain Store and Franchise Association estimated it had saved the country 40 billion plastic bags.

According to their survey, plastic bag use has fallen by two thirds as consumers grow accustomed to bringing their own reusable bags.

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