"Science first and leave politics at the door"

Putting aside my disgust for the terrible economic policies, yes, elections do matter. The EPA move is a great example and now this. More than ever, this is precisely why we need Obama to get the economic team sorted out or else we can turn back the clock again. None of us want this which is why we all want and need Obama to succeed.

A federal court today ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the agency's controversial decision limiting non-prescription access to the morning-after pill Plan B to women age 18 and older.

U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman ordered the FDA to make Plan B available to women age 17 and older within 30 days and to reconsider whether to make the drug available to women of all ages without a prescription.

In his 52-page decision, Korman said the "record is clear that the FDA's course of conduct regarding Plan B departed in significant ways from the agency's normal procedures regarding similar applications to switch a drug from prescription to non-prescription use."

Critics of the FDA's position hailed the ruling.

"We're very excited," said Suzanne Novak, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed a lawsuit against the agency to reverse the 2005 decision.

"The message is clear: The FDA has to put science first and leave politics at the door. We are encouraged that the FDA under new leadership, when they look at the evidence, will remove the unique barriers that have been in place and it will finally be available to all women without any barriers," Novak said.

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Homophobe Meg Whitman pulls out of UCLA business school commencement date

Ding dong. Just got word that that the wicked witch of the west coast is no longer going to be speaking at UCLA's business school commencement this spring. There was quite a bit of outrage from the gay business school alum network, and lots of other students and alums, when it was announced recently that the outspoken supporter of Prop 8 was going to be speaking at commencement. Seems those California business students have a problem with bigots being hailed as great leaders. Go figure. Whitman announced today that she had a "scheduling conflict" that won't permit her to attend. Let's hope she has a scheduling conflict on election day, 2010. Read More......

An (unexpected and unplanned) report on the health care system

Well, I'm at home with my dog, which makes everything better. I told John I'm getting logarithmically better. I feel ten times better tonight than I did this morning and about one hundred times better than yesterday morning.

It was quite a weekend. I’ve decided the events of the past few days were really an opportunity to obtain some first-hand research of our health care system. And, as the bills roll in, trying to decipher them will be another learning experience to make me a better advocate. Like John, I have self-employed health insurance through CareFirst, which is the local Blue Cross/Blue Shield. And, I'm sure they're going to prolong the pain.

Here's what happened: Last Thursday night, I developed a bad stomachache. I assumed it have been something I ate -— because it’s always something we ate (although my partner, Carlos, had the same meal as me, and he was fine.) The pain lasted through the night into Friday morning and was located in the center of my stomach below my belly button. And, for the most part, it was just the pain, no other symptoms. Carlos knew I really wasn’t feeling well because I couldn’t take Petey for a walk. That never happens and got him concerned.

Early Friday afternoon, the pain gravitated to the right side of my stomach and got worse. The way the pain moved felt like it was right out of X-Files. I kept looking down to see if I had something inside of me. But, that’s also what started to get me a little freaked. It clearly wasn’t something I ate – and I could barely stand.

After the pain got worse (and because I couldn’t listen anymore to the echo chamber of Carlos, my mother and John, along with my friends Emily and Jacki), I headed to the Emergency Room.

The GW University Emergency Room is quite a busy place, especially on a Friday. It took a couple hours of waiting before I got to see a doctor. Then, in a quick span, I saw two other doctors who in pretty short order determined I had appendicitis. That started another whole round of testing, including a CT scan. It’s also when the pain medication began. There was a lot of in-between-time spent laying on a bed in the hallway. Naomi Seligman showed up to keep Carlos and me company. The ER is a happening place and gave us plenty to talk about. It does seem like there are more D.C. police walking through the halls of the ER than doctors.

Eventually, the CT scan came back and I started talking to surgeons who described the upcoming surgery. It was going to be done laparoscopically (unless it couldn’t.) One hears a lot about the worst possible scenarios when one is going to have surgery. The anesthesiologist was concerned that my mouth wasn’t big enough for the tube they were going to insert (jam) down my throat. That was the first time anyone told me I don’t have a big mouth.

On the positive side, I was told repeatedly by the doctors in the ER and the surgical residents that I was very lucky to be having my operation performed by Dr. Paul Lin. He seemed to be both revered and feared. One of the surgical residents told us “Dr. Lin is rock star.” He certainly had a very calm demeanor when we met. Carlos, who talked to Dr. Lin more than I did, thought he reeked of competence.

After all the build-up and tests and forms, I finally had the surgery around 6:30 a.m. It was actually a pretty quick procedure and the next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room (with a very sore throat from the above mentioned tube being jammed down my too small mouth.)

It took a couple hours to actually wake up and I ended up sleeping most of Saturday. I wasn’t able to read too much in the hospital. The drugs made me groggy and reading made me nauseous. I did get one email from McJoan from DailyKos with a friendly warning about hospital food. I read it too late. On Saturday afternoon, a tray of liquid foods was brought into my room. I was told I needed to start getting some food into my system as I’d been thriving solely on ice chips. Because I took the advice seriously and wanted to get out of the hospital, I started to eat one item, something called "vegetable broth." I should say, I tried to eat, but it made me nauseous. When I later told two of the people providing care (both with initials after their names), they independently asked if I'd eaten anything. When I said, the hospital's broth, both responded in basically the same way: "oh, no. don't eat that. It’s too salty and/or oily." So, the message from GW seemed to be: you need to eat to get out of the hospital, but don’t eat what we send you or you’ll get sick and won’t get out. Or something like that. I don't understand the logic of hospitals.

Anyway, I did get out yesterday after eating some solid food – my old standby, oatmeal with brown sugar and skim milk.

I’m still a little sore and a little tired. On the scale of major surgeries, appendicitis (when the appendix hasn’t perforated or “perf’d” as they say in the biz) isn’t too complicated. It just threw me for a loop and had a surreal feel.

Right now, Petey is growling at the balloons my cousins sent to me. He’s not at all happy they’ve invaded our apartment, but is going to keep us safe from them. But, he’s very happy that I’m home. As am I.

Thank to everyone for all the good wishes and advice. It was overwhelming and very much appreciated. And, who knew that we had such a large subculture of appendix-less people here in our AMERICAblog community.

So, thanks again. I'm glad to be back. Read More......

Existing home sales jump higher than expected

Even though prices went down again, it's still good to see a forecast that over-delivers.

The pace of sales of existing home in the U.S. rose 5.1 percent in February to a 4.72 million-unit annual rate, rebounding from the previous month's drop, while home prices fell again, the National Association of Realtors said on Monday.

Economists polled by Reuters were expecting home resales to slip to a 4.45 million-unit pace, from the 4.49 million rate initially reported for January, which was unrevised. February's sales increase was the largest since July 2003.

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The Empire Strikes Back, again

What is calling Wayne Outten to the dark side? Is he the attorney that helped write contracts for the spoiled bunch at AIG or is he just waiting to cash in on lawsuits when the poor little lambs lose their bonuses? Maybe he's just a complete ass and it's as simple as that. Hard to say. It's everything you would expect from CNBC and their Wall Street apologist friends who collectively ignore that sitting on the edge of bankruptcy and staying on the right side. Funny how $183 billion from the government and bankruptcy can be ignored so easily.

When people like Wayne ignore this uncomfortable fact, it only encourages people to demand actual bankruptcy which would then toss out all of those comfy bonuses, not to mention jobs. Excuse-makers like Wayne are the reason why Americans detest AIG. Read the article if your feeling a little too calm or you would like to hear yet another PR campaign spin by AIG, lobbyists and friends of AIG. Read More......

Bobby Jindal's volcano erupted

The one he was criticizing the monitoring of? Just erupted in the last day or so. A friend writes:

Erupted 4 times overnight. Nobody’s dead. The FAA and the National Weather Service know where the ash cloud is (drifting away, not toward, Anchorage, thank God) and planes are being diverted around it. Gee, it’s a good thing people were monitoring.

The eruption was accurately predicted when the number of earthquakes on the mountain suddenly jumped to 40 to 50 per hour Sunday morning. So everybody had time to get ready.

Your tax dollars put to work by dedicated scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey who keep doing their jobs even when politicians decide to demean their work for a cheap sound bite.

If we were approaching this from a less scientific perspective, some might be tempted to appease the volcano gods by throwing somebody into the crater. Since he doesn’t like volcano monitoring, perhaps Bobby Jindal would volunteer?

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Krugman is freaking me out again

Not all happy with Geithner's new (old) bank rescue plan:

It’s as if the president were determined to confirm the growing perception that he and his economic team are out of touch, that their economic vision is clouded by excessively close ties to Wall Street. And by the time Mr. Obama realizes that he needs to change course, his political capital may be gone....

T]here’s something strange going on here. By my count, this is the third time Obama administration officials have floated a scheme that is essentially a rehash of the Paulson plan, each time adding a new set of bells and whistles and claiming that they’re doing something completely different. This is starting to look obsessive.

Whether or not the administration likes or respects Krugman, a lot of other people do (including the Nobel committee). And his incessant criticism of the administration's economic plans is increasingly disturbing. I'm willing to believe that Krugman is not right about everything. But at this point, are we really to believe that the guy who just won the Nobel prize in economics is wrong about everything? Read More......

Palin — who whacked Obama’s Special Olympics crack — turned down nearly $40 million for kids with disabilities

UPDATE: Flippy-floppy goes the blithering idiot.

Cold-hearted rhymes-with-polar-bear:

On Friday, Sarah Palin hammered President Obama for his careless remarks about the Special Olympics, professing herself “shocked” at Obama’s “degrading remark” about “precious and unique people.”

But less than 24 hours before hitting Obama this way, Palin turned down nearly $40 million in Federal funding for programs catering to special education kids.

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God bless the EPA

Oh what a difference a Democrat makes:

The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposal to the White House Friday finding that global warming is endangering the public's health and welfare, according to several sources, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the nation's economy and environment.

Of course, the US Chamber of Commerce prefers we all learn to swim.

"By moving forward with the endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, EPA is putting in motion a set of decisions that may have far-reaching unintended consequences," said Bill Kovacs, vice president, of environment, technology and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Specifically, once the finding is made, no matter how limited, some environmental groups will sue to make sure it is applied to all aspects of the Clean Air Act.

"This will mean that all infrastructure projects, including those under the president's stimulus initiative, will be subject to environmental review for greenhouse gases. Since not one of the projects has been subjected to that review, it is possible that the projects under the stimulus initiative will cease. This will be devastating to the economy."

Wonder how the extinction of all life on Earth will affect the economy? Read More......

Arianna on Geithner: Time to take away the keys

I don't like the idea of piling on our new president so early in his tenure, but Geithner has lost the public confidence. He's even lost the confidence of Obama's own top allies and cheerleaders: fellow Democrats who helped put Obama into office. This is just very bad, and getting worse by the day. At this point in politics, it doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong, Geithner or his critics. We are in the middle of an unprecedented economic crisis. I don't see how it's tenable much longer to have a man in charge of resolving the crisis who is increasingly not trusted, respected, or believed. Right or wrong, this is starting to reflect on Obama. And when you start to hurt your boss, in politics, good staff bow out.

From Arianna:

"When you run a Fed bank," a senior Democratic operative told Chris Cillizza, "you live deep in a cave. [Geithner] just needs to get used to the sunlight."

But the issue isn't Geithner's delivery, it's what he's delivering: an approach to the crisis that is as toxic as the assets that have hamstrung the economy. Geithner, brilliant and hardworking though he is, is trapped within a Wall Street-centric view of the world and seems incapable of escaping.

That's why every proposal he comes up with is déjà vu all over again -- a remixed variation on the same tried-and-failed let-the-bankers-work-it-out approach championed by his predecessor, Hank Paulson. For Paul Krugman, this "insistence on offering the same plan over and over again, with only cosmetic changes, is itself deeply disturbing. Does Treasury not realize that all these proposals amount to the same thing? Or does it realize that, but hope that the rest of us won't notice? That is, are they stupid, or do they think we're stupid?"...

Geithner's Masters of the Universe, the people he still thinks are the ones we should turn to to save the day, are the same people who brought us here. And that is why Geithner either needs to go or keep his job but have his authority stripped and transferred to someone who does not share his Wall Street DNA. Call him or her the "Recovery Czar."

In other words, use any window dressing you want, just take the steering wheel out of Geithner's hands.

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TARP recipient JPMorgan Chase To Spend Millions on New Jets and Luxury Airport Hangar

It's good to be king.

ABC:

Embattled bank JPMorgan Chase, the recipient of $25 billion in TARP funds, is going ahead with a $138 million plan to buy two new luxury corporate jets and build "the premiere corporate aircraft hangar on the eastern seaboard" to house them, ABC News has learned....

The Gulfstream 650's are described by the manufacturer as the "fastest," "widest" and "most comfortable" private jet ever with superior cabin amenities, an optional stateroom, and 12 interior designs to choose from....

[O]n March 11, the chairman of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, said he could not understand why corporate America has such a bad image.

"When I hear the constant vilification of corporate America I personally don't understand it," Dimon said.

Dimon, whose 2008 compensation package, according to SEC documents, was worth more than $19 million in salary, stock and options, declined to speak with ABC News about the proposed plans.

And this is my favorite:

Joseph Evangelisti, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, said no TARP money would be used to make any payments for new jets or jet hangar improvements.

Yeah, let me walk you through this one....

ADULT KID, 45 YEARS OLD: Mom, dad, I'm broke. I was living high on the hog, spending like a drunken sailor, gambled my money away, and now I need your help.

PARENTS: Okay honey, we love you, here's $25 billion.

KID: Thanks. I'm going to Aruba.

PARENTS: You said you were broke, I just gave you $25bn, and now you're spending it on fun?

KID: Don't worry, I'm not frivolously spending your $25bn, I'm frivolously spending a big pot of money on the side that I never told you I had when I pretended I was broke and needed your help.

Not to mention, fungibility of money anyone? Read More......

Did the 2008 election even matter?

Clearly there are many areas where the election has and will make a difference. Economic policy and the response to what even Obama sees as the worst economic crisis in decades is another story. The Bush team offered us Wall Street insiders that helped Wall Street insiders. And Obama - as I've been saying for a while - is doing the same. Sure we were stuck with Robert Rubin (thankfully), but the Summers/Geithner combo plus the teams of Citibank and Wall Street insiders is only more of the same. For the most critical issue of his time, Obama opted out of change and delivered same old, same old. How much longer do we have to be subjected to this obviously failed approach?

From Robert Kuttner at HuffPost:

Which brings up the question: where in this affair is the president who hired Secretary Geithner and at whose pleasure the embattled treasury secretary serves? For the moment, President Obama is standing by his man, something he has to do until the moment that Obama decides to ease out Geithner, work around him, or fire him.

The problem, of course, is larger than Geithner. The entire Obama economic team is far too close to Wall Street and far too much a continuation of the Paulson approach. And though Geithner is primed to take the fall, the plan is the work of senior economic strategist Larry Summers as much as it is Geithner's.

The grave political and economic risk is that Obama continues to let Summers and Geithner lead him down the garden path; the industry-oriented mortgage rescue saves too few homeowners; housing remains in the doldrums and mortgage securities with it; the hedge funds and private equity companies make some money with government guarantees, but the banking system remains comatose; and Republicans increasingly become the instruments of public anger.

For the moment, the president is a prisoner of this thinking and these appointees. If this were merely The West Wing, it would be the stuff of terrific drama. But alas, it's reality; and we all will live with the consequences.

In a different possible scenario, however, Obama lets the financial and political marketplace test the Geithner plan for another week or two. Then, when its failure is palpable, Obama announces a dramatically different approach, either with or without a different treasury secretary.

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I'm really quite surprised by the visible (and increasing) anger at Geithner (and Summers)

Not surprised that it exists, per se. But surprised by how strong the feeling is on the left, how vocal people have been about it, and how it seems to be intensifying by the day.

This is from Steve Clemons at the Washington Note:

Regrettably, the Obama administration seems to be fumbling the ball on an economic policy course that restores confidence in the American economy on both the optics level and also on a substantive front that reorganizes the "social contract" and design of the real economy in the U.S.

Obama, in his 'loyalty' to his current economic team and the mistakes they are making is the antithesis of Abraham Lincoln. Obama may have tried to mimic Lincoln's "team of rivals" approach to politics -- but he needs to read the chapters on the number of generals Lincoln fired during the Civil War to finally get things moved forward.

This problem isn't going away. Read More......

Obama "60 Minutes" Interview Transcript (VIDEO)

Haven't had time to digest it, other than the earlier story that Obama took Cheney on. Huff Post has the entire thing, video and transcript. Eat it up. Read More......

Monday morning open thread

Joe is back from the hospital, got back last night, and he's doing well. His voice is coming back, and while he's still a bit out of it, he said he might blog a small amount today if he's up to it. It's going to be an interesting week for our Treasury Secretary, Mr. Geithner. I'm really astounded by the anger I'm seeing on the left. On the right, you have to take any and all criticism with a grain of salt. But people on the left are ticked. I ran into Paul Begala at CNN, and he told me had just compared Geithner to Rumsfeld on the segment he had just done. I know Chris in Paris has been ticked about the Geithner appointment from the beginning - and as Chris is our business expert, I put a lot of stock in that. It's becoming increasingly clear that Chris was right.

As for the blog, any of you who weren't here on Saturday may have noticed that we finally launched AMERICAblog 2.0 (thank God). A number of folks passed along suggestions to increase the font (we did) and to tone down the red on the right-hand side (we did that too), among other things. Please feel free to give us feedback, it's the only way we know what works and what doesn't. And if you have a favorite site that you think we should add to our various link and update boxes on the site, please pass those along too - we promise we'll check them out.

Oh, and John Amato posted a short clip of my appearance on CNN yesterday. I was pretty exhausted. But I think it went okay. On with the news... Read More......

And even more complaints against AIG

This time, it's the competition. AIG sure knows how to win friends and influence people.

Some of American International Group's biggest rivals have urged U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to prevent the insurance giant from using the government rescue to win an advantage, particularly by cutting prices, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In an article posted on its website, the Journal said AIG's competitors had complained directly to Bernanke at a Mar 4 meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington.

Bernanke said he would look into the complaints, the Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

Industry executives and competitors told Reuters in December that AIG has been lowering prices to win new business and boost market share after receiving bailout dollars, even as market fundamentals suggest that prices need to be raised.

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Karzai era coming to an end

We always knew that Bush would never do this so it's good to see Obama together with Europe isn't wasting much time. It's also encouraging to see that Obama knows how to ditch the wrong people. The Guardian:

The US and its European allies are ­preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned.

The creation of a new chief executive or prime ministerial role is aimed at bypassing Karzai. In a further dilution of his power, it is proposed that money be diverted from the Kabul government to the provinces. Many US and European officials have become disillusioned with the extent of the corruption and incompetence in the Karzai government, but most now believe there are no credible alternatives, and predict the Afghan president will win re-election in August.

A revised role for Karzai has emerged from the White House review of Afghanistan and Pakistan ordered by Barack Obama when he became president. It isto be unveiled at a special conference on Afghanistan at The Hague on March 31.

As well as watering down Karzai's personal authority by installing a senior official at the president's side capable of playing a more efficient executive role, the US and Europeans are seeking to channel resources to the provinces rather than to central government in Kabul.

A diplomat with knowledge of the review said: "Karzai is not delivering. If we are going to support his government, it has to be run properly to ensure the levels of corruption decrease, not increase. The levels of corruption are frightening."

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Wall Street lobbyists go on the offensive

Thus the tear jerking stories of bankers crying about "there are children involved" and the countless stories in defense of the bankers. And to think they are spending taxpayer dollars for this PR campaign.

Industry lawyers are examining ways to mount a legal challenge if the Congressional tax proposals make it to law. Even some political supporters have worried aloud that the Bill could be unconstitutional if it is seen as unfairly targeting individuals for punishment, or if it is rushed through without due process.

Lobbyists have swung into action to argue that using the tax system in effect to cap pay could backfire if staff desert in droves. That would damage the very institutions the government needs to restore to health.

In a first attempt to turn the PR tide, Citigroup released a memo to its staff written by Vikram Pandit, chief executive. "The work we have all done to try to stabilise the financial system and to get this economy moving again would be significantly set back if we lose our talented people because Congress imposes a special tax on financial services employees," he said.

Lose employees? Where would they go in this shrinking market? Here's a case where we ought to let the market decide their future. Let's see them have a feeding frenzy on each other and see how many are left in this bloated industry that delivers so little value today. Read More......