Scientists create artificial life in a test tube

This is an amazing development.

The research opens the way for scientists to create new life forms that can be genetically programmed to carry out a variety of functions, such as producing carbon-free fuel or made-to-order vaccines and providing new forms of food and clean water. However, the study also raises ethical concerns about the technology falling into the wrong hands, and, for instance, being used to make biological weapons, or by scientists to "play God" with life.

The research team, led by Craig Venter, who previously directed one of the teams which decoded the human genome, said they had created synthetic life in the form of a new species of bacteria that operates entirely under the control of a man-made set of genetic instructions, originally stored on a computer. They synthesised the genome of a bacterial cell and used it to "boot up" the empty cell of another species of bacteria, which then replicated freely as if it were carrying its own set of genetic instructions instead of a set made in a laboratory.

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Texas approves conservative school book curriculum

What is it with the South? Story after story, if it's about racism, the Klan, some insane attempt to bash gays, or trying to indoctrinate kids into conservatism - like teaching them that Joseph McCarthy wasn't really that bad a guy - it's always a southern state at the center of the controversy.

Seriously, what is wrong with those states? Read More......

Chocolate to fight wrinkles and slow aging?

Where do I buy it?

The world's largest chocolate maker says it may have come up with a chocolate bar that could fight wrinkles and slow the aging process, making it the latest food group to tap the appetite for healthier living.

Eating 20 g (0.755 oz) of specially developed chocolate packed with antioxidants, or flavanols, each day may help prevent wrinkles and make skin more radiant by boosting elasticity and improving hydration, studies carried out by Barry Callebaut showed.

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Questions about Sen. Maria Cantwell

Joe Sudbay wrote an excellent piece this morning explaining why hedge fund managers are taxed at no more than 15%, unlike the rest of us. 15% — stunning.

Joe also wrote this, in a nice piece of original reporting:

What really doesn't make sense is that several Democrats (albeit very wealthy Democrats) are willing to protect that loophole at the expense of unemployed Americans. I'm told by a source who is very close to the action that the Democrats protecting the tax break for Wall Street types are: Maria Cantwell, John Kerry and Mark Warner. [emphasis mine]

Great catch by Joe. The rest of his article is pretty damning. Kerry and Warner I understand, but Cantwell? She's turned up a lot, and she's a bit of a mystery. Here she is on Keith Olbermann's show Thursday going to bat for stronger regulation of derivatives:

So Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) was willing to filibuster the FinReg bill (along with Russ Feingold) to make sure all derivatives were traded through a clearinghouse, but at the same time she wants to protect the stunning tax give-away to some of the highest income earners in the country.

I mean that literally. The top guy made $4 billion last year. Not the fund; the guy.

Via Barry Ritholtz, here's the estimated 2009 earnings of the top ten hedge fund managers in the country (source: NYT and Absolute Return + Alpha.com):

1. David Tepper, Appaloosa Management — $4 billion
2. George Soros, Soros Fund Management — $3.3 billion
3. James Simons, Renaissance Technologies — 2.5 billion
4. John Paulson, Paulson & Company — $2.3 billion
5. Steve Cohen, SAC Capital Advisors — $1.4 billion
6. (tie): Carl Icahn, Icahn Capital — $1.3 billion
6. (tie): Edward Lampert, ESL Investments — $1.3 billion
8. (tie): Kenneth Griffin, Citadel Investment Group — $900 million
8. (tie): John Arnold, Centaurus Advisors — $900 million
10. Philip Falcone, Harbinger Capital Partners — $825 million

The average top hedge fund manager makes well over $100 million in a good year. That's a lot of Cocoa Puffs for you and your kids.

By the way, John Paulson's the guy that got Goldman Sachs to create Abacus, the toxic investment designed to fail so Paulson could bet against it. The SEC sued Goldman for promoting Abacus as a good deal, when in fact they were handing a billion dollar gift to Mr. Paulson at their other customers' expense. The word for what Goldman did is "fraud." The word for what Paulson did is "best shark in the pool."

Carl Icahn buys companies, picks them clean, and discards their bones.

So what about Maria Cantwell? She's a tech-savvy former VP of RealNetworks (a scandal-ridden software firm) from Washington state. Prior to Real, she had one term in the House (1992) before being defeated in the 1994 "values" revolution. There she opposed the spy chip that Clinton (yes, Clinton) wanted to put into all telecom devices, but she supported NAFTA. Ouch.

After Real, she went into the Senate, where she supported McCain–Feingold and co-sponsored the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act. She's green-friendly (she opposed off-shore drilling before that became a no-brainer), but she's seriously wishy-washy on lots of other issues. For example, she:

• Voted for Iraq in 2002 and CAFTA in 2005. (In her Iraq speech, she listed her many concerns, then voted Yes.)
  
  
• Announced her opposition to Sam Alito, then voted for cloture.
  
  
• Voted Yes on the 2006 war supplemental and No on the Kerry-Feingold withdrawal timetable.
  
  
• Supported the Immigrant Reform Act of 2006.
  
  
• Supported Darcy Burner in 2006 and raised $100k for her, but also strongly supported Mary Landrieu.

Thanks to her positions on "free trade" and Iraq, she drew primary challengers from the left in 2006. In another bit of scandal, she was accused of buying off one of her strongest potential opponents by putting him on her payroll. She won the primary by 90%, but she might be getting nervous about 2012.

She's on the Senate Finance Committee and the Taxation Subcommittee.

A decidedly mixed bag. I think Sen. Cantwell bears watching very closely. She may be a friend on some issues — abortion, the public option, finance reform (maybe), off-shore drilling (definitely). But her support for "free trade" goes back to 1992, and she tried hard to have it both ways on both the war and Alito. I don't trust her.

And now comes two financial reform issues at the same time. (Did I say she's on the Finance Committee?) She claims to want strong derivatives regulation and transparency (essential to real reform in my view), and showed up on Countdown to prove it. But according to Joe's reporting, she wants to hand billions in lost revenue back to the inhabitants of Mr. Robert's Neighborhood, a position she's not advertising at all.

So what is she trading for what? And whom will she betray? We're about to discover which side of her green cred Ms. Cantwell is really on.

My bet? Derivatives reform will go down to regrettable defeat, and she'll look noble on Countdown regretting it. Meanwhile, the New York hedge fund kings will keep their 15% tax rate and thank her all the way to the bank. Hers. After all, a girl's gotta get re-elected, and 2012 is just around the corner.

Time to re-primary Maria Cantwell?

Yours in good banking,

GP Read More......

Friday Sasha blogging

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Roy Blunt, the ultimate DC inside and ally of big oil, is getting hit hard from both sides

Missouri GOP Congressman Roy Blunt is one of the oil industry's best friends in DC. Even in the wake of the disastrous oil spill, he was defending BP and trying to protect it from increased liability. That's the position of GOP Senators, which is what Blunt wants to be.

But, then a funny thing happened to Roy Blunt. The campaign of Robin Carnahan, the Democratic candidate in Missouri, released this video about Blunt, his ties to big oil and his willingness to let taxpayers bail out BP:

That sent Blunt scrambling. This week, he flipped his position and now says he's for increased liability.

Whenever a candidate starts flip-flopping, it's clear they're worried. Blunt is getting hit from both sides. He's also facing an increasingly serious challenge from the right in his August 3rd GOP primary. The teabaggers are uniting behind a seriously hard-core conservative named Chuck Purgason. In the wake of the defeat of several incumbents, Purgason is feeling some momentum. His campaign sent out a press release that trashed Blunt:

The four primaries Tuesday, especially Trey Grayson's and Arlen Spector's losses, shared a common theme: the establishment's choice is not necessarily the people's choice. "As Robin Carnahan starts her "no bull" campaign, it's clear that her mission is to define Rep. Blunt as the establishment candidate because of his record of irresponsible spending," said Sen. Chuck Purgason. "Carnahan's plan only works if her general election opponent has a record of supporting Bank Bailouts (TARP), Cash for Clunkers and unbalanced budgets.

Those are fighting words for teabaggers. And, Blunt is tied to all of it.

Blunt is an establishment candidate. He's ultimate inside-the-beltway politician. He even dumped his wife to marry a lobbyist. And, nothing says you're a DC insider like the fact Georgetown's Social Safeway is your local grocery store.

Could Roy Blunt be the next Trey Grayson or Bob Bennett? GOP voters are in an anti-establishment mood, so Blunt could be in big trouble.

Robin is running a great campaign. Even Chris "The Fix" Cillizza is impressed, "Secretary of State Robin Carnahan may be the best Democratic Senate challenger in the country." Robin understands the current political climate and is taking nothing for granted. She is hitting Blunt hard -- and there's so much to hit him with. We've got an ActBlue page set up for her campaign. This seat is currently held by Republican Kit Bond so it would be a sweet pick up in November. Read More......

Lots more on GOP Teabagger Rand Paul's racist comments

Lots and lots of stories about Rand Pauls refusal to say he'd vote for the Civil Rights Act.

WSJ: Paul's Civil-Rights Remarks Ignite Row
Wash Post: Rand Paul comments about civil rights stir controversy
Eugene Robinson: GOP's Tea Party invite might still be in the mail
The Hill: Rand Paul causes Civil Rights Act controversy with desegregation remarks
AP: Rand Paul Is 'Kentucky Fried Candidate' Over Civil Rights Comments
Lexington Herald-Leader: Paul's statements on discrimination stir controversy
NYT: Tea Party Pick Causes Uproar on Civil Rights
Salon: More historic legislation Rand Paul wouldn't have supported
PoliticsDaily: Rand Paul: An Anti-Government Conspiracy Theorist? Read More......

I think we're turning Japanese

Two quick points.

Apropos of this post, about getting used to ten years of lost wealth and lower living standards, Krugman's column this morning is called Lost Decade Looming? Talking about the deficit hawks and their cries for Fed tightening, he writes:

Meanwhile, there are continual warnings that inflation is just around the corner, and that the Fed needs to pull back from its efforts to support the economy and get started on its “exit strategy,” tightening credit by selling off assets and raising interest rates.

And what about near-record unemployment, with long-term unemployment worse than at any time since the 1930s? What about the fact that the employment gains of the past few months, although welcome, have, so far, brought back fewer than 500,000 of the more than 8 million jobs lost in the wake of the financial crisis? Hey, worrying about the unemployed is just so 2009.

But the truth is that policy makers aren’t doing too much; they’re doing too little. Recent data don’t suggest that America is heading for a Greece-style collapse of investor confidence. Instead, they suggest that we may be heading for a Japan-style lost decade, trapped in a prolonged era of high unemployment and slow growth. [my emphasis]

And regarding this post, about Reagan and Social Security, I'll try to put up a few charts and tables this weekend that illustrate its main points with easy-to-digest annotation.

The post itself contains click-throughs to these tables, but I'll mark them up for you. Thanks to all the commentators for their helpful remarks.

GP Read More......

Rand Paul: The Rosa Parks of big business

What better definition of "Republican" than GOP Teabagger Senate candidate Rand Paul. He's not a big fan of protecting black people from discrimination, but boy oh boy, if you take on big oil, especially while they're dumping tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, Rand Paul gets vewy vewy angwy.

What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, you know, “I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.” I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault. Instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen.

Rand Paul: The Rosa Parks of big business. He's not gonna sit on the back of the gushing oil platform. Read More......

Cantwell, Kerry and Warner are siding with the richest on Wall St. over the unemployed

Senate Democrats are proposing legislation titled, The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. The bill will, among other things, extend unemployment benefits and COBRA extensions. They're trying to schedule for a vote next week before the recess. And, to ward off the usual GOP criticism, this time, they've even come up with a way to pay for part of it: Removing a special tax loophole available to money managers. And, it's a big loophole that allows some of the richest people on Wall Street to pay the lowest tax rate.

From various sources, I pieced together how this tax structure works. Money managers at entities likes hedge fund, private equity firms and hedge funds don't get weekly paychecks. They're paid through a system known as "carried interest." Their income, which is essentially based on a share of the profits of the fund, is taxed at a far lower rate than income tax (15% vs. the top marginal income rate of 35%). So, what does it mean. SEIU's Lori Lodes explained to Huffington Post:

"How do you explain to the nurse or 911 operator or teacher - who are all struggling to pay their mortgages right now - that Wall Street hedge fund managers or venture capitalists are the ones who will get a special tax break. Their states are cutting back on services and their neighbors are losing their jobs. But somehow Senators have decided to hold up a jobs package because they want to keep a tax loophole for money managers. Never could that make sense."

What really doesn't make sense is that several Democrats (albeit very wealthy Democrats) are willing to protect that loophole at the expense of unemployed Americans. I'm told by a source who is very close to the action that the Democrats protecting the tax break for Wall Street types are: Maria Cantwell, John Kerry and Mark Warner.

McJoan explains the situation:

Cantwell and friends are lining up on the side of special tax breaks for money managers. The guys who pay only 15 percent tax on this income--less than what their clerical staff pays in income taxes. We finally get to a point where Dem leaders, including Baucus, agree that extending unemployment benefits is necessary. That agreement was conditioned on finding a way to help pay for it and closing this major loophole has the agreement of House and Senate leadership have found. And now a handful of Dems are jeopardizing it.

Making the politics of the Dems' position even worse, David Dayen reports that Republicans Snowe and Collins "have no objection to closing the carried interest loophole to pay for the legislation." It could easily pass with their support.

This isn't just about extending unemployment insurance to the millions of jobless who would otherwise be dropped off of the rolls. The bill also extends COBRA health insurance benefits for the unemployed, provides funding to states under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund that helps provide jobs to low-income families. It also includes more money for the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) that shores up Medicaid funding--funding that is critical for states straining to keep people covered during this recession.

So, we could have that -- or Cantwell, Kerry and Warner can save the tax breaks for the wealthy.

This is really unconscionable. Why should these wealthy hedge fund managers on Wall Street be protected from paying the same level of taxes we do? They should at least pay their fair share. After all, the rest of us saved their asses and their industry with our tax dollars after they nearly destroyed the economy.

Senators Cantwell, Kerry and Warner need to hear from their constituents -- and from anyone who has ever been asked to support any of their campaigns. The message is simple: Don't protect tax break for Wall Street's money managers at the expense of Main Street.

Cantwell's number in DC is: 202-224-3441. Washington State offices numbers are here.

Kerry's number in DC is: 202-224-2742. Massachusetts offices numbers are here.

Warner's number in DC is: 202-224-2023. Virginia offices numbers are here. Read More......

BP lab is testing samples to be used in court against BP

When is this story going to end? For goodness sakes, is it really so hard for the Obama administration to take charge and quit deferring to BP? BP caused this disaster and nobody outside of BP trusts BP. Why in the world would we allow BP to test samples that will be used in court action against BP? Quit rolling over for BP and let the US government take charge. If Obama doesn't want to accept that responsibility, I'm sure voters will help find someone else who will at least try.

Local environmental officials throughout the Gulf Coast are feverishly collecting water, sediment and marine animal tissue samples that will be used in the coming months to help track pollution levels resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, since those readings will be used by the federal government and courts to establish liability claims against BP. But the laboratory that officials have chosen to process virtually all of the samples is part of an oil and gas services company in Texas that counts oil firms, including BP, among its biggest clients.

Some people are questioning the independence of the Texas lab. Taylor Kirschenfeld, an environmental official for Escambia County, Fla., rebuffed instructions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to send water samples to the lab, which is based at TDI-Brooks International in College Station, Tex. He opted instead to get a waiver so he could send his county’s samples to a local laboratory that is licensed to do the same tests.

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Roubini remains bearish on market

Markets like this are dangerous territory. The movement is good for traders who make commission on trades or for traders who can easily slip in and out. For normal investors, cash is king. Nouriel Roubini is warning of the potential for a 20% decline.

As the market slides into correction territory, Roubini said weakness in euro zone countries and a slowdown in the US and other developed countries will make things even more difficult for investors in the months ahead.

"There are some parts of the global economy that are now at the risk of a double-dip recession," said Roubini, head of Roubini Global Economics. "From here on I see things getting worse."

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Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, the Wall Street reform bill passed in the Senate. It's on to conference with the House. Expectations are for a final bill before the July 4th recess. We'll see. Things have a way of not happening as intended here in DC -- even on bills that have strong public support. Lots of people blame lobbyists, but lobbyists only have power and influence because lawmakers let them have power and influence.

Can't wait to see what the stock market does today. Remember how we all used our tax dollars to save the financial sector? Yeah.

The oil is still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. I just don't think we've begun to fully grasp the extent of the massive damage its doing. Senator Bill Nelson and Rep. Ed Markey have forced BP to provide a live feed of the oil spill. It's here on Markey's site, but it's been overloaded since it went live. Senator Bill Nelson has a widget on his website that estimates the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf.

Next week, we should see votes to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell on the floor of the House and in the Senate Armed Services Committee. Both votes will occur as amendments to the 2011 Defense Authorization bill. If you haven't called your members of Congress to urge a vote for repeal yet, do it. Our opponents are going to be burning up the phone lines. The main number for the Capitol is: 202-224-3121. It's especially critical to make calls if one of these six members of the Senate Armed Services Committee is your Senator:

Robert C. Byrd (D-West Virginia)
Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska)
Bill Nelson (D-Florida)
Evan Bayh (D-Indiana)
Jim Webb (D-Virginia)
Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts)

Call today. And, then call back next week. If you need inspiration to make the calls, check out some of the letters in SLDN's series, Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama. For the past four weeks, an open letter has been sent every day to Obama from someone impacted by DADT. Over 50 blogs, including AMERICAblog Gay, have posted the letters. Today's is from an Active Duty Marine who wants to serve his country. These letters have been very powerful.

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

Obama takes harsher tone with BP but is it too late?

Enough is enough. Obama has been much too kind to BP and their efforts to salvage their precious oil well. The pattern with Obama continues to look the same for various issues which is to get pushed around and around before finally developing a backbone. It would save a lot of critical time and frustration if the backbone was firmed up earlier in the process. It's not a winning strategy and whether it's watching Wall Street chip away at regulation efforts (which even today, are watered down) or Big Oil ruin the environment, time is being lost.

Just as I was unimpressed with the mayor of New York being the voice of America during 9/11, I'm unimpressed with seeing BP as the lead source of information and effort for the oil disaster. Nobody elected BP and Americans don't live in the country of BP. It's the United States so why is it taking so long for the administration to act that way? We all know that if we saw the same reaction during the Bush years, we would have been losing it weeks ago and talking about the cozy relationship between Bush and Big Oil. When critics talk about both parties being corporatists, this is precisely what they're talking about. How different is this administration from the last?

It's an improvement to see more aggressive action, but the leadership gap continues to be a concern. Isn't it fair to expect more from our elected leaders as opposed to another fast talking corporation?

BP has "fallen short" in providing data about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the US government has said, in its latest critical letter to the firm.

The Obama administration said the British energy giant should act in a "transparent manner" and "promptly" make all information public.

Earlier, BP said more oil than the 5,000 barrels a day it first estimated were gushing from the burst well.

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Paris art museum theft valued at €100-€500 million

The police are focusing on a single intruder who disappeared with five paintings from the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. What kind of a person steals such pieces of art? Even worse, what kind of bottom dweller would think to buy them?"

This is a serious attack on the heritage of humanity," said Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris city hall, standing on the steps of the museum amid a swarm of television cameras. Listing works by Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernard Léger, Bertrand Delanoe, the city's mayor, urged that everything be done "to recover these masterpieces".

Girard said it remained unclear whether the thief, who removed the paintings from their frames and rolled them up to so that they could be carried away easily, had been acting alone or with a team.

Sources pointed out that if the thief had had people waiting for him, he would have been able to make a speedy getaway, thanks to the museum's proximity to the fast-moving traffic of roads running along the side of the Seine.

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