Sushi and Nasdaq own us - now there's proof

Was there really ever any question about this? Nasdaq started "talking" a few years ago and Sushi caught on and eventually he realized it was an easy way to get whatever he wanted.

If you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It's your cat.

Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings.

This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore.

"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex. "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom."

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Russian human rights activist murdered

More troubling news from Russia. It reminds me of one summer (winter) when I was doing an internship in Argentina for the US embassy there. I was having dinner with an Argentine woman who worked with us. It was 1988 or so, just a few years after the military dictatorship fell. She lost several friends to the death squads who would arrest and summarily execute human and civil rights advocates, and any other political agitators they didn't agree with. Some were reportedly drugged and dropped from helicopters into the ocean to drown. I remember that night, at dinner, going into a heated rant about the military dictatorship and the killings, and the Argentine woman suddenly stopped, looked at me, and said: "You know, if you were Argentine, they'd have killed you." Never forget how fortunate we are to live in this country, regardless of its shortfalls. Read More......

Newly found video of Michael Jackson fire accident in 1984

This isn't politics, it's Americana - and the video is something else. Sometimes we can go off politics for a bit at night, and this is one of those times. Warning, for some this might be a tad graphic - the man's hair literally catches on fire.

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Tapper asks Gibbs why Obama opposes gay marriage

Aw-kward. Read More......

Health insurance and health care in France

Glenn Beck went off on some woman today on his radio show because she talked about how good health care was in France. And she's right. Beck says that she got her example from Michael Moore. Well, I didn't get my example from Michael Moore. I got it from my own visits to doctors and emergency rooms in Paris.

1. They don't ask you for insurance, they just treat you, then sheepishly ask you afterwards how you'd like to pay.
2. The costs are absurdly low. Chest x-ray and consult last year when I had a bad flu that settled in my chest? 45 euros, or about 70 bucks. The doctor warned me it was going to be really expensive. 70 bucks. That's "really expensive" medicine in France.
3. I had to wait a whopping 3 minutes before seeing the doctor. I phoned, said when can you see me, she said when you do want us to see you, I said how about in three hours, she said okay. I walk in the door, sit down, three minutes later they call me in - in and out in 20 minutes, and that included getting the x-ray and then having the doc explain my results.
4. Doctor visits cost a whopping 20 euros (25 bucks). I remember my friend John having what was likely kidney stones. We go to the doc, I do the translating, and when it's all over she says to me, concerned, so he's American, which means he doesn't have French insurance, how is he ever going to pay? The bill was 25 bucks. I laughed and told John. He laughed, and paid in cash.

And mind you, these were the prices BEFORE insurance kicks in. If you're French, you pay a lot less.

Conservatives need to get over their "we're the best country in the world so don't consider whether maybe, just maybe, some other countries do some things better than us" kick. We're ranked pretty low in the world on the overall health care chart. France is number one. Yes, we could learn a few things from even the French. Especially the French. Or you can trust your life-saving health care to some flag-waver who thinks patriotism is the best medicine. Read More......

Palin an independent?

I'm pretty sure independents don't go for the dumb-as-rocks thing that so titillates what is left of the GOP. And Huckabee begging her to stay is more about Huckabee trying to get the word out to hard-core conservatives that Palin may be talking about bolting - i.e., she's not a loyal kool-aid drinker like Huck. Read More......

The Moonie paper thinks we're interesting, useful and enjoyable

Joe gets an email from the paper we call the Moonie Times:

Dear Mr. Sudbay

Recently, a colleague of mine showed me your website/blog "Americablog" which I found it to be quite interesting. As I work in a media library, this compilation of interesting current news links, commentary and opinion has proven to be a useful source as well as an enjoyable read.

Another reason for this email, is that I did also notice that under the "News Links - US" section of your site, you list some links to other news sites, such as the NY Times and the Washington Post. After viewing your site, I would appreciate it if you might consider linking to our website as well, The Washington Times under this same section, as it may also prove to be a useful daily news source for your visitors.

Thanks,

XXXXX

When we add a section for comedy, we'll add you. Read More......

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has a double standard. Surprised?

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is frustrated. He doesn't think Sonia Sotomayor is giving clear enough answers, the way Roberts and Alito did:

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions has different standards for Sotomayor. But, that's probably because he's a racist (although the DC media elite are all pretending that he's not.) Read More......

Senate HELP Committee passed health care reform bill today (with, of course, NO GOP Votes)

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed a significant health care reform bill today. The Ted Kennedy/Chris Dodd-led HELP Committee is a much better place to start get a real reform bill than the Senator Max Baucus-led Finance Committee.

Jonathan Cohn at TNR's "The Treatment" picks up on a key point from Senator Dodd:

Dodd went on to note that a weak bill, even one with bipartisan support, might be difficult to sustain, both during the congressional debate and afterwards. In other words, a weak bill would do less for the American people--and they would be less satisfied with it.

He's absolutely right about all of that. And it's important to remember that bipartisanship was always a longshot on the HELP Committee. The most likely pickups were Senators Mike Enzi and Orrin Hatch. But while Hatch, at least, has some history of collaborating with Kennedy on health legislation, they both have fundamental differences with what the Democrats are trying to do.

If you want to guarantee coverage to all Americans, make benefits more reliable, and improve quality while restraining cost growth, you have to reorganize and regulate the insurance industry, redirect the patterns of medical care, and rejigger the way money flows through the health care system. You also have to raise some new revenue, at least in the short term.

Enzi and Hatch, like most Republicans, oppose these things. And that is certainly their prerogative. They are conservatives, after all. But that also means we shouldn't treat their decision to reject reform as some sort of failure.

Many Republicans don't want any health care reform. They're happy with the status quo. So, not only will those GOPers work to kill real reform, they'll work to weaken what does pass. Then, they can crow that Democrats didn't fix health care. (Think about the stimulus.)

Striving to hard for bipartisanship could doom successful reform. It's looking like more Democrats are realizing that. And, if Democrats aren't going to get GOP support, those Democrats should stop compromising with themselves. Bipartisanship might make David Broder and other Villagers happy. But, they all have very good health care. This isn't about them. It's about the rest of us. Read More......

GOP Sen. Coburn Does 'Ricky Ricardo' To Sotomayor: "You'll Have Lots Of Splainin' To Do"

That's a joke I make with friends, who usually aren't Latino, but making it to Sotomayor? Appropriate or not so much?

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House Bill Comes In At $1 Trillion, Undermines GOP Talking Points

From ThinkProgress' Wonk Room:

Today, three separate House committees — Ways and Means Committee, Energy and Commerce Committee, Education and Labor Committee — released a single health care reform bill, the American Affordable Healthy Choices Act. The bill establishes “a mandate for most legal residents to obtain insurance, significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid, and set[s] up insurance “exchanges” through which certain individuals and families could receive federal subsidies to substantially reduce the cost of purchasing that coverage.” According to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation would cost $1 trillion over 10 years and cover 94 percent of Americans (97% if you don’t count the undocumented).

As Jonathan Cohn reports, “between savings and a new surtax on the wealthy, the bill pays for itself. In other words, it won’t inflate the deficit.” Five hundred billion comes from savings in Medicare and Medicaid and “the rest comes from a surtax on the richest 1.5 percent.”

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Congressman Murphy says thanks for the chat

I just got the following email from Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA), thanking everyone for the chat (you can read the chat transcript on our site). He also called me right after. I really think he's committed to doing this. Hopefully, together, we'll be successful:

Thanks again so much for letting me join you to talk DADT today. I’d really like to do a live chat again soon when we have some updates on where the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA) is, and the lay of the land as DADT repeal continues to move forward. In the meantime, I encourage you all to contact your Representatives (find out who your Rep is at http://www.house.gov/) and let them know how important it is that they sign on to cosponsor H.R. 1283. We’re also online at www.letthemserve.com, where veterans, servicemembers, and their friends and families can share their stories of how DADT has affected their lives, sign up for email updates, and sign the petition that I can take with me to other members of Congress. Thanks again for everything- and looking forward to talking with you soon!

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Failed GM CEO to walk away with $10 million retirement

The bailout of the auto industry was not as luxurious as Wall Street but this retirement package is not too shabby. Clearly Wagoner didn't make enough money during his tenure while driving the company into the ground. It's yet another example of a poorly implemented bailout that has allowed the select few to prosper enormously. For the taxpayers who have funded these bailouts and are being pummeled during the recession, all they get is a lousy bill. Any talk about class warfare ought to be addressing the flogging of the middle class by the narcissistic extreme upper class.

Former General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will retire Aug. 1 with a pension and benefit package the automaker valued at more than $10 million.

Wagoner, 56, who was ousted by the Obama administration on March 30, will get $1.64 million in benefits annually for each of the next five years, plus an annual pension of $74,030 for the rest of his life, according to company documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wagoner, who spent 32 years with the company, can also choose to cash out his company-provided life insurance policy at $2.6 million, according to the filing.

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Transcript: Live online chat with Cong. Patrick Murphy about DADT

UPDATE: The chat is over. Went really well. Feel free to read the comments.

The Congressman is in the comments now, until 1:45pm Eastern or so. Join in - the chat is taking place in our comments. His staff just sent me a phone pic of him answering your questions.



Happening now. The chat is taking place in the comments. Feel free to post a question in the comments, if you like. The topic is Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the Congressman's efforts to lead the charge for DADT's repeal in the House. For background, you read the Congressman's DADT guest post this morning. And more on Congressman Murphy's background here. Read More......

McCain defends Kyl's comments that stimulus isn't doing anything, then freaks over threat to take Arizona's stimulus money away

But if the stimulus isn't doing anything, and is a big waste of money, then why are McCain and Kyl freaking out over the administration's offer to take its stimulus money back? I'd almost say John McCain was confused, but that's so last year.

All kidding aside, this is great. Obama is playing hardball, and defending the stimulus package, as I've been arguing he needs to:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is standing up for his colleague Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., under heavy fire from President Barack Obama's administration and national Democrats for suggesting that Congress should cut off future economic stimulus spending.

Kyl maintains this year's stimulus law isn't working as advertised and argues that taxpayers shouldn't have to stay on the hook for money that hasn't been spent or won't be spent until years from now.

On Monday, four Obama Cabinet secretaries sent letters to Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asking if she, too, wanted to shut off the spigot of federal stimulus cash.

“I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote to Brewer. “However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to the state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know.”

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The online chat with Cong. Murphy has been delayed until 115pm Eastern today

He just called to vote on the House floor. Our chat will start at 1:15pm, and will take place in our comments thread in the top post on the blog at that time. Thanks. In the meantime, read the Congressman's guest op ed here, and read more about the upcoming online chat here. Read More......

Preliminary Look at the House Healthcare Reform Bill

McJoan takes a first look at the House health care reform bill.

There's good news, okay news, and could be better news in the House's "American's Affordable Health Choices Act" (full bill text and fact sheets on various provisions available at that link).

For the really good news that should blunt Republican criticism and public concern over costs, the bill pays for itself--it will not increase the deficit, it will not bankrupt the country. (Like the Iraq War did. As always, it's interesting to see where funding priorities lie.)....

The not so good news is that implementation timeline for some of the key provisions--he insurance exchange, subsidies, some insurance regulations, and the public plan--don't come online until 2013.

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GUEST OP ED: The time to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is now

(NOTE FROM JOHN: As I mentioned last night, we'll be having an online chat at 12:30PM 1:15PM Eastern today with Congressman Murphy, to talk about his effort to repeal DADT. Please join us.)

For too long, the misguided 1993 law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has hurt our national security and our military readiness by prohibiting brave men and women from serving their country openly and honestly, simply because of their sexual orientation. With our troops stretched dangerously thin fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, we need every qualified, able-bodied individual who’s willing to serve.

Unfortunately, in the 16 years since this discriminatory policy was put into place, we’ve let go of over 13,000 servicemembers- the equivalent of 3 ½ combat brigades- including 800 mission-critical servicemembers like medics and fighter pilots, and even 58 Arabic translators. My bill, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, H.R. 1283, would overturn this harmful law once and for all, making its passage vital to our national security.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” isn’t working for our military, and it’s making us less safe. Former senior military leaders agree that this policy is hurting our national security: leaders like General John Shalikashvili – former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Charles Larson, a former superintendent of the Naval Academy. Even former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell said that he thinks it’s time to reevaluate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

The time to repeal this discriminatory policy is now. The arguments against overturning the policy are weak and outdated, including the most common red herring: that lifting the ban on openly gay troops would be detrimental to unit cohesion (an argument also used against allowing African Americans to serve alongside whites when President Truman desegregated the military in 1948). The United States has the best-trained, most disciplined armed forces in the world. Our strongest allies, including Great Britain and Israel, allow gays to serve openly without disruption to unit cohesion, morale, or discipline.

To say that our servicemembers can’t handle serving alongside openly-gay colleagues is an insult to their professionalism. More importantly, it is an insult to my fellow soldiers still serving – gay and straight alike. In Iraq, my men and I didn’t care whether a soldier was gay or straight. We cared about getting the job done with honor, and getting every member of our unit home alive.

I'm looking forward to the chat at 1:15 p.m. Read More......

Obama (finally) open to health care reform by Democrats only

Finally. Some leadership emerges from the White House.

If Obama wants real health care reform, he can't count on Republicans. He can't rely on all the Democrats either, but at least Democrats seem to understand something has to be done. The Republicans just want to thwart Obama. Sounds like some people at the White House actually get that:

President Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican opposition doesn’t yield soon, two of the president’s top advisers said.

“Ultimately, this is not about a process, it’s about results,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior political strategist, said during an interview in his White House office. “If we’re going to get this thing done, obviously time is a-wasting.”

Both Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said taking a partisan route to enacting major health-care legislation isn’t the president’s preferred choice. Yet in separate interviews, each man left that option open.

“We’d like to do it with the votes of members of both parties,” Axelrod said. “But the worst result would be to not get health-care reform done.”

The problems with the stimulus started when some genius on Team Obama leaked that they wanted to get 80 votes in the Senate. From there out, all Obama could do was compromise -- and the stimulus shrunk, thus shrinking the chances it would have the desired effect sooner rather than later. Republicans want Obama to fail. It's not just their leader, Rush, who thinks that. Most of them do.

Democrats were elected because they promised to solve problems, including health care. Do it already. But, do it right. Read More......

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

More questioning of Sotomayor today by Senators on the Judiciary Committee. Let's see how big a hole the GOP can dig for itself. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is doing his part. (Note to GOP leaders: Bad idea to put a racist in charge of the Judiciary Committee.) On the other hand, Sotomayor is doing quite well for herself.

Don't forget, we've got a live chat with Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) at 12:30 1:15 PM. The Iraq vet is the sponsor of legislation in the House to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Watch Murphy in action questioning witnesses, including an anti-gay activist, at the first hearing on Don't Ask, Don't Tell last July:

Let's start... Read More......

Goldman generated $38 million per day last quarter

They insist it was down to basic "blocking and tackling" though something doesn't completely pass the smell test. Goldman is obviously making an effort to make this sound like basic business and nothing risky though generating such massive profits so quickly in this environment does raise some serious questions about how much "blocking and tackling" was involved versus trick plays. Since they are now flush with a $6.65 billion bonus pool, maybe they can pay back the AIG bailout money that was sent their way and let the taxpayers get their money back.

Goldman's success has generated its fair share of detractors. Critics point out that the bank was the biggest counterparty in financial insurance policies to the insurer AIG and that its collateral calls contributed to the US company's collapse, requiring AIG to seek $150bn of government aid.

Furthermore, Goldman itself received $10bn from the US government's troubled asset relief fund, which it paid back last month to avoid any further caps on dividends or remuneration. The firm converted to a 'bank holding company' last year, allowing it to take retail deposits, as the business model of a standalone Wall Street bank came under threat.

A leading US labour organisation, the Service Employees International Union, said Goldman's pay practices are a strong argument for root and branch change in Wall Street's compensation policy to end a culture of rewarding bankers for taking risks.

Stephen Lerner, director of the SEIU's financial reform campaign said: "They have some kind of moral and economic amnesia. After we bail them out with tens of billions in taxpayers' funds, they go back to exactly the same practices as before."

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It's time to listen to the IMF and move forward

Especially in light of the latest revelations from Israeli soldiers, it's time to move this process along. Having some kind of opportunity to make a living is critical unless Israel wants Gaza to become even worse.

The West Bank economy could post its strongest performance in years in 2009, but only if Israel broadens recent efforts to ease restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday, offering a rare upbeat assessment after years of downturn.

The growth, projected to be as high as 7 percent, could further stabilize the West Bank, bolster U.S.-led peace efforts and ease the financial burden on the international community. Donor countries spent some $1.8 billion in 2008 alone to cover the Palestinian government's deficit, in part to make up for a stagnant economy.

Donor countries have repeatedly urged Israel to scale back a series of restrictions imposed after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000 to restrain militants. They include military checkpoints, a massive West Bank separation barrier, cumbersome inspections of Palestinian cargo at crossings into Israel and Jordan and the two-year closure of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

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Iranian consumers boycott Nokia

It's nice to see Iranians using their hard-earned money to impact businesses they believe are collaborating with the government in a bad way. If there's one thing business understands, it's revenue or lack of revenue. (H/t, Cat.)

Wholesale vendors in the capital report that demand for Nokia handsets has fallen by as much as half in the wake of calls to boycott Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for selling communications monitoring systems to Iran.

There are signs that the boycott is spreading: consumers are shunning SMS messaging in protest at the perceived complicity with the regime by the state telecoms company, TCI. Iran's state-run broadcaster has been hit by a collapse in advertising as companies fear being blacklisted in a Facebook petition. There is also anecdotal evidence that people are moving money out of state banks and into private banks.

Nokia is the most prominent western company to suffer from its dealings with the Iranian authorities. Its NSN joint venture with Siemens provided Iran with a monitoring system as it expanded a mobile network last year. NSN says the technology is standard issue to dozens of countries, but protesters believe the company could have provided the network without the monitoring function.

Siemens is also accused of providing Iran with an internet filtering system called Webwasher.

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Prehistoric animal graveyard found in North Sea

What an amazing catch. With so few fish left, the fishing fleets may even make more money selling these bones.

A dozen white, plastic fish boxes stand jumbled on the floor of a former fish-gutting plant in the pretty town of Urk in the northern Netherlands. Each box overflows with what appear to be large, serrated pebbles or small serrated boulders. In fact, they are the fossilised teeth of mammoths. Some are as big as melons. Others are the size of cricket balls – the molars of baby mammoths, which died prematurely from hunger, or the claws and fangs of a predator, 40,000 years ago.

All around is a prehistoric boneyard. Propped against the walls are immense, curved mammoth tusks or mammoth thigh bones, five feet high. On the shelves are fragments of the jaw bone of a woolly rhinoceros and the skull and horns of a 10,000-year-old, extinct species of giant bison.

All have been scooped accidentally from the bed of the North Sea by Dutch beam trawlers in the last few months. Most are destined to be sold on to specialist sites on the internet.

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