House to hold hearings on Blue Cross 39% rate increase

Now THAT is what I'm talking about. These are the kind of things that show the American people the difference between having Democrats in power and Republicans in power. Read More......

Goldman link to Greek financial crisis?

Is it really surprising any more? What happens in 10 or 15 years when this "complex financial product" unravels? Where will the highly paid financial consultants be? You have to wonder if Goldman will always remain above the law or if they will continue to call the shots since they make the law. Der Spiegel:

But in the Greek case the US bankers devised a special kind of swap with fictional exchange rates. That enabled Greece to receive a far higher sum than the actual euro market value of 10 billion dollars or yen. In that way Goldman Sachs secretly arranged additional credit of up to $1 billion for the Greeks.

This credit disguised as a swap didn't show up in the Greek debt statistics. Eurostat's reporting rules don't comprehensively record transactions involving financial derivatives. "The Maastricht rules can be circumvented quite legally through swaps," says a German derivatives dealer.

In previous years, Italy used a similar trick to mask its true debt with the help of a different US bank. In 2002 the Greek deficit amounted to 1.2 percent of GDP. After Eurostat reviewed the data in September 2004, the ratio had to be revised up to 3.7 percent. According to today's records, it stands at 5.2 percent.

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American Airlines to charge for blankets

Well at least they can't control the temperature inside the plane, right? Besides being stuck with them as the only carrier nearby, why would anyone use that airline? The last flight I did with them was so bad that I swore I would never even consider American as an option. The interior was falling apart and they had ear sets for some passengers but not all passengers on the long flight to South America. Then again, not all of the passengers had working TV screens so it didn't even matter. It remains a mystery how they stay in business other than owning a few important routes. Read More......

ABC's new poll on partisanship

Americans aren't thrilled with Obama and the Dems, but they're far less thrilled with the GOP. And this is what usually happens when the desperate party goes negative. Usually it happens in campaigns, at the very end - the candidate who's losing throws a hail (Mary) of negatives at the frontrunner. Often it damages the frontrunner, but it just as often hurts the instigator even more. I think that's what we're seeing with the public in this poll. The GOP has done a good job of hurting Obama, but they haven't done a very good job of helping themselves in the process. Read More......

Like we miss Cholera

A billboard someone set up in Wyoming, Minnesota. Read More......

Enzi says Blagojevich. Hilarity ensues.

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So much for privacy and body scans

That didn't take long. Will everyone else be as amused?

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan isn't intimidated by the full body-scan machines that have been recently installed at London's airports - in fact, he's been signing off printouts of his X-rays.

Khan, appearing on 'Friday Night With Jonathan Ross' - one of British television's most popular weekend shows - revealed he's been turning the controversial security machines into a public relations opportunity at London's Heathrow airport.

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Follow us on Twitter

Joe and I are on Twitter, you can follow us via our various accounts:

@AMERICAblog - the RSS feed of the main blog
@AMERICAblogGay - the RSS feed of the gay blog
@aravosis - my personal rantings, usually about politics, but not always
@joesudbay - Joe's personal rantings, ditto

So, if you want to follow the blog itself, then subscribe to the blog feeds. If you want to see what Joe and I are personally tweeting, including retweets of your favorite bloggers and others around the Netroots and beyond, follow our personal feeds, which personally I find a lot more fun. We only tweet a small amount of our own blog posts in our personal feeds, so best to subscribe to all. Read More......

Gibbs just flashed crib sheet on palm at WH briefing, included 'eggs, milk, bread, hope and change.'

Seriously. He was referring to Sarah Palin's now-famous crib sheet she wrote on her hand. Read More......

Obama administration rips into Republicans for politicizing war on terror

Now this is what we like to see. Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan penned an op ed today about how Republicans are politicizing the war on terror. It included the following tidbit:

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill.

He's right. And it's about time the White House hit back hard. But in the past, the White House has often gotten cold feet right after it hit Republicans hard. Here's to hoping they're relentless, and to hoping they have a larger plan for buttressing and reinforcing Brennan's comments with other surrogates. These kind of messages pack a punch, but only if delivered as part of a larger messaging strategy.

Interestingly, Brennan's comments parallel what Newsweek's Jonathan Alter said last week:

I think they're [Republicans] in a place now where they just want to hurt Obama. What they don't get - and I wish they would look into their souls a little bit - if they convey, over and over again, that the President of the United States is weak, what does that do? It emboldens the terrorists. And I don't say that lightly. Think of terrorists overseas, or at home, that might be plotting an attack - if they think that the President is weak, which he is not, he is manifestly not. He's killed twice as many of them, not to put too fine a point on it, with Predators as his predecessor did. He is not weak. But if they continue to convey that he is weak, that gives serious help to the terrorists.

I think the pressure should now be on these Republicans, aren't you helping the terrorists, by insisting, against all evidence - remember we have 100% conviction rate of terrorists in civilian courts in this country. 100%. It's not like any of them are out walking the streets, as we're told. The only detainees from Guantanamo who have been released and who have returned to terrorism in their home countries were released under President Bush. So far there has not been one case of that happening under President Obama. So, this line is a bunch of hooey, and they have to stop saying it, and the onus now has to be on them for why they're not harming us by continuing to do so.

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'Lift the ban' groups criticize latest Gillibrand move on DADT

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has taken the lead on the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell in the Senate. But it's not entirely clear that she's helping matters. Read More......

With all Palin's talk about being an 'energy expert', Alaska isn't even among the top 10 energy producing states

Alaska produces 2.9% of the total energy production of the US. Why does the media let her get away with her ongoing lie that Alaska produces 20% of the nation's energy, and thus that makes her an energy expert? It simply makes her, once again, an idiot and a liar. Read More......

The Hill: 'Cracks are beginning to show in Emanuel’s once-impregnable political armor'

According to The Hill, Democrats on Capitol Hill are focusing their ire on Rahm:

Democrats in Congress are holding White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel accountable for his part in the collapse of healthcare reform.

The emerging consensus among critics in both chambers is that Emanuel’s lack of Senate experience slowed President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

The share of the blame comes as cracks are beginning to show in Emanuel’s once-impregnable political armor.

Emanuel has presented himself as the all-powerful. He's led Obama's presidency into a tailspin (and Obama let him). While Emanuel hasn't worked in the Senate, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina, is a long-time former Senate staffer. How Emanuel and his crew destroyed the Obama brand so quickly will be the subject of debate for years to come.

Criticism of the Obama leadership team is becoming more pervasive. Over the weekend, Steve Clemons wrote a very powerful post about the President's management team, led by Emanuel. John posted it here. It's definitely worth a read as is the Financial Times article by Edward Luce, to which the Clemons post refers. As John noted, Steve has excellent sources around D.C. The traditional media is paying attention. Steve has been discussing the problems with the Obama White House leadership team on news shows for the past several days. I saw him in a clip on the TODAY Show this morning.

In an analysis of the FT Times and Clemons articles, Digby, as usual, nails it:

And Rahm, by the way, is way more trouble than he's worth. Even Nixon's advisors were more subtle --- and far more lethal. You don't keep a nasty henchman who makes enemies of everyone and inspires loathing by his very presence if he can't even get the job done.

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On most issues, the GOP is out of step with the American people

Nate Silver did an analysis of public opinion on 25 issues, which separate Democrats and Republicans. There seems to be a sense among some pundits that Obama and the Democrats are on the wrong side of what people want. In fact, on most, it's the GOPers who are disagree with the prevailing public view:

Of these 25 issues, Obama's position appears to be on the right side of public opinion on 14: the bank tax, repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, campaign finance, the credit card bill, D.C. voting rights, fair pay, financial regulation, gays in the military, hate crimes, the jobs bill, mortgage relief, PAYGO, SCHIP, and Sotomayor. It would appear to be on the wrong side of public opinion on five issues: the GM/Chrysler bailout, Guantanamo Bay, health care, the extension of the TARP program, and terrorist trials. On the other six issues, the polling is probably too ambiguous to render a clear verdict.

Republicans, on the other hand, have overwhelmingly opposed to almost all of these measures with the exception of Ben Bernanke and Afghanistan troops, both of which poll ambiguously, and the credit card bill, which polled well.

Obviously, this analysis is superficial in certain ways. All issues are by no means created equal, and health care in particular, which is unpopular, has weighed heavily upon the public's perception of the Democrats. In addition, there is probably another layer of 'meta-argument' that goes beyond specific issues, and at which the GOP has tended to excel.

Republicans have been better at the meta-messaging. They don't care about issues, politics rules. That's especially true when the GOPers can turn national security into a political issue. They love that. On the other hand, Democrats spend more time talking about the intricacies of legislation and the process of passing it.

And, I'm still waiting to hear the Obama administration's message on health care. Considering it was the dominant issue, it's still stunning that the message was never clear. That might have helped.

The bigger point here is that, for most issues, the President and Democrats are doing what the American people want. They need to lead. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Much of D.C., including the federal government, is closed again today and we're expecting another big snow storm. In its latest alert, the National Weather Service issued a "Winter Storm Warning" predicting accumulations of 10 - 20 inches.

The President, however, is hard at work. Today, he and the V.P. are hosting a bipartisan meeting at the White House "to discuss working together on the economy and jobs." The expected attendees are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner. I'm sure McConnell and Boehner are really committed to working together with Obama. They wouldn't help with the stimulus when the economy was on the brink of falling into a depression. But, McConnell did become the de facto leader of the world after garnering the 41st Senator for his caucus, so he must be obeyed.

Let's get threading... Read More......

Italian agriculture minister sells out more than the US Supreme Court

It's hard to say which is worse. Italy is a country that takes extreme pride in it's history of mastering the art of cooking. I can sort of get that the minister is hoping to get money moving to the local industry instead of a few billion being spent in a neighboring country but c'mon. Putting on a McDonald's apron and proudly boasting about the quality of McItaly burger? Wouldn't it be better for him to invest more time in promoting something that is actually quality? The Slow Food movement comes from Italy and guess what? They promote locally produced products. That's certainly more Italian and would generate more money than this junk. What an embarrassment.

Italy's agriculture minister defended his sponsorship of McDonald's new all-Italian burger Monday amid criticism that he is selling out to a multinational corporation and sacrificing Italy's culinary reputation in the process.

Minister Luca Zaia has argued that McDonald's new McItaly burger — using all Italian beef, Asiago cheese and artichoke spread — will pump €3.5 million ($4.8 million) more a month into the pockets of Italian farmers grappling with tough economic times.

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Credit crisis pushes some people over the edge

Another bizarre episode stemming from the financial ruin caused by the credit crisis. This story from last summer is now popping up again since it's coming to trial. The pensioners probably became carried away with getting rich fast to pad their retirement but isn't that what the bankers were doing? Just as these retirees will deserve whatever happens in court, it's disappointing that we don't see the same with the bankers themselves. How exactly does one lose trillions and yet the only thing that happens is that they receive enough money to pay out hundreds of millions in new bonuses? And remember, it's Wall Street who thinks everyone is being too hard on them. As if this wasn't their doing.

A retired architect and four other pensioners took their financial adviser hostage and held him in a purpose-built prison in Bavaria after their stock market investments failed, a court has heard.

The 74-year-old architect, identified only as Roland K, told a court in Traunstein, southern Germany, that he and his accomplices thought their financial adviser had "cheated and taken the p---" out of them after their investments in the US property market evaporated. As a result, he told the court, they had "decided to invite him for a few days' holiday in Upper Bavaria".

Roland K denied kidnapping but admitted the group, including his seventh wife, 79-year-old Sieglinde, Willi D, 60, and Iris F, 64, a retired doctor, abducted James Amburn at his home in Speyer, southern Germany, in June before transporting him in the boot of a car to Roland K's house at the lakeside resort of Chiemsee, where he had built a prison for him in the cellar.

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HHS investigating Blue Cross of CA for raising rates 39%

Shut em down.

President Obama's secretary of health and human services fired off a sharply worded letter to a California insurer Monday, demanding to know why it is raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent.

Anthem Blue Cross of California sent out notices earlier this month to many of its roughly 800,000 holders of individual policies, informing them that the costs of their plans would sharply increase to cover rising health-care costs. The increases do not affect employer-provided plans in the state.

Sebelius also noted that Anthem's corporate parent, WellPoint, has seen its profits "soar," rising to $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.

"These extraordinary [rate] increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation..."

Here's my favorite part of the article:

Costs have increased in the individual market, Anthem responded Monday afternoon, because the recession has led many policyholders to drop their coverage, spreading expenses among a smaller pool of customers.

Their high rates have forced people to drop coverage in a recession, so as a result Blue Cross is going to raise rates even higher, and force even more people to drop, and so on. It sounds like a strategy to get rid of these people all together. Thank God the Republicans, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Max Baucus have been whoring for the insurance industry and helping to guarantee that real health reform will never happen in this country.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Repeal Congress' health care plan. Let them go on the individual market and get it like the rest of us, if they're so afraid of socialized medicine. Read More......