UBS coughs up another loss, chops jobs

But wait! Wall Street tells us that banksters will rush to those foreign banks to work if American banks have to be constrained with the TARP pay limits. Just because UBS lost almost $2 billion and are giving the boot to almost 9,000 more workers shouldn't mean that they are not going to snatch up all of the valuable banksters from US companies. Right?

Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel, the veteran former Credit Suisse boss who has been pulled out of retirement to get UBS back into shape, said the bank will post a first-quarter loss of nearly 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.74 billion), mainly due to writedowns and outflows at its prized wealth management unit.

UBS shares were indicated down 2 percent.

He was due to tell the bank's annual general meeting that he aimed to cut staff to 67,500 in 2010 from 76,200 at the end of March in a bid to save up to 4 billion francs.

Read the rest of this post...

She really is dumb

Just caught Palin running an ad on AMERICAblog. We're happy to take Republican money, and then use it to defeat Republicans. Keep it coming. Read the rest of this post...

Anderson Cooper on GOP teabagging

It's less than a minute, and it's good.

Read the rest of this post...

Same-sex marriage bill introduced in New York by Governor

Big day in New York.

Governor David Paterson, joined by Mayor Bloomberg and several members of Congress, held a press conference to kick-start the effort to pass same-sex marriage:

Gov. David A. Paterson on Thursday announced that he would introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, drawing on the soaring oratory of the civil rights movement to call on the Legislature to add New York to the four states that have already authorized such unions.

Also in attendance were openly gay members of the New York Legislature including Senator Tom Duane and one of AMERICAblog's good friends, Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell:

Mr. O’Donnell, who sponsored a previous bill to authorize same-sex marriage, noted that there were 85 votes in the Assembly for the 2007 bill.

“I was born in this state, I was raised in this state, I was educated in this state, I’m an elected official in this state, I pay taxes this state, I want a piece of paper from this government just like the rest of you,” declared Mr. O’Donnell, who represents the Upper West Side and is the brother of the entertainer Rosie O’Donnell.

Introducing Mr. Duane, Mr. Paterson cited Woodrow Wilson as saying that publication influences public policy more than legislation.

Mr. Duane vowed to carry the bill in the Senate. “I absolutely look forward to standing with you governor, when you sign this wonderful piece of legislation into law,” he said. “I know, we know, it’s going to take hard work and it’s going to take a bipartisan effort. And, governor, I know that you can do it.”

The battle is going to be in the State Senate, which is now controlled by Democrats for the first time in decades.

I really liked the very powerful statement from NY City Council Speaker Chris Quinn, who is also openly gay:

Exciting times.

As an aside, for all the dog lovers out there, Chris and her partner, Kim, are as crazy about their dog, Sadie, as Carlos and I are about Petey. And, whenever Danny O'Donnell and I get together, we spend a lot of time talking about our dogs, too. Read the rest of this post...

GOP congressman says constituents ready to assassinate IL gov

As we've noted before, ever since last year, the Republican party has become increasingly more violent in its rhetoric about then presidential candidate Obama, and Democrats more generally. Disturbingly, the violent rhetoric has coincided with a seemingly coordinated Republican effort to get the Department of Homeland Security to back off of investigating domestic extremists who are prone to violence (today lead religious right groups joined GOP congressmen in calling on DHS to no longer investigate such extremists).

The latest Republican to seemingly call for violence is GOP Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois. Kirk says the people of Illinois are ready to assassinate their governor for having raised taxes to make up for the state's budget deficit.

Yglesias explains:

Conservatives can cry and moan all they want about the DHS warning of violence on the part of right-wing extremists, but the fact of the matter is that sooner or later someone is going to take this kind of talk seriously and do something that’s really regrettable. If this were just a matter of ugly signs from a handful of people at protests, there’d be nothing to really worry about. But the rank and file is being egged on by some very irresponsible politicians and media figures.

The Trib says Kirk sticks by his assassination talk. Read the rest of this post...

In a major repudiation, Alaska Legislature rejected Palin's pick to be the next Attorney General

Today's New York Times has a front page article titled, "For Gov. Palin, A Rough Return To the Day Job":

Before Tina Fey and “Drill, baby, drill,” there was mud season here in the Alaskan capital. This soggy, socked-in spring has been no exception, but it sure has been different in other ways. For Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican meteor, getting back to governing has not been easy.

Her job got a lot rougher today. Palin's nominee to be the next Attorney General, a real Neanderthal named Wayne Anthony Ross - his license plate is his initials, WAR, and he in the past defended a KKK statue and called gays "degenerates" - was just rejected by the full legislature today:

The Alaska Legislature today rejected Wayne Anthony Ross as attorney general.

Meeting in joint session, lawmakers voted 23 for and 35 against confirming the Anchorage attorney, who was nominated by Gov. Sarah Palin to replace Talis Colberg, who resigned earlier this year.

The House is controlled by Republicans. The Senate is controlled by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. There are more Republicans in both bodies.

Ross was quoted in that NY Times piece on Palin. You get a sense of what kind of guy he is:

The governor recently nominated Wayne Anthony Ross, a board member of the National Rifle Association, to be Alaska’s attorney general. Mr. Ross, who is expected to be confirmed, has told lawmakers that he opposes many federal efforts in Alaska like increasing protections for polar bears and beluga whales and limiting resource development. Years ago, he described gay men and lesbians as “degenerates.”

As a private lawyer, Mr. Ross said, he lived his initials. “My license plate says, ‘WAR,’ ” Mr. Ross said in an interview after a recent confirmation hearing. “And my wife’s license plate says, ‘MRS WAR.’"

Yet even Mr. Ross offered a mild critique of the governor. In the hearing, he said he had urged her “to open better communication between the Legislature and her office.” He said he thought Ms. Palin risked appearing that she had been cowed by critics — “treed by Chihuahuas,” as he put it — and that “she needs to smile more.”

The Legislature provided more than a mild critique to the Governor today. This was a body blow.

UPDATE 6:11 PM: The Anchorage Daily News has added more to its initial "breaking news" story, to which I linked. This says a lot about Palin's relationship -- or lack there of -- with the legislature:

Among the Republicans who voted against Ross were House Speaker Mike Chenault of Nikiski and Senate President Gary Stevens of Kodiak.

Read the rest of this post...

Rep. Bennie Thompson can't decide if he's for or against domestic terrorists

In 2005, Representative Thompson (D-MS, figures) was against far-right extremist domestic terrorism. But today, he apparently has a soft-spot for them. So whose side is Bennie Thompson on? Check the wind. From Plum Line:

A Democrat, Rep. Bennie Thompson, is now trying to grab some of the media attention on this story for himself, aggressively criticizing the Obama administration over the “right wing extremists” report, even though the controversy fomented by the right on this is largely bogus.

But it turns out that some time ago, Thompson himself aggressively called for the Department of Homeland Security to do much more to crack down on “right wing extremists.”

I do hope if the media plans on continuing to interview Rep. Thompson about this matter, they plan on asking him why he called for investigations of such extremists only a few years ago. And the next time Timothy McVeigh evil twin decides to blow up a building, Bennie Thompson needs to be the first witness on the stand explaining why he didn't want our government keeping an eye on these extremists. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans now decide who is a real Catholic

As we've written many, many times, Catholic leaders in America have an unusually close relationship with the Republican party. The cardinals, archbishops and bishops have become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GOP. Apparently, the GOP now thinks it has the power to determine who is and who isn't a real Catholic:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is trading barbs with a left-leaning Catholic group over the details of the $3.5 trillion Senate-passed budget.

An NRSC spokesman blasted the organization as “a political front group that hides behind Catholicism to advance a left-wing agenda.”

Hides behind Catholicism? What does that mean? And, the Republicans get to decide that because???

The group attacked by the GOP, Catholics United, practices its faith in the what many see as the best tradition of the church:

The group, Catholics United, which describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization “dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social tradition,” fired back yesterday.

“The NRSC and the Senate Republican leadership have clearly chosen to engage in the Karl Rove slash-and-burn tactics of character assassination rather than engage in a constructive and civil debate on the merits of the economic recovery plan,” said James Salt, communications director of Catholics United.

The NRSC and the Senate Republican leadership have been empowered by the Catholic Church hierarchy to attack Catholics who don't toe the GOP line. Proving that point, you'll never see the Catholic hierarchy push back on the GOP. Never. They're too busy worrying about Obama speaking at Notre Dame. Read the rest of this post...

Georgia Senate threatens to secede

What do they plan on fighting with, peaches? Mind you, this comes on yesterday's threat by the GOP governor of Texas to secede as well.

Of course, what's really going on here is that Republicans are intentionally fanning the flames of violence because they've been out of power for a grand total of 100 days. They began pushing their followers towards violence during the presidential campaign, and have actually increased the inflammatory language over the past few months. Culminating, today, with a call for the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to no longer investigate known domestic terror threats.

The Republican party has a serious problem with extremists, not just in its midst, but among its leadership and its key allies in the faux media (FOX News) and its grassroots (Limbaugh, the blogs, and the religious right). The GOP is quite literally pushing their most extreme followers to violence. And now that they're calling on the government to ignore known terrorist threats, it's only a matter of time before something violent happens, and then the Republican party will find itself out of power permanently. Read the rest of this post...

George Bush's FBI and DOD documented "thousands" of US military members joining far-right extremist groups

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs committee, said it was "inconceivable" that the administration would consider military veterans a potential terrorist threat.

Republicans are now arguing that, for politically correct and politically expedient reasons, we should ignore this possible domestic terror threat identified by George Bush's FBI and George Bush's Department of Defense.

I understand that it's politically correct, and fun political fodder, for Republicans to express false outrage over a new Department of Homeland Security report that noted, among other things, that right-wing extremists were trying to recruit US military members. But are the Republicans really now saying that Homeland Security should not keep an eye on terrorists' efforts to recruit former US military members?

Yes, they are.

I give examples below, from George Bush's FBI and DOD, detailing the problem of far-right extremists infiltrating the US military, and trying to recruit former members of the US military. The media does all of us a disservice by not demanding the Republicans explain why they are now for us abandoning efforts to monitor a threat that George Bush himself pointed out to us.

Now, let's examine the facts, since last night, Republican leaders and the Republicans at the American Legion asserted that Timothy McVeigh was the ONLY current or former member of the military to be involved in any domestic terrorism, and therefore we don't need to keep an eye on this potential threat.

Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity

From the Southern Poverty Law Center, 7/7/06:

Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists. Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.

Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," said one investigator. "That's a problem."

This was George Bush's Defense Department, Donald Rumsfeld's DOD - they determined that thousands of extremists were at that time members of the US military. So the media needs to ask the Republicans what they are talking about. Do they think we should not keep tabs on Aryan Nation members of the US military?

FBI report: "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11," 7 July 2008

This is a report from George Bush's FBI:

Although individuals with military backgrounds constitute a small percentage of white supremacist extremists, they frequently occupy leadership roles within extremist groups and their involvement has the potential to reinvigorate an extremist movement suffering from loss of leadership and in-fighting during the post- 9/11 period....

FBI reporting indicates extremist leaders have historically favored recruiting active and former military personnel for their knowledge of firearms, explosives, and tactical skills and their access to weapons and intelligence in preparation for an anticipated war against the federal government, Jews, and people of color. FBI cases also document instances of active duty military personnel having volunteered their professional resources to white supremacist causes....

A review of FBI white supremacist extremist cases from October 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with confirmed or claimed military service active in the extremist movement at some time during the reporting period....

According to FBI information, an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9 percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twelve of these have primary affiliations with the national organizations NSM (7), NA (4), and AN (1), six with skinhead groups, and one with white supremacist criminal gangs. FBI information indicates the activities engaged in by these individuals reflect those by veterans in the extremist movement generally since 9/11.

The Bush administration's FBI and DOD documents thousands of cases of US soldiers being members of far-right extremist groups. Yet the Republicans are now saying that our anti-terror organizations should not keep an eye on this potential domestic terror threat because it wouldn't be politically correct.

This is yet another example of how the far-right takeover of the GOP has led the Republicans to demagogue on every serious issue affecting our country, from the economy to terrorism. The GOP doesn't think we should have a stimulus bill, preferring to risk another Great Depression, because they think opposition to stimulus is a political winner for them, regardless of the economic costs to the nation. Republicans don't think the Dept. of Homeland Security should be paying any attention at all to domestic terrorists' efforts to recruit members of the US military, because they think "defending the military" will earn them political points, even if it means risking another Oklahoma City style terrorist attack, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans in the process. Saving the country from another Great Depression or another major terrorist attack has taken a back seat to earning political points.

I hope the Republican party and the American Legion hire a good crisis management expert, and an even better lawyer, the next time a Timothy McVeigh wannabe blows up a federal building, killing hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans. Because they're going to have some serious explaining to do as to just whose side they're on. Read the rest of this post...

NSA tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a court order

All the Teabaggers kept saying that we're becoming the Soviet Union. Perhaps they have a point. From the NYT:

And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact — as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 — with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency then sought to eavesdrop on the congressman’s conversations, the official said.

The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., without court oversight, to spy on a member of Congress.

You think?

Apparently, they're also still spying illegally on the rest of us:

In recent weeks, the eavesdropping agency notified members of the Congressional intelligence committees that it had encountered operational and legal problems in complying with the new wiretapping law, Congressional officials said.

Officials would not discuss details of the overcollection problem because it involves classified intelligence-gathering techniques. But the issue appears focused in part on technical problems in the N.S.A.’s ability at times to distinguish between communications inside the United States and those overseas as it uses its access to American telecommunications companies’ fiber-optic lines and its own spy satellites to intercept millions of calls and e-mail messages.

One official said that led the agency to inadvertently “target” groups of Americans and collect their domestic communications without proper court authority. Officials are still trying to determine how many violations may have occurred.

It's hard work, spying on your own citizens.

Funny, but I don't recall any of the Teabaggers mentioning any of this when they were complaining about their loss of liberty yesterday (a loss of liberty they didn't seem to have a problem with until a Democrat became president). Read the rest of this post...

Obama outlined high-speed rail plans today

Obama announced his high speed rail plans today, via White House press release:

The President released a strategic plan outlining his vision for high speed rail in America. The plan identifies $8 billion provided in the ARRA and $1 billion a year for five years requested in the federal budget as a down payment to jump-start a potential world-class passenger rail system and sets the direction of transportation policy for the future. The strategic plan will be followed by detailed guidance for state and local applicants. By late summer, the Federal Railroad Administration will begin awarding the first round of grants.

Additional funding for long-term planning and development is expected from legislation authorizing federal surface transportation programs.

The report formalizes the identification of ten high-speed rail corridors as potential recipients of federal funding. Those lines are: California, Pacific Northwest, South Central, Gulf Coast, Chicago Hub Network, Florida, Southeast, Keystone, Empire and Northern New England. Also, opportunities exist for the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston to compete for funds to improve the nation’s only existing high-speed rail service.

If Europe can do it and China can do it and Japan can do it, I'm pretty sure the U.S. can do it. During his speech, Obama said, "It's being done. It's just not being done here. There's no reason why we can't do this. This is America. There's no reason why the future of travel should lie somewhere else, beyond our borders." He's right.

I have to admit, I like watching Obama when he talks about new plans like this for the country. He invokes the country's can-do attitude, which seemed lost during the Bush debacle. He's getting "people to imagine what's possible." Read the rest of this post...

New Homeland Security report warns of rise of right-wing extremism

The irony is that while these people claim they love America the most, they are the least American among us. The report isn't that long, less than 10 pages, it's worth a look (pdf).

Paralleling the current national climate, rightwing extremists during the 1990s exploited a variety of social issues and political themes to increase group visibilityand recruit new members. Prominent among these themes were the militia movement’s opposition to gun control efforts, criticism of free trade agreements (particularly those with Mexico), and highlighting perceived government infringement on civil liberties as well as white supremacists’ longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion, inter-racial crimes, and same-sex marriage. During the 1990s, these issues contributed to the growth in the number of domestic rightwing terrorist and extremist groups and an increase in violent acts targeting government facilities, law enforcement officers, banks, and infrastructure sectors.

That paragraph, as Joe noted to me last night, is the most chilling. The report is being diplomatic. By "during the 1990s," they mean "the Oklahoma City bombing." It's saying that the things that led to the bombing look an awful lot like what the right-wing is saying and doing today. Republicans should be very careful where they, and their allies at FOX and among the hate groups of the religious right, tread. Because they started inciting violence during the campaign last fall, and they haven't let up. One of these days, one of their followers will get the message. And that's the day that the GOP, FOX, and the religious right will have an awful lot of explaining to do. Read the rest of this post...

Yes, in fact, the teabagging events were the GOP's "Anti-Obama rebellion"

Michael Oneal and Janet Hooks at The Chicago Tribune actually got that the teabagging events were GOP-led anti-Obama events. It was hard to miss as the talking point of the day from so many of the Republicans was that Obama is a fascist. And, I think the vitriol spewing from the teabaggers caught many reporters by surprise. The Tribune reporters also point out that this GOP strategy is risky (but, it's the only strategy they've got):

Across the country, Republicans and their conservative allies sought to ignite a grass-roots rebellion against President Barack Obama on Wednesday, staging scores of Tax Day "tea parties" to demand tax cuts, lower federal spending and smaller government.

But the effort came with a risk: In the current economic crisis, with half a million or more jobs vanishing each month, many Americans seem less concerned about how much Washington deducts from their paychecks than whether they will have a paycheck at all.

"Nothing is as pressing a concern as the economy," said GOP pollster Whit Ayres, noting that even among Republicans the political salience of the tax issue is not what it once was.

At issue is whether the anti-tax, anti-government spending message makes Republicans seem out of touch with present-day reality.

There isn't really an issue: Republicans are out of touch with the present-day reality. That's why Republican leaders like Michael Steele and Eric Cantor deny we're even in an economic crisis. That's why every House Republican and almost every Republican Senator voted against the stimulus bill. They don't think the economy is tanking. You'd think the statistics on unemployment and foreclosures would cause concern. But, facts don't matter to zealots. And, as we saw yesterday, hating Obama, not fixing the economy, is the GOP's top priority. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Well, now America knows what the Republican Party is all about. It was on full display yesterday. It's not just the "Party of NO." It's a party filled with people who just loathe the president -- and it has nothing to do with taxes. It's something more visceral and disturbing. Those teabagging events also proved, once and for all to anyone who doubted, that FOX is nothing but a GOP propaganda machine. Those aren't journalists on FOX. There isn't even a patina of objectivity.

The teabaggers are probably still excited about their big day. It looked like a lot of them don't get out much. But, they achieved more than we could have hoped. They showed America just how hateful and extreme the GOP has become. And, that wasn't the fringe of the GOP. That was the heart and soul of it.

Start threading the news... Read the rest of this post...

China records record low GDP and report recovery around the corner

Possibly, but not easy. The important factor to keep in mind with Beijing is that this government has a very long, very deep history of telling lies about numbers. In the distant past false numbers led to mass starvation and today it could easily lead to significant social unrest. Even the fourth quarter of 2008 GDP number was widely rumored to be false and now another low number. It's possible that their own stimulus plan will start to kick in but this is an export driven economy and who in the West is buying? Reuters:

China's economy slowed in the first quarter to its weakest pace on record, but an improvement in data for March offers tentative signs that the worst may be over for the world's third-largest economy.

Annual gross domestic product growth fell to 6.1 percent, down from 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and slightly below economists' forecasts of a 6.3 percent rise. That marks the weakest growth since quarterly records began in 1992.

Read the rest of this post...

Another salmonella alert

Looks like this place is a salmonella factory. Do they make anything that isn't part of the alert?

Union International Food Co. is expanding a spice recall to include all Lian How brand and Uncle Chen brand sauces, oil and oil blends in various size packages because the products may be contaminated with salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. The company had previously recalled Lian How brand and Uncle Chen brand dry spices.

I would include the entire list of items but it would have you scrolling for days to get to the bottom. Click through to get all 63 items. Read the rest of this post...

Competition, anyone?

How does AT&T; still have exclusive rights to the iPhone and even think that it's possible to extend it? Even France now has competition with the iPhone. When I look at situations like this I wonder what the heck happened to the old system of competition in the US. The Republicans loved scrapping the system and letting their friends take control but why have Democrats let them continue? Competition used to be the hallmark of the US system and now it's considered old fashioned and better left behind. Maybe it's time to go retro again.

When Randall Stephenson became AT&T; Inc.'s chief executive, the company had just started offering the iPhone. The blockbuster device has since reeled in millions of new customers and helped revitalize the telecom giant's brand.

But AT&T;'s exclusive deal to carry the iPhone in the U.S. expires next year, according to people familiar with the matter, and Mr. Stephenson is now in discussions with Apple Inc. to get an extension until 2011.

And exclusive rights helps consumers how? Read the rest of this post...

The Goldman Sachs profit that wasn't

The Washington Post better be careful or else Goldman might hire another swarm of attorneys to sue the newspaper for talking about the company. Yesterday Goldman reported a first quarter profit (forecast-busting, they say!) of $1.81 billion. Pretty impressive in this climate. Too bad Goldman somehow forgot about a few small losses in December that they skipped over. Because they shifted to being a bank, they changed their quarter and somehow - who knows how - overlooked almost $3 billion in commercial real estate losses. Yes, it's legal because of the change in quarterly reporting but it hardly signals a healthy Goldman Sachs. If anything it only highlights the high slime factor of this menace. Of course, they get away with whatever Washington allows them to get away with.

The company included a page of charts in its Monday news release showing its December results, but it didn't include a narrative description of those results as it did for the January-through-March period. In a conference call with analysts yesterday, Chief Financial Officer David A. Viniar said the firm incurred $2.7 billion in "fair value losses" in December, meaning losses related to declines in the value of assets it holds. Among those write-downs were $1 billion for "non-investment grade loans," Viniar said, according to a transcript.

Viniar told analysts that the company faced "a difficult market environment" in December.

Michael Williams, director of research at Gradient Analytics, which specializes in examining corporate accounting, said companies have a lot of discretion in deciding when to recognize gains and losses.

Obviously too much discretion if they can choose to ignore $2.7 billion for now. Read the rest of this post...