Bradley Manning's health declining in prison

And remember, so far Manning has not been found guilty of anything. The court martial has not even started. Is the new America a country that finds you guilty before trial?

Manning, who was arrested seven months ago, is being held at a military base in Virginia and faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison for his alleged role in copying the cables.

His friends and supporters also claim they have been the target of extra-judicial harassment, intimidation and outright bribery by US government agents.

According to David House, a computer researcher from Boston who visits Manning twice a month, he is starting to deteriorate. "Over the last few weeks I have noticed a steady decline in his mental and physical wellbeing," he said. "His prolonged confinement in a solitary holding cell is unquestionably taking its toll on his intellect; his inability to exercise due to [prison] regulations has affected his physical appearance in a manner that suggests physical weakness."

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Google Maps shows potentially massive housing bubble in China

For those who continue to stand firm in their belief that the Chinese real estate market can grow for years, they may want to review the photos inside the link. Empty town after empty town is now on display via Google Maps. Since the communists took over, China has repeated the same mistake over and over, which is to oversell numbers. If they don't, punishment was assured. When local government officials oversold actual farm production during the Cultural Revolution, the result was famine and death. If the story behind these photos is a massive real estate bubble, the government will be lucky to survive. History cuts both ways and in China's long and impressive history, peaceful transition from one regime to another has never been part of the process. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Leaping goats

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GOP kills legislation against child marriage (aka rape)

I guess the whole sanctity of marriage thing includes protecting adults who rape children. Read the rest of this post...

DREAM Yearbook

Meet some of the DREAM students who the Republicans are spending so much time railing against.

Dream Student Yearbook

Markos has who to call about tomorrow's vote. Read the rest of this post...

Jon Stewart with 9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster

If you haven't yet watched this, carve out about eight minutes. Then send on to friends and family. Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: GOP Crisis commissioners report serves ideology, not facts

This is another "state of the Krugman" report. It seems that the Professor has spent his week reading much that reminds him of George Orwell (in a bad way). Comes Friday, and Orwell enters his column by implication (in a good way).

Orwellian — "an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past." Let's keep that in mind as we examine the following (and bonus points for finding the definition's key word).

The Professor begins:

When the financial crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment. Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated.

How naïve we were. We should have realized that the modern Republican Party is utterly dedicated to the Reaganite slogan that government is always the problem, never the solution. And, therefore, we should have realized that party loyalists, confronted with facts that don’t fit the slogan, would adjust the facts.

Which brings me to the case of the collapsing crisis commission.

Krugman then tells the sorry tale of the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was tasked to “examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” As reported in the Huffington Post (my emphasis throughout):

The four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan to bypass the bipartisan panel and release their own report Wednesday, according to people familiar with the commission's work.

The Republicans, led by the commission's vice chairman, former congressman and chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Bill Thomas, will likely focus their report on the explosive growth of subprime mortgages and the heavy role played by the federal government in pushing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase and insure them. They'll also likely focus on the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law that encourages banks to lend to underserved communities, these people said.

And:

During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases "Wall Street" and "shadow banking" and the words "interconnection" and "deregulation" from the panel's final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.

Krugman details all this, and draws the obvious conclusion:

It’s hard to overstate how wrongheaded all of this is. [Excellent evidence supplied here.] But the G.O.P. commissioners are just doing their job, which is to sustain the conservative narrative. And a narrative that absolves the banks of any wrongdoing, that places all the blame on meddling politicians, is especially important now that Republicans are about to take over the House.

He summarizes correctly:

Never mind relearning the case for bank regulation; what we learned, instead, is what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts. And the answer is, the facts lose.

A nicely written piece, prominently placed in the Times, and pertinent to this week's atrocity (well, one of them). I do recommend reading it, especially for the well-captured evidence (truncated above) that — No, Eric; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, black-hearted as they are, were not responsible.

But I said this is about the state of the Krugman, and not the work itself. I call your attention to two words. In the definition of Orwellian above: control. And in the Professor's final paragraph: power. Orwell isn't about language, he's about how language services power.

In short, I believe Mr. Krugman is backing into something he's already known, and perhaps forgotten. This isn't an academic exercise America has embarked on; it's a struggle for control of the country. Krugman is almost just about very close to calling that out. If so, that would make two.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Loaded gun slips past TSA

Trashing the constitution and privacy is all worth it since the TSA continues to do such a spectacular job. Heckuva job, TSA:

Last fall, as he had done hundreds of times, Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif passed through security at a Houston airport and boarded an international flight.

He didn't realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along the belt and was x-rayed. When he got to his hotel after the three-hour flight, he was shocked to discover the gun traveled unnoticed from Houston.

"It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif told ABC News. "How can you miss it? You cannot miss it."

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Poll: FOX News viewers most misinformed

Now there's a surprise. FOX viewers are more likely to believe that:

Most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)

Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)

The economy is getting worse (26 points)

Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)

The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)

Their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)

The auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)

When TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)

And that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)

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Geithner: TARP was cheap!

Sure, the $700 billion part has turned out to be better than initially expected and that is great. But what about the staggering high unemployment? (The actual unemployment level is considerably higher than the official number.) Nobody believes the unemployment number will be bouncing back to pre-crash numbers for years, possibly even a decade. What Geithner is also ignoring is the trillions lent to the banks to keep them afloat plus the current QE2 bond sales that is feeding Wall Street easy money.

The troubling part about this "TARP was a deal" story is that it dodges the fundamental story, which is that the crisis was the end game of a long process on Wall Street. The administration has bought into the Republican world view on the economy, which is that this was just another crash on Wall Street that occurs from time to time. In their minds, the system needed some reform but this ignores the seriousness of the crisis. Without the wild gambling (or government handouts), there will not be big numbers again on Wall Street. The gambling clearly benefited Wall Street and the traders, but what about everyone else?

The Democrats from Congress through to the White House have missed an opportunity to be serious about reforming the disruptive and expensive businesses on Wall Street. Thanks to their inability to get tough, we now can't even get the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to include words such as "Wall Street" or "deregulation" in their final report. By going soft on the culprits, it's not even possible to get a unanimous report on the crisis. It's easy to blame the Republicans for standing up for Wall Street but it's a mistake to ignore the role of leading Democrats during this process, including President Obama. This failure will continue to weaken Democrats in years to come. Read the rest of this post...

Busy day on Capitol Hill for DADT, 'But hurdles remain for the bill'

In an article about the DADT vote, The NYT's Jennifer Steinhauer includes this key paragraph:

But hurdles remain for the bill. Although Mr. Reid will try to avoid it, Republicans could call for amendments, which would delay a vote. Further, White House officials and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, have suggested that some Republicans are threatening to block the New Start treaty if the military repeal goes forward. Such a maneuver “takes us way back to an earlier day when people used to do things like that to stop civil rights laws from passing,” Mr. Lieberman said.

Keep an eye out for noises coming from any of the potential repeal supporters that they need amendments or more time for debate. The GOP leader, Mitch McConnell, doesn't want to give Obama any victories and he wields enormous control over his caucus. Last night, Harry Reid upended the schedule. Today, we'll find out how Republicans are reacting to the upcoming vote. This thing has been a roller coaster and the ride isn't over.

There's a lot of activity at the Capitol. Servicemembers United is storming the Hill with gay vets and allies again for Day 3 of "Operation Renewed Engagement."

And, from Politico's Morning Defense:

TROOPS WILL SIT IN THE SENATE GALLERY UNTIL THE CHAMBER VOTES ON DADT, advocates will announce today. Lieberman has said he’ll join the service members today at 12:15 p.m. when they make their vow to stay in the Senate, Morning Defense has learned; other senators could appear as well. Then a group of active-duty service members in civilian attire will sit down in the Senate and rotate in and out for as long as it takes. There will likely be a minimum of at least two troops at any time, and that could swell up to a dozen depending on schedules and Senate action.

(Also, note to NYT's Ms. Steinhauer: Your story would have a lot more credibility if you actually talked to the groups representing gay servicembers, Servicemembers United and SLDN. They actually represent the men and women impacted by the legislation. For them, it's real, not a fundraising opportunity.)

Cross-posted at AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Game on. The Senate will vote to move forward on both DADT and the DREAM Act tomorrow. Let's see if Senators can finally treat people with decency and respect. I know that's unlikely for most of the GOPers.

On DADT, watch today to see if any of the repeal supporters, (Snowe, Murkowski or Brown) start bitching about process or time for debate. That will be a signal that their leader, Mitch McConnell has told them to obstruct the vote. It happens all the time in the Senate. We have over 60 supporters. The big question is whether we have 60 votes. There's a difference.

SLDN will have service members sitting in the Senate gallery until the repeal is passed. Servicemembers United is in Day 3 of "Operation Renewed Engagement."

On DREAM, Republicans are going letting the nativists set the agenda. Fine. If the GOPers want to end all hope of ever winning over Latinos, the fastest growing voting demographic, that's their decision. Because that's what they'll be doing if they block DREAM.

We got about an inch of snow yesterday, so the sidewalks in my neighborhood are covered with two inches of rock salt. That's bad for the paws of all the dogs around here. Many in DC think it's some kind of magic elixir that will rid the city of snow. A little shoveling or sweeping would do a better job of clearing the snow -- and do less harm to the environment. Read the rest of this post...

Investment bankers blamed for expensive Christmas turkeys in UK

People can understand that commodities such as grains are bought and sold, with prices going up and down based on factors such as harvests. It's not as easy to tolerate high prices when the reason is a big fat bonus and games by traders. We've seen this story play out in recent years thanks to the ethanol and it has to stop. Food is food, so let the gamblers take their games somewhere else. The Guardian:

"My contacts in the City tell me the price of wheat is soaring because of financial speculation," he said. "It's not good for farmers or consumers. What is happening is fundamentally wrong and obscene."

The boss of Kelly Turkey Farms in Essex warns that consumers can expect to pay up to £3 extra for their birds while Waitrose confirmed that its turkeys will cost 5% or 6% more than last year.

The increase in feed prices comes despite strong commodity supplies. Wildfires destroyed some Russian wheat during the summer, but the US and other grain producing regions have had good harvests.

Since the financial crisis began, market analysts have watched speculative money pouring into commodity derivative markets, including food. Many experts link this activity by banks and hedge funds to recent volatility and sudden inflation in the retail costs of food and energy.

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Goldman creates $1bn hedge fund in Hong Kong, where Volcker rule doesn't apply

While the Volcker Rule may not apply in Asia, the legal system including prisons may be slightly different. This is an industry that likes to brag about the billions they trade and yes, there are a fair number of hedge fund traders around the world. The problem always comes back to problems of secrecy and what we discovered during the crash, excessive risk. The reward is completely tilted in favor of Goldman and other similar organizations who want to gamble. There are enough pension funds that were burned by these funds that we're better off letting them take their show on the road. Roll the dice and see how it works out, for better or worse. It's certainly better that it's someone else's money this time.

Wall street banks are in the process of scaling back their proprietary trading desks to comply with the "Volcker rule" and letting some of their traders go, which limits the extent to which they can bet with their own capital.

Goldman is winding down its Principal Strategies Group, a unit of about 70 proprietary traders, while JPMorgan is reassigning its proprietary traders to its asset management unit.

A Credit Suisse commodity trader departed with a team of proprietary traders in September to set up their own hedge fund. Bank of America has also cut staff who traded for the bank's account.

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Jindal's sand berms to block oil were a $200 million waste of money

A fiscal conservative, is he?

The big set of sand barriers erected by Louisiana's governor to protect the coastline at the height of the Gulf oil spill was criticized by staff with the presidential spill commission Thursday as a colossal, $200 million waste of BP's money so far.

Hardly any oil ever reached the berms, government documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who pushed the venture over the objections of scientists and federal agencies, has strongly defended it. And despite the commission's scathing report, he plans to move ahead with the project, though with some changes to make it more beneficial.

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