Americans wealth dropped last quarter, remains below pre-recession levels

As I mentioned again the other day, focusing on cleaning up Wall Street and helping normal Americans instead of the coddled bunch who created the problem ought to be the primary focus. Elizabeth Warren is a good start but Obama needs to be much, much more aggressive with fixing this. Households are too reliant on a functioning Wall Street to play around with this any longer.

The decline in net worth underscores how dependent families' wealth is on stock investments. About a fifth of total household financial assets are in stock-market holdings. The value of households' stock portfolios dropped to $6.8 trillion last quarter -- a 12 percent decline from the first three months of this year.

Americans' home equity isn't making up for the loss in their stock values. Last quarter, U.S. real estate values ticked up a scant 0.3 percent compared with the January-March quarter.

And many economists expect the home market to weaken further now that a federal home buyer tax credit has expired. Most economists expect home prices to decline around 5 percent to 10 percent by the middle of next year.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP only has 15% chance of taking Senate

NYT:

Republicans, who are modest favorites to take over the House from Democrats, still have a chance to do the same in the United States Senate. But their odds have dropped significantly: from a 26 percent chance last week to 15 percent today, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecasting model.

The main reason for the decline is the outcome of Tuesday’s Republican primary in Delaware, in which the insurgent candidate, Christine O’Donnell, defeated Michael N. Castle. Two recent polls, including one completed after the primary, show her trailing her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, by margins of 11 percent and 16 percent.

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Huckabee thinks we're in a moral crisis, not an economic crisis

His criticism isn't completely off but please, spare me the "moral crisis" line when it was the GOP who spearheaded the financial engineering that brought us to this point. Yes, the bankers and their enablers are immoral but most people are grounded enough to see the financial crisis as well, a financial crisis. This has nothing to do with the stability of families and everything to do with legalizing financial products that never should have been legalized. Maybe Huckabee would like to voice his criticism of his fellow Republicans who are grabbing wads of cash from Wall Street so they can turn back the clock and try again. CBS News:

"People say this is not a year where we ought to be talking about social issues," Huckabee said today at the Values Voter Summit, conference hosted by the socially conservative Family Research Council. However, he said, "We need to understand there is a direct correlation between the stability of families and the stability of our economy."

The financial meltdown on Wall Street that sparked the recession was "not a money crisis, it was a moral crisis," Huckabee said. Financial institutions were allowed to function like casinos, he continued, and "if they lose, you the taxpayer pays for it and the governmnet breaks both your legs to pay for it."

The moral crisis extends far beyond Wall Street, the former -- and possibly future -- Republican presidential contender said. Referring to the newly released, sobering poverty statistics, Huckabee said, "The real reason we have poverty is we have a breakdown of the basic family structure."

So does this mean Newt Gingrich is responsible for America's poverty? Read the rest of this post...

In Alaska, Lisa Murkowski is getting back in the race for Senate as a write-in

Lisa Murkowski is going for Round 2 against Sarah Palin and the teabaggers:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) will run for re-election as a write-in candidate after losing her bid for renomination, according to sources briefed on Murkowski's decision.

Murkowski's decision will set up a 3-way battle between the incumbent, Miller and Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams (D), potentially turning the race on its head. Private 3-way polling has shown Miller leading, but by a narrow margin.

Murkowski will make the formal announcement tonight in Anchorage. She has been mulling her options after losing to attorney Joe Miller (R) by 1.8% -- or about 2K votes out of 110K cast.

Miller won with the backing of the Tea Party Express and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). The Tea Party Express spent hundreds of thousands of dollars criticizing Murkowski's legislative accomplishments, and Palin campaigned against her rival in the race's closing days.

Okay then. This should be fun to watch.

I'm hoping Scott McAdams will eke out a win while the GOPers and teabaggers duke it out. Read the rest of this post...

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln...

From Ezra Klein:

[A] lot of the Obama administration's accomplishments were pipe dreams.

A near-universal health-care system? Why would Obama and the Democrats succeed when Truman, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton had all failed, and politicians as adept as FDR and LBJ refused to even make the attempt? They've seen the numbers, right? The health-care industry is bigger now, and richer, and there are no more liberal Republicans. There's no way.

A $787 billion stimulus? Yes, it was too small. But everything Washington does is always too small. And within the confines of that stimulus, the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress managed to make a host of long-term investments that would've been considered huge accomplishments in any other context, but are largely unknown inside this one. Huge investments in green energy, in health information technology, in high-speed rail, in universal broadband, in medical research, in infrastructure. The Making Work Pay tax cut. The Race to the Top education reform program. No recent president has invested in the country on anything like that level.

Near universal care health care system? Okay, I'm no expert on health care reform, as compared to Ezra, but we're now to believe that what got passed is "near universal care"? Seriously?

And as for the stimulus, the fact that this "accomplishment" was far too small may have just cost us control of the US House, let alone a few million jobs. How is not even trying for the amount of stimulus that the President knew we needed an accomplishment? He was at 70% in the polls, had huge majorities in the House and Senate, and the GOP was in ruins. And he asked for half of what was needed, and then gave 35% of that amount away in useless (stimulus-wise) tax cuts to woo only 3 GOP votes in the entire Congress.

The President, and the Congress, have done some good things. But they had the potential to do great things - we handed them the potential to do great things - and they chickened out (or in the case of the President, his desire to be liked and avoid controversy overrode his desire to do good, and what he promised). And now we're all suffering as a result. Let's not encourage this kind of behavior in the future by calling this an accomplishment. Read the rest of this post...

CEO Fiorina's words are devastating to GOPer Fiorina's campaign in new Boxer ad

This is good. New Barbara Boxer ad uses Carly Fiorina's words against her. Should be devastating:
Read the rest of this post...

McConnell is engaged in 'outright extortion' over millionaire tax cuts

The state of the Krugman is Not Pleased about Republican gangster tactics:

“Nice middle class you got here,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader. “It would be a shame if something happened to it.”

O.K., he didn’t actually say that. But he might as well have, because that’s what the current confrontation over taxes amounts to. Mr. McConnell, who was self-righteously denouncing the budget deficit just the other day, now wants to blow that deficit up with big tax cuts for the rich. But he doesn’t have the votes. So he’s trying to get what he wants by pointing a gun at the heads of middle-class families, threatening to force a jump in their taxes unless he gets paid off with hugely expensive tax breaks for the wealthy. ...

[T]here’s an even bigger issue here — namely, the question of what constitutes acceptable behavior in American political life. Politics ain’t beanbag, but there’s a difference between playing hardball and engaging in outright extortion, which is what Mr. McConnell is now doing. And if he succeeds, it will set a disastrous precedent.

Notice that this is the Senate. Here's the reason John Boehner ("The Tan who would be Speaker" in Joe's formulation) can cave to Obama in the House — in a plan to turn House seats red with populist cred. If the game is fixed, it's fixed in the Senate.

Krugman lays the blame for this situation in several places. Then he adds: "The deeper answer lies in the radicalization of the Republican Party, its transformation into a movement willing to put the economy and the nation at risk for the sake of partisan victory."

"Radicalization of the Republican Party" ... almost sounds like that "revolutionary force" someone wrote about in 2003.

The column is a good read, with a nice history lesson folded into the middle. The fact that he ends by calling for the administration not to cave, almost suggests that he's worried they might.

I'm not sure they will; they've put themselves very far out there on this one. But just in case, I'll add my small voice as well — You're holding four aces; don't fold.

GP Read the rest of this post...

GOP filibusters Defense bill, while we're in 2 wars, then accuses Dems of playing politcs with national defense

They're good. John McCain has been politicizing the Defense bill for months in an effort to convince Arizona voters that he really is a conservative Republican. And now that we're a little more than a month away from the election, the entire GOP is trying to bring down the defense bill in order to score political points by hurting Latinos and gays. Incredibly, the Republicans are now claiming, after all that, that it's Democrats who are politicizing the Defense bill a month before the election.

More on AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

How a young woman's blog post is changing the Swedish elections

I'm in Sweden this week as part of my ongoing work to help develop a progressive blogosphere outside of the US, and have had the unique opportunity to follow the Swedish national elections, which are taking place this Sunday. While, like much of Europe, Sweden has a flurry of political parties from left to right, the two main contenders in the upcoming election are the conservative Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, and his progressive opponent, Mona Sahlin.

While Sweden was an early contender in using the Net for politics in the late 90s, the Swedish Netroots is a relatively recent phenomenon. And like the states, the left side of the blogosphere seems to be kicking more butt in Sweden than the right. One likely reason is that in Sweden, like the US, the right-wing has long had its own echo chamber, while the left did not. 13 of the nation's newspapers lean left, while 59 lean right. The Swedish left-wing blogosphere fills a very real need, and is already having some early, and significant, successes.

The latest, and possibly most interesting, success of the Swedish Netroots (they use the same term as us, "Netroots") took place just two days ago. A young Swedish woman named Emilie wrote a blog post about her mother losing her health insurance. In Sweden, there's a national health plan that covers your living expenses if you lose your job due to failing health. While Emilie's mom has been certified unable to work by her doctors, the government functionaries running the national plan didn't believe her, and just cut off her benefits. Emilie wrote that she and her mother are now considering selling their home, as it's the only way they can be eligible for any more government benefits.

Up until now, Emilie's blog didn't get a lot of traffic. She'd only written three posts in September, four in August, and seven in July. But this post was different. Within a few hours, it started to travel around the Web, and within a day, it had already been shared over 20,000 times on Facebook. By last night, only a day after Emilie wrote her post, the national evening news in Sweden had Emilie and her mother as their top story (see video upper left). By the next morning, it was a front page story in the largest national paper, is now hitting the radio and the wire services, and is the subject of a Facebook page and a viral video poking fun at the Prime Minister. The media then tried to ask the Prime Minister about the story, and he reportedly fled in order to avoid giving an answer.

Here's the viral video that's now going around (it's in English with Swedish subtitles:



All of this because of a relatively small blogger's single post about her mother.

Health care is the number one election issue in Sweden, according to the polls. And the conservative ruling party, until now, has been able to effectively avoid the issue all together in the campaign. Then Emilie struck, and now health care is quickly becoming the top election story in the Swedish news, only 48 hours before the election.

Pretty cool 48 hours for a young girl and her blog.

PS A funny aside to the story. Emilie's blog is called "KLAMYDIABREVET", or, Chlamydia Letter. A Chlamydia Letter in Sweden is the letter the government sends to inform you that someone you've slept with has an STD, and thus you need to be tested. What's ironic about the story going viral is that the Swedish Prime Minister, in a very real way, just got his own Chlamydia Letter only 48 hours before the most important election of his life. Read the rest of this post...

JP Morgan stomps feet and has temper tantrum in London

They take particular offense at being criticized and blamed for the economic crisis. As we all know now, it was all the fault of Clinton letting poor minorities get housing loans, right? It was either that or some other group of people who have much less to spend on lobbyists and bilge water like Tony Blair. Either way, the global crash was certainly the fault of someone other than the architects of modern finance. They're all much too smart, come from the right families and the right schools and are respected business people so there's no way they could be responsible.

Remind me again why Bush and Paulson let this group off so easily?

Property sources say the bank is ready to abandon its stalled £1.5bn project and relocate into the huge building that was occupied by Lehman, until its spectacular demise two years ago.

The bank agreed a deal with Canary Wharf Group (CWG) in late 2008 for the development of new purpose-built offices, but has still not committed to the project. Sources close to JP Morgan, which employs Tony Blair, the former prime minister, as an adviser, admit that the delay is largely down to senior officials being furious at the UK Government's portrayal of the financial sector as the villain of the recession.

It is understood that JP Morgan is also irritated that the criticism of the banking system has not abated since the Coalition came into office. Last year, sources warned it was considering scrapping the project over tax increases and an orchestrated campaign of "banker-bashing" before the election.

It is interesting to note that even with the new government, the love they had hoped for has not yet materialized. Read the rest of this post...

Despite combat operations being over in Iraq, US forces raid Fallujah stronghold

I guess "end of combat operations" doesn't have the same meaning that it did in the past. Go figure.

U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a raid on the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah Wednesday, killing at least six people in the second incident this week in which American troops were involved in fighting despite the official end of combat.

President Barack Obama declared the end of combat operations in Iraq on Sept. 1 when the number of American troops fell below 50,000. Although their primary focus is on training Iraqi security forces, the remaining U.S. soldiers still take part in operations against insurgents at the request of the government.

Read the rest of this post...

They Risk Our Lives

It was the first day of Eid, a fantastic fun filled 3 days marking the end of Ramadan, and like many here in Kabul, my friends and I were planning a field trip to another region. Our hope was to get out of dusty Kabul and out to the countryside where we could breathe some fresh air and learn something more about this a country with such a rich history. Our destination: Bamyan, home of the famed giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Our initial concern, as applies to most long trips in Afghanistan these days, was safety. The road to Bamyan, 240 kilometers Northwest of Kabul, takes much longer than one would expect due to poor road conditions. And although the people of Bamyan are known to be friendly and relaxed, there is a known span of about 15 kilometers along the road which is a high risk area for attacks (according to our many friends working in the security world). We take this under advisement but we are still pretty keen to see this legendary city, important center of the country's Hazara population. To offset the risk, we discuss transportation options, drivers, and itinerary at length, making sure we ride with experienced people who come from that region as well. I confess despite all our careful planning, I was still nervous about making the trip, not unlike how I was nervous to come work in Afghanistan in the first place.



A few days prior to our trip, everything changed again. News spread that a pastor no one over here has ever heard of, in the state of Florida, had announced he would be burning a Koran on September 11th. Throughout Afghanistan this story spread; more and more announcements were made of protests and demonstrations in front of the US embassy and other key places in most major cities. Suddenly word came down from work and from our security friends, that most foreign workers were now on "lock down" and that going anywhere in the days leading up to 9/11 was not advised due to the potential for foreigners (American or not, doesn't matter) to be the target of angry mobs.

It seemed to me a most amazing and irritating truth, that what happens in some city in Florida, can have such a massive and dangerous impact on life in Afghanistan. A few choice words about some public relations stunt and I am now at a new level of risk to be attacked or killed for just walking down the street or riding in a car. A so-called exercise in free speech and suddenly the work of thousands upon thousands of foreign aid workers, who already do such dangerous but much needed work, grinds to a halt.

With all the warning signs and new risks we decide to cancel our much anticipated journey to Bamyan. We also don't venture out near places where demonstrators are gathering for the next few days. The very day we were supposed to arrive in Bamyan reports came in that angry demonstrators had shut down the city center. Just because people were demonstrating doesn't necessarily mean we would have been in any danger, but reading that report, I couldn't help but feel like we had narrowly missed a dangerous situation.

My residence in Kabul happens to have FoxNews among other channels, so of course I switch to it around the time the news came in that the Koran burning plan would not go forward. Some talking heads were going on and on about what a loss this was for free speech and the United States in general. I kept thinking about the new risk so many of us face ever since this issue came up, and at the same time, the risk these talking heads don't face when they go home tonight.. whether they burn a Koran or not. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The big news from the White House today is that On Friday, the President Obama is going to announce that Elizabeth Warren will be the "Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau." Expect the statement from Obama at 1:30 PM Eastern from the Rose Garden. And, um, finally.

The Senate is out of session today. The vote to end the GOP filibuster of the Defense Authorization bill will take place on this coming Tuesday, September 21 at approximately 2:15 PM. So far, we're hearing that all Republicans are sticking with the filibuster. The future of passing the DADT language lies in the hands of Susan Collins (ME) and Scott Brown (MA). How scary is that? Both Collins and Brown voted for the exact Defense bill in Committee on May 27, 2010. Collins even voted for the DADT language. Collins is already giving bogus excuses about procedure to justify supporting the filibuster. Call your Senators about ending the filibuster, but especially if you live in Massachusetts (Brown) or Maine (Collins, but push Snowe, too). The Senate switchboard is: 202-224-3121. Next week is the test. Collins usually does what Mitch McConnell wants. We'll see if she's a real friend of the LGBT community on Tuesday.

Today marks the start of Yom Kippur. G'mar chatimah tovah.

And, what else? Read the rest of this post...

Egyptian state media caught in bad Photoshop incident

It's not as bad looking as the now famous BP command center Photoshop but it's not pretty either. Here is what the state run media ran, showing glorious leader front and center.


And back in the real world, here's what everyone else saw. Mubarak does seem to be a few steps slower than everyone else. Read the rest of this post...

Historian: Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years'

You have to wonder how anyone can have respect for Mao. Most assumed the number was high though forty-five million is much more than previously estimated. Many suffered from starvation thanks to Mao's systematic lying about food production. Everyone wanted to out perform the other so whether or not the numbers were there, they claimed to have certain quantities of rice.

Overstating numbers has been a regular feature in communist China (and some other neighboring countries) which has always made be reluctant to fully embrace the Chinese economic miracle story. Great yes, but how real? The Independent:

Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.

Mr Dik̦tter is the only author to have delved into the Chinese archives since they were reopened four years ago. He argued that this devastating period of history Рwhich has until now remained hidden Рhas international resonance. "It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust as one of the three greatest events of the 20th century.... It was like [the Cambodian communist dictator] Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over," he said.

Between 1958 and 1962, a war raged between the peasants and the state; it was a period when a third of all homes in China were destroyed to produce fertiliser and when the nation descended into famine and starvation, Mr Dikötter said.

Read the rest of this post...

PG&E; collected $5 million for pipeline repairs but never repaired the pipes

What they did do at the same time for around the same amount of money, was provide executive bonuses. Oh, and they are again asking for $5 million for those repairs. Now that four people are dead, it's no surprise that people are asking more questions and wondering about the corporate priorities. CNN:

The utility said it had identified the line section as a "high priority project" in the earlier transmission rate filing, but "rescheduled the project" after an updated assessment in 2009. But the company did not explain why it needed an additional $5 million and three years to complete repairs on a section it said in its most recent rate filing was in the top 100 risks for failure.

"Coupled with the consequences of failure of this section of pipeline, the likelihood of a failure makes the risk of a failure at this location unacceptably high," the company said in that filing.

TURN officials think they know where some of the money went -- in 2009, the year PG&E; didn't spend $5 million on fixing the pipeline, the company did spend $5 million on bonuses for six top executives.

Read the rest of this post...