America's new soup line: Health care

An offer of a free dental clinic had hundreds of Coloradoans waiting in the cold overnight in line. It's hard to see this and not think that we have a problem. Read the rest of this post...

SEC to force accountability on credit rating agencies

After watching the credit rating agencies fluff up ratings for trash (such as the infamous subprime loans that were bundled up and sold), it's good to see the SEC moving in this direction. Long overdue and smart but will this effort also be trounced by industry lobbyists the way Wall Street destroyed efforts for reform?

U.S. securities regulators are roughing out ideas that would make Moody's, Standard & Poor's and other credit raters more accountable to investors by potentially exposing the firms to greater legal liability.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to issue a general discussion paper on Thursday that questions whether credit rating agencies should be regulated as "experts" under securities law, and thus subject to a tougher liability standard.

Currently, the rating agencies are not considered experts. They have argued that they are exempt from these rules because they are only providing an opinion and are protected by free speech laws.

Riiigggghhhhhtttttt. Just an "opinion" that triggered billions of dollars of movement on Wall Street. Having a top rating was gold, yet in reality it was a trash pile. Read the rest of this post...

My take on the teabaggers: Very white, older and very, very angry

Today, as we all know, was Teabagger day in D.C. This morning, my running partner, Courtney and I did our long run along the Mall so we could check out the scene. We were among them.

Early on, the organizers had predicted millions would attend. Not even close. I was at the inauguration and saw what millions looked like. This was very far from it. Very far. The Washington Post reported there were "tens of thousands." Teabaggers have been tweeting a fake picture (of a sunny day and today wasn't sunny) apparently to claim they had a bigger crowd. Mike Stark has a video showing the size of the crowd, which really didn't extend too far down the Mall. In fact, the National Black Family Reunion took up most of the mall today. Yes, that event was taking place at the same time the teabaggers were protesting. (At 14 seconds into Mike Stark's video, you can see the white tents for the family reunion on the other side of a big patch of empty lawn.) Quite a juxtaposition.

I've been rooting around to find photo galleries of the protesters. Josh Nelson captured the essence of the event here. And, I did see that "Obamacare" hearse. Huffington Posthas an array of photos, as does Think Progress. My overall take: The teabaggers were a very white, very angry and older crowd. There were a smattering of confederate flags around. The only thing missing was the white robes and hoods. Let's just say, if one of them had a concession stand selling white robes and hoods, they'd have made a bundle.

I'd like to make a friendly suggestion to the teabaggers: Get a hobby, do some volunteer work, or better yet work out and get some exercise. These people needs lives. They were a stream of vitriol walking to the Capitol. Watching them, if you didn't know better, you'd think that somehow Obama was some kind of third world dictator. Here's a note to the teabaggers: We have these things in America called elections. Our side won. That's why Obama is in power. Your side lost. It's called democracy. My goodness, they are sore losers.

Meanwhile, the rest of D.C. and the country went on with our relatively non-angry lives. One does wonder just how many of those folks wandering around today are on Medicaid or some other government-sponsored disability program. This is going to sound bitchy (but it's true), this wasn't the healthiest looking group of people who were descending on the Capitol. Granted, I was doing a 15 mile run and was feeling like quite the athlete, but, wow.

After my run, I spent the afternoon at orientation for the English as a Second Language program where Carlos and I volunteer each week. Being a better teacher of English to immigrants seemed like a very productive use of my time when there were so many angry and bitter people wandering around my city. Read the rest of this post...

Excellent explanation of where the health care debate stands

From Robert Reich. It's not very long. But does an excellent job of explaining the various sides and issues in the debate. Read the rest of this post...

One year after fall of Lehman, few changes

Is it a failure for Obama or Congress? Probably some of both. Either way it's infuriating to see such little action after the collapse of Wall Street. Lobbyists took over the process and Washington has been all to willing to let industry control their future. As someone who voted for Obama, it's a constant disappointment to see such a lack of interest in a failure that has clobbered the retirement plans and jobs of everyone I know.

Another speech is planned for this week but without serious action based on ideas beyond the normal Geithner-Summers ideas, it's going to be very difficult to defend this administration. It's well past the time for speeches. People want to see action that shows someone in Washington appreciates the blood bath most Americans experienced during this downfall. The lack of change promoted by Obama is precisely what we would have had with a McCain administration. It's been a continuation of the Bush-Paulson plan and for me, that is not change.

One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the surprise is not how much has changed in the financial industry, but how little.

Backstopped by huge federal guarantees, the biggest banks have restructured only around the edges. Employment in the industry has fallen just 8 percent since last September. Only a handful of big hedge funds have closed. Pay is already returning to precrash levels, topped by the 30,000 employees of Goldman Sachs, who are on track to earn an average of $700,000 this year. Nor are major pay cuts likely, according to a report last week from J.P. Morgan Securities. Executives at most big banks have kept their jobs. Financial stocks have soared since their winter lows.

How's your $700,000 job going? How's your 401K looking? Does anyone know of any normal person who has recovered as well as Wall Street? Read the rest of this post...

Obama says premiums will no longer go up 25% a year under his plan

This is great news, if true. It also gives us, for the first time, a specific promise as to what our premiums will be like in the future. (And also something to hold him specifically accountable for).

In an excerpt released by "60 Minutes," Obama said: “I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn't work. You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, ‘You know what? This hasn't reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around.’ I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right.”

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'Bury Obamacare with Kennedy'

Sign seen today at conservative teabagger protest in Washington, DC. Via Ben Smith. Read the rest of this post...

Three more banks go down

No surprise but wow, 92 banks year to date.

Regulators closed one large bank in Illinois and two other smaller financial institutions on Friday, pushing the total number of failures this year to 92, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Customers of the banks, however, are protected. The FDIC, which has insured bank deposits since the Great Depression, covers each customer account up to $250,000.

In Illinois, 16 banks have failed so far this year, including Chicago-based Corus Bank, which was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday.

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Obama administration severs ties with ACORN in response to Glenn Beck's criticism

In lieu of Joe's open thread, I want to talk a little bit about something that happened late yesterday.

FOX's Glenn Beck, whose criticism got a top Obama aide fired this week, has also been agitating about ACORN and its involvement with the 2010 census. The Obama administration has just announced that it is severing its ties with ACORN, and they admitted that they made the move because of the conservative criticism.

The Census Bureau on Friday severed its ties with Acorn, a community organization that Republicans have accused of voter-registration fraud.

In splitting with Acorn, Mr. Groves sought to tamp down negative publicity that the partnership would taint the 2010 census.

Acorn, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is one of 80,000 groups of unpaid volunteers working with the bureau to raise awareness of the effort.

“It is clear that Acorn’s affiliation with the 2010 census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 census efforts,” Mr. Groves wrote.

I think it's dangerous to pander to people like Glenn Beck. Having said that, I personally believed that it was impossible for Van Jones to continue in his job after it was revealed that he had ties to the "9/11 truth" folks. Politically, that is indefensible, regardless of your personal views. And ACORN screwed up badly one too many times. But...

It's possible to defend each of the recent administration actions individually (e.g., severing ties with ACORN, getting rid of Van Jones, changing the immigration language in the health care bill to address Joe Wilson's concerns, even dropping the public option after conservatives angrily disrupt Democratic Townhall meetings (I don't defend dropping it, but I can imagine arguments made for dropping it (to save the bill, etc.)). Each action can be justified by the argument that by severing ties with ACORN, or getting rid of Van Jones, the administration has effectively stifled the criticism by nipping the problem in the bud, and thus removed a potential threat to their larger goals.

This is perhaps true - I say perhaps because I don't necessarily agree with each action. But, for arguments sake, let's say we do agree. The problem is that at some point, individual actions, in the aggregate, send a larger, and wrong, message. The ACORN action, on the heels of Van Jones and Joe Wilson (not to mention failing to follow through aggressively on campaign promises regarding the public option and gay rights, among other issues) - and then admitting that these actions were taken to appease some of the administration's most vocal conservative critics, does not assuage those critics. It inspires them to cause even more trouble.

It is not a negotiating tactic to give something for nothing. If you constantly give your opponent what he demands, and ask for nothing in return, he will demand even more in the future, and likely in a more aggressive manner. There is a very real danger that these actions, in the aggregate, are helping to revitalize a once disparate, and disillusioned, conservative base and Republican party. So that not only has the enemy been given more reason to attack, but the attacks will become more lethal as well.

This is why Joe and I have written much in the past several months of the administration's desire to assuage its conservative critics, while asking for little to nothing in return (e.g., giving the Republicans 40% of the stimulus bill in the form of ineffective tax cuts in order to win only 3 Republican votes, and then have the Republican party as a whole spend the next six months savaging Obama for passing the bill). The Republicans are in essence being told to keep up the fight and never negotiate, and eventually President Obama and the Democrats in Congress will cave to their demands, while asking nothing in return. It's not the message I would choose. And I think it's going to make it very difficult for the administration and Congress to get anything done in the future. Read the rest of this post...

Billy Preston - Nothing from nothing

I forgot about this song and loved stumbling upon it the other day. A few years before he died he performed with other legends following the death of George Harrison. As much as I love the original My Sweet Lord, I prefer Preston's version. Pity it's not possible to embed that one but here's the link. Read the rest of this post...

Putin planning 2012 return

As if he really went away the last time. The Guardian:

Vladimir Putin dropped the heaviest hint so far that he aims to return to his former post as president in 2012, a move that could see him still in the Kremlin in 2024 – aged 72. Speaking to a group of international scholars and journalists at his country residence, the Russian prime minister refused to quash rumours that he would return as president when Dmitry Medvedev finished his first term.

He said the process of deciding who would be president would follow the same pattern as in the run-up to the last election, when Putin effectively called all the shots and picked Medvedev as his successor. An election took place, but the result was a foregone conclusion.

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Life sentence for former Taiwan president and wife

That is quite a strict sentence and maybe something other countries should consider. In the US, we give medals to people are September 11 and pretend as though nothing happened with the worse financial meltdown in decades. It should come as no surprise to see a congressman heckling the president when nobody on either side can accept responsibility and act accordingly. Rewarding failure is a strategy that seems odd and unfortunately all too common in Washington. Somehow I don't think the rest of America sees such rewards in the same light as the inside-the-beltway crowd.

A Taiwan court imposed a life sentence on former President Chen Shui-bian after convicting him of corruption Friday, marking a watershed in the island's turbulent political history.

Chen's wife Wu Shu-chen was also convicted of corruption and received the same life sentence, said court spokesman Huang Chun-ming.

"Chen Shui-bian and Wu Shu-chen were sentenced to life in prison because Chen has done grave damage to the country, and Wu, because she was involved in corruption deals as the first lady," Huang said.

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Pigeon mail?

No matter how bad your ISP may be, they're hopefully still better than this. As much as I love South Africa, their phone and internet network is awful.

Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km (50 miles) from Unlimited IT's offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg.

Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds -- the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line.

SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with slow internet transmission times.

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Over 40,000 centenarians in Japan

Now that is impressive. Forget the Mediterranean diet and eat whatever they're eating. Pass the nattō and rice. I guess a bit of exercise couldn't hurt either.

The number of Japanese centenarians has doubled in the past six years to a record high of more than 40,000, with women dominating the list of those whose lives have spanned more than a century, the government said Friday.

Japan will have 40,399 people aged 100 or older this month, surpassing the previous record of 36,276 last year, the Health and Welfare Ministry said in an annual report marking a Sept. 21 national holiday honoring the elderly. More than 86 percent are women.

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