Freshman GOPer thinks it's 1981 and the USSR and Ronald Reagan are still alive

Politico:

Freshmen GOP lawmakers continued their protest of Harry Reid on the Senate steps Friday, attempting to put pressure on the Senate to pass a continuing resolution that cuts spending for the rest of the year, a strategy endorsed by Speaker of the House John Boehner.

The pressure campaign coincides with a standoff between Senate Democrats who say an agreement on a budget-cut target of about $30 billion has been reached with Boehner, and Boehner who says there’s no deal.

Two Republican upperclassmen joined the handful of freshmen at the protest, Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana, and Paul Broun of Georgia.

Broun said that he believed “Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama orchestrated and planned to shut down the federal government” in order to “be reelected and put back in power, and enact their socialistic big government policy that you’ve seen through the first two years of the Obama administration.” Broun then said he wouldn’t vote for anything less than 61 billion in spending cuts.

He's from Georgia. Now there's a surprise. Read the rest of this post...

Video: A dog is seriously happy his owner is back from Afghanistan

(H/t HuffPost Hill) Read the rest of this post...

Japanese radiation popping up in milk in WA and CA

They say it's safe. Still, eww. Read the rest of this post...

Ambinder says we should love Jim Messina

Marc Ambinder, who seems to be the administration's go-to guy when they need to get their message telegraphed without much filtering, penned a column today in defense of former White House deputy chief of staff, and new Obama re-election campaign director, Jim Messina. The story came in response to a less-than-glowing story on Messina in the Nation earlier this week.

One point in the Ambinder's piece that stuck in my craw is the following:

I have elsewhere written about Don't Ask, Don't Tell: no need to repeat it. Ask even critics of Messina what they think of his role in the battle, and they give him props. (emphasis added)

I can't think of a single critic of Messina who would give him props for his role in the DADT battle. And even the gay groups, who aren't really "critics," as most are afraid to be critics, are likely silent on Messina's role, other than HRC, but their brown-nosing to a Democrat is a given. So who are these critics of Messina who are now praising him for his botched handling of DADT? Read the rest of this post...

Bachmann outfundraisers Romney

Ouch! Via AMERICAblog Elections:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) raised $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2011, even more than Mitt Romney who raised $1.9 million over the same period, Fox News reports.

Nothing says money like crazy. Read the rest of this post...

Did the White House appoint top Bush-era Gitmo and Abu Ghraib psychologist to a WH task force?

This started out as a story about a White House task force appointment, the source being this article by Glenn Greenwald from last Friday. Greenwald begins (my emphasis throughout):

One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush's worldwide torture regime. Numerous health professionals worked for the U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and break down detainees. At the center of that controversy was -- and is -- Dr. Larry James. James, a retired Army colonel, was the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib during 2004.

Today, Dr. James circulated an excited email announcing, "with great pride," that he has now been selected to serve on the "White House Task Force entitled Enhancing the Psychological Well-Being of The Military Family." In his new position, he will be meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama and other White House officials on Tuesday [March 29].

For his work at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Dr. James was the subject of two formal ethics complaints in the two states where he is licensed to practice: Louisiana and Ohio. ... The complaints detailed how James "was the senior psychologist of the Guantánamo BSCT, a small but influential group of mental health professionalsu whose job it was to advise on and participate in the interrogations, and to help create an environment designed to break down prisoners."

But that was so last weekend. Note that the ultimate source of this news is Dr. James himself, via an email he sent to colleagues that was obtained by the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program.

When contacted for confirmation, however, the White House, through the First Lady's communication's director Kristina Schake, said one of two things. She either said this (via Greenwald's update to his original post):

Several members of the White House staff are convening a meeting with multiple mental health professionals on Tuesday to discuss issues pertaining to the wellness of military families. SAMHSA and the American Psychological Association have both been asked to attend. We understand that Dr. James is involved with these groups and may have been indirectly invited to attend this meeting.

Or perhaps she said this (via a google-cached version of an apparently deleted Truthout post):

Kristina Schake, Michelle Obama's communication's director, told Truthout that there is no official task force to address the psychological well being of military families.

No one else is talking, not Dr. James, not the White House, as near as I could tell.

So which is it? Did Dr. Larry "Gitmo psychologist" James, the Dean of the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University, announce his appointment to a non-existent White House task force?

Did he lie about his appointment to an existing one?

Or did the White House disappear (sorry, render out of existence) the task force after Greenwald wrote about it?

Perhaps the key is in that weasel-sounding word "official" in the cached quote above. It is a puzzlement, to be sure. I find no reference to a Tuesday meeting having occurred, much less to Dr. James' involvement in it.

What is certain is that there's a scandal in the psychology profession that's under most people's radars. That scandal involves the American Psychological Association (APA) and its agonizing slowness to condemn, and reluctance to discipline, its members for participating in Bush-era torture and torture-design. This is in addition to the scandal involving the Obama administration's failure to move against any torture-policy architect.

The fight within the psychology profession is ongoing, and this week's skirmish is just a part of it. There's more after the break. It's ugly.

GP

For just a taste of the APA's history on Bush-era torture:

When in 2005 news reports exposed the fact that psychologists were working with the US military and the CIA to develop brutal interrogation methods, American Psychological Association (APA) leaders assembled a task force to examine the issue. After just two days of deliberations, the ten-member task force concluded that psychologists were playing a “valuable and ethical role” in assisting the military.

And again, in 2007 (same source):

At the annual APA convention in August 2007, members presented the APA Council of Representatives with a moratorium amendment to the APA resolution[.] ... The Council voted overwhelmingly to reject this measure that would have banned its members from participating in abusive interrogation of detainees.

As late as 2010:

Dr. Jim L. H. Cox filed a formal ethics complaint against [Dr. James] Mitchell in the state of Texas, where Mitchell remains a licensed psychologist. The American Psychological Association sent a letter to the Texas State Board of Psychologists calling the allegations in the complaint "represent 'patently unethical' actions inconsistent with the organization's ethics guidelines.", If "a member of the APA were found to have committed the acts alleged against Mitchell, 'he or she would be expelled from the APA membership,'" The letter is the first of its kind issued in the board's history. ... The Board of Examiners of Psychologists dismissed the complaint against Mitchell February 10, 2011, saying there wasn't enough evidence to prove Mitchell violated its rules. This was described as one of several recent cases where such complaints about post-9/11 ethical violations were dismissed for lack of proof.

Dr. Mitchell was identified by the New York Times as "the architect of the U.S. torture program after 9/11". People like Dr. Mitchell, Dr. James, and others used their medical knowledge to deepen the suffering of the victims at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. That's the very definition of violating the Hippocratic Oath. Imagine the AMA refusing to de-certify someone like Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz torturer. It's that serious.

Which brings us back to Obama and Dr. Larry James. Glenn's post is rich in detail about Dr. James and he bottom-lines the issue well. If that task force exists in any form, and if Dr. James was invited, the following is certainly true:

This isn't exactly a powerful Task Force, but what this appointment does is have the White House -- yet again -- signal that it does not really take very seriously the Bush torture regime. On appearance grounds alone, the Obama administration should not be embracing and legitimizing the Bush-era Chief Psychologist of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Is there really nobody in the White House who was able to come to that realization on their own, or is this part of some twisted "reaching out" effort to show that they view bygones as bygones when it comes to the war crimes our leaders committed and whom the Obama administration continues to protect?

If more comes out about this, I'll report back. As I said, this is truly ugly. Read the rest of this post...

CEO pay soars while worker pay stalls

That clever headline comes from USA Today, and the underlying data is as bad as you think it is (my emphasis):

At a time most employees can barely remember their last substantial raise, median CEO pay jumped 27% in 2010 as the executives’ compensation started working its way back to prerecession levels, a USA TODAY analysis of data from GovernanceMetrics International found. Workers in private industry, meanwhile, saw their compensation grow just 2.1% in the 12 months ended December 2010, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Two years of scaling back amid tough economic times proved temporary as three-quarters of CEOs got raises in 2010 — and, in many cases, the increases were substantial.

I've said before (along with many others) that stockholders no longer own companies — that's a myth held over from your daddy's generation.

The CEO class runs companies for their own financial benefit. The fact that something of value is created is just a by-product, a means to an end. The real goal is just the skim. Proof? From the same article:

The sizable pay hikes came even though the economy’s recovery remains frail, unemployment is high and corporate profits last year were roughly flat, up 1.5%, from where they were in 2007 when the stock market peaked.

CEOs, VPs and the like exist to rake corporate cash into their pockets. Corporations exist to provide that cash, and as the above quote shows, every aspect of corporate control — including the supposed requirement to generate profits — is twisted to that purpose.

Blue Texan calls them our "Galtian overlords". Me, I think "Your Highness" will do just fine.

This, by the way, is why God created the 90% top marginal tax rate. The phrase "your highness" is offensive in a democracy.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Slight drop in unemployment to 8.8%

Small, but something.

The U.S. unemployment rate dipped slightly to a two-year low of 8.8 percent with the addition of 216,000 new jobs last month, according to Labor Department statistics released this morning.

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Creepy cool Google app will identify faces of people you snap photos of

The service is already available in Picassa, but only for people you identify first by name, it will then try to find other photos on your hard drive of the same person (it's pretty cool). In this case, the app would let you snap a photo of someone on your phone and instantly find out who they are. But, there's a catch, only people who opt-in to be identified can be identified. And that's a good thing. Otherwise this would be a great way to stalk someone.

I love the idea. Can you imagine snapping pics of cute guys and women in bars? But the potential for abuse is pretty strong - how about you snap a picture of an anonymous profile on a dating site and find out that woman's REAL name? Lots of potential for abuse. But I recall reading before that other companies are working on the same technology and I doubt they'll be as responsible as Google. So it's only a matter of time before something, somewhere, goes horribly wrong. Read the rest of this post...

Poor John Boehner, we simply must cut more Democratic programs to help him out

From Greg Sargent:

Conservatives are already balking at the $33 billion number, saying it isn’t enough. So Boehner needs to be able to win enough concessions on what to cut and on riders to be able to persuade Republicans that the overall package is a victory even if they’re not fully satisfied by the baseline cut number. Until he gets those concessions, there’s no reason for him to publicly agree to the overall cut total. Bottom line: The $33 billion does look like the basis for a compromise, but there’s no deal until there’s a deal on everything.

Eh gads.

Here's a concession. Dems came to the table to discuss cuts at all. And Dems agreed to cut $33bn when they know it's not necessary, and downright dangerous to the economy, to cut anything this year. Why must we always begin and end every negotiation by giving the GOP one mor big thing? Why - because they're willing to "hold the country hostage" as Obama family said in December, when agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts. And Democrats must do everything they can to convince the hostage taker that he's won, lest he kill again. And kill again is exactly what Democrats' weak and ineffectual actions guarantee.

I'd seriously love to buy a house off one of these guys. Read the rest of this post...

Federal Reserve lent money to Gaddafi's bank during economic crisis

Good grief. Bernie Sanders is spot on with his criticism of Fed policy. How is it that small, credit-worthy businesses in the US were left out in the cold but the Fed could lend billions to the likes of Bank Gaddafi? It's no wonder the Fed wanted to hide details of their lending. If the US is going to save ultra-rich bankers and dictators, why not the American middle class?

Arab Banking Corp., the lender part- owned by the Central Bank of Libya, used a New York branch to get 73 loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.

The bank, then 29 percent-owned by the Libyan state, had aggregate borrowings in that period of $35 billion -- while the largest single loan amount outstanding was $1.2 billion in July 2009, according to Fed data released yesterday. In October 2008, when lending to financial institutions by the central bank’s so- called discount window peaked at $111 billion, Arab Banking took repeated loans totaling more than $2 billion.

Read the rest of this post...

Another bailout for Ireland's banks

Each citizen of Ireland now owes a debt of €17,000 to save the banks. Problems like this could easily happen in a number of other countries. This really shows yet again why the industry needs to be regulated and watched. If left on their own they will line their pockets and stick everyone else with the bill. Bankers of mass wealth destruction.

Europe's debt crisis deepened on Thursday night as Ireland was forced into another €24bn (£21bn) rescue of its banking system and jittery financial markets pushed Portugal closer to a bailout.

In a furious attack on the previous government, the Irish finance minister Michael Noonan said the country had been left with "an appalling legacy: a legacy of debt, of unemployment, of emigration, of falling living standards and of low morale" as a result of the banking crisis.

After stress tests to assess the vulnerability of the banks to a drastic worsening of the economy, Noonan announced that the government would take a majority stake in all the major lenders. These are to be radically reduced in size and focused on just two players.

Read the rest of this post...

Gbagbo's time may be up in Ivory Coast

Why couldn't he have accepted the election results and moved on instead of triggering the war? He is reportedly negotiating an exit though so far, nothing has been confirmed.

Ivory Coast's president, Laurent Gbagbo, faces being overthrown after his top general deserted him and rebel forces advanced into Abidjan, his seat of power.

Heavy weapons and machine gun fire were heard in the centre of Ivory Coast's main city. French troops were deployed as the four-month political crisis appeared to near its endgame, with the opposition claiming Gbagbo had only hours left in power.

Read the rest of this post...

India now 17% of world population

The population of India has been large for a while, but this is still a large jump over the last decade. The Guardian:

The first results from India's latest census – the second biggest in the world – were released on Thursday, revealing that the country has added 181 million new citizens in the last decade, making it home to 17% of the world's population.

China remains the most populous country on the planet, with 1.34 billion, but India is closing the gap with 1.21 billion. The additional Indians found by the census are roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world. One Indian state alone – Uttar Pradesh – now has a population of 199,500,000 people, just under that of Britain, France and Germany combined.

However C Chandramouli, the census commissioner, told reporters in Delhi that the new count showed population growth in India had slowed. The 17.6% increase was down from 21.5% recorded in 2001.

Read the rest of this post...