Fox News and the repeal of the 20th century

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The age of austerity and GOP lies

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For those of you who either saw the Chris Christie 60 Minutes piece on Sunday or heard about it, this is an excellent follow up. The austerity that conservatives are promoting somehow only applies to the middle class and poor. If you are Wall Street, you get a free ride, again. Read the rest of this post...

DADT update

The signing ceremony for the DADT legislation took place this morning at the Interior Department. They had invited a lot of people, so the only building with a sufficiently big room was over at interior. Joe attended (I was invited, but had already left for Chicago for Christmas). Joe did some photo coverage here. Here is the President's speech at the event.

A lot of the media is talking about how today DADT was repealed. It wasn't. Today we gave the President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Secretary of Defense the ability to get rid of DADT if they so choose at some point in the future. So DADT won't be repealed until the President, along with DOD, decides to do just that. The legislation preserves that option, an option that wouldn't have existed legislatively once the Republicans take over the House. So this is a good thing. It's not, however, a repeal - yet. Read the rest of this post...

Key Republican calls for delay of financial reform implementation

Predictable. Did the public really vote for even less reform than the already watered down plan that they want to stop?

Implementation of the new U.S. financial reform law should be delayed for a year so regulators have more time to understand the impact of rules they are writing, a key House Republican said in an interview with Reuters.

Representative Randy Neugebauer of Texas, who will head the House Financial Services oversight subcommittee next year, said the "pause" would allow regulators to study whether a rule required by the law would do more harm than good.

"I think the first thing we need to do is hit the pause button here and extend these deadlines and get a picture of where we are," the Republican lawmaker said Tuesday.

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WikiLeaks: Halliburton complains of 'mafia' private security companies, says threat overstated in Iraq

You know it has to be bad when Halliburton is complaining about poor treatment. The Guardian:

John Naland, head of the provincial reconstruction team in Basra, wrote in January this year that several oil company representatives complained of "unwarranted high prices" given an improving security situation since 2008.

"Halliburton Iraq country manager decried a 'mafia' of these companies and their 'outrageous' prices, and said that they also exaggerate the security threat.

"Apart from the high costs for routine trips, he claimed that Halliburton often receives what he says are 'questionable' reports of vulnerability of employees to kidnapping and ransom. He said that he recently saw an internal memo from their security company which tasked its employees to emphasize the persistent danger faced by IOCs [international oil companies]." Naland wrote.

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The true scale of the bank bailout – it's not just TARP

Matt Taibbi, in a blog post praising Bernie Sanders to the detriment of Mr. Yes I Can (And You Can't Stop Me), has this to say in passing about the scale of the bank bailout.

This information came out as a result of Sen. Sanders persistence in inserting an "audit the Fed" provision into the Dodd-Frank regulatory bill. Here's Taibbi (my emphasis):

I was in Washington last week and visited Bernie in his office, mainly to talk about the incredible results of the Federal Reserve audit, about which I’ll be writing more in the upcoming weeks and after the New Year. The audit of the Fed was undertaken because Bernie and a few other members of congress fought very hard during the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform debate to force open Ben Bernanke’s books, and as a result we now know the staggering details of the secret bailout era. We know that Citigroup received $1.6 trillion in loans, and Morgan Stanley $2 trillion, and Goldman Sachs – the same Goldman Sachs that bragged about how quickly it paid back its $10 billion TARP bailout – over $600 billion. We know that hedge fund billionaires who moved their corporate addresses to the Cayman Islands to avoid U.S. taxes were rewarded by their buddies in government with huge Fed loans; we know that the U.S. government likewise has been extending massive loans to a variety of Japanese car companies at a time when many American auto workers in Detroit have seen their wages cut in half, to $14 an hour. There’s that and there’s more on the outrage front, and we know it all because Sanders kicked and screamed and stamped his feet about Fed secrecy until just enough other members of the Senate decided to go along with him.

Did you catch that? It's a ton of info.

Morgan Stanley — $2 trillion
Citigroup — $1.6 trillion
Goldman Sachs — more than one-half trillion (pikers)
Japanese automakers
Hyper-wealthy individuals

TARP is a drop in the bucket, and anyone who trumpets TARP repayments as meaningful is meaning to fool you.

These companies exist to hoover money into the pockets of the already wealthy. Obama just gave them tax cuts. Now he wants your Social Security. And it's Christmas.

The dots just connect themselves; they're not even pretending anymore.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Now cranky John McCain is objecting to a bill to help prevent suicides in the military

Maybe he was afraid that some of the suicides prevented might be gay ones. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday morning open thread

I'm back in Chicago. The flight with Sasha, my ten pound yorkie-bichon was slightly less traumatic this trip (I brought her on as carry-on). She actually was more relaxed this flight, as I gave her half a benadryl (after talking to the vet). It effectively knocked put her in a resting mindset that, in spite of the ongoing shakes and a bit of panting, was far better than the the previous few trips without the benadryl. Chicago is cold, and snowy, but I wouldn't have Christmas any other way. In the next few days the nieces and nephews and I should be getting together to make our annual Christmas cookies that we hang on the tree. Here's a mellow time at home.

And if you haven't already, send me your Christmas/Hannukah/Holiday photos, and I'll post them on the blog in the upper right hand corner. Just email them as is, or if you know how to edit, shrink them down to 300px width. And if you want, tell me a little about the photo (I may do a post with a few of them, in addition to posting them in the box at the top). Send them to photos AT americablog DOT com. And by sending me your photos, you're attesting to the fact that you have the rights to them, and that I have permission to post them. Thanks. Read the rest of this post...

Coburn trying to block 9/11 First Responders bill

The GOP really is a twisted bunch.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, citing cost concerns, is threatening to block a vote on legislation that would provide additional aid to those suffering from illnesses linked to the devastation in New York following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Oklahoma Republican said yesterday that he is trying to reach an agreement with the sponsors of the $6.2 billion measure that would allow it to proceed. He couldn’t say whether that would happen before lawmakers adjourn for the year.

“We’re working on it,” Coburn said. “It costs too much; it allows things to be covered that should never be covered, like sleep apnea; it pays way too much to health-care providers.”

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WikiLeaks: British government trained Bangladeshi paramilitary death squads

Who exactly were these UK troops training before? The Guardian:

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which has been held responsible for hundreds of extra-judicial killings in recent years and is said to routinely use torture, have received British training in "investigative interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement".

Details of the training were revealed in a number of cables, released by WikiLeaks, which address the counter-terrorism objectives of the US and UK governments in Bangladesh. One cable makes clear that the US would not offer any assistance other than human rights training to the RAB – and that it would be illegal under US law to do so – because its members commit gross human rights violations with impunity.

Since the RAB was established six years ago, it is estimated by some human rights activists to have been responsible for more than 1,000 extra-judicial killings, described euphemistically as "crossfire" deaths. In September last year the director general of the RAB said his men had killed 577 people in "crossfire". In March this year he updated the figure, saying they had killed 622 people.

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