So what if Wall Street defers bonuses? They already have a scam for that too.

As always, the government is a step behind and Wall Street is scamming the system. That's what happens when you have a revolving door between Washington (including, of course, the Obama White House) and Wall Street. Nobody will ever do anything to damage their job prospects so Wall Street will always be able to game the system no matter what they do. It's a Wall Street government so big deal.

U.S. regulators will propose on Monday that executives at the largest financial institutions have half of their bonuses deferred for at least three years as part of efforts to curb excessive risk taking, according to two people familiar with proposal.

The proposal, to be unveiled at a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp board meeting, applies to top executives at financial companies with $50 billion or more in assets such as Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase & Co , Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley .

How much of the deferred pay an executive could receive would be tied to the performance of the company based on decisions made by the executive during the period covered.

Read the rest of this post...

Conservative Democratic Leadership Council folding

Good. Read the rest of this post...

All the Super Bowl ads

I could only get halfway through em. (And there's an annoying commercial that runs, non-stop, if you let the ad go to the very end - so stop it a second or two early - yes, the ads have ads.) Read the rest of this post...

Palin on Egypt. To call her words gibberish is to offend gibberish.

Palin on Egypt, from US News:

"We want to be able to trust those who are screaming for democracy there in Egypt, that it is a true sincere desire for freedoms," she told the Christian Broadcasting Network in her first public comments about the two-week-old crisis in Egypt.

"How do we verify what it is that we are being told, what it is that the American public are being fed via media, via the protestors, via the government there in Egypt in order for us to really have some sound information to make wise decisions on what our position is."

"We need to find out who was behind all of the turmoil and the revolt and the protests so that good decisions can be made in terms of who we will stand by and support," she said.

"Mubarak, he's gone, one way or the other you know, he is not going to be the leader of Egypt, that that's a given, so now the information needs to be gathered and understood as to who it will be that fills now the void in the government. Is it going to be the Muslim Brotherhood?

"We should not stand for that, or with that or by that," she said.

Perfect retort by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs:

"I read that answer several times, and I still really don't know what she's saying."

Don't worry, neither does she.

All jokes aside, this is the person most beloved by Republicans at the moment - their presidential frontrunner. She's a blithering idiot who's not only seriously uninformed, but can't even string together a proper English sentence. She's not presidential material. She might be qualified to be a local sportscaster in a small market, or a beauty queen, but as these ongoing interviews continue to show, that's all she's cut out for - mediocrity.

It's far past time the Republican party got over its fetish with stupid. Read the rest of this post...

Benihana suing blogger for mediocre restaurant review

This is outrageous. The review is hardly defamatory - in fact, it's downright mild. The guy simply wasn't impressed with his meal, nor was his friend, though some of the food was good, he writes. For Benihana to sue, based on this review, is beyond outrageous. Not that I'd ever go to a Benihana's (I'm no longer 16 and heading to prom), but still, if this is the attitude of the folks running this restaurant, they risk convincing a lot of people to take their business elsewhere.

You can read Benihana's complaint here, translated into English (from Arabic) by a good samaritan. Seriously not impressed. Read the rest of this post...

JP Morgan flip-flopping on student loan deferment program for active military

In yet another shockingly slimy move by JP Morgan Chase against the US military, they appear to have come to their senses after NBC News was alerted to the situation. For the millionth time, the banks (and businesses) do this because they can get away with it often enough. Anyone who talks about easing oversight and regulations on business (including Obama) is ignoring a steady stream of ripoffs like this. Business has had enough of a free ride, so how about doing something to help the middle class who gets continue to pay the price for wars and recessions. The problem now seems to have been fixed, but it should never have had to come to this in the first place.

Chase’s decision to end the voluntary program came to light when the bank was contacted by the wife of a soldier serving in Afghanistan, and she was told the bank decided in December to stop allowing active-duty troops to delay paying their student loans.

"They informed me that they are no longer deferring private student loans for active duty military personnel," said Kerri Napoli, whose husband, Army Pfc. Andrew Napoli, is now serving near Kandahar.

"The first words out of my mouth were, 'How could you do that during a war?'" said Kerri Napoli.

Read the rest of this post...

Delta joins the crowd with 'premium economy' on international flights

I may be a bit close to my money (a.k.a frugal) but this is still not a cheap option. It wasn't that long ago that passengers had a reasonable amount of leg room while flying as opposed to the knees in the chair space that exists today. I'm a pretty typical height (6') and find it very uncomfortable on the longer flights. The airlines continue to nickle and dime customers while still delivering generally bad service. Delta has to be either at or near the bottom of the barrel in terms of service though in general, airlines in the US are really bad. When you look at the prices, it's even worse.

Who wants to pay so much more and still be flying on Delta?

Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s second-largest carrier, said it will add premium economy seats with more legroom on its longest international flights as it seeks new sources of revenue beyond basic airfares.

The so-called economy comfort seats will have as much as four additional inches of legroom and recline 50 percent more than those in standard economy, the Atlanta-based company said today in a statement. The seats cost $80 to $160 each way in addition to the cost of the coach-class tickets.

Delta joins United Airlines in offering economy seats with extra space as carriers hunt for new revenue amid rising jet- fuel costs. United Airlines and Continental Airlines merged in October to create United Continental Holdings Inc., surpassing Delta as the world’s biggest carrier.

If the airlines really want to talk about increasing jet fuel prices, why didn't they lower fees when the prices went down? That's about the time they started slapping new fees on customers.

NOTE FROM JOHN: If you really want a more comfortable international flight, avoid US carriers like the plague. I've never been as badly treated, with as poor quality of food (and during a 9 hour flight, it actually does matter if the food is gross), as I have on US carriers abroad. It's almost as if US carriers (on international flights at least) think they're doing you a favor by letting you fly on their planes. On the contrary, I've always been treated well by Air France (and the one time I wasn't I got on the phone and the 800 number people fixed the problem immediately), and I recently flew a wonderful flight to Europe on Air Canada - probably the most fun-loving flight attendants I've been with on any international journey (and you get to practice your Quebecois at the Montreal airport, and buy maple butter!) Read the rest of this post...

Frank Rich: News-starved American have 'no idea' what's going on in Egypt

Frank Rich makes twin points about U.S. coverage of the Egyptian revolution: (1) that we think it's all about the Tweets; and (2) that we're routinely starved of actual information about the real Arab world.

The talking-head invocations of Twitter and Facebook instead take the form of implicit, simplistic Western chauvinism. How fabulous that two great American digital innovations can rescue the downtrodden, unwashed masses. That is indeed impressive if no one points out that, even in the case of the young and relatively wired populace of Egypt, only some 20 percent of those masses have Internet access.

That we often don’t know as much about the people in these countries as we do about their Tweets is a testament to the cutbacks in foreign coverage at many news organizations — and perhaps also to our own desire to escape a war zone that has for so long sapped American energy, resources and patience. We see the Middle East on television only when it flares up and then generally in medium or long shot. But there actually is an English-language cable channel — Al Jazeera English — that blankets the region with bureaus and that could have been illuminating Arab life and politics for American audiences since 2006, when it was established as an editorially separate sister channel to its Qatar-based namesake.

Al Jazeera English, run by a 35-year veteran of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, is routinely available in Israel and Canada.

About his second point, that we're information-starved, he adds:

Unable to watch Al Jazeera English, and ravenous for comprehensive and sophisticated 24/7 television coverage of the Middle East otherwise unavailable on television, millions of Americans last week tracked down the network’s Internet stream on their computers. Such was the work-around required by the censorship practiced by America’s corporate gatekeepers. You’d almost think these news-starved Americans were Iron Curtain citizens clandestinely trying to pull in the jammed Voice of America signal in the 1950s[.]

His closing is poignant — recalling the invasion of Iraq, he notes, then as now, "in truth we really had no idea what was going on."

GP Read the rest of this post...

Krugman on drought, food and global warming

The Professor looks at the recent run-up in food prices and and the various explanations — it's the speculators, it's the general commodity boom, it's the Federal Reserve (seriously, that's the right-wing meme du jour) — and comes to an unshakable conclusion. It's the planet.

We’re in the midst of a global food crisis — the second in three years. World food prices hit a record in January, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. These soaring prices have had only a modest effect on U.S. inflation, which is still low by historical standards, but they’re having a brutal impact on the world’s poor, who spend much if not most of their income on basic foodstuffs.

The consequences of this food crisis go far beyond economics. After all, the big question about uprisings against corrupt and oppressive regimes in the Middle East isn’t so much why they’re happening as why they’re happening now. And there’s little question that sky-high food prices have been an important trigger for popular rage.

So what’s behind the price spike? ... But the evidence tells a different, much more ominous story. While several factors have contributed to soaring food prices, what really stands out is the extent to which severe weather events have disrupted agricultural production. And these severe weather events are exactly the kind of thing we’d expect to see as rising concentrations of greenhouse gases change our climate — which means that the current food price surge may be just the beginning.

But while that's the headline, the way he gets there is important. Since all those other "it's the ..." arguments do have a case (except for "it's the Fed"). The questions are, What role does each play, and why is that role not the decider?

I'll let you read the rest to get the evidence; his argument is strong. Yes, there's a commodity boom, but food prices are late-surging, as this related blog post shows. Associated bad-harvest data is detailed here. And here he deals with the speculation argument; the signature of a speculation-driven market is lacking. Unlike say, copper, food stocks are currently low and falling. After all, futures contracts don't themselves change physical inventories.

The Professor's argument seems definitive, though the (well paid) deniers will scream:

The usual suspects will, of course, go wild over suggestions that global warming has something to do with the food crisis; those who insist that Ben Bernanke has blood on his hands tend to be more or less the same people who insist that the scientific consensus on climate reflects a vast leftist conspiracy.

But the evidence does, in fact, suggest that what we’re getting now is a first taste of the disruption, economic and political, that we’ll face in a warming world. And given our failure to act on greenhouse gases, there will be much more, and much worse, to come.

Let me add that by "worse to come" he's got his opening in mind — the relationship between the brutal impact of sky-high food prices on the poor, and uprisings.

Well done, Professor. It may (or may not) be too late to turn the ship, but the guys who kept us on course for collision are still around. Time to address them directly?

GP Read the rest of this post...

GWBush cancels trip to Switzerland over fears of being arrested for torture

Those pesky war crimes.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush has cancelled a visit to Switzerland over fears he could have been arrested on torture charges.
Mr Bush was due to be the keynote speaker at a Jewish charity gala in Geneva on February 12.
But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the country.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP continues its war against rape victims

These people are sick. Instead of the right wing extremists getting themselves worked up about the Muslim Brotherhood, they ought to be looking at their own Taliban-like extremists.

Georgia Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin (of gold-standard-wannabe fame) has introduced a bill to change the state’s criminal codes so that in “criminal law and criminal procedure” (read: in court), victims of rape, stalking, and family violence could only be referred to as “accusers” until the defendant has been convicted.

Burglary victims are still victims. Assault victims are still victims. Fraud victims are still victims. But if you have the misfortune to suffer a rape, or if you are beaten by a domestic partner, or if you are stalked, Rep. Franklin doesn’t think you’ve been victimized. He says you’re an accuser until the courts have determined otherwise.

To diminish a victim’s ordeal by branding him/her an accuser essentially questions whether the crime committed against the victim is a crime at all. Robbery, assault, and fraud are all real crimes with real victims, the Republican asserts with this bill.

Read the rest of this post...

A portrait of the Egyptian military

This is a background piece, the first of two. This one attempts to profile the Egyptian military. The next will profile the various police forces. [UPDATE: The discussion of Egyptian police factions is here.]

It's generally agreed that the Egyptian military hold the deciding hand in the drama being played out there. But who are the Egyptian military? Answer: They are not monolithic, and they are involved in more enterprises than you think they are.

Barry Lando, a former producer with 60 Minutes and author of "Web of Deceit: A History of Western Complicity in Iraq", offers the following observations (h/t MG1).

First, some context for the role the military plays (my emphasis throughout):

In attempting to convince Mubarak to leave the scene, Washington obviously wants to temper any further radicalization on the streets of Egypt and, above all, to ensure that the Egyptian Army remains unscathed. That would enable the generals to remain the power behind the scenes in the coming weeks and months—ready to step in, if necessary, to veto any attempt by Islamic fundamentalists to come to power—even by free and open elections.

But determining what the Egyptian Army will ultimately do requires weighing a host of factors.

The announcement, for instance, that the Egyptian Army would refuse to take up arms against the people played perfectly into Washington’s game plan. It undercut Mubarak and prevented him from attempting a bloody showdown that could have been disastrous. In fact, the Egyptian military made that same announcement in 1977 when they were called in to quell riots after President Sadat announced cuts in basic food subsidies. The Army refused to intervene unless the subsidies were reestablished. Sadat restored the subsidies.

Then Lando characterizes the military itself:

Of course, the Army is not monolithic. Its lower ranks are very much of the people: filled with hundreds of thousands of conscripts, drawn from the most humble ranks of society. The army has traditionally been the most important means of socializing and educating the lower classes, in theory, inculcating them with a sense of pride and patriotism. Indeed the 1971 Constitution says that the Egyptian Army shall “belong to the people” … The top ranks of the army, however, have other concerns—beginning with personal survival.  They certainly will never forget the lurid spectacle of Iranian generals being publicly executed in the aftermath of Khomeini’s revolution in Iran. Iran also demonstrated that a radical revolution also means a radically transformed military. (Egypt’s generals have a constant reminder of that lesson nearby:  The Shah is buried in a Cairo mosque.) ... [T]he top ranks of the Egyptian army have also enjoyed a pampered existence, in sprawling developments such as Cairo’s Nasr City.

The author details other aspects of the Egyptian military, including how incredibly wealthy they are as an institution — for example, they preside "over a sprawling network of 16 factories across the country, employing tens of thousands of Egyptians". And also how incredibly (and predictably) corrupt they are.

However this corruption, and corruptibility, should be seen as nuanced. As we noted earlier, Jadaliyya's Paul Amar writes about the military:

They are attracted to foreign investment; but their loyalties are economically and symbolically embedded in national territory. As we can see when examining any other case in the region (Pakistan, Iraq, the Gulf), US military-aid money does not buy loyalty to America; it just buys resentment. In recent years, the Egyptian military has felt collectively a growing sense of national duty, and has developed a sense of embittered shame for what it considers its “neutered masculinity:” its sense that it was not standing up for the nation’s people. The nationalistic Armed Forces want to restore their honor and they are disgusted by police corruption and baltagiya brutality [baltagiya are organized street gangs allied with police, as we'll show later]. And it seems that the military, now as “national capitalists,” have seen themselves as the blood rivals of the neoliberal “crony capitalists” associated with Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal who have privatized anything they can get their hands on and sold the country’s assets off to China, the US, and Persian Gulf capital.

The Egyptian military has a lot at stake. And like the other entrenched elements of the Egyptian ruling elite, they need to get it right (for themselves).

So who's at work here; who are the national players? As near as I can figure, we have:

• The neo-liberal privatizers and thieves, led by Mubarak and his son Gamal, including members of the ruling NDP party and many wealth business types. This appears to be the top of the food chain.
• The various police factions, many (but not all) allied with Mubarak and against "the people"
• The military's lower ranks, very much aligned with popular concerns
• The military's upper ranks, as corrupt as the police but not allied with them, and who often see themselves as arbiters of order during national turmoil
• The Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist political party, whose support is hard to measure since they have been long supressed by Mubarak
• Other political parties and entities, including Mohamed Elbaradei. (For my money, watch Elbaradei.)
• The people themselves, who long to be free of Mubarak, and who see themselves poised between Europe and the greater Arab world (the main part of Cairo is often filled with a mix of Europeans and Arabs)
• Israel, universally hated at all levels, as near as I could tell
• And the U.S. government, staunch supporters of Israel (with all that that entails), and bringers of dough to buyable parties

Have I missed anyone? The DJ? The guy who brings sweet tea?

It's not hard to keep straight though. I would hold three orthogonal axes in mind — pro- vs. anti-Israel; pro- vs. anti-freedom; and the varying degrees of eagerness by which elements are corruptible by money. Then realize that each axis is in play for each group, and there you have it — Egypt today.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Ten months later, BP oil spill health concerns continue

This is an unsettling news report about the health issues that many believe are linked to the BP oil spill and oil dispersant. Watching this, I remembered one of the more despicable Limbaugh moments when he claimed that the oil was "as natural as the ocean water is." Read the rest of this post...

Al Jazeera journalist freed as protesters organize for 14th day in Tahrir Square

The protesters are obviously not going anywhere yet. At the same time, life in Egypt is starting to get back to normal as drivers are getting back on the roads and some businesses reopening. Al Jazeera:

Ayman Mohyeldin, an Al Jazeera correspondent who was detained while covering the unrest in Egypt, has been released.

He was seized by the Egyptian military near Tahrir Square in Cairo on Sunday, but was freed nine hours later following a concerted appeal by the network and supporters of Mohyeldin.

There had been many calls on Twitter for the release of Mohyeldin, who has more than 20,000 followers on his page.

Dozens of journalists have been detained, injured and threated while covering events in Egypt, where hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets calling for an end to the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, the president.

Read the rest of this post...

Skirmish on Thai-Cambodian border

About the last thing either country should be wasting its money on is this. It's especially tragic when there's a World Heritage Site in the vicinity. The UN needs to step in and send forces to keep the peace. The Guardian:

Cambodia called for U.N. peacekeepers to help end the fighting along its tense border with Thailand, where artillery fire echoed for a fourth day Monday near an 11th century temple classified as a World Heritage Site.

The crumbling stone temple, several hundred feet (meters) from Thailand's eastern border with Cambodia, has fueled nationalism on both sides of the disputed frontier for decades and conflict over it has sparked sporadic, brief battles in recent years. However, sustained fighting has been rare.

A one-hour clash Monday morning stopped after both sides agreed to an unofficial cease-fire. Fighting has erupted daily since Friday, leaving at least five dead.

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AOL to buy Huffington Post for $315m

From Huff Post.

As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post's co-founder and editor-in-chief, will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.

AOL has agreed to purchase The Huffington Post for $315 million, approximately $300 million of which will be paid in cash funded from cash on hand. The Huffington Post is privately owned by its two cofounders, as well as a group of investors. The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of government approvals. The boards of directors of each company and shareholders of The Huffington Post have approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the late first- or early second-quarter 2011.

More from the NYT. Read the rest of this post...