Study shows link between night shift and health risks

The disruptions to sleep patterns makes sense but I wouldn't have guessed the end results could be so serious. The Guardian:

In the latest study, from the Danish Cancer Society's institute of epidemiology, those who had worked nights at least three times a week for at least six years were more than twice as likely to have the disease as those who had not. But there was "a neutral link" for those who worked only one or two night shifts per week.

The study also challenged a hypothesis that less exposure to the sun and vitamin D might be a risk factor for those women who worked night shifts. The researchers found that in fact night workers tended to sunbathe more than those who worked during the day.

Night work can not only disrupt body clocks and result in sleep deprivation, however. It has been argued that it also suppresses production of the hormone melatonin and other metabolic and physiological processes that may increase the growth of tumours.

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Bailed out Bank of America moves jobs out of America

Classy bunch, as always. Between the bailouts that were more about bailing out banker lifestyles than saving the banks and now this, there's very reason to do any banking with these mega banks. Their service has never been known to be good for the 99% and now they think so little about their retail customers that they're handing over sensitive customer data to the Philippines.

Besides habit and the hassle of changing, there's no good reason to stick with any of these big banks. More on the latest slap in the face to America by Bank of America at Mother Jones:

Roman Romulo, deputy majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, bragged to the Manila Standard Today earlier this month that the Philippines "has secured its place as the world's fastest-growing outsourcing hub." Romulo pointed out that BofA is the last of the "big four" US banks to move their business-support network to his island nation, where the average family makes $4,700 a year.

A spokesman for Bank of America, Mark Pipitone, was unable to provide additional information about the bank's offshoring plans on Friday. "We have employees and operations where we can ensure that we best serve our customers and clients," he told me in an email.

The bank's outsourcing comes amid rising concerns about the security of customers' financial data in the hands of foreign contractors. In March, undercover reporters for England's Sunday Times met in India with "IT consultants" who claimed they were call center workers and offered to sell them credit card and medical information for 500,000 Britons—including account holders at major banks such as HSBC.

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CEO of failed Spanish bank to walk away with over $17 million

Bankers being bankers. Any government led bailout has to include terms for canceling luxurious pay plans like this. The bank in question, Bankia, is eagerly waiting for a massive bailout to stay afloat after only one year in operation.

Unemployment in Spain is over 23% with youth unemployment running over 50% and their economic situation is nowhere near stabilizing. The banks are on life support now and there is at least a decade of surplus housing on the market, plus years of bad loans that still need to be cleaned up.

There is absolutely no way Spain can or should provide any retirement for the CEO who led the bank into the ground so quickly. It would be immoral and a slap in the face to the million of unemployed to tolerate such gross mismanagement. Read the rest of this post...

Top 5 most dangerous states for driving

Despite the bad reputation, Massachusetts is the safest state in the union. Seat belt laws and other personal safety regulations are absent in the most dangerous states. If a state has any value for human life (as conservatives like to believe), why would the state not take actions that are known to work to reduce road deaths?

The most dangerous states?
1) Mississippi
2) Montana
3) Alabama
4) Wyoming
5) Arkansas

Why would any state not take safety regulations more seriously when we know that they work?

The Trust for America’s Health report also identified four key policies labeled by the CDC as useful in improving traffic safety. The four include having a primary seat belt law (which allows police to stop and ticket unbuckled drivers without any other cause), a mandatory ignition interlock for all convicted drunken drivers, a mandatory motorcycle helmet law and requiring booster seats for children 8 years old and younger.

Despite the massive financial burden auto accidents place on states each year, it appears many still fail to enact the kinds of basic safety laws that are believed to be instrumental in reducing auto accident deaths. In fact, it appears that the states with the highest rates of auto fatalities lack some of those key policies. Of the 15 states with one or none of these policies in place, seven were among those with the highest fatality rates.

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Pacific tuna carried radioactivity from Japan to US coast

There were plenty of reports of higher than usual levels of radiation in fruits, vegetables and milk in California last year but this is something much different. While I wouldn't want to go out of my way to eat California produce for a while, eating a Pacific tuna sounds much less appealing for the time being.

Officials says that despite the radiation level being 10 times the normal level, they're still safe to eat, but for me I would not want to take that risk when there are enough other choices out there. In theory (according to scientists) the tuna shed the dangerous radiation over time though I would still err on the side of caution until the levels have settled.

The ocean food chain in action.

Across the vast Pacific, the mighty bluefin tuna carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan's crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States 6,000 miles away — the first time a huge migrating fish has been shown to carry radioactivity such a distance.

"We were frankly kind of startled," said Nicholas Fisher, one of the researchers reporting the findings online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The levels of radioactive cesium were 10 times higher than the amount measured in tuna off the California coast in previous years. But even so, that's still far below safe-to-eat limits set by the U.S. and Japanese governments.

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Romney - who fought Vietnam in a palace in France - warms of shrinking military budget

Like most Vietnam Vets, Mitt Romney
spent the war in a palace in Paris.

Oh please, Mitt. As if it's not amusing enough that Romney replaced his military service during the Vietnam war with a few years living in the posh and flashy 16th arrondissement. (It's the new money, flashy part of Paris on the western edge of town.) Somehow service in the neighborhood of nannies and sports cars has made Romney certain that what the already bloated Pentagon needs is more money. Uh huh.

Maybe Romney math is different from real math, but US defense spending already dwarfs the rest of the world and it's not even close. One would need to add countries ranked second through fifteenth to slightly pass the annual US military spending so spare me the story about how damaging cuts would weaken the US.

What is weakening the US is too much war spending and not enough spending at home. But for the Romney class, spending on social programs that benefit the 99% is a waste of money. The real waste of money in the US these days is giving away tax cuts to people like Mitt Romney, who hasn't worked in years yet still makes millions each year thanks to GOP tax cuts.

Dear god, the man has all kinds of money but can't buy a clue.

Echoing portions of his stump speech in which he cites the threat of a resurgent Russia, a nuclear Iran and a rising China as obstacles to an "American Century," Romney closed his speech at this Memorial Day tribute to veterans with a political message about a choice between divergent military philosophies this November.

"We have two courses we can follow: One is to follow the pathway of Europe. To shrink our military smaller and smaller to pay for our social needs. And they of course rely on the strength of America and they hope for the best. Were we to follow that kind of course, there would be no one that could stand to protect us," Romney told an audience his campaign said numbered roughly 5000 people.

"The other is to commit to preserve America as the strongest military in the world, second to none, with no comparable power anywhere in the world. We choose that course. We choose that course for America not just so that we can win wars, but so we can prevent wars."

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Former GOP rep uncomfortable with Romney using birther Trump to raise money

If Mitt Romney can't stand up to Trump and his crazy birther ideas, how will he stand up to the likes of Assad? Romney doesn't show very good morals or decision making if this is the best he can offer during an election cycle. More from Think Progress on the slimy move by Mitt.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Mitt Romney is an outrage-hypocrite.  He gets all hot and bothered when anyone says anything about his being a Mormon - not just when someone says that Mormonism is a "cult", but even about the simple question as to whether Mitt Romney has ever participated in a posthumous baptism in an attempt to steal the souls of dead Holocaust victims.  Romney won't say - he won't even repudiate the practice - and he's offended that anyone would ask.

But boy oh boy, when it comes time to land some low-blows against Barack Obama, Mitt Romney is right there front and center.

First there's Romney's embrace of Trump and his birtherism, and Romney's refusal to say a word about it.  Then there was Romney's gratuitous swipe about Rev. Wright a few months back.  That was even worse than the birther embrace.

Think about it.  Romney thinks that President Obama's embrace of a pastor with what he considers "weird" Christian ideas is fair game in this election.  But what does that say about Mitt Romney's embrace of Mormonism and its ideas?  Why is it off limits to even talk about Romney's Mormonism in anything short of genuflecting adulation, but it's not off limits for Romney himself to criticize President Obama's embrace of Christianity?

Now, the Romney camp could try to argue that it shows a window into President Obama's soul, and brings into question his "judgment" in relying on a preacher with such 'radical' views.

But how is the possibility of Mitt Romney having attempted to forcibly convert the souls of Jewish Holocaust victims, of his embrace of a religion that has been on a virtual jihad against the civil rights of gays, blacks and women over the years, any less a window into Mitt Romney's soul?

It almost seems as if the stronger one embraces one's own religion - i.e., the greater influence your religion has had in determining who you are, and what you will do in life and in politics - the less legitimate it is to inquire about that religion and its influence on you.  Unless it's Mitt Romney questioning Barack Obama's religion and it's influences, then it's okay.

Not to mention, Mitt Romney's son went to South America to convert Latino Christians away from Catholicism and to Mormonism.  Mitt Romney himself went to France in the early 1970s to, again, convert the French from Christianity - Catholicism, again, in their case - to Mormonism.

It's interesting that the Mormons bristle at the suggestion that they are not Christians, yet they do not seem to consider Catholics Christian enough to be exempt from Mormon attempts at conversion.  After all, why would Catholics need to be converted to Mormonism, in order to be saved, if in fact we're all Christians?

Those are the kind of questions Mitt Romney would ask of Barack Obama if the Mormon shoe were on the other foot.  But no one dares ask Mitt Romney the very type of questions he has himself posed to President Obama.

If Mitt Romney thinks Reverend Wright is fair game - an attack that many consider thinly-veiled racism - then isn't it at least fair to inquire why Mitt Romney and his son believe that Catholics are lesser Christians than Mormons?

Mitt Romney has made clear that a candidate's religion, and much worse, are fair for electoral discussion.  Then so be it. Read the rest of this post...

TSA seeking grope-free scanning device

In the mean time, prepare to be molested and humiliated while the brain trust who thought porno-scanners would solve the problem, despite evidence to the contrary. Yes, the team that banned an 18 month old baby due to the young child being on a no-fly list will be choosing this new technology.

Feeling safer yet?The Department of Homeland Security recently put out a request for technology companies to come up with a hand-held scanning device that can be used instead of pat-down searches on passengers who set off alarms on full-body scanners.

The department oversees the Transportation Security Administration, which operates about 700 full-body scanners at 180 airports across the country. When the scanners detect a hidden object, TSA workers perform a pat-down search.

But critics say TSA screeners rely on the pat-down search too often. Even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got a full-body pat-down at LaGuardia Airport in New York recently. Read the rest of this post...

Did BP execs lie to Congress?

Obama has often been timid in his support of environmental issues, though maybe with the election coming into focus, he may be keen to connect with this group of voters. Despite his early cover for BP after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, he's received nothing but the typical bashing by Big Oil who pump millions into GOP campaign coffers.

Outside of the Republican Party, few really like Big Oil so they are always going to be an easy target. If they lied to Congress about the Deepwater Horizon accident as the Justice Department is alleging then they're going to be an even easier target.

Will the Justice Department finally get around to actual justice? It would make for a nice change after years of inaction and bootlicking for special interests.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether BP executives lied to Congress about how much oil leaked in the company's 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the investigation.

According to the Journal, prosecutors are looking into statements the company made to members of Congress at a closed-door briefing of members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee by officials from BP, Halliburton Co. and Transocean Ltd.

Dave Nagel, the executive vice president of BP America, and David Rainey, the company's former head of Gulf of Mexico exploration, were involved in the briefing, the Journal said.

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Florida: Hundreds of eligible citizens in Miami-Dade Co alone told they are ineligible to vote

The radical Republican governors are the template for the next Republican president.

We recently wrote about election theft in Florida, using the work of the inestimable Judd Legum at ThinkProgress.

The tool of choice — mass deletion of names from the voter rolls, then requiring people to "prove" their right to be relisted.

Here's more from Legum in an exclusive report (my emphasis):

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has ordered the state to purge all “non-citizens” from the voting rolls prior to November’s election. But that list compiled by the Scott administration is so riddled with errors that, in Miami-Dade County alone, hundreds of U.S. citizens are being told they are ineligible to vote, ThinkProgress has learned exlusively.

According to data from the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections obtained by ThinkProgress:

• – 1638 people in Miami-Dade County were flagged by the state as “non-citizens” and sent letters informing them that they were ineligible to vote.
  
  
• – Of that group, 359 people have subs[e]quently provided the county with proof of citizenship.
  
  
• – Another 26 people were identified as U.S. citizens directly by the county.
  
  
• – The bulk of the remaining 1200 people have simply not responded yet to a letter sent to them by the Supervisor of Elections.

... In short, in excess of 20 percent of the voters flagged as “non-citizens” in Miami-Dade are, in fact, citizens. And the actual number may be much higher.

Let's do the math. Bad as they are, the numbers above don't tell the whole story. We need to look at the percentages and extrapolate:

• Total Maimi-Dade letters sent: 1638
• Total known errors: 385
• Total not responding: The "vast bulk" of 1200 (say, 1000)
• Total responding: Approximately 500–600 (about 1/3)

The false-positive rate is above 64%. That's stunning. (Calculation: 385 known citizens out of about 600 who responded.)

Now extrapolate that across the entire Miami-Dade list. If those percentages hold:

• Total letters sent: 1638
  
  
• Eligible voters possibly purged: 1050 (64.1%)

But wait, there's more. This is a state-wide purge. According to Legum, the full list could be as large is 182,000.

Extrapolating across that list (64% of 182,000) yields more than 115,000 potential voters purged. Enough to swing Florida, don't you think?

This is election fraud on a massive scale, and excellent work by Judd Legum and ThinkProgress.

Who's being targeted? Read on:

An analysis of the state-wide list by the Miami Herald found that “Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted” as ineligible by the list.

Conversely, “whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal.”

Who'da guessed?

So how does this play out? Here's one way — Falsely disenfranchized Floridians appeal to Obama's Justice Dept. Eric Holder makes noises that "this is an outrage." Republicans make noises that "this is just political, and besides (shh, Holder has, well, melatonal ties that disqualify his etc., but shh)."

The White House, certain of November victory anyway, decides to back down. No need to ruffle R feathers.

Holder then makes all the right public noises, but does little to actually block this. (My best guess at the explanation: it's a matter for "the courts," plus something about "the states.")

I really really want to be wrong. Let's watch together, shall we? 115,000 purged eligible voters isn't small beer.

Or legal.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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MarketWatch debunks Romney's spending lie

Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post:

“Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history,” Romney claims on his campaign Web site. This is utterly false. The truth is that spending has slowed markedly under Obama.

An analysis published last week by MarketWatch, a financial news Web site owned by Dow Jones & Co., compared the yearly growth of federal spending under presidents going back to Ronald Reagan. Citing figures from the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office, MarketWatch concluded that “there has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear.”

Quite the contrary: Spending has increased at a yearly rate of only 1.4 percent during Obama’s tenure, even if you include some stimulus spending (in the 2009 fiscal year) that technically should be attributed to President George W. Bush. This is by far the smallest — I repeat, smallest — increase in spending of any recent president. (The Washington Post’s Fact Checker concluded the spending increase figure should have been 3.3 percent.)

Republicans don't, and can't, win by telling the truth. That's why they had to set up their own TV network, in order to make their own truth. It's why they routinely try to take down the traditional media - because independent truth-checkers are dangerous, fatal, to a party based on lies. Read the rest of this post...

Child survivor of Syrian massacre details shooting

The details on the latest bloody attack in Syria are emerging and it's as bad as you might expect. Somehow one eleven year old boy managed to save himself during a deadly visit by Assad's forces. Five others in the household were murdered and had the young boy not smeared blood on his face and acted dead, he too likely would have been murdered.

Until Assad steps aside or is taken to The Hague for war crimes, there's not going to be an end to such madness in Syria. The Guardian:

Shivering with fear, the boy stood towards the back of the entrance to his family home as gunmen then shot dead every family member in front of him.

"My mum yelled at them," said the boy. "She asked: 'What do you want from my husband and son?' A bald man with a beard shot her with a machine gun from the neck down. Then they killed my sister, Rasha, with the same gun. She was five years old. Then they shot my brother Nader in the head and in the back. I saw his soul leave his body in front of me.

"They shot at me, but the bullet passed me and I wasn't hit. I was shaking so much I thought they would notice me. I put blood on my face to make them think I'm dead."

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