Credit crisis pushes some people over the edge

Another bizarre episode stemming from the financial ruin caused by the credit crisis. This story from last summer is now popping up again since it's coming to trial. The pensioners probably became carried away with getting rich fast to pad their retirement but isn't that what the bankers were doing? Just as these retirees will deserve whatever happens in court, it's disappointing that we don't see the same with the bankers themselves. How exactly does one lose trillions and yet the only thing that happens is that they receive enough money to pay out hundreds of millions in new bonuses? And remember, it's Wall Street who thinks everyone is being too hard on them. As if this wasn't their doing.

A retired architect and four other pensioners took their financial adviser hostage and held him in a purpose-built prison in Bavaria after their stock market investments failed, a court has heard.

The 74-year-old architect, identified only as Roland K, told a court in Traunstein, southern Germany, that he and his accomplices thought their financial adviser had "cheated and taken the piss" out of them after their investments in the US property market evaporated. As a result, he told the court, they had "decided to invite him for a few days' holiday in Upper Bavaria".

Roland K denied kidnapping but admitted the group, including his seventh wife, 79-year-old Sieglinde, Willi D, 60, and Iris F, 64, a retired doctor, abducted James Amburn at his home in Speyer, southern Germany, in June before transporting him in the boot of a car to Roland K's house at the lakeside resort of Chiemsee, where he had built a prison for him in the cellar.

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HHS investigating Blue Cross of CA for raising rates 39%

Shut em down.

President Obama's secretary of health and human services fired off a sharply worded letter to a California insurer Monday, demanding to know why it is raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent.

Anthem Blue Cross of California sent out notices earlier this month to many of its roughly 800,000 holders of individual policies, informing them that the costs of their plans would sharply increase to cover rising health-care costs. The increases do not affect employer-provided plans in the state.

Sebelius also noted that Anthem's corporate parent, WellPoint, has seen its profits "soar," rising to $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.

"These extraordinary [rate] increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation..."

Here's my favorite part of the article:

Costs have increased in the individual market, Anthem responded Monday afternoon, because the recession has led many policyholders to drop their coverage, spreading expenses among a smaller pool of customers.

Their high rates have forced people to drop coverage in a recession, so as a result Blue Cross is going to raise rates even higher, and force even more people to drop, and so on. It sounds like a strategy to get rid of these people all together. Thank God the Republicans, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Max Baucus have been whoring for the insurance industry and helping to guarantee that real health reform will never happen in this country.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Repeal Congress' health care plan. Let them go on the individual market and get it like the rest of us, if they're so afraid of socialized medicine. Read More......

Shelby drops some holds, but still holding Air Force hostage for pork

The White House reportedly didn't cave to his demands. (H/t Taegan) But as Emptywheel at FDL points out, Shelby is still holding the military hostage for his pork. Read More......

Ben Nelson opposing Obama nominee to National Labor Relations Board

Remember how Obama's DNC gave $500,000 to Senator Ben Nelson via the Nebraska Democratic Party? That was in late December.

So, how's that's working out for them?:

In a move that will further irritate his Democratic critics, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced on Monday evening that he would not just oppose but also help filibuster President Barack Obama's nominee to a key labor relations agency

In a statement from his office, the Nebraska Democrat announced that he would oppose cloture for Craig Becker's appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, all but assuring that confirmation won't take place.

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Reuters on our humongous snowball fight last Saturday

Reuters did a really cute video of our massive snowball fight we had not far away from where Joe and I live in DC. Their video is here, it's cute. As Joe noted earlier, we have yet another storm coming tomorrow, with a possible 10 to 20 inches, though it seems all the weathermen disagree:

As our previous update indicates, we're calling for 5-10" in D.C. and to the south and west, and 8-16" to the north and northeast for the upcoming storm. Our accumulation projections are less than the National Weather Service's (10-20"), Topper Shutt's (1 to 2 feet), Doug Hill's (12-16"), and Bob Ryan's (8-12"). The reason for this is that we see the possibility of a dry slot impacting southern half of the metro region. Having said that, we're going to analyze some data coming in between 9 and 11 p.m. tonight and will adjust our accumulation map in our 11 p.m. update as necessary.

And here are a few of my photos I took that day (you can also check out video I took of the snowball fight here):





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GOP demands Obama kill House and Senate bills and take reconciliation off the table, or they won't meet to talk about a health care compromise

From Roll Call (behind a pay firewall):

In a tersely worded letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Monday, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) wrote that Republicans “would rightly be reluctant” to participate in the Feb. 25 bipartisan health care meeting if the White House refused to consider scrapping the current health care reform bills.

In their letter, Boehner and Cantor called on Obama to take reconciliation off the table as a “show good faith” to the GOP.

“Eliminating the possibility of reconciliation would represent an important show of good faith to Republicans and the American people,” the letter said.

UPDATE: The White House has responded. It sounds decently strong at first blush. But on a re-read, it's not totally clear what it means. It doesn't say that the President will stand by the House and Senate bills, just that he's supported them in the past. Yes, he has. What about now? It says the President wants real reform. That can be defined as anything. Also, it might have been smart for the White House to include something pointing out the fact that the GOP is now putting down pre-conditions to a meeting about which the White House put no pre-conditions. Read More......

On the buffoonery of Senator Susan Collins

Steve Benen masterfully destroys the GOP Senator who has asserted herself as the leading critic of the Obama administration's handling of the Christmas Day bomber. That would be Susan Collins. She has been wrong consistently and pretty much lying, yet she keeps digging. It would be embarrassing for any member with an ounce of self-respect. But, Collins sold her soul to Mitch McConnell long ago:

When we cut through the nonsense and cheap talking points, what we're left with is Collins, after making a series of demonstrably false claims, complaining that the Justice Department didn't coordinate further with other agencies on how best to deal with Abdulmutallab. That's it. That's all that's left from the original argument.

But, again, this is foolish. For one thing, the Obama administration has applied the exact same procedures as Bush/Cheney, and Collins never expressed this outrage before. For another, as Attorney General Eric Holder explained last week, "No agency supported the use of law of war detention for Abdulmutallab, and no agency has since advised the Department of Justice that an alternative course of action should have been, or should now be, pursued."

What we're left with, then, is Susan Collins making a mistake by falsely criticizing the administration, and then digging deeper with a series of even more absurd false criticisms.

She should have quit while she was behind. As this story has dragged on, Collins has sounded less like a reasonable, moderate, influential senator and more like a rookie House member trying to impress Fox News producers.

Not sure how all of this helps Collins' constituents in Maine. But, it does get her on t.v. And, she's desperate to be a player. We hear that it drives her craaaazzzyyy that Olympia gets all the attention. Read More......

Meghan McCain takes on Teabaggers, Palin

You know, she's spot on.

Congressman Tancredo went on TV and he was the first opening speaker and he said, ‘People who could not even spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House whose name is Barack Hussein Obama.’ And then he went on to say that people at the convention should have to pass literacy tests in order to be able to vote in this country, which is the same thing that happened in the 50’s to prevent African Americans from voting. It’s innate racism and I think it’s why young people are turned off by this movement. And I’m sorry, but revolutions start with young people, not with 65-year-old people talking about literacy tests and people who can’t say the word ‘vote’ in English.

You can watch what McCain had to say about Palin here. Read More......

Beer good for your health?

At least some beers, apparently. Go figure.

The experts said beer was a major source of dietary silicon – roughly half of the silicon in beer can be readily absorbed by the body.

Charles Bamforth, lead author of the study, said: "Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon.

"Wheat contains less silicon than barley because it is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element.

"While most of the silicon remains in the husk during brewing, significant quantities of silicon nonetheless are extracted into wort and much of this survives into beer."

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DC's got a Winter Storm Warning: Expecting another 10 - 20 inches

Oh boy. This city is already a mess. We haven't recovered from the blizzard. And, we're getting more via the National Weather Service:

.WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE...SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS...10 TO 20 INCHES.

* TIMING...MID-AFTERNOON TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

John just got some photos at the local grocery store. It's like the Soviet Union. Below would be the vegetable, and orange juice, sections.



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Rep. Murtha died today

Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), a powerful force in the U.S. House, died today:

A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corps officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77.

He had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.

In 1974, Murtha became the first combat veteran of the Vietnam War elected to Congress. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as a leader of the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending. But frustration over the Iraq war led him to call for an immediate pullout of U.S. troops in 2005.

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Krugman: 'Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.'

Paul Krugman has an excellent, yet disturbing, column on the gridlock in the U.S. Senate, which has frozen any kind of progress. The Republicans have lost all sight of working in the best interests of the nation. But, the Dems. have let them get away with it. It's actually scary:

And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.

The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.

Don’t hold your breath. As it is, Democrats don’t even seem able to score political points by highlighting their opponents’ obstructionism.

It should be a simple message (and it should have been the central message in Massachusetts): a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis. But by now, we know how the Obama administration deals with those who would destroy it: it goes straight for the capillaries. Sure enough, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, accused Mr. Shelby of “silliness.” Yep, that will really resonate with voters.

What's disturbing is that the crew at the White House probably put some serious thought into how to respond to Shelby's crass action.

The GOPers aren't afraid. They're out-of-control. And, inviting them to the White House for a sit-down discussion about issues hasn't worked so far. Read More......

Palin repeats falsehood that Alaska produces '20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy' - in fact it's 2.9%

This is important because in the interview she's claiming that, prior to running for VP, her main expertise was energy policy. Yet, she's unaware of the date concerning her own state. She's off by a factor of 7. And she's made this mistake before, but refuses to correct it. From Media Matters:

CHRIS WALLACE (HOST): Would you say you're more knowledgeable about domestic and foreign affairs now than you were two years ago?

PALIN: Well, I would hope so. Yes, I am. Two years ago, my engagement was on the state of Alaska, largest, most diverse state in the union. 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy coming from our state, desiring to and working towards ramping up that domestic energy production. That was my focus and now of course my focus has been enlarged. So I sure as heck better be more astute on these current events, national issues than I was two years ago.

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Largest gay rights group in NJ stops donating to Dem. Committees, asks members to do the same

"Is this a broadside at the Democratic Party?" asked Goldstein. "Of course, it is."

The largest gay rights group in New Jersey has just voted unanimously to stop giving contributions to all political parties (they only gave to Dem. committees), and they are urging their members to do the same. This is because of the Democrats' abandonment of their civil rights promises to the gay community.

Things are only going to get worse when, come this November, the community and our allies see that Don't Ask Don't Tell hasn't been repealed, even though the President promised in his State of the Union that it would be, and even though Barney said that it would be this spring.

I suspect we'll see other state gay rights groups follow NJ's lead, which is based on, whether intentionally or not, the Don't Ask, Don't Give campaign that Joe and I, and numerous of our Netroots allies, launched in November. And perhaps it's time that national gay rights group did the same, rather than simply serving as an appendage of the Democratic party instead of serving their own community. Read More......

Special-needs mom Palin: 'I agree with Limbaugh' that liberals are 'retards'

Once again the Palin children get sacrificed on the altar of political expediency:

Palin, who slammed Emanuel last week for calling liberal activists "f---ing retards," declined to ask conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh to apologize for using the term "retards" on his nationally syndicated show, saying Limbaugh used the word as satire.

"I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people who he did not agree with f---ing retards and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, it's been reported, did say that. There's a big difference there," said Palin, whose youngest son Trig has Down Syndrome.

Palin made the comment after Wallace asked her about this Limbaugh quote: "Our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult's taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards. ... I mean these people, these liberal activists, are kooks."

"Should Rush Limbaugh apologize," Wallace asked.

Palin responded, "They are kooks so I agree with Rush Limbaugh."

Palin has a special needs child and initially has expressed concern about Limbaugh's word choice. But like every other Republican leader, Palin caved on her principles - and in this case, on her own child - once the GOP masses found out that she had criticized GOP leader Limbaugh. Read More......