Imagine that. The Republicans fighting against science, again. Clearly those whinging whales need to toughen up and learn how to survive in today's world. The world isn't going to stop just because the whales can't move aside from the steam engine of progress. They probably all drive Cadillacs and receive welfare too. Why can't they be like business and survive on their own with the help of thousands of laws giving them special privileges as well as billions in corporate welfare and tax code assistance? Those whales are such freeloading bastards.
Every year around three right whales are either injured or killed in collisions with ocean-going vessels like containerized cargo ships even though they are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Right whales frequently wash up on shore bearing deep scars from being struck by ships propellers.
To reduce ship strikes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided that ships should restrict their speed to 10 knots or less near whale feeding and calving grounds during parts of the year.
But Mr Cheney's office, which tends to operate in secrecy, sent letters repeatedly questioning whether the rule was needed according to leaked documents. Flatly contradicting the scientific research Mr Cheney's staff argued, "that we have no evidence that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference."
Thankfully the GOP is there to help bring weapons into the national parks, answering that worry that so many Americans talk about every day. "What do we possibly have to do to bring loaded weapons into Yellowstone National Park?" is dinner table conversation throughout the land. Sounds like a great idea for every family and surely nothing could ever go wrong, right? Besides, think of those doggone bison and gray wolf populations that were just starting to recover. Clearly we need to kill nature in order to save it.
U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne says it's time to take a "fresh look" at the long-held ban against bringing loaded weapons into national parks and wildlife areas.
Kempthorne will soon issue new rules, subject to public comment, that could loosen those restrictions to more closely resemble the gun laws of the states where the federal sites are located.
Gun advocates, including the National Rifle Association, and 51 U.S. senators urged the review, including Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. The current rules "infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners," the senators said in a letter to Kempthorne in December.
The drugs are destined for Britain's streets. The guns go straight to the Taliban front line. The weapons on sale include machine guns, sniper rifles and anti-aircraft weapons like the ones used in the attempt to assassinate the Afghan President Hamid Karzai last weekend.
"We never sell the drugs for money," boasted one of the smugglers. "We exchange them for ammunition and Kalashnikovs."
The drugs come mostly from Helmand, where most of Britain's 7,800 troops are based. The opium grown there is turned into heroin at factories inside Afghanistan, sold into Tajikistan and smuggled to Europe. The guns are broken down into parts, smuggled back into Afghanistan and delivered to the Taliban. One kilogram of heroin can buy about 30 AK-47 assault rifles at the bazaar.
Nato claims the Taliban get between 40 and 60 per cent of their income from drugs. The smugglers' claims suggest the real cost could be far higher.
To many, Angelo Mozilo is the face of failure. Under his watch he managed to build Countrywide Financial into the largest lender in the US and then almost as quickly, drive it in to the ground where Bank of America would buy it in a fire sale and reap tax benefits for years. Jobs lost, house evictions, ruined lives, it's all there courtesy of Mozilo. So just how tough are times for this failure? They're so bad that he scraped together $132 million in 2007 despite his magnificent failure.
As I've said before, these people who scream about the free market wouldn't know the free market if it bit them in the ass. In an earlier time, after the Crash of '29 for example, people such as Mozilo would be standing on a street corner begging for handouts much like the people who have lost their houses courtesy of his schemes. When I listen to Republicans talking about people needing to toughen up and quit relying on the system, well, what about Mozilo? How is it possible in this day and age to screw up so badly yet walk away so wealthy? It's easy, because this is the system that the GOP created where only the middle class and poor lose. Risk has been minimized at the top and it's everyone else who is stuck with the bill. Good work, when you can find it.
Pathetic. This is really supposed to be news...for the better? If you listened to Republicans talk you would think they actually liked the free market but if you believed them, you would be sadly mistaken.
Qwest Communications International Inc. on Thursday introduced DSL plans with faster download speeds, including one that is the fastest DSL service from a major U.S. phone company.
Qwest is charging $104.99 per month for a download speed of 20 megabits per second. For 12 mbps, it is charging $51.99 per month. The prices are $5 lower when combined with local phone service.
Compare this "great" offer to what I just signed in France, which we all know hates choice and hates the free market, according to the GOP. For €53 per month I receive a 100 mbps internet connection plus phone calls throughout Europe and North America plus TV channels. In local terms for local buyers one euro is one dollar but even with the terrible exchange rate this is a steal compared to the business friendly market in the US. The Republicans only care about giving business everything they want, always at the expense of consumers. It's hard to believe the GOP could do so much damage to the previously competitive US market.
The problems in the airline industry just keep getting worse. Two weeks ago I spent almost 30 minutes circling before landing so news like this is a major concern. Where were all of the business leaders a few years ago when the GOP was busy making fun of energy conservationists and telling everyone to consume as much as they like? If we had a serious policy a few years ago - including during the Clinton years - we might not have such deep problems both for consumers and business.
As cash-strapped airlines pack more passengers on flights into ever-busier airports, pilots are filing internal complaints warning that airline cost-cutting on fuel supplies could be creating a major safety risk.
The complaints, compiled by msnbc.com and NBC News from a database of safety incident reports maintained on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration, reveal wide-ranging concern among pilots that airlines are compelling them to fly with too little fuel.
There is an interesting story in the NY Times today about hedge funds and the substantial payouts for the leading managers of the big funds. Let's just say they're doing pretty well. What jumped out to me was the information about the previous years in which wealth distribution was so distorted. It should be at least a warning signs of an economy that has gone badly off course for decades.
In the south of France you have a number of beautiful mansions that were built just before the crash of 1929 and a fascinating book came out a few years ago detailing the history of those mansions. Quite a few were built by ultra-rich gamblers much like the hedge fund and Wall Street gamblers of today. One big difference is that back then when they went too far and failed, they really fell. Mansion after mansion was lost as the gamblers had nobody to bail them out as Paulson has done with Wall Street. Was it a good thing that the pre-Crash crowd fell so hard? Maybe not, but nobody forced them to roll the dice and those are the breaks of the game. That's how old fashioned capitalism worked.
Where I have a bigger problem is that this is the crowd who today calls anyone who raises the issue of wealth distribution a communist. I haven't heard the same smears of communism when Wall Street has been bailed out but rest assured, talk about creating an even playing field - which is different from everyone gets equal money - and you know where the GOP and wingnuts will go. Everyone in the US ought to have the same opportunity to be make money but what we have today is eerily similar to what we saw in 1928. The system has broken down and needs to change so we as a nation can move forward.
Just how much money do these freeloaders want from taxpayers? The previously pro free market crowd is now calling for bailouts, hand over fist, because we just can't have a domino effect. Sure. Great. Perhaps. But where was all of this concern when they were raking in billions in fluff? Everyone made their healthy commissions, bonuses flowed and lobbyist money kept the wheels of democracy running. Why are we now supposed to spring into action to bail out a system that they all wanted?
The worst of this bailout is that the US government is committing so many billions without even debating where the money goes or who is it helping. Are we now picking up the tab for Wall Street bonuses? Let Wall Street pay back the commissions and bonuses that were based on this trash and then let's talk. Their excuse is that they need to retain the good people who weren't part of the problems. Frankly, I don't care. The management made these problems and even today, we have Prince (Citibank), O'Neil (Merrill Lynch) and others who walked away with tens of millions all based on buying and selling trash. Let them pay it back and let's ask for all of the money that others made on selling trash and then let's talk. If they don't want to, fine, but don't ask for more money. Why are we giving bailout money without debate?
Make no mistake that we're in this situation because people like Bush and the McCain economic advisers wanted it this way. The problems are nowhere near the end and will continue to bleed but the Bush/GOP plan is to just throw money at the source of the problem. This is their plan for everything, throw cash and when your hands are empty, print more and throw that. Sheesh.
Why don't we "let the market decide" and watch the gamblers of Wall Street all collapse? Letting the market decide is what *they* wanted so why bail them out now? A dose of proper oversight could have limited the impact of the collapse and the run on the bank like at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, but no, that's not what they wanted. Why print more money and give it away when the bums can't even admit they have a problem?
Now that the Fed has chopped interest rates (and will chop again, not that it's going to translate into lower rates for consumers) and they pumped $200 billion into Wall Street, I'd like to know where exactly the so-called free market/industry self-regulate people are. Where are they? They're all at the front of the bloody line calling for more handouts. When Democrats ask for money for SCHIP or food money for the poor or unemployment extensions, all we hear is about cost. What is the matter with Democrats? Is it so hard to scream and yell like the GOP? Why are they so silent on this bailout? Even the homeowner bailout is a pittance compared to the Wall Street bailout.
To show you what frauds the Republicans are, look at how we raised a $200 billion "loan" that uses the garbage subprime papers that nobody in their right mind wants anyway. Debate? Hell no. Just "poof" out of the blue sky, here's a bailout and a healthy loan to Wall Street, which won't be enough anyway. How is it that the "free market" crowd is suddenly nowhere to be found during this crisis? It's the McCain economic team that put all of this into place, so where is he now? Where's the outrage? And for the conspiracy theorists take note that the Spitzer story just happened to take the spotlight away from a very important event this week.
The banking system that is tumbling was designed and built together with the GOP. They can sit silent but they own this. McCain and his friends own this. This is what they wanted and there is no reason why US taxpayers ought to keep funding their mistakes. Shouldn't we treat Wall Street the way Wall Street and the GOP treat America's poor? Let them pick themselves up with their own bootstraps. Let them dig themselves out of the hole they dug form themselves. We can't afford a war plus a tanking economy plus a bailout for Wall Street. If that means the market will decided (as they always prefer) then so be it. Don't come crying and asking for cash now that the system they wanted is failing. Tough luck.
Shoppers not shopping because the credit binge is over. Families struggling to afford food and gas in the car to make it to work. Oil hits a new high every day thanks to a weak dollar. People worried about whether their job will still there by the end of the year. Isn't self-regulation worth it though? Business has been able to realize the decades long dream of letting us know if there's a problem and guess what? They say "no problem" so who are we to argue? Team McCain has already brought together the leading Bush economic adviser along with good ol' Phil Gramm, who helped build this new and exciting banking system that we all watch in awe (or is it shock?). McCain will eagerly bring us more of the same.
Oil hit a record high, the dollar sank again, and consumers stopped buying pretty much everything.
Stocks kept gyrating, too, on Thursday, swinging between gloomy recession evidence and rising hopes that all the bad news would bring another aggressive cut in interest rates when the Federal Reserve meets next week.
The Bush administration, conceding the economy was facing ''difficult'' times now, rushed out new proposals aimed at next time -- plans to fix various problems that have led to a severe crisis in credit markets.
Carlyle Capital is a publicly traded fund run by the well know Carlyle Group, where former Presidents, Prime Ministers and top government officials work. This is yet another shocking fall from the sky courtesy of non-existent regulation by the Republicans. A small dose of regulation could have lessened the blow for everyone but no, the Republicans would have none of it. Where are all of those big talkers now that their self-regulation ideas are dragging down everyone? Notice how quiet they have become?
They are so serious, they're discarding paper files with all of your details into dumpsters. And the FTC, what are they doing about protecting Americans since there are laws against this? Well, they have been busy with one slap-on-the-wrist case. For the rest, tough luck for you. Go find a public dumpster and hope you get lucky.
Just like the FAA. Just like the FDA. Just like the USDA. Just like the EPA. Just like wildlife preservation. Just like the, fill in the next blank. The Republicans have consistently strangled budgets for any and all regulation and then placed their hacks in a position to cozy up to industry. The next step is of course to then scream "see, the government is a failure at everything so let's shut them group down and let business self regulate." Good business, when you can get it.
The next time Bernanke or anyone else says the weak dollar means nothing at home, think again. Besides contributing to the runaway gas prices, it also means that food staples are even cheaper than before for export markets. As the economies of India and China increase, they have more cash to buy cheap American corn, wheat, beef, etc and that means competition. Competition means higher prices. Add to that the inflated gas prices for corporate farming and transport and you have price increases at the grocery store not seen since the 1970s. The odds of McCain or Republicans disrupting the system they built stand somewhere between slim and nil.
Rising food prices can be particularly corrosive to consumer confidence because people are so frequently exposed to the cost increases. "It's the biggest risk we face economically, and it might be the thing that does us in," said Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research Corp. in New York. "There's nothing really worse than having a job, making money, and forking most of it over just so you can have the same amount of food. You're running in place, and it really weighs on you."
Another day, another record low. How long before the GOP spins yet another terrible number as somehow unimportant?
Homeowners' portion of equity slipped to downwardly revised 49.6 percent in the second quarter of 2007, the central bank reported in its quarterly U.S. Flow of Funds Accounts, and declined further to 47.9 percent in the fourth quarter — the third straight quarter it was under 50 percent.
That marks the first time homeowners' debt on their houses exceeds their equity since the Fed started tracking the data in 1945.
The total value of equity also fell for the third straight quarter to $9.65 trillion from a downwardly revised $9.93 trillion in the third quarter.
The "free market" Republican program comes back to bite America in the ass, exactly as predicted. Nice. Like most Americans I grew up understanding that the free market meant natural market forces would intervene to impact prices. In the Republican model, this means setting up a comfy sofa with lots of cushy pillows for business and tying two hands behind the back of consumers. Maybe it's his own free market experience of dad using his influence to gain admission into Yale and Harvard that has led him and the Republicans to mistakenly believe that Big Pharma would be reasonable or that somehow the "market" would be involved. Then again maybe AARP who supported Bush at election time (which helped tip the balance) was just plain stupid and believed Bush would do the right thing. There is no precedent for Big Pharma doing the right thing.
Drug makers increased their prices last year by an average of 7.4 percent for brand-name medicines most commonly prescribed to the elderly, according to the advocacy group AARP.
The increase was about 2.5 times overall inflation, continuing a long-standing trend.
As if it isn't bad enough with Big Pharma and their cozy (and what many consider unethical) relationship with doctors. WellPoint/Blue Cross now want to be even creepier as they are asking medical doctors to spy on patients and report back to the corporate offices. (You may remember WellPoint from the seedy scandal involving the ex-CEO who was having affairs across the country allegedly promising marriage, passing on STDs and screaming "ABORT" to one women he impregnated. A fine GOP fund raiser and a good moral leader, they say.)
While medical doctors so often are game when it involves holidays to the Caribbean or commission/perks for prescribing drugs, this may be going too far. Blue Cross is asking doctors to report any pre-existing conditions so they can use this as grounds for termination or decline payment. When an individual is canceled, good luck finding another insurance company that will accept you.
More after the jump.
Who doesn't have some sort of pre-existing condition? While this can be difficult for working age people, just imagine the consequences for retired Americans. After my father died a few years ago, my mother received the usual series of nasty letters from the insurance company telling her that she needed to move on. (So much for the retirement benefits promised by my father's company.) Maybe person of 73 years exists that does not have any pre-existing conditions but they are rare. This is a period when most Americans will spend a lot of their hard earned money, paying for medical treatment. If my mother was in California and moving to Blue Cross, WellPoint/Blue Cross would be asking her doctor - her doctor! - to turn in a list of pre-existing conditions so they could cancel her. Then again, would it be her doctor or is Blue Cross forcing customers to use their own special list of doctors who will tow the line for corporate?
WellPoint Inc., the Indianapolis-based company that operates Blue Cross of California, said it was sending out the letters in an effort to keep costs at a minimum.
"Enrolling an applicant who did not disclose their true condition (and the condition is chronic or acute), will quickly drive increased utilization of services, which drives up costs for all members," WellPoint spokeswoman Shannon Troughton said in an e-mail to the newspaper.
"Blue Cross feels it is our responsibility to assure all records are accurate and up to date for HMO providers," she said. "We send these letters to identify members early on in the process who may not have been honest in their application."
And who makes this judgment call? Sounds like it's Blue Cross, an obviously biased player in this situation. A simple, honest mistake could send a customer onto the street without coverage. Worse still, as the article says, patients may hide more serious problems which will then be much more expensive to treat later, if even treated.
When the insurance industry wonders why they are consistently detested in America, this is a prime example. They only want the good customers but who the hell are the good customers? Americans spend more on health care per person than anywhere else in the world and yet the insurance industry is confident enough in their own power that they can pull stunts like this. Sadly, they're probably right. They can and do get away with just about any crazy program they want. Thanks to the GOP program of "let business govern itself" this is the end result.
If WellPoint and Blue Cross want out of the insurance business, fine. If they want to stay in the business, practices like this need to be examined and balanced. As I've said before, here in France (which has it's own problems, of course) I have never once heard someone panic that they were going to be thrown off of an insurance plan or lose their savings due to illness. Not once. As a country we have allowed business to go much too far and it's time we move back to finding a proper balance. Right now, it's a one-sided relationship and that's no longer acceptable.
The GOP economic record lowers the post yet again. It's not even possible to keep up with the stunning number of record lows they have hit with the US economy. How could they ruin such a previously great economy, so quickly? We used to be a country that welcomed competition, but that all changed with the GOP who thought it made more sense to eliminate anything resembling competition. Now everyone in the US and the world will pay the price for there absolute incompetence.
“I think this housing downturn will be unprecedented in terms of its breadth across the country and in its severity,” Zandi said. “I don’t think we have seen anything like this, certainly since the Great Depression, and back then housing was much less of a factor in terms of the overall economy because fewer people owned their own homes.”
Meanwhile, Bush and the GOP want to keep pushing this off indefinitely and the Democrats let them get away with it. Democrats are going to need to take a stand one of these days on something. More on what this means, after the jump.
The ability of forests to soak up man-made carbon dioxide is weakening, according to an analysis of two decades of data from more than 30 sites in the frozen north.
The finding published today is crucial, because it means that more of the CO2 we release will end up affecting the climate in the atmosphere rather than being safely locked away in trees or soil.
The results may partly explain recent studies suggesting that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected. If higher temperatures mean less carbon is soaked up by plants and microbes, global warming will accelerate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel peace prize with Al Gore, has concluded that humanity has eight years left to prevent the worst effects of global warming.
Carbon uptake by land and sea is crucial to predictions about future warming. "We are currently getting a 50% discount on the climatic impact of our fossil fuel emissions," the climate scientist John Miller of the University of Colorado wrote in a commentary on the research in the journal Nature - meaning that half of what we put out is sucked up by the oceans and ecosystems o
