Something to Remember on the Fourth of July

by: Yellow Dog

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 20:00:00 PM CDT    

The American officials who, in the name of our precious Constitution, justified, approved and committed torture against human beings continue to roam free, desecrating our claim to civilization and democracy with every unprosecuted breath they take.

The interrogation and detention regime implemented by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of over 100 detainees in U.S. custody -- at least.  While some of those deaths were the result of "rogue" interrogators and agents, many were caused by the methods authorized at the highest levels of the Bush White House, including extreme stress positions, hypothermia, sleep deprivation and others.  Aside from the fact that they cause immense pain, that's one reason we've always considered those tactics to be "torture" when used by others -- because they inflict serious harm, and can even kill people.  Those arguing against investigations and prosecutions -- that we Look to the Future, not the Past -- are thus literally advocating that numerous people get away with murder.

The record could not be clearer regarding the fact that we caused numerous detainee deaths, many of which have gone completely uninvestigated and thus unpunished.  Instead, the media and political class have misleadingly caused the debate to consist of the myth that these tactics were limited and confined.  As Gen. Barry McCaffrey recently put it:

We should never, as a policy, maltreat people under our control, detainees. We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A.

Journalist and Human Rights Watch researcher John Sifton similarly documented that "approximately 100 detainees, including CIA-held detainees, have died during U.S. interrogations, and some are known to have been tortured to death."

If the day ends in "y"

by: Blue Girl

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 17:41:15 PM CDT    

He is singing it today on the op-ed page of the  Washington Post.

He was singing it last week on the pages of the LA Times.  

On the day the Iranians went to the polls, his act was booked by the Wall Street Journal.

He was singing it on New Years Eve.  He rang in the new year with it.  Before that, it was the only song on his iPod all summer long.  Two years ago he was threatening U.S. action when diplomacy was threatening to rear it's ugly head, and four years ago he had the date picked out to drop the first bomb.  

Are you seeing the pattern yet?  

What the fuck is this discredited disgrace doing on every editorial page in the country?  In light of today's fiasco at the Washington Post , involving the dickwhisperers at the WaPo trying to sell access to their reporters and political figures - I have to wonder if there is a neocon payday for the editors who publish the bullshit warmongering that idiots like Bolton and the rest of the fatassed chickenhawk mental cases at the AEI espouse?  In light of what we learned today - I think that is a fair question.  

Cue the wingnut chorus...

by: Blue Girl

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 15:55:42 PM CDT    

A Roanoake, Virginia television station has refused to sell air time to the NRCC to run an attack ad against freshman Representative Tom Perriello, who defeated Virgil Goode in the VA-05 last year.

The NRCC made the dishonest ads that were immediately and thoroughly debunked by FactCheck.org to attack representatives who voted for last weeks climate legislation.  

WDBJ-TV, a Roanoke television station, refused to air a false National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) attack ad on Congressman Tom Perriello (VA-05).  The false NRCC ad used information about the clean energy jobs bill that the independent, nonpartisan organization FackCheck.org called "wrong."

"The NRCC has a track record of running ads so deceptive and misleading that local TV stations refuse to air them or have to remove from the airwaves," said Jessica Santillo, Southern Regional Press Secretary.  "Clearly, Washington Republicans realize that the truth is not on their side so they resort to deceptive and false attack ads.  Virginians deserve to hear the facts about how this bill will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, not be subject to scare tactics."

The falsest analogy I ever did see

by: Blue Girl

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 13:00:00 PM CDT    

When the word 'parsing' is in the title, and you know it was written by a wingnut, two things are a given.  First, if you take meds for hypertension, take them fifteen minutes before you start to read. And second, get all liquids away from your computer, because the parsing is going to be unintentionally funny.

The first statement he parses is "The American people overwhelmingly favor reform."

This he dismisses with a glib golly gee, we would all be happier if someone else paid their medical bills, so of course they say yes.

Hey, dumbass - the reason people buy insurance is because they want someone else to pay their bills and they get pissed off when the insurance companies renege on their end of the bargain.  

He then dismisses concerns with spiraling costs as how things ought to be, and anyone who doesn't get that is just too absurd for him to be bothered with engaging, because quality healthcare is discretionary spending.  

Then he goes on to compare education and healthcare, and whines that liberals love spending money on education but healtcare spending must be stopped at any cost - as if they were the same thing - and totally ignores that public schools have not destroyed private education in this country.  

The next point he parses the "45 million uninsured" estimate.  He doesn't think that many people are uninsured.  I think the number is a lot higher - and if you throw in the 'underinsured' you probably have close to 100,000,000 who lack adequate healthcare access.

Then he pretends that if all those people are uninsured (which he doubts) then how can we get away with saying we pay for them anyway, he just can't connect the two in a coherent, cohesive manner..."So on Monday, Wednesday and Friday we are harangued about the 45 million people lacking medical care, and on Tuesday and Thursday we are told we already pay for that care. Left-wing reformers think that if they split the two arguments we are too stupid to notice the contradiction."  

Sigh. Uninsured people do not have access to clinics and preventive care.  There is no equivalent to EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) that mandates providers render preventive care, so patients without insurance languish and suffer until they are sick enough to go to the ER, where the average visit is over a thousand dollars, and if they are sick enough to be admitted, the bill is going to run into the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.  These bills, for the most part, get written off as charity care, but the doors have to stay open, and that means income has to match outflow.  So that charity care gets passed on to the insured in the form of higher bills which lead to increased premiums.  

Only the willfully ignorant and intellectually dishonest would even try that silly false argument.  

But he saves his really stupid analogies for the end, when he compares healthcare access to grocery shopping when he attempts to parse the reformist argument "We need a public plan to keep the private plans honest."

I'm just going to quote him directly, because it is pure comedy gold how wrong he gets this one:

The 1,500 or so private plans don't produce enough competition? Making it 1,501 will do the trick? But then why stop there? Eating is even more important than health care, so shouldn't we have government-run supermarkets "to keep the private ones honest"? After all, supermarkets clearly put profits ahead of feeding people. And we can't run around naked, so we should have government-run clothing stores to keep the private ones honest. And shelter is just as important, so we should start public housing to keep private builders honest. Oops, we already have that. And that is exactly the point. Think of everything you know about public housing, the image the term conjures up in your mind. If you like public housing you will love public health care.

Talk about having no grasp of the model!  An honest, good-faith argument would take into consideration all the government subsidies to the farmers that keep the prices of the commodities on the shelf low and affordable.  And an honest commentary would acknowledge that the supermarket - but not the insurance company - is subject to antitrust laws.  

Now lets get to the real-world dismissal of his false analogy, and believe me, analogies just don't get any falser than the one he draws between health care services and grocery shopping.  When you go to the grocery story, you put food in your cart and you go to the checkout where you pay for it.  When a consumer pays their health insurance premium, they are prepaying for a service they might need at some point in the future.  

The grocery and clothing stores have a vested interest in selling me a tangible product and providing me a decent value and quality for my money so I will keep coming back, because there are grocery and clothing stores all over town, and I don't have to make all my selections for an entire year within a 30 day period. An insurance company, on the other hand, has you locked in at least until open enrollment comes back around on the HR calendar, and you can't switch until then, and then you will only have one, maybe two other choices.  

But there is more stupid to unpack here - those stores selling me commodities like food and clothing exist to provide me with things I need and in exchange they make a profit.  Insurance companies, on the other hand, exist to maximize profit for their shareholders and they do so by denying services to people who need them.  

And yes, we do need to keep them honest.  What insurance companies routinely do is akin to a customer going to the grocery store and paying for a cart full of groceries and then as you are leaving the store someone stops you and tells you that your purchase has been denied, they made a phone call and you don't need those groceries so they will be keeping them and no, you do not get your money back.  That would be theft and I would sure as hell get the government involved, and so would you, and so would this Newman joker the WSJ editorial page scared up to post talking points and face the wrath and snark of a couple of thousand pissed off bloggers.  

Of housing booms and busted houses

by: Blue Girl

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 09:00:00 AM CDT    

During the not-quite six years we had that company, we saw shoddy construction damned near every day.  Quarter million dollar houses that had settled so much in one year that picture windows had cracked and doors no longer hung square in their frames.  I learned quickly that there were certain developments that we wanted no part of, the houses were just too fucked up.  I couldn't look one more homeowner in the eye and say "I'm sorry, but there is simply nothing I can do to help you.  The window I can put in will crack within a year, too, because the problems are structural.  You need to consult with an attorney and take these problems up with the builder."  

The Kansas City area has seen a lot of construction fraud indictments of major builders - the guys who don't just build houses, but neighborhoods - for selling poorly built houses that were built from substandard materials.  Even the people who bought decent houses by developers like Rodrock didn't get what they were paying for when they bought that name - A Rodrock Community in brass script on stone at the entryways to various Johnson County cul-de-sac rings of hell.  Don't get me wrong - I loved Rodrock houses.  We made a hell of a lot of money and put three kids through private school and at least one of them through college putting new windows in Rodrock houses that were only about seven years old.  I would have been furious over spending a few grand to buy new windows, but in context, those homeowners were happy campers.  They  were happy that they only needed new windows, given what they were reading in the paper about Pulte and Miller houses, so they didn't mind paying that nice young couple with the well-behaved teenagers who helped in the family business a handsome fee to have precision work done inside their dream homes by a guy like my husband.  He does artisan-quality work - or did, anyway.  Foot surgery a few years ago sidelined him and kept him off ladders for a year, and when we sold the house we bought to restore and sell, he sold the equipment when we moved to an apartment - an apartment that was over-built over a century ago, with windows that are still square.  

One of the reasons we didn't try to resume the business when he was able to was the fact that poorly built homes had mushroomed and avoiding them entirely simply wasn't an option.  Besides that, when I called our insurance agent to get a quote on renewing our liability and our bond, our premiums had tripled in the two years since I had last paid them - because shoddy construction had led to claims and that raised the premiums on all of us.  Throw in the fact that gas was now three bucks a gallon and an F-150 loaded down with tools and windows doesn't exactly sip the stuff, all the supply houses are in North Kansas City and all the people who can afford to buy new windows are in Lenexa, Overland Park and Olathe - it was no longer the money-making proposition it had been just 18 months earlier.  

And the problems are nation wide.

...The furious pace of home building from the late 1990s through the first half of the 2000s contributed to a surge in defects, experts say. It caused shortages of both skilled construction workers and quality materials. Many municipalities also fell behind inspecting and certifying new homes.

At the height of the boom in 2005, more than two million houses were built in the U.S., according to the National Association of Home Builders, a trade group. Criterium Engineers, a national building-inspection firm, estimates that 17% of newly constructed houses built in 2006 had at least two significant defects, up from 15% in 2003.

Residential construction-defect claims filed with insurance companies in the current housing slump have been receding, "but the ones that are being filed are pretty severe in terms of the total damage alleged," says Paul Amirata, vice president of claims for Axa Insurance Co. in New York...

...Because of tumbling real-estate values, those stuck with faulty houses say repairs often cost more than the homes are now worth. Many say they can't refinance their mortgages or sell, and they have no equity to leverage for repairs.

Defects are also a concern for those shopping for a home. Owners generally are required to disclose housing defects to potential buyers. Buyers of new homes should scrutinize purchase and warranty contracts with a real-estate attorney, with special attention to arbitration clauses and liability releases...

...Owners of defective properties say they're finding it even harder to get repairs now because of rising builder bankruptcies. Some builders, especially smaller ones, also carried inadequate liability insurance, construction experts say. Other homeowners say they are hamstrung by mandatory binding arbitration clauses in purchase contracts and new-home warranties, as well as "right to cure" laws, which require homeowners to notify builders and give them a chance to remedy a defect before the homeowners can file a lawsuit. More than 30 states have some type of right-to-cure legislation, according to the home-builders group.

There are a hell of a lot of houses out there that are not worth what it would cost to repair them - in some cases, such as mold and mildew from shoddy plumbing installed by non-union laborers who didn't necessarily have any plumbing experience - the houses are worth less than the cost of repairs to make them safely habitable.  

Families are having their financial lives and futures ruined and banks are getting stuck with bad loans and entire subdivisions are migrating toward golf courses.  

And as if we didn't have enough problems with sleazy builders and shoddy construction - we have a huge problem with poison Chinese drywall headed down the pike.

Sweet Jesus, I'm glad we are out of the home improvement business.  I'm starting to think that my husband broke his foot at the most opportune time possible.  Talk about your blessings in disguise...

The Nightowl Newswrap

by: Blue Girl

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 23:30:00 PM CDT    

The NRCC wouldn't intentionally, blatantly lie to attack the President, would they?  Say it isn't so!  Sadly, they have no compunctions about lying their asses off and saying the Cap-and-Trade legislation that just passed the House last week will cost each household $1800 per year (I suppose we can call it progress that they have dialed back their previous lie was that the cost would be $3100 per year per household and are now only exaggerating by a factor of ten).  They also say that the legislation will 'kill jobs' but that is bullshit, too.  The ACES act will actually create millions of green energy jobs.

In a just world, LIEberman would stand in the unemployment line not 'with the minority of Americans who oppose a public option' in health care reform.

First it was a bridge to nowhere, now it's a railroad  Rep. Don Young has a soft spot in his heart for the 'Alaska Railroad' - which carves out millions of dollars a year from the transportation budget - at the expense of densely packed cities that rely on public transit - and yeah, it's a little bit personal - I live in one of the cities that gets screwed over by his earmark, and I rely on a public transit system that had to scale back service starting last Sunday because the money wasn't there to keep the level of service we had - and we needed more, not less.  Call me KC-centric, but we need light rail in this town more than they need passenger rail in Alaska - since our metro area has about three times as many people as their entire flippin' welfare state.

The Big, Fat Idiot blew a gasket when he was confronted with the fact that his nemesis is now officially a United States Senator.  

In fact, it has him so deranged that he blamed President Obama for the death of Michael Jackson.  Seriously.  (Michael Jackson didn't flourish under Reagan and Bush I and languish under Clinton because of who was president. That change happened because his behavior became more and more bizarre and freakish and he started creeping people out.  Kinda like Rush does.)

"God" doesn't want JtP to run for office  God is not alone in desiring this joker whose fifteen minutes were up a couple of hours ago not seek office with the goal of getting elected in order to prove government doesn't work.

Red Light Cameras aren't about safety,  they're about money.  If they were about safety, they wouldn't be operated by private, for-profit companies.  In fact, they would all be taken down immediately, since the number of accidents goes UP at intersections with the cameras, primarily due to rear-end collisions as drivers facing yellow lights hit the brakes rather than pay a potential ticket - and the drivers behind them, unable to respond fast enough, rear end them.

This would have made my son pay attention to the in-flight safety movie  In an effort to get people to pay attention to the in-flight safety video, Air New Zealand has created a new one featuring flight attendants that are wearing only body paint.

Every time another salacious detail if the internal machinations of the McCain-Palin campaign comes out I heave a gigantic sigh of relief that those juvenile jackasses took a drubbing at the polls.

Sanford decides to shut up a day too late.  Yesterday he wanted us all to understand the special feelings he had for his soul mate; and today he backed out on his vow to release personal financial records to prove that he had not used state funds for his diddling dalliances.  Don't act so shocked.  Marc is all about breaking vows.  Just ask Jenny.  

Fourteen injured in Staten Island Ferry crash  The NYPD says one of the nine ferry boats that transport people between Staten Island and Lower Manhattan crashed into a pier Wednesday evening.  Fourteen people suffered minor injuries and there was minor damage to the pier but the boat was not damaged.  

Out of time, out of money and out of options, California will send out about 30,000 IOUs on Thursday, totaling more than $53 million - a move that is certain to draw ridicule and cause hardships for business owners and residents across the state.  

The question isn't so much who can govern California - it is why would anyone even want to try?  The state is a mess, it has a kitchen-sink constitution run amok and a tax structure that would make Asterix lose his fucking mind.  Yet Gavin Newsom wants to give it a whirl, dismissing those like me with a pish and a tosh -   "People have been declaring this place on the brink of extinction for decades," he says.  After I read the article, I came away thinking that if anyone can right that particular ship of state, he might just be the guy.  

Help save the jobs of the Stella D'Oro cookie makers  The people who make this iconic item from my childhood are on strike, standing up to union busters who want to force a 26% pay cut on the women who package the cookies and make all employees pay more for their health coverage.  The Stella D'Oro factory has been a fixture in the Bronx for generations, and 136 families rely on the factory for their livelihoods.   At the link you can find out how to help by making a donation to the strike fund and how to send an email to the CEO.  When they tried to switch to a fudge filling that used milk, we stood up en masse and the cookies stayed parve.  Do we care as much about economic justice as we do noshing?  

States sacrifice summer school in face of budget shortfalls  One short year ago schools all over the country were bustling with students and teachers and learning and giving children the structure during long summer days that helps keep them out of trouble.  This year, the kids are channel surfing or hanging out at the mall unattended.  

And you shall know them by their deafening silence

by: Michael Bersin

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 22:43:14 PM CDT    

Why is this an outrage, and this is not? Just asking.

I'm waiting to hear about the second from the same people who were outraged by the first. [crickets]

Photo of Sarah Palin by Brian Adams/Runner's World - via Balloon Juice  (The actual photo at Runner's World is here).

Uh, you're supposed to drape the flag over yourself, not drape it on your bar stool and then lean on it.

Dating from 1993:

UNITED STATES CODE
TITLE 36
CHAPTER 10

§176. Respect for flag

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor...

...(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general....

Okay, Chapter 10, as iterated on the non-governmental site above, is not enforceable.

Because:

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989)

...Especially pertinent to this case are our decisions recognizing the communicative nature of conduct relating to flags. Attaching a peace sign to the flag, Spence, supra, at 418 U.S. 409"]409-410; refusing to salute the flag, Barnette, 319 U.S. at 632; and displaying a red flag, 409-410; refusing to salute the flag, Barnette, 319 U.S. at 632; and displaying a red flag, Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359, [p405] 368-369 (1931), we have held, all may find shelter under the First Amendment. See also Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 588 (1974) (WHITE, J., concurring in judgment) (treating flag "contemptuously" by wearing pants with small flag sewn into their seat is expressive conduct)...

And:

It's Not the Hypocrisy, It's the Sex

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 21:00:00 PM CDT    

Paul Krugman nailed it, in a blog post perfectly titled "Sex and the Married Politician."

From their point of view the cause, the need to police what people do in bed, is, by definition, right, because it's literally God-given. So the fact that some of those trying to police what other people do in bed are themselves doing nasty things does not reflect on the cause itself - on the contrary, it shows just how necessary more bed-snooping is.

It's also notable that conservatives are, in practice, more forgiving of their politicians' sins than liberals. John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer ended their political careers; Ensign and Vitter are still in the Senate, and Newt Gingrich is out there on the Sunday shows, speaking for the GOP. Why? Because where liberals see gross hypocrisy, conservatives see men doing the Lord's work - which partially excuses their own failings. Liberals think that a man who has an affair is worse if he preaches moral values; conservatives think he's better. You might say that as they see it, if he interferes with what enough other people do in bed, it doesn't matter what he does himself.

Heart of a Clown

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 18:23:40 PM CDT    

Here's how that "clown" displayed grace, humility and nobility beyond the ken of subhumans like Inhofe.

Sen.-elect Al Franken (D-MN) just held a victory rally at the Minnesota state Capitol in St. Paul, celebrating his hard-fought and heavily-litigated victory that finally came true yesterday. In some of the most heartfelt terms possible, he thanked his staff, all of his supporters and volunteers, and especially his family -- and paid tribute to a departed friend, the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.

"Well, it was close," he began his remarks, to the laughter of the crowd, alluding to his final certified victory margin of 312 votes out of about 2.9 million. "But we won." And the crowd applauded.

"And when you win an election by this close a margin, you know that not one bit of effort went to waste," he later added. "And so I want to thank every single person who knocked on a door, marched in a parade, made a phone call, gave money, gave time, gave energy, gave of themselves to this effort. Thank all of you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

The longer his speech went on, Franken became more emotional, clearly touched in a very deep way at the amazing victory he has won, and all the effort that other people put into it on his behalf.

"I want to thank our beautiful kids, Joe and Thomasin, who helped out so much and put up with even more during this long campaign. But most of all, most of all, I want to thank their mom," he said. "You know, this September 19th will be the 40th anniversary that Franni and I met at a freshman college mixer. We've been partners ever since, and when we decided to make this effort, I called our friends and said, 'Franni and I are running for the Senate, and if we win, I get to be the Senator.' Well honey, I get to be the Senator. (They hug, as the audience cheers.) I get to be the Senator because of you. This was a historically close race, but it wouldn't have been if it weren't for Franni. I would have lost, by kind of a lot."

Let me see if I have this right…

by: Blue Girl

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 11:08:18 AM CDT    

His exact words were "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama Bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States --- because it's gonna take a grassroots, bottom up pressure -- because these politicians prize their offices, prize the praise of the media, and the Europeans. It's an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary."

What a sick, twisted individual Scheuer is - and Beck, too, because he didn't even feign shock.  He just nodded along in agreement, like the dope he so obviously is.  

These fringe lunatics and the faux noise consuming morons who nod pray to their god for a violent attack against Americans on American soil fancy themselves the patriots and I was unpatriotic for opposing an illegal war in Iraq because I knew we were being lied to and I knew it would be a gigantic clusterfuck that would bleed our military and our treasure for years to come - and I was right, by the way.  I am apparently unAmerican and don't have a patriotic bone in my body because I support the stimulus, cap-and-trade and single payer health care.  

But it's perfectly acceptable to wish for the violent, heinous deaths of thousands of Americans on national television because the fringe loonies don't like the government Americans elected.  

They had their chance, and they blew it

by: Blue Girl

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 07:59:24 AM CDT    

And the bankers - each and every one with a sense of entitlement that ought to be an executable offense -  are positively verklempt at the very notion and are vowing to fight it with everything they have - conveniently glossing over the fact that 'everything they have' is due to the bailouts that saved their asses.  

"It's going to be a huge fight," said Edward L. Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association. "This agency would have broad powers that go beyond every consumer law that has ever been enacted."

The industry's heated reaction presages an intense lobbying battle that is already beginning. Opponents include JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo as well as thousands of regional and local banks that have close ties to lawmakers in every part of the country. But the opposition could also include countless mortgage lenders and independent mortgage brokers...

...Bank executives said they knew they faced a difficult political fight, given the soaring number of homeowners facing foreclosure.

"We know the optics are bad," said Scott Talbott, vice president for government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, a trade association in Washington. "If you are against a consumer regulatory agency, then everybody will say you're against consumer regulation."

The optics are bad.  I think that's an understatement.  Especially when you consider the fact that feckless, greedy idiots like Scott Talbot are directly responsible for the dire strait's the global economy is in because they were on a quest to fuck over as many people as possible during the deregulated heyday that crashed down around all our ears last September.  Yeah, I would say that fighting a consumer protection agency would constitute some bad fucking optics.

If the proposed new agency becomes reality, consumer protection responsibilities that currently reside with the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the Comptroller of the Currency and bank regulators would become the exclusive province of the new agency.   It would have the power to regulate traditional mortgages and have the authority to force lenders to offer those kinds of loans or give consumers the opportunity to opt out of riskier products.

It would also give the new agency the power to restrict or prohibit mortgages that come with hidden fees and steep penalties for borrowers who pay the loan off early. It would also be empowered to interpret and enforce the new credit card law that Congress passed last month, aimed at restricting banks from arbitrarily raising interest rates.

It would also have examiners, much like existing bank regulatory agencies, who would have the authority to go into specific institutions, issue subpoenas and scrutinize their practices, demand changes and seek penalties.

Administration officials said the proposal would create a "level playing field" and provide the same regulation for particular consumer products regardless of what kind of financial institution was selling them.

By contrast, existing regulators have authority over only particular kinds of financial institutions. The office of the Comptroller of the Currency regulates national banks, while the Fed supervises bank holding companies.

"The agency will be able to get to the root of the mortgage crisis that we saw in the past," said Michael Barr, assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions. "It will be able to go in to examine, supervise the operations of previously unregulated parts of the sector."

I,. for one, like the idea and think it is long overdue.  We have had three decades of banking deregulation and the Scott Talbots of the world had their chance to self-regulate and self-police, and they failed miserably.  So I am in no mood to hear them whining now.  

Another Chance for ENDA

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 06:01:01 AM CDT    

Hilzoy explains.

A few days ago, Barney Frank introduced HR 2981, a new version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which bans employment discrimination against anyone on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Unlike last time, this bill includes protections for transmen and transwomen. That's the good news.

The bad news is that, according to drjillygirl at Pam's House Blend, not enough Democrats are on board to pass the bill. As of two days ago, 48 Democrats are undecided on ENDA. They are:

Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL), Vic Snyder (AR), Dennis Cardoza (CA), Allen Boyd, (FL), Sanford Bishop (GA), David Scott (GA), Walt Minnick (ID), Bobby Rush (IL), Daniel Lipinksi (IL), Deborah Halvorsen (IL), Jerry Costello (IL), Peter Visclosky (IN), Joe Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Ben Chandler (KY), Frank Kratovil (MD), Dutch Ruppersberger (MD), Bart Stupak (MI), Mark Schauer (MI), Travis Childers (MS), Bennie Thompson (MS), Dina Titus (NV), Michael McMahon (NY), Scott Murphy (NY), Paul Tonko (NY), Daniel Maffei (NY), Earl Pomeroy (ND), Dan Boren (OK), Kathleen Dahlkemper (PA), Jason Altmire (PA), Christopher Carney (PA), Paul Kanjorski (PA), John Murtha (PA), John Spratt (SC), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Al Green (TX), Solomon Ortiz (TX), Henry Cuellar (TX), Gene Green (TX), Glenn Nye (VA), Bobby Scott (VA), Thomas Perriello (VA), Rick Boucher (VA), Gerald Connolly (VA), Alan Mollohan (WV), Ron Kind (WI), David Obey (WI).

You can find their email addresses here.

This should not be a hard bill to pass. The idea that people should not be able to lose their jobs because they are gay or transgender should not be controversial. For some reason that I do not understand, however, it seems to be.

And it's really, really important. This might be our best shot at getting protection from employment discrimination for a lot of people who need it. It might also be our best shot at getting a bill passed that includes protection for transmen and transwomen. This really matters: my best stab at explaining why is here. Altogether too often, the burden of educating people about trans issues, and advocating for their rights, falls on trans people themselves. As I try to explain in that post, this is not fair. And now is a good time for those of us who are not trans to step up to the plate and explain to our representatives why this matters to us.

It's not 1966 anymore. There is no excuse for the fact that it is still legal to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. If your Representative is still on the fence, let him or her know how you feel.

Snowe's Trigger Fraud

by: Yellow Dog

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 05:38:00 AM CDT    

Brian Beutler reports that the moderate Maine republican is trying to revive the idea of tying the public option in health care reform to a bad-outcome trigger.

This idea sort of came and went a few weeks ago, but some legislators just can't let it go. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)--a potentially key moderate on the Senate Finance Committee--hasn't forsworn signing on to a health reform bill that includes a public option. But she's holding out to see it affixed to a "trigger mechanism," which would, in theory, give insurance companies a years-long window to lower costs on their own and only "trigger" the public option if they failed to do so.

"If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes head-to-head and competes with the private health insurance market ... the public option will have significant price advantages," Snowe said. But this was her argument against making the public option available as soon as the bill becomes law.

It's a reminder of why this policy debate has been so frustrating -- a few too many of those involved believe we must avoid positive developments.

As you've probably heard, a public option would improve the system by lowering costs, expanding access, and using competition to improve efficiency. Those who like the idea of a "trigger" argue that if we pass a reform package and private insurers can lower costs, expand access, and improve efficiency on their own, we wouldn't need a public option. It's better, they say, to wait for the system to get really awful before utilizing a public option to make things better.

The problem should be obvious: if proponents of such an idea realize that a public option would necessarily improve the overall system -- and they must, otherwise there would be no need for the trigger to kick in when things got even worse -- then why deliberately delay implementation of the part of the policy that lawmakers already realize would help?

Or, put another way, if Snowe knows a public option is a good idea, there's no reason to push it off to some arbitrary date in the future, as the system deteriorates in the interim.

The Nightowl Newswrap

by: Blue Girl

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 23:30:00 PM CDT    

Judge revokes Stanford's bond  Federal Judge David Hittner revoked the bond for billionaire swindler R. Allen Stanford on Tuesday, agreeing with prosecutors that Stanford was a flight risk, having fled to avoid arrest when the feds started to close in on him, and possessing the means and the motive to do so again.

The powers that be in Iran have to be nervous  How could they not be? They were part and parcel of the 1979 revolution that brought them to power, and they know it was not a two week struggle - the first huge street protests took place in 1978, and the American embassy was overthrown in November 1979.  They have to know that there is a process in motion that is not likely to prove stoppable, and the more they use the brutal tactics that were used against them for the sole reason of retaining power - those who oppose them will draw strength from the righteousness of their cause, just like they did thirty years ago.  

Geraldo and Bill O scheme to up the body count  On The Factor Monday night Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly discussed the ridiculously light 1-year sentence handed down to a child rapist, but the light sentence handed down by a court of law doesn't excuse the act of two grown men discussing the pros and cons of vigilantism and cold-blooded murder on national television.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul is rarely sound financial strategy and that is pretty much what GM did when they retired a bunch of young pensioners in an effort to shrink their work force and avoid paying severance packages.  Pretty spiffy way to sell a raid on the pension fund, huh?

What Melissa Said  There are lots and lots and lots of reasons - scads of reasons - a veritable beggars banquet of reasons -  to hate Sarah Palin with a white-hot intensity that resonates in every fiber of your being.  So why did Vanity Fair have to bring the misogyny?

I would imagine there is a causal link here somewhere  As the feds started targeting Wall Street, the financial sector dialed back the amount of money they were spending on lobbying and shelling out in campaign contributions.

The tensions between the fired IG and his staff predate the Obama administration  Lawmakers who expressed concerns over the firing of Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General fired by the Obama administration in early June received a new batch of documents this week that paint a picture of a petty and confrontational relationship between Walpin, who was appointed by George W. Bush, and officials at the Corporation for National and Community Service that went back several years.  In fact, the picture that emerges in my mind is one of a Bush sycophant who was there to serve the previous president, not the greater good, which is what IGs are supposed to do.  

Marc Sanford keeps digging  He had a golden opportunity to step back, shut up and try to reclaim a shred of dignity by keeping his big mouth shut after the sudden death of Michael Jackson sucked the oxygen out of the story about his sordid dalliance with an Argentinian woman.  But he can't seem to stop digging.  Now he is confessing to additional meetings with her, as well as to 'crossing lines' with other women who were neither his wife not his mistress 'soul mate.   Yes - that is what he called her - but he also said he is 'trying to fall back in love with' his wife.  

But since he can't stop talking the state Attorney General is looking into his affair.  "In light of the governor's disclosure of additional travel today, I have requested that SLED [State Law Enforcement Division] conduct a preliminary review of all Governor Sanford's travel records to determine if any laws have been broken or any state funds misused," Attorney General Henry McMaster said in a statement.

National Guard moves to oust Choi 1LT Daniel Choi, who was catapulted to national prominence in March when he came out on the Rachel Maddow show, learned today that a panel of New York National Guard officers has recommended that he must leave the service.  "It's disappointing, but not unexpected," said Sue Fulton, a spokeswoman for Knights Out, a group of gay and lesbian West Point alumni Choi helped found. Fulton said the Guard's Federal Recognition Board heard from members of Choi's unit, his commanding officer and fellow soldiers who served in Iraq, and reviewed more than 150 letters of support for Choi, a 2003 West Point graduate and an Arab linguist. "At the end of the day, they did not consider any of that material [to] whether he was a good soldier," she said. "It was solely about whether he said he was gay."

They have to have an ulterior motive  Wal-Mart broke with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the business community on Tuesday and endorsed a legal requirement that employers be mandated to provide health benefits to their workers.   The cynic in me says that the only reason they are behind it is because they see an opportunity to push competitors out of the marketplace.  Since they are the largest employer in the country and actually have a monopsony in some areas of the marketplace, I imagine they see a chance to do the same thing with health care.  In fact, health insurers ought to look at this development with a sense of panic and get right with the administration and the public option.  At least the government will play fair and follow the rules.  Wal-Mart?  Not so much.

Another chance for 'card-check'  And this time, the Democrats might have enough votes for cloture.

There are no republican congressmen from New England since Chris Shays was defeated in November, and the party's dismal presence in the northeast corridor is once of the areas party strategists are focused on for next year, and while there is not much hope of a resurgence next year without major missteps by President Obama, they are trying to get their ducks in a row so they can capitalize on it if President Obama suddenly turns stupid and starts screwing up right and left.

Health insurance is no guarantee against bankruptcy  A staggering ¾ of people who are pushed into bankruptcy by medical bills were insured at the time they either got sick or were injured.  And this is a statistic that points up that just insuring everyone isn't going to change all that much.  It's a hugely complex problem with myriad factors that have to be addressed.

Even The Economist says reform is necessary  The Economist, you may recall, is a sane conservative magazine.

You know the economy is fucked up when it even affects the Amish.

Remember when you read this that just under half of the people in this country who cast a ballot last November voted for these morons.

*****

The last couple of days of iffy connectivity while I wait for the techs to come tomorrow and fix my internets have, by forcing me to push back from the table for a few days, set me to thinking.  I have decided that for the next few weeks, I will be blogging on something of a summer schedule.  It would be enough that this is the last summer before my one and only grandchild goes to school and I am simultaneously getting her on a schedule and soaking up the last of her preschool innocence, but there is another side to it, too.  I have been busting my ass pretty much non-stop for three years, rarely taking a day off.  In fact, I have taken more time off since November when my friend Alison came to visit for a few days than I had taken in over two years.  When the 2006 midterms got down to business, so did I, and I kept up the seven-day-a-week pace until Barack Obama was elected last November.  It occurred to me today that in less than six weeks I am leaving for Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, and when I get back it will be time to get busy blogging the midterms again, which will mean I have been blogging full-time-plus for four years, and I have taken less than two weeks off, most of them in the last eight months.  Therefore I am going to take it easy and enjoy the rest of my summer with Zoe.  What this means for the blog is me cutting back to the nightly roundup and one or two posts a day, tops,  for the time being.  

This is still the best job I have ever had, and I want it to keep being fun.   I also want a hat-trick of election cycles, and that is going to take fourteen intense months of hard work.  I want to head into it refreshed and ready.  

Penrose On Politics: Sanford's Travels

by: penrose

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 23:19:36 PM CDT