Don't forget to listen to the Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk show heard Saturday at 9:00 AM PST. On the show this week we have Paul Waldman of Media Matters and Independent Presidential candidate Brad Lord -Leutwyler.
Don't forget Saturday at 9:00 AM PST listen live at Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk
How much is your life worth? How about the life of a spouse, a child or a parent? Have you ever wondered what your hearing or the ability to walk is worth? These questions and many more like them are being asked everyday as Americans face the price of health care.
Many economists are studying the price of a person's health to determine just how much the average person will pay for the use of dominant body parts. These studies will determine whether or not a new medicine or treatment is worth the cost.
Health care technology and health care treatment in general continues to become more and more expensive. These skyrocketing costs have become an unbearable burden on patients, taxpayers and employers.
Many countries such as Britain and France use the method of cost-effectiveness of treatments to determine which drugs and methods to cover. The U.S has been hesitant to limit health care due to the cost and benefits of each treatment. That decision may be quickly changing.
Studies have shown that Americans place the value of a year of their lives between $100,000 and $300,000, according to research at Tufts-New England Medical Center, that has measured the cost-effectiveness of treatments.
It typically costs $70,000 a year to keep a patient alive with dialysis. Dialysis directly saves lives but many other treatments lessen pain, ease depression and enable mobility of limbs, which improve the quality of live, not necessarily lengthen it.
Several tests are being developed to determine whether or not treatments should be used or allow the patient to risk suffering and death. Since patients typically adjust to their present conditions, this ensuring that they will be more tolerant of their diseases and less likely to be given treatment to lessen the severity of the illness.
Once the ranking is established on the costs of different diseases, a determination will be made as to the worthiness of a certain treatment. If the treatment is not cost-effective in comparison to the quality of the life, that treatment will not be used.
As the Bush administration continues to allow insurance companies to dictate the spiraling costs of health care, and the drug companies to have free reign over prescription costs, health care rationing is the next step in eliminating the rights of a patient.
Once again ask yourselves the simple question, how much is the life, the mobility, the ability to hear or see worth to you or your spouse, child or parent? If something isn't done about the rising cost of health care, that is a decision we all will face sooner than we think.
The Us government has two different levels of human lives,
ReplyDeleteThey paid about 1.5 million dollars to each 9-11 victim's families, but only about 2500 dollars to the victims of US agression in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Must be due to outsourcing or something.....
I cannot believe they are wanting to ration treatment for patients according to how much their life is worth. This is very cruel
ReplyDeleteClif:
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken not all the 9/11 families received such compensation. I think some received considerably less.
Larry that was something of an average If I remember right.
ReplyDeleteClif:
ReplyDeleteI might be thinking of the families who didn't take the settlement, but pursued legal action.
Michael Moore's new movie Sicko details the healthcare problems in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteSicko is a documentary that highlights the problems and catastrophes with the American Healthcare system. The film profiles several ordinary Americans whose lives have been disrupted, shattered and in some cases ended because of the healthcare catastrophe.
The film highlights that the crisis doesn’t only affect the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, but the millions of other citizens who pay their premiums only to get strangled by the bureaucratic red tape.
Sicko details how the American healthcare system came to be such a mess and highlights countries around the world where all citizens receive free healthcare, including Canada, Great Britain and France. The film also shows how 9/11 rescue volunteers who now suffer from debilitating illnesses have been denied medical attention.
Would some Chimpleton like to tell us all again how great our system is?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they can say that here Jolly.
ReplyDeleteThe Repugs have failing health from nasty foot in the mouth syndrome.
Larry you mean a health care system which allowed a woman to DIE on an emergency room floor in Los Angeles this week because she wasn't the right race and didn't have a large enough bank account?
ReplyDeleteClif:
ReplyDeleteI saw that and the police dispatcher wasn't any better than the hospital.
The police do respond to their corporate masters just like the hospital workers do.
ReplyDeleteThis cop in LA proved that to be true. He was arrogant and didn't want to give her the time of day.
ReplyDeleteIf there are 47 million people without insurance I wonder how many are underinsured which is nearly as bad
ReplyDeleteI guess it is really about how much money the insurance industry and the bankers who back them make just like every other industry, like the military industrial complex, human lives are just another line on the debt to profit ratio in both the war industry and health care industry.
ReplyDeleteIt has become increasingly evident that human beings are a mere means to and end,in both the military and in healthcare for Americans.
ReplyDeleteThe price of living:
ReplyDeleteThis tale was told by a man at a transplant support group. He said he didn’t go on the kidney list, but instead put up an ad on Craig’s List. And he found a used kidney in Texas.
He insisted that it was a not for profit agreement, just for the medical expenses. The seller was not feeling well, but his wife said she’d do it instead (luckily for our patient). He returned to his home area, where the doctors take care of him whether they agree with having a marketplace for organs, or not. I hope his donor is happy with his $20K.
Shia and Sunni mosques hit in day of destruction
ReplyDeleteTension is running high in Iraq tonight after a day of sectarian attacks.
The Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines, has been bombed for a second time in 16 months despite heavy security in what appears to be a planned attack with explosives planted overnight.
Leading Shia clerics called for calm and urged supporters not to mount revenge attacks.
The prime minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed al Qaeda Sunni militants for the bombing.
He announced the arrest of a suspect and ordered the arrest of the guards who were supposed to make the shrine one of Iraq's most secure sites. He also called for calm and imposed an indefinite curfew in Baghdad.
The first bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006 started a nationwide wave of sectarian killing, triggering what many claim is now a civil war.
In the southern city of Najaf, supporters of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani marched to protest against the bombing.
Meanwhile, there have been reports several Sunni mosques have come under attack, and the sacred Sunni shrine in Iskandaria has been totally destroyed in an explosion.
Large numbers of Iraqi soldiers have been deployed in the capital to try to maintain peace.
surge on George....until the heilo lift out of the green zone.......
LOS ANGELES:
ReplyDeleteAn inner-city hospital struggled to survive Wednesday amid a new report of breakdowns in patient care, the replacement of its chief medical officer and an ultimatum to correct long-running problems or close.
Newly released tapes of 911 calls reveal that a woman who lay bleeding on the floor of the emergency room died last month after dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility.
The woman's treatment was "callous, it was a horrible thing," Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke said Wednesday.
The woman's treatment was "callous, it was a horrible thing," Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke said Wednesday.
ReplyDeletewelcome to the Bush approved corporate america......
This is a perfect example
ReplyDeleteJust the profit from the destruction of human life........
ReplyDeleteOops looks like they broke the law;
ReplyDeleteFBI finds it overstepped in collecting data
Internal audit faults national security investigations
An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.
The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling.
They've turned our country into a police state Clif..........GWB is the biggest enemy of freedom this country has EVER seen.
ReplyDeleteAP:
ReplyDeleteThe biggest jump in gasoline prices in six months helped push inflation at the wholesale level higher in May although inflation outside of energy remained well-behaved.
The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices rose by 0.9 percent last month, worse than the 0.6 percent advance that analysts were expecting. The price surge was led by a 10.2 percent jump in gasoline prices.
Another Bush economic hit on consumers.
Three Sunni Muslim mosques were attacked and burned south of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi police said, in apparent reprisal attacks after suspected al Qaeda militants blew up the minarets of a revered Shi'ite shrine.
ReplyDeleteBush's "surge" has really brought peace.
Lydia,
ReplyDeleteJacq has a personal request at the bottom of the previous thread that you really should read.
Punditman<
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insightful post.
I'm not talking about "desires."
check out spirituality.com
The blind man can see, the person with cancer is completely fine... these testimonies are true because they appeal to a higher law.
This is a completely different kind of "prayer" or "god" than the kind you might be thinking of.
Manifesting one's desires can work temporarily, but it is based on human will, forcing things without concern for the common good. This is ego-centered.
I like the Buddhist philosophy, which does away with excess "desire." Our excessive desires fall away as we appeal to the higher laws. Ironically, when we're not demanding our egos to be gratified, and not desperately wanting and yearning for "things," we are in balance, and the things we wanted often appear in our lives because we are not strangling them with our unbalanced, unhealthy wants.
There is a higher law which even Einstein discovered: 'goodness, truth and beauty' are actually laws of the universe. When you look at life this way, all duality ceases to exist. There is no opposing force; evil, sickness, sin and death have no real power -- despite appearances. (Our physical senses often betray us: the earth seems flat, doesn't seem to spin, etc.)
On a physics level, if you deconstruct an atom, even at it's smallest point, it is still empty space. There is no solid matter. We are actually 'thought', but this may be too much to understand to us as laymen. Sting theory is very exciting...
Healing of physical matter happens at a much higher level, the spiritual level -- which seems intangible and invisible, but is the only thing that's real. Material, physical "reality" is not the reality. Look how quickly matter is snuffed out, decomposes. Just because you can touch it, doesn't mean it's more real than the invisible, intangible, spiritual qualities that underly all life: love, thought, joy, ideas, etc.
Raising your thoughts to a higher consciousness (love) manifests in physical healing, but guess what? It was really all good to begin with. You are just changing your perception and unveiling the good already there.
Actually the 12-step programs are miraculous way to start. Then branch out from there.
The most consistent place I've seen actual character change,people at death's doorstep being completely transformed from sickness and physical cravings -- are in 12-step programs, which are actually prayer groups, or in Mary Baker Eddy's discovery -- which explains how Christ healed.
Jacq - I can't access your blog to leave you a message, but I will pray for your mother, seeing her already in divine perfection.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you,
Love
Lydia
Punditman... continued:
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what any analysts of "new thought" say, firsthand experience is the only way to go.
Or, as Herbert Spencer said (to paraphrase:) "Nothing will keep a man in everlasting ignorance as much as 'contempt prior to investigation.'
I have personally had so many mind-boggling, spine-tingling "healings" that there is no denying this law works for everything in life. But it is not about "faith" as you say. It involves a completely different way at looking at things.
Intellectual analysis has no way of accessing or critiquing such a thing. But skeptics will forever keep trying.
I am so glad I am finally putting this to use.
Jacq - I am praying for your mother in gratitude for the healing that is already unfolding
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to take a firm stand and guard your thoughts; se your mother in perfect health.
Love
Lydia
Where is that mischievous Worf, with all his 4-letter words?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that everyone has tried to watch their language, except Mike and Worf.
ReplyDeleteSkooter goes to prison. But Cheney is the one who should be in prison.
ReplyDeleteLarry, Congrats on an excellent article. As one of the 47 million uninsured, I know that my life has zero value to the Bush regime.
ReplyDeleteIf you aren't p*ss3d off enough yet today, try this on for an extra 10 or 20 blood pressure points.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot tolerate any further destruction of the underpinnings of the society. This has to stop.
Holly,
ReplyDeleteIf you look at it that way, that they are rationing health care based on the value of someone's life, you will end up ignoring the flip side of the equation.
How much of the effort and medicine of the, say, $100,000 it might cost to extend my life one year could be used to save another four people who are in slightly better shape than I am?
Larry, Great article, the Democrats appear to be making heathcare a campaign issue so it is something we need to docus on more. particularly when a huge portion does not have medical coverage and another large portion cant afford the coverage and medicines they currently need/have.
ReplyDeleteMedical coverage should not be just for the wealthy!
On an unrelated note, the Euro has fallen substantially while the dollar has risen, in fact the Euro was at almost 1.37 a few weeks ago and has since fallen to the 1.33's.............now since our deficit is growing exponentially and the economy has slowed to near recession, we have record mortgage defaults and short term interest rates have not risen............so there is no reason for the value of the dollar to rise unless it is being managed and the fed is printing money to fund our debts and prop up the dollar along with Japan, China and the Saudi's to keep the game going a while longer.
ReplyDeleteLydia Cornell said...
ReplyDeleteSkooter goes to prison. But Cheney is the one who should be in prison."
Cheney, along with Rove, Gonzalez, Bush etc......
Oh look, Troll Tex is using multiple sock puppets again to try to derail the discussion or else Moo Moo is such a pathetic looser he's even impersonating other trolls now.
ReplyDeleteLibby prison sentence delay denied
ReplyDeleteJudge was threatened following sentencing
BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the CIA leak case, a ruling that could send the former White House aide to prison within weeks.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's decision will send Libby's attorneys rushing to an appeals court to block the sentence and could force President Bush to consider calls from Libby's supporters to pardon the former aide
No date was set for Libby to report to prison but it's expected to be within six to eight weeks. That will be left up to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which will also select a facility.
Judicial threats
He also said he received several "angry, harassing, mean-spirited" letters and phone calls following his sentencing but said they wouldn't factor into his decision.
Libby is the highest ranking government official ordered to prison since the Iran Contra affair. His monthlong trial offered a rare glimpse into the White House in the early days of the Iraq war.
Trial testimony showed that Cheney was eager to beat back criticism of prewar intelligence. One of the administration's most outspoken critics in mid-2003 was former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Amid a flury of news coverage of that criticism, Bush administration officials leaked to reporters that fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked as an undercover analyst for CIA. That disclosure in a syndicated newspaper column touched off a leak investigation that brought senior White House officials, including Bush and Cheney, in for questioning.
Libby argued he had a good chance of persuading an appeals court that, when Attorney General John Ashcroft and other senior Justice Department officials recused themselves from the leak investigation, they gave Fitzgerald unconstitutional and unchecked authority.
Walton was skeptical, saying the alternative was to put someone with White House ties in charge of an investigation into the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Click for related content
Libby seeks same relief Martha Stewart got
Fitzgerald wants Libby imprisoned immediately
Libby files to stay prison sentence until appeal
"If that's going to be how we have to operate, our system is going to be in serious trouble with the average Joe on the street who thinks the system is unfair already," Walton said.
Libby's newly formed appellate team -- Lawrence S. Robbins and Mark Stancil -- will seek an emergency order delaying the sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is not sitting right now, however, and attorneys worried about how fast the request would be heard.
The appeals court has several conservative jurists, but that doesn't necessarily mean Libby will get a pass. Walton is a Republican judge whom Bush put on the bench in his first term.
Shows how far the rule of law has been compromised wehen a sitting judge is threatened by partisan cronnies because they dont like his ruling.
ReplyDeleteMike said...
ReplyDeleteOh look, Troll Tex is using multiple sock puppets again to try to derail the discussion or else Moo Moo is such a pathetic looser he's even impersonating other trolls now.
12:38 PM
I was just commenting on your vulgar language, that's all.
ReplyDeleteLike Dick Cheney's telling Senator Patrick Leahy to go F%$K himself?
Or George Bush's telling Tony snow the Syrians need to tell Hezbollah to cut the shit out?
Remember the FCC was told if the self processed moral leadership of the country do it, the rest of us have the same right Tiny the Liar.
Now about lying and welshing on a bet son?
BTW Tiny The Liar isn't it funny the people who supported Saddam who supposedly was in league with Al Qaeda(if you can believe anything Cheney ever says) suddenly want them out of Iraq since they never were in Iraq when Saddam was in charge?
ReplyDeleteJohn in the Boro on dogs, and tails.
John in the Boro wrote this to comment on "Temporary Friends" and one of Jonst's thoughts on that piece. I think this comment conveys something that is key to the discussion. pl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"“jonst,
Methinks the dog hath caught his tail. Pray he does not choke upon it.
Irony indeed.”
Jonst writes: “Sure, go ahead and use whomever, if it will get us out sooner and safer. It might be asked however, whether announcing, and acknowledging, indeed, trumpeting, this apparent change of 'stomach' is helpful, in the utilitarian sense, to the ostensibly desired goal. But in any event the deed is done. And lets leave it to 'dextox counselors to point out delicious irony of having those, who assured us of a connection between Saddam, and his sunni tribal kin, with AQ, now pay said same kin, essentially, to go after the so called AQ of Mesopotamia.
That recognition of that irony (to the extent they are capable of recognizing irony in general) will however, make for a long stay in detox I suspect.”
The comment I made refers to the disconnect of whatever it is that the Bush administration is trying to accomplish in Iraq and what the military in Iraq does to implement that vision. It seems to me that the military has been chasing a rather ambiguous, ideologically framed, goal (the dog’s tail aka Bush’s vision). When the military fastens on an operational or tactical strategy, the strategy comes up short back in DC. It must be exasperating for the military to have a boss who says, “I don’t know what I want exactly, but I’ll recognize it when I see it”
(choking on the tail). jonst touches this in his comments. The efforts of the military in Iraq to find common ground with Sunni tribes against foreign fighters is another instance of the military adopting a strategy—a praiseworthy effort in my opinion—that would mesh nicely with a wide range of other actions, political and military. The question for me is does this comport with “the whole neocon thesis about the Middle East?” That thesis is long on “Calvinist [Straussian] assumptions” and short on pragmatism, realism, ground truth, and transparency. Will the “commander guy” allow the military commanders on the ground to continue dealing with the tribes, or will he and his entourage denounce the action and impose another catchy slogan? Mind you, I am not a member of the “stabbed in the back” gang. I think Bush’s administration has made a mess out of our foreign relations and has not been forthright in its actions. The military has been given an endless mission in Iraq.
*************************************
Sounds like they are still making it all up as they go along doesn't it?
Tiny the Liar about that bet YOU owe son?
ReplyDeleteWell Troll Tex, I was going to delete the rubbish your sockpuppets are posting.............but on second thought thanks for upping the post count loser............however if you get vulgar i'll shut your mouth real quick.
ReplyDeleteSee you have no power here, you can either play by the rules and discuss the issues and add to the post count or else you'll get shut up real quick.
Larry:
ReplyDeleteGreat article!!
A few days ago TT wrote;
ReplyDeleteMy blogger account number is:
http://www.blogger.com/profile/14165567672127566894
If someone posts using "TalllTexan," or some variation thereof, you can be assured it is not me.
Here is the blogger ID he was commenting on;
http://www.blogger.com/profile/08762195292111309853
Here is the blogger ID of today's fraud....
http://www.blogger.com/profile/08947950243395806125
Sorry foole but the blogger ID does not lie and YOU can't make it lie....
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf you say so Clif, then you are correct
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lydia. So very much.
ReplyDeleteLydia,
ReplyDeleteEmail me at:
sur_le_bord@yahoo.com
I will add you to my list of readers if you like.
Hello Lydia and everyone;
ReplyDeleteI discovered this site after reading an article by one of your contributors on another site.
I enjoyed your spiritual comments Lydia; and have found them very inspiring.
I have read The Secret and found it to be very engaging; but I must admit I haven't quite grasped the full context of it yet.
A Pyrrhic Victory For The Fed
ReplyDeleteMichael Pento
June 13, 2007
The recent sell-off in equity prices illustrates how vulnerable markets are to higher interest rates. It is my contention that the catalyst for the correction had more to do with Syria and Kuwait dropping their peg to the dollar than some epiphany from investors that the U.S. has entered into a secular trend of robust G.D.P. growth; regardless, the questions of particular saliency now are: how high will rates go? Why must they go higher at all? And does the Fed really target economic growth when it raises the Fed Funds rate?
To answer these questions we'll start by asking another question: why are MZM (money of zero maturity) and M3 rising at 8% and 11%, respectively, when the monetary base has remained unchanged? The answer to that question is that of the three tools the Fed has at its disposal, the only one with any teeth is its ability to raise interest rates.
Raising reserve requirements and open market operations have limited impact on money supply since current policy dictates that only transactional deposits are subject to reserve requirements. Not only can banks borrow from the Fed to meet those requirements, but since there is no reserve requirement at all on time deposits, those funds can be loaned out an infinite number of times. This leaves the Fed with one tool for fighting excessive monetary growth: raising interest rates high enough to choke off consumer demand for borrowing.
When the Fed says it is worried about growth causing inflation, it is actually concerned with growth in the money supply causing inflation. They must be aware that real and productive growth in the economy cannot cause inflation, as there would be more goods and services to absorb any concomitant increase in monetary growth.
Due to our fiscal policies along with help from the Fed and banks, we now have an intractable and growing inflation problem. But we have seen this situation occur before and thanks to a responsible Chairman like Paul Volker, inflation was tamed with a painful-but short-lived-economic disruption.
Back in 1981 he was forced to raise the Fed Funds rate to 19% to soak up the superfluous liquidity. The resulting two-year recession was indeed painful as the U.S. economy suffered the most since the Great Depression. However, by 1984 the economy had turned the corner and so began secular bull market in equities and bonds. I must clearly state that I don't see inflation or interest rates rising to anywhere near the levels seen in the early '80s in the very near future, nor do I believe the direction for interest rates will be straight up-especially in view of the continued housing recession, which should lead to below trend growth for the next few quarters. That being said, the scenario which could unfold in only a few more years is especially troubling.
Secular Bear Market for Bonds
As I have stated before, I believe we have entered into a multi-decade bear market for fixed income that is only beginning. Not only are rates cheap in historical terms but longer term trends in the U.S. dollar, inflation and debt should lead to an upward trend in yields. Perhaps as early as the beginning of the next decade, these fiscal and monetary imbalances will engender inflationary levels exceeding those experienced by any other generation. The Fed will be forced to follow the yield curve higher using its only real method they have for fighting inflation: higher rates. There is little doubt how the economy will fare this time while the U.S. is saddled with record amounts of debt and rates are rising.
Unlike in the early 80's,--when the U.S. was relatively unburdened by debt-America now stands as the world's largest debtor nation. Our national debt is now approaching $9 trillion dollars and the projected debt is over $59 trillion, which includes obligations for Medicare and Social Security (Source:USA Today). Debt as a percentage of G.D.P. now stands at over 65%. Back in the halcyon days of 1981 debt stood at just 32.5% of G.D.P.
Victory at What Cost?
How high will rates go over the next decade is anyone's guess but it seems clear that today's 5.25% is not high enough to retard the rate of monetary growth. The ramifications of much higher rates on an economy with such onerous debt burdens as ours are troubling. Imagine also what the effects will be for equities as borrowing becomes too expensive for private equity deals to be consummated while earnings fall under the weight of contracting G.D.P.
Since the Fed has teamed with banks to inflate the economy and money supply, they will be forced to either let inflation rates soar or raise rates to such a level that causes a recession much worse than experienced in the early 80's. I have my doubts whether the Fed has the will to stick to its mandate of price stability, but if it does, we will all find that the cost of vanquishing inflation comes at a great expense for the economy. Then the Fed, like General Pyrrhus of Epirus after an early victory against the Romans in 280 B.C., may be forced to say "One more victory like that will destroy us completely."
Michael Pento
Senior Market Strategist
Delta Global Advisors, Inc.
866.424.9070
As more private equity firms purchase U.S corporations for a cheap price, highly mortgage the companies, restructure which includes going after workers wages and benefits, then sell off the assets in 5 years, will only drive interest rates further in the tank as bankruptcies rise.
ReplyDeleteThe number of residential mortgages going into foreclosure hit a record in the first quarter of the year, with the biggest increases coming in the so-called "subprime" market of borrowers with weaker credit histories.
ReplyDeleteForeclosure rates were highest in a handful of states where home prices and sales surged during the boom, including California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona.
Is this the Bush economic boom?
At least 3,515 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
ReplyDeleteThe figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,885 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Need I say more!
Larry the talkings heads on CNBC keep talking about all the private equity deals as if they signify some kind of healthy stock market boom...........I see it as just the opposite they see a market top and a severe crash/recession coming and see the democrats coming to power and restoring oversight and want to take the company private to avoid regulations and extreme devaluations and redemtions of the stock.
ReplyDeletePrivate equity firms are nothing more than slash and burn.
ReplyDeleteThey buy at a low cost, rape the workforce of wages and benefits, sell off the assets in a short period and leave the company and its workforce devasted.
Tony Snow was asked in a press conference if Bush has any family memnbers in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteSnow's reply was "President Bush is on the front lines in Iraq everyday."
Bush hasn't the balls to step his worthless big toe outside the confines of the green zone.
After taking on risky adjustable-rate loans or multiple mortgages to pay less upfront during the housing boom, borrowers with limited capital for down payments are increasingly opting for safer fixed-rate mortgages backed by private mortgage insurance.
ReplyDeleteApplications for private mortgage insurance, or PMI, rose 56 percent to 191,525 in March from February, according to the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, an industry trade group. Volume fell in April, but remained well above rates from last year.
Yeah his lies and treasonous policies putting our soldiers in harms way are there every day!
ReplyDeleteAbout 27,000 U.S. hourly workers have left Ford Motor Co. under buyout or early retirement offers, the automaker said Thursday.
ReplyDeleteFord offered the packages last year to reduce its work force to match lower demand for its cars and trucks.
Initially about 37,000 workers signed up for the offers, but not all have left the company, it said. Ford has until September to phase in the departures as it closes plants under a restructuring plan, and some of the workers could change their minds and stay with the company.
Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said about half the 27,000 who left were not eligible for retirement, which will reduce the company's long-term retiree health care liabilities. At the end of 2006, Ford's unfunded retiree health care and life insurance liability was $25.9 billion, according to its annual report.
The American Auto Industry will never be the same.
Sorry for the non-sequiters Mike, I will try and not do anymore.
ReplyDeleteI recently heard mortgage forclosures are up 90% from last year and since 35%-40% of Jobs are housing related that does not bode well for unemployment numbers.
ReplyDeleteThe housing industry covers a wide array of jobs that each have a ripple affect on another industry.
ReplyDeleteIsnt it interesting that Libby was sentenced to go immediately to jail but given at least 8 weeks..........since when does 8 weeks become immediately?
ReplyDeleteIt looks almost like they are gonna let him remain free until his appeal or close to it..........do you think if they sentenced me to jail immediately they would give me at least 8 weeks?
Bush will pardon him anyway, he's an arrogant crimminal who thinks he's above the law and who does as he pleases and spits on justice and the rule of law.
Anyone else would receive totally different treatment. Bush will pardon him and the media will only show neocons who applaud the effort, as if Bush has done a great thing.
ReplyDeleteLibby is only the tip of the runny nose that needs cleaned out of the government.
Republican president candidate Mitt Romney, who denied every pardon or commutation during his term as Massachusetts governor, said Thursday a pardon for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby deserves a close examination.
ReplyDelete"I took a careful review during my term as governor of the people that were brought forward. That doesn't mean I pardoned them, but I took a careful review. I think this deserves a very careful review," Romney told The Associated Press in a brief interview.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted in March of lying to investigators and obstructing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's inquiry into the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity. A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for Libby in the case.
Speaking with reporters earlier in Chicago, Romney was asked about the possibility of a pardon.
"I think the prosecutor may well have abused prosecutorial discretion by pursuing the investigation after he had learned that the source of the leak was Richard Armitage," Romney said. "He knew that there was, therefore, not a crime committed and yet, he proceeded with the investigation knowing that there was no crime to pursue.
"That abuse of prosecutorial discretion justifies a very careful look," he said.
Gotta take care of the Bush criminals.
The U.S. judge who oversaw the CIA leak trial of a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that he received threatening letters and phone calls after sentencing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to prison.
ReplyDelete"I received a number of angry, harassing mean-spirited phone calls and letters," District Judge Reggie B. Walton said. "Some of those were wishing bad things on me and my family."
Walton made the remarks as he opened a hearing into whether to delay Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence. He said he was holding the letters in case something happened but said they would have no effect on Thursday's decision.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Cheney argues that he should not have to report to prison until his appeals have run out.
Walton has said he is not inclined to grant that request. But even if he rules that way, it is unlikely Libby would be taken away in handcuffs.
Pardon before July 4th? No doubt.
From that liberal rag
ReplyDeleteBusiness week
From Peak Oil To Dark Age?
Oil output has stalled, and it's not clear the capacity exists to raise production
With global oil production virtually stalled in recent years, controversial predictions that the world is fast approaching maximum petroleum output are looking a bit less controversial. At first blush, those concerned about global warming should be delighted. After all, what better way to prod the move toward carbon-free, climate-friendly alternative energy?
But climate change activists have nothing to cheer about. The U.S. is completely unprepared for peak oil, as it's called, and the wrenching adjustments it would entail could easily accelerate global warming as nations turn to coal (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/19/07, "Rx for Earth: Sooner Not Later"). Moreover, regardless of the implications for climate change, peak oil represents a mortal threat to the U.S. economy.
Peak oil refers to the point at which world oil production plateaus before beginning to decline as depletion of the world's remaining reserves offsets ever-increased drilling. Some experts argue that we're already there, and that we won't exceed by much the daily production high of 84.5 million barrels first reached in 2005. If so, global production will bump along near these levels for years before beginning an inexorable decline.
What would that mean? Alternatives are still a decade away from meeting incremental demand for oil. With nothing to fill the gap, global economic growth would slow, stop, and then reverse; international tensions would soar as nations seek access to diminishing supplies, enriching autocratic rulers in unstable oil states; and, unless other sources of energy could be ramped up with extreme haste, the world could plunge into a new Dark Age. Even as faltering economies burned less oil, carbon loading of the atmosphere might accelerate as countries turn to vastly dirtier coal.
GIVEN SUCH UNPLEASANT possibilities, you'd think peak oil would be a national obsession. But policymakers can hide behind the possibility that vast troves will be available from unconventional sources, or that secretive oil-exporting nations really have the huge reserves they claim. Yet even if those who say that the peak has arrived are wrong, enough disturbing omens—for example, declining production in most of the world's great oil fields and no new superfields to take up the slack—exist for the issue to merit an intense international focus.
The reality is that it will be here much sooner for the U.S.—in the form of peak oil exports. Since we import nearly two-thirds of the oil we consume, global oil available for export should be our bigger concern. Fast-growing domestic consumption in oil-exporting nations and increasing appetites by big importers such as China portend tighter supplies available to the U.S., unless world production rises rapidly. But output has stalled. Call it de facto peak oil or peak oil lite. It means the U.S. is entering an age when it will have to scramble to maintain existing import levels.
We will know soon enough whether the capacity to raise production really exists. If not, basic math and the clock tell the story. All alternatives—geothermal, solar, wind, etc.—produce only 3% of the energy supplied by oil. If oil demand rises by 2% while output remains flat, generation of alternative energy would have to expand 60% a year. That's more than twice the rate of wind power, the fastest-growing alternative energy. And all this incremental energy would somehow have to be delivered to transportation (which consumes most of the oil produced each year) just to stay even with the growth in demand.
Nuclear and hydropower together produce 10 times the power of wind, geothermal, and solar power. But even if nations ignore environmental concerns, it takes years to build nuclear plants or even identify suitable undammed rivers.
There are many things we in the U.S. can do (and should have been doing) other than the present policy of crossing our fingers. If an oil tax makes sense from a climate change perspective, it seems doubly worthy if it extends supplies. Boosting efficiency and scaling up alternatives must also be a priority. And, recognizing that nations will turn to cheap coal (recently, 80% of growth in coal use has come from China), more work is needed to defang this fuel, which produces more carbon dioxide per ton than any other energy source.
Even if the peakists are wrong, we would still be better off taking these actions. And if they're right, major efforts right now may be the only way to avert a new Dark Age in an overheated world.
we won't exceed by much the daily production high of 84.5 million barrels first reached in 2005
ReplyDeleteHey dead eye how did that secret energy task force of 2001 work out?
Five more U.S soldiers were killed today in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteAnd the "surge" goes on.
Two suicide attackers blew themselves up near NATO convoys in southern Afghanistan Friday, one of them killing five children and wounding two foreign soldiers, Afghan officials said.
ReplyDeleteNATO's International Security Assistance Force said it was aware of an incident in the south of the country involving ISAF casualties but had no details.
Didn't Bush claim he won that war?
The Justice Department is investigating whether Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sought to improperly influence the testimony of a departing senior aide, two of its senior officials said yesterday, adding a new dimension to the troubles already besetting the nation's chief law enforcement official.
ReplyDeleteWill Bush's Justice dept find anything wrong with what Gonzales did? No it is all for show.
Rates on 30-year mortgages rose for a fifth straight week, hitting the highest level in 11 months as prospects dimmed further for possible rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
ReplyDeleteMore of the Bush economy.
BAGHDAD:
ReplyDeleteA citywide clampdown emptied Baghdad's streets of all vehicles Thursday in attempts to hold off what authorities dread: a storm of Shiite attacks in revenge for the bombing of one of their main shrines. The tactic appeared to keep a lid on widespread violence, but extremists fired shells into the city's protected Green Zone during a visit by the State Department's No. 2 official.
The barrage of rockets and mortars included one that hit on a street close to the Iraq parliament less than a half hour before Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte passed nearby.
Safety in Iraq. Bush style!
Check out Jolly Rogers new blog. It has a nice look and runs much faster than the old version.
ReplyDeleteJolly Roger - who did your new blog? Very cool.
ReplyDeleteHey I heard that Bush would be breaking protocol if he pardoned Libby before Libby apologized and was "contrite" (according to the Constitution, presidential powers, etc.) and normally a person isn't pardoned until they've served some time (5 years it says!)
But mainly, it would look bad if Bush pardoned Libby before Libby expressed remorse -- which it specifically lists as a requirement.
I don't think Bush cares about protocol since he hasn't shown a passion for following the rules on anything else.
ReplyDeleteAP:
ReplyDeleteOverwhelmed by the number of soldiers returning from war with mental problems, the Army is planning to hire at least 25 percent more psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.
A contract finalized this week but not yet announced calls for spending $33 million to add about 200 mental health professionals to help soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health needs.
Does Bush care about this?
Larry said...
ReplyDeleteAP:
Overwhelmed by the number of soldiers returning from war with mental problems, the Army is planning to hire at least 25 percent more psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.
A contract finalized this week but not yet announced calls for spending $33 million to add about 200 mental health professionals to help soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health needs.
Does Bush care about this?"
Bush should should hire a bunch of psychiatrists and psychologists for the White House, him and his Neo Con cronnies are a bunch of nuts not living in reality
talltexan said...
ReplyDeleteANOTHER Blogger account, Widdle Cowboy?
Do you change your Pampers as often as you change identities?
Lydia,
ReplyDeleteThat's correct. Protocol dictates that a pardon not be issued unless it can generally be shown that the person actually did enough time and showed enough remorse for his crime that the President can show leniency.
Naturally, this is an idiotic statement to make, since pardons have been handed out by every president in recent memory to cronies and gladhanding contributors. Carter may have been the last president with a backbone on this issue.
ONLY In a Bush Led America;
ReplyDeleteNew Orleans turns to international aid
Cash-strapped city turning to foreign countries for help in rebuilding.
I wonder if he will ask the wounded vets to be next........
Clif - New Orleans turns to international aid
ReplyDeleteThis is such a travesty, not to mention a HUGE embarrassment to us around the world!
The richest nation in the world can't take care of his own.
New Orleans turns to international aid
By BECKY BOHRER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS -- The cash-strapped city of New Orleans is turning to foreign countries for help to rebuild as federal hurricane-recovery dollars remain slow to flow.
Kenya Smith, director of intergovernmental relations for Mayor Ray Nagin, said city leaders are talking with more than five countries. He wouldn't identify the countries, saying discussions were in the early stages. But he said the city is "very serious" about pursuing foreign help.
"Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners, but we're comfortable now in having to be creative," Smith said. He did not know if the city would have to overcome any obstacles if it got firm pledges for aid, but "we want to make sure we're leaving no options unexplored."
For months Nagin has complained bureaucracy is choking the flow of much-needed federal aid dollars to New Orleans - slowing the city's recovery. As of June 8, the city said it had received just over half of the $320 million FEMA has obligated for rebuilding city infrastructure and emergency response-related costs. The city has estimated its damage at far more than that - at least $1 billion. And that doesn't include other improvements - such as raised neighborhoods - meant to help build the stronger city promoted by Nagin and his recovery director.
Discussions with foreign representatives have been occurring off and on since the storm, but Smith said the city became re-engaged after a news report in April that millions of dollars in aid offered by foreign countries after Hurricane Katrina went unaccepted.
Did anyone hear about the billions in farm subsidies given out to rich farm owners and ranchers who just own farms for fun?
ReplyDeleteI sure did, Lydia. It's part of the no millionaire left behind project.
ReplyDeleteThe farm subsidies given to farmers and ranchers are really going to Corporate farms.
ReplyDeleteThese wealthy owners swallow up smaller farms and ranches for little of nothing, (usually when the smaller owners are near bankruptcy)then get big tax breaks and goverment incentives for what they have done.
It is called Republicanism in motion.
Farm subsidies paid out in the United States amounted to $122.856 billion, a new study by a Washington-based non-profit environmental research organization shows.
ReplyDeleteAnd more than 60% of these federal farm subsidies under the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 went to the top 10% of farmers and landowners or an average of $200,000 each, while the bottom 90% of the farmers got just $6900 for the three years.
The study, "Green Acre$: How taxpayers are Subsidizing the Demise of the Family Farm," is by the Environmental Working Group.
The study covers payments under four headings under the 1996 'Freedom to Farm' law enacted by the US Congress: the Freedom to Farm contracts, the Market Loss Assistance, the Loan Deficiency and Market Gains.
Is Bush and Cheney Corporate Ranchers?
Hello Lydia and everyone;
ReplyDeleteI really am unfamiliar with subsidies for farmers, but I agree it is shocking to give large subsidies to those who have these farms for fun.
Lydia,
ReplyDeleteAmong the areas cited is zip code 10021
I have, um, some familiarity with this zip code. There are no farms there, even tho I've been known to grow a crop or two in backyards.
What happened there is, it WAS at one time a farm, many many years ago, and in fact is a national historic place. I suspect that somehow that designation got it on the list.
Members of Congress who are poised to spend at least $371 billion on direct farm subsidies over the next decade would be wise to examine newly released statistics detailing who actually receives these subsidies. In 2006, Fortune 500 companies and large agribusinesses shattered previous farm subsidy records, while small family farmers saw their share of the subsidy pie shrink.
ReplyDeleteThese subsidy programs tax working Americans to award millions to millionaires and provide profitable corporate farms with money that has been used to buy out family farms. The current farm bills would provide even greater subsidies for large farmers, costing the average household $6,400 over the next 10 years, while facilitating increased consolidation and buyouts in the agricultural industry.
Legislators promoting subsidies take advantage of the popular misconception that farm subsidies exist to stabilize the incomes of poor family farmers who are at the mercy of unpredictable weather and crop prices.
Corporate America has invaded every facet of Working America.
In his first public comments on the Bush administration's surprise decision to replace him as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace disclosed that he had turned down an offer to voluntarily retire rather than be forced out.
ReplyDeleteTo quit in wartime, he said, would be letting down the troops.
Pace, responding to a question from the audience after he spoke at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., on Thursday evening, said he first heard that his expected nomination for a second two-year term was in jeopardy.
"One thing that was discussed was whether or not I should just voluntarily retire and take the issue off the table," Pace said.
"I said I could not do that for one very fundamental reason," which is that no soldier or Marine in Iraq should "think _ ever _ that his chairman, whoever that person is, could have stayed in the battle and voluntarily walked off the battlefield.
"That is unacceptable as a leadership thing, in my mind," he added.
Bush cuts the throat of one of his own. Are we sad yet?
There have been 43 U.S troops killed in Iraq during the month of June. We are ony halfway into the month.
ReplyDeleteThere have been 3,520 U.S troops reportedly killed in Iraq so far.
ReplyDeleteAre you happy Bush.
An Iraqi doctor has addressed a direct appeal to the UN secretary general over the plight of children in his home country, warning that the violence there was causing widespread emotional and behavioural damage - and could lead to spiralling violence in the future.
ReplyDeleteDr Abdul Kareem Al Obaidi, chair of the Iraqi Association for Child Mental Health, said that the situation was "desperate", with children suffering "unbearable traumas and heart-wrenching experiences.
Bush doesn't care look how he raised his own little darlin's.
Hey guys, I just went to check out the new blog by jolly roger and I must say it is really nice, and I like the way he calls bush chimpy
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware that there had been so many servicemen killed this month in iraq that is higher than normal
ReplyDeleteBaghdad:
ReplyDeleteA U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed Friday during a close air support mission for ground forces in Iraq.
The fate of the pilot is unknown.
Hi Lydia and Everybody!
ReplyDeleteYes, Holly, Jolly's new blog is very cool! ;)
Lydia Cornell said...
ReplyDeleteDid anyone hear about the billions in farm subsidies given out to rich farm owners and ranchers who just own farms for fun?
-----------------
Lydia:
They own them for the tax breaks...
Hey Suzie,
ReplyDeleteI'll be over to your blog to visit shortly. I am getting ready to put more Bush follies on here.
Scooter Libby has just 6 weeks to funnel more Iraqi oil revenue into his swiss bank accounts, have 17 pork chop dinners with the Cheney family, continue his affair with Judith Miller, visit little Scooter at reform school, spit in the face of Karl Rove for ratting on him, payoff the warden at his future home for protection, get fitted for a yellow jumpsuit, have one last night with Judith Miller and enjoy one last neocon party before he goes off to prison in 6 weeks.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, John Negroponte, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the UN, flew to Baghdad to lean on al-Maliki.
ReplyDeleteAnd what were they leaning on him for, above all?
Passage of the new oil bill, which would turn over Iraqi’s liquid treasure to foreign corporations like ExxonMobil.
This is the paramount concern of the Bush Administration.
It is being sold to the American people as a way to equalize revenues to various segments of Iraqi society.
But the true reason for it is to line the pockets of U.S. oil executives.
“The law would transform Iraq’s oil industry from a nationalized model closed to American oil companies except for limited (although highly lucrative) marketing contracts into a commercial industry, all-but-privatized, that is fully open to all international oil companies,” Antonia Juhasz, author of “The Bush Agenda,” wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times on March 13.
“The Iraq National Oil Company would have exclusive control of just 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields, leaving two-thirds of known—and all of its as yet undiscovered—fields open to foreign control,"
“The foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new technologies.
The international oil companies could also be offered some of the most corporate-friendly contracts in the world.
And Bush said it was all about freedom.
Mental health disorders are snowballing as more and more soldiers and Marines are sent back for repeat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Pentagon's latest mental health survey, 31 percent of Marines, 38 percent of soldiers and 49 percent of the National Guard reported psychological symptoms such as anger, depression or alcohol abuse after returning home. As the director of the survey said, combat stress is not something you just get over.
Another example of Bush taking care of the soldiers.
Reuters;
ReplyDeleteAnother Justice Department official involved in the controversial firings of federal prosecutors is resigning, the department said on Friday.
Mike Elston, the chief of staff to outgoing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, is the fifth Justice Department official to resign since March as the Democratic-led Congress investigates the department's firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
Rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Rats fleeing a sinking ship.
ReplyDeleteProblem is, the right rats aren't fleeing.
Reading some of the Re-dumb-lican arguments about why Libby should be pardoned ... here's a typical one: [Libby] is a dedicated public servant caught in a crazy political fight that should have never happened, convicted of lying about a crime that the prosecutor can't even prove was committed.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is, if we took out the name Libby, filled it in with Clinton, and turned back the clock 10 years, would the complainer be singing a different tune?
That is, after all, why Clinton was impeached -- lying about an affair in a sexual harrassment complaint that went nowhere.
As of Friday, June 15, 2007, at least 335 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures June 9, 2007.
ReplyDeleteI thought Bush said he won that war!
I thought Bush said he won that war!
ReplyDeleteSad thing is, he had it won. If he had "stayed the course" in Afghanistan instead of "cutting and running" to Iraq, eventually Osama Bin Laden would have been found, Al Quaeda truly would be in "its last throes" and Bush would be riding an approval rating higher than Clinton's was at its highest. Too bad the dumbf@#k decided to listen to Herr Cheney and Comrade Rove instead.
Hello Lydia and everyone,
ReplyDeleteI was reading the comments about the military having serious mental problems from the war;
This is so disheartening and very uncaring of our government.
A year after President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a new strategy toward Iran, a behind-the-scenes debate has broken out within the administration over whether the approach has any hope of reining in Iran’s nuclear program, according to senior administration officials.
ReplyDeleteThe debate has pitted Ms. Rice and her deputies, who appear to be winning so far, against the few remaining hawks inside the administration, especially those in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office who, according to some people familiar with the discussions, are pressing for greater consideration of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Are we fighting for Bush's attention!
It was a $100 million mistake, and a federal judge said Friday he doesn't have the power to fix it.
ReplyDeleteThe Justice Department goofed last year and cited the wrong law in a binding plea agreement with telecommunication entrepreneur Walter Anderson, the largest tax scofflaw in U.S. history.
That mistake made it impossible for the government to recover between $100 million and $175 million, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said in March.
Bush isn't wasting tax payers money!
BAGHDAD:
ReplyDeleteA powerful explosion that reduced a large Sunni Arab mosque to rubble in the southern city of Basra this morning signaled that the cycle of revenge violence following the destruction of the Shiite shrine in Samarra has not entirely unfolded.
Curfews and Pleas for Unity Keep Sectarian Retaliation at Bay in Baghdad.
Although there had been scattered reprisal attacks on Sunni shrines on Wednesday and early Thursday in the hours after the Samarra shrine’s minarets were demolished, strenuous calls for restraint by political and religious figures as well as strict security measures appeared to halt broader violence.
Bush's war is going so well.
Tonja, you registered with Google using my own web page.
ReplyDeleteIf you are not impersonating me, please tell us who you are.
Thank you.
Reuters:
ReplyDeleteA suicide car-bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops on Saturday in the Afghan capital, killing four civilians, police and government officials said, in the third such attack on international forces in two days.
A suicide attacker drove a car packed with explosives at troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in western Kabul, but none of the soldiers were killed or wounded, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
He said the four killed had been all men and that five civilians were also wounded in the blast, which followed suicide attacks in the south and centre of the country on Friday.
I thought Bush said he had won this war!
Americans felt the pinch of higher gas prices and eroding wages last month, even as an important gauge of inflation drifted lower, government figures showed.
ReplyDeleteOver all, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.7 percent in May, the Labor Department reported. The core rate, which excludes food and energy, was up just 0.1 percent, a welcome development that encourages the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady.
More of the Bush economy.
tomorrow morning we're having Paul Waldman on from Media Matters to discuss a new report on why conservatism is losing voters as a movement.
ReplyDeleteProgressives are the new mainstream!
Please tune in to our show tomorrow morning at 9 am. in Vegas live or on the internet at:
www.bashamandcornell.com
Washington Post:
ReplyDeletePrivate security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives.
I wonder how they like Bush's war!
According to a Capitol Hill newspaper, police are unable to solve the mystery of the "caca caper."
ReplyDelete"Usually, if a turd gets into the Senate, it’s because he or she was elected," Emily Heil reports for Roll Call. "But on Wednesday, several large piles of actual, nonmetaphorical 'No. 2' found their way into the Capitol, and the source isn’t yet clear."
Heil continues, "On Wednesday afternoon, Capitol Police cordoned off a section of the hallway on the third floor of the Senate side of the Capitol, where at least three piles of the stuff were causing a stench — and a stir. At first, the word circulating among the staff was that a visiting child had fallen ill while in the gallery. But then the prevailing theory was that the foul stuff had come from an adult or group of adults making a yet-to-be-determined political statement."
According to the paper, "Reports also circulated that the yucky stuff had been smeared on seats in the gallery overlooking the chamber floor, and the gallery remained closed hours after the incident was first noted."
Sounds like a Republican with a lack of bathroom training. Maybe Mitch McConnell.
Turns out the trouble at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the focus of a firestorm of criticism over poor treatment of wounded war veterans, reached into the mailroom.
ReplyDeleteThe Army said Friday that it has opened an investigation into the recent discovery of 4,500 letters and parcels -- some dating to May 2006 -- at Walter Reed that were never delivered to soldiers.
Is Bush looking through the soldiers mail?
Reuters:
ReplyDeleteA suicide car-bomber attacked a military-civilian convoy on Saturday in the Afghan capital, killing at least three civilians, the government and police said, in the third such attack on foreign forces in two days.
Later, a U.S. soldier "mistakenly" opened fire at the scene of the blast, on the outskirts of Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding another, police said.
I thought Bush said he won that war!
AP:
ReplyDeleteThe Department of Veterans Affairs knew for months that shower heads, handrails and other fixtures posed serious suicide risks to Seattle-area psychiatric patients, but refused to fix the problems, inspectors said in a report released Friday.
The VA said it scrambled to remedy problems in Seattle after a medical standards group threatened to pull its endorsement of two area hospitals last month. Health care for the nation's veterans has been rocked in recent months by accounts of shoddy treatment at the Department of Defense's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Thousands of displaced Iraqis have set up makeshift camps inside the country following worsening sectarian violence, according to CNN.
ReplyDeleteWith nowhere to go, these people have set up shantytowns that lack proper water access, medical care and toilets, said Andrew Harper, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ Iraq support unit in Geneva.
"What we do know is that Iraqis detest living in camps and the fact that we are now seeing these types of camps being established is a very bad sign that other options are no longer available," Harper said.
He said there now are tens of makeshift sites, including Najaf in the south, Baghdad, and Nineva province in the north. Each camp would house more than 2,000 people in a collection of tents.
That "surge" is really working for those Iraqi's.
Check out the MySpace page Basham set up. We have amazing friends: Gore, Hilary, Obama, Madonna...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.myspace.com/dougbashamradio
This morning I read that the surge is now complete. It's not going to get any better than this present disaster.
ReplyDeleteCool -- I may have to create a myspace page and join the list
ReplyDelete(yes there is a joke in there and yes only a few of you get it but I couldnt pass up the opportunity)
Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.
ReplyDelete"The American people do not want to return to the days of tax-and-spend policies," Bush said in his radio address.
The measure one of several annual spending bills that Congress began to consider this week exceeds Bush's request for the department by $2.1 billion.
Bush is going to veto spending bills when he has been the biggest spender in U.S history.
BAGHDAD:
ReplyDeleteSecurity forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al-Qaida strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.
The military, meanwhile, reported that paratroopers had found the ID cards of two missing U.S. soldiers at an al-Qaida safe house 75 miles north of where they were captured last month, but there was no sign of the men.
Sixty percent of one city is still unsecure. Boy that "surge" is really working!
Hey Guys I enjoyed your show today Lydia I especially like the guy from media matters and his comments about the unions after you brought it up, thanks for mentioning that
ReplyDeleteThe Department of Defense has used Social Security numbers for everything from dog tags to chow-line rosters since the late 1960s, making military personnel a prime target of data thieves, security experts say.
ReplyDeleteIn the past year, computers containing sensitive data for nearly 30 million active and retired service members have been taken from four Veterans Affairs offices.
That's a big proportion of the more than 100 million personal records reported lost or stolen in the United States since 2006, based on a USA Today analysis of data compiled by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
The Defense Department has made it a priority to tighten its data-handling policies and has increased training on theft prevention, department spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton said in an e-mail interview.
Because it has relied heavily on the Social Security number, "the cost to remove or replace its use will potentially be very high," Upton said.
Military ID cards are being upgraded as they expire, using bar codes, magnetic strips and other electronic authentication tools.
Clerical workers and laborers, inside and outside the military, handle household moving in voices, medical files, financial forms and relocation orders, giving scammers ample opportunities to turn sensitive data into cash.
Bush still taking care of our military!
Hello Lydia and everyone;
ReplyDeleteRemember the Veg-O-Matic that used to be advertised constantly on television?
I saw where the Ronco Corp that brought Veg-O-Matic has filed for bankruptcy.
Very sad.
Tonja said...
ReplyDeleteSome worthless troll doubhebaggery...
Fixed yer post, Tonja.
Spread your troll talk somewhere else Tonja.
ReplyDeleteThe White House has admitted that roughly 20 agencies have received a PowerPoint briefing created by Karl Rove's office "that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy."
ReplyDeleteAnd Rove still has a job because????
Forrester Research, a market research company, projects that online book sales will rise 11 percent this year, compared with nearly 40 percent last year. Apparel sales, which increased 61 percent last year, are expected to slow to 21 percent. And sales of pet supplies are on pace to rise 30 percent this year after climbing 81 percent last year.
ReplyDeleteGrowth rates for online sales are slowing down in numerous other segments as well, including appliances, sporting goods, auto parts, computer peripherals, and even music and videos. Forrester says that sales growth is pulling back in 18 of the 24 categories it measures.
Jupiter Research, another market research firm, says the growth rate has peaked. It projects that overall online sales growth will slow to 9 percent a year by the end of the decade from as much as 25 percent in 2004.
Early financial results from e-commerce companies bear out the trend. EBay reported that revenue from Web site sales increased by just 1 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year. Bookings from Expedia’s North American Web sites rose by only 1 percent in the first quarter of this year. And Dell said that revenue in the Americas — United States, Canada and Latin America — for the three months ended May 4 was $8.9 billion, or nearly unchanged from the same period last year.
Another result of the Bush economy.
No whats "very sad" Moo Moo/Tonja is that you are such a totally pathetic loser that you have nothing better to do than post BS under different troll alias's.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that Tonja is a product of the runny nose media.
ReplyDeleteTheir noses run at their demise.
Check out the MySpace page Basham set up. We have amazing friends: Gore, Hilary, Obama, Madonna...
ReplyDeleteand Jolly Roger :)
Jolly Roger:
ReplyDeleteYou have a nice looking blog. Did you do it yourself?
CBS News;
ReplyDeleteIn his Saturday radio address, Bush blasted congressional Democrats for pursuing "tax and spend policies," while trumpeting his own commitment to keep taxes low and restrain federal spending.
He said his plan will produce a balanced federal budget by 2012.
But what Mr. Bush didn't mention, and what he almost never mentions, is the National Debt.
With good reason.
On the day he took office, the National Debt stood at this unfathomable number:
$5,727.776.738,304.64
In fiscal shorthand, that's $5.7 trillion dollars. Trillion with a "T."
Six and a half years later, the Bureau of Public Debt tells us the National Debt clocks in at a staggering:
$8,835,268,597,181.95
That's $8.8 trillion – an increase of $3.1 trillion dollars since January 20, 2001. And that amounts to a jump of 54% during Mr. Bush's watch.
If you wanted to pay it off, dividing it equally among the U.S. population (estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 302,103,675), it would come to $29,245.82 for every man, woman and child.
Sot it's not really hard to understand why Mr. Bush almost never mentions it.
The National Debt has gone up more on his watch than under any other president.
That means it took the Federal Government 225 years to accrue $5.5 trillion in debt under 42 U.S. presidents. But under President Bush alone, it has soared another 35.2%.
And the National Debt is not just a big number, it's an expensive one.
This year alone, it costs taxpayers $247.3 billion in interest payments.
The Bush economic plan: Driving the country into economic ruin!
You have a nice looking blog. Did you do it yourself?
ReplyDeleteYes. I hacked an existing template and added a few things to it. The site it (and the departed version) lives on is mine.
I trust not Blogger, or Typepad, or Myspace. Reconstitution is mine, on my dime, and I'll say whatever I want to say.
Really, this is the problem.
ReplyDeleteIt is time we stopped trying to place some arbitrary cost on the life of a human being. You can neither buy nor sell a life, so how can it even be possible to assign a life a price?
JR, did you get hacked on Blogger????
ReplyDeleteArmy Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.
ReplyDeleteBut a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.
In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.
At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."
None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army. They also said that Cruz had not proved he was ever in combat. "The available evidence is insufficient to confirm that you actually engaged in combat," his rejection letter stated.
Yet abundant evidence of his year in combat with the 4th Infantry Division covers his family's living-room wall. The Army Commendation Medal With Valor for "meritorious actions . . . during strategic combat operations" to capture Hussein hangs not far from the combat spurs awarded for his work with the 10th Cavalry "Eye Deep" scouts, attached to an elite unit that caught the Iraqi leader on Dec. 13, 2003, at Ad Dawr.
Veterans Affairs will spend $2.8 billion this year on mental health. But the best it could offer Cruz was group therapy at the Bronx VA medical center. Not a single session is held on the weekends or late enough at night for him to attend. At age 25, Cruz is barely keeping his life together. He supports his disabled parents and 4-year-old son and cannot afford to take time off from his job repairing boilers. The rough, dirty work, with its heat and loud noises, gives him panic attacks and flesh burns but puts $96 in his pocket each day.
Once celebrated by his government, Cruz feels defeated by its bureaucracy. He no longer has the stamina to appeal the VA decision, or to make the Army correct the sloppy errors in his medical records or amend his personnel file so it actually lists his combat awards.
This is how life under Bush is for a military hero.
A suicide bomber destroyed a police bus in Kabul Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding dozens in the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001, police said.
ReplyDeleteThe Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the blast, which reduced the bus to a skeleton of blackened and mangled metal. Body parts and bits of human flesh were flung across a wide area.
"We have got 35 people martyred and 52 wounded," Kabul province police chief Esmatullah Dauladzai told AFP. "Those killed include mostly officers and civilians.
Didn't Bush say he had won this war!
Check out this Father's Day post and then see what decisions can often do later on.
ReplyDeleteField Negro
Lydia, another EXCELLENT radio show, Doug was on fire yesterday he was fantastic, he was echoing what I have been saying for the last 5 years that we need to take back the media and break up these media empires to ensure diversity of opinion and truth and integrity in the MSM.
ReplyDeleteI also love the way Doug absolutely shreds and disects the dishonest and riddiculous Conservative talking points.
You guys are compliment each other so well, you are so insightful and brilliant doug is so hard edged and sharp tongued and brilliant in his own way as well...............you guys should have a MSM show.
I sent in a contribution today and I hope everyone that can does likewise these guys are the lone voice of reason in the Conservative bought and paid for corporate fascist MSM and deserve all our support!
Three more U.S soldiers were killed today but I'm sure the media will cover Lindsay Lohan in Macy's shopping.
ReplyDeleteWasnt it a great show yesterday Larry?
ReplyDeleteDid Jolly Roger redesign his blog?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to go check it out.
I always enjoy listening to Lydia, she is very up to date on the current events, and very articulate.
ReplyDeleteJolly Roger did redesign the blog and it runs much faster. It is nice.
ReplyDeletejust reading through some of the posts, BTW, I have ben commenting on those huge farm subsidies to ADM and the corporatized millionaire and billionaire farming co-ops that are putting the small private farmers out of business.
ReplyDeleteI also have been commenting on the subsidies to ADM and Ethanol that is just Bush trying to buy votes for the repugs by squandering tax money to support a technology that is not viable rather than ones that are currently both profitable but that reduce pollution and global warming.
Archer Daniels Midland have hurt the farmer and destroyed the farm base in several states.
ReplyDeleteAP:
ReplyDeleteAn enormous bomb ripped through a police academy bus at Kabul's busiest transportation hub Sunday, killing at least 35 people in the deadliest insurgent attack in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
I thought Bush said he won this war!
US contractors serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who have sustained psychological injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder are often finding themselves "caught in a morass of red tape and rejected insurance claims" finds a new Los Angeles Times investigation.
ReplyDelete"Some seriously afflicted contract workers have been dumped into indigent medical care programs, according to court records," reports the Times. "Many have had to wage lengthy legal battles to win payments for psychological treatment. At least four have committed suicide after returning home from Iraq, according to court records and interviews with attorneys and family members."
Insurance companies have fought claims for psychological injuries by using doctors of "questionable expertise," says the paper. In one case, writes T. Christian Miller, an insurance company psychiatrist dismissed psychology as "baloney."
This is how Bush takes care of employees of private contractors who are in his war.
On the Sunday Morning shows they were basically saying the repugs will start jumping ship on Bush's war around September............do you think Bush is SO out of touch with reality he doesnt realize what a complete and pathetic failure he is.
ReplyDeleteI think they will blame Malaki and remove him from office and claim they need more time.
ReplyDeleteOf course the spineless Democrats will give them time, so it will run up until Bush is out of office.
The dead bees under Dennis VanEngelsdorp's microscope were like none he had ever seen before.
ReplyDeleteHe had expected to see mites or amoebas, perennial pests of bees. Instead, he found internal organs swollen with debris and strangely blackened. The bees' intestinal tracts were scarred, and their rectums were abnormally full of what appeared to be partly digested pollen. Dark marks on the sting glands were telltale signs of infection.
"The more you looked, the more you found," said VanEngelsdorp, acting apiarist for the state of Pennsylvania. "Each thing was a surprise."
VanEngelsdorp's examination of the bees in November was one of the first scientific glimpses into a mysterious honeybee die-off that has launched an intense search for a cure.
The puzzling phenomenon, known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, has been reported in 35 states, five Canadian provinces and several European countries. The die-off has cost U.S. beekeepers about $150 million in losses and an uncertain amount for farmers scrambling to find bees to pollinate their crops.
Scientists have scoured the country, finding eerily abandoned hives in which the bees seem to have simply left their honey and broods of baby bees.
"We've never experienced bees going off and leaving brood behind," said Pennsylvania-based beekeeper Dave Hackenberg. "It was like a mother going off and leaving her kids."
Researchers have picked through the abandoned hives, dissected thousands of bees, and tested for viruses, bacteria, pesticides and mites.
Wonder what causes this?
Larry, while I dont wish the contractors ill, and hope they are ok...........they are most definately contributing to the destruction and decimation of our military.
ReplyDeleteWho in their right mind would want to be a soldier when you can be a contractor and earn between $100,000-$200,000?
I have many friends in the military and many of them are getting out of the military to become contractors and they say that more and more people are doing this, and i'm not talking about new people right out of bootcamp......these are people that have significant time in and were planning on being career military.................Bush has made people think it isnt worth it to serve your country............course the people in his little Neo Con cabal and inner circle are serving THEMSELVES rather than their country like they were supposed to do.
I agree Mike:
ReplyDeleteI just think it is ironic these guys go there, get $100,000 a year tax free, and can't get insurance to cover their bills.
I think they need to stay here where they belong.
AP:
ReplyDeleteA push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions — which could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come.
With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies see growing uncertainty about future gasoline demand and little need to expand refineries or build new ones.
Oil industry executives no longer believe there will be the demand for gasoline over the next decade to warrant the billions of dollars in refinery expansions — as much as 10 percent increase in new refining capacity — they anticipated as recently as a year ago.
Get ready for gas to skyrocket. This is the new excuse. $5 per gallon?
US forces could be needed in Iraq for a decade to battle insurgents, the top coalition commander said Sunday while vowing a "forthright" review in September on whether a troop surge is working.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking on Fox News, General David Petraeus said there was broad recognition in Washington that Iraq's daunting challenges would not be resolved "in a year or even two years."
"In fact, typically, I think historically, counter-insurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years," he said.
This is another reason gas prices will hit $5 per gallon.
We have no Democratic congress with a backbone to stop it.
The war in Iraq may be foremost in voters’ minds right now, but when it comes time to vote for president late next year, pocketbook issues such as taxes, jobs and health care will be what makes the final difference, top advisers to the leading contenders said Friday.
ReplyDeleteThe latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released Wednesday, found that the war was, by far, the top concern of voters, cited by 34 percent. But when taken together, four economy-related issues — health care, job creation, energy costs and the rising federal deficit — were cited by another 33 percent.
In interviews with MSNBC, the economic advisers to the six leading presidential candidates agreed Friday that the results bore out James Carville’s famous dictum, issued in 1992 when he was a top adviser to Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, that “it’s the economy, stupid.”
Bush is as miserable a failure on the economy as he is on the war.
Reuters:
ReplyDeleteThe top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Sunday he will have a good idea in September how well the troop increase has worked and will be able to provide a forthright report to the policy makers in Washington.
"We can provide a reasonable snapshot of the situation at that time and how things have gone in the surge, both in the security and then in the political and economic arenas," Gen. David Petraeus said on "Fox News Sunday."
President George W. Bush has said Petraeus' September report would be important in deciding the future of U.S. involvement in Iraq, but some in his administration have started to play down its significance to relieve some of the anticipation among members of Congress.
Petraeus said on the same interview that troops will be there another 10 years.
What difference does his Sept. report make?
Larry said...
ReplyDeleteAP:
A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions — which could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come.
With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies see growing uncertainty about future gasoline demand and little need to expand refineries or build new ones.
Oil industry executives no longer believe there will be the demand for gasoline over the next decade to warrant the billions of dollars in refinery expansions — as much as 10 percent increase in new refining capacity — they anticipated as recently as a year ago.
Get ready for gas to skyrocket. This is the new excuse. $5 per gallon?"
I agree Larry, we may very well see $4-$6 a gallon in the next year...........I think the oil Execs are using that Ethanol crap as an excuse to not build much needed refineries though.........They see GWB and his oil cronnies only have 1 1/2 years left if he's lucky and they see the writing on the wall that when the Democrats take over the White House the game of sitting on their reserves and price gouging will come to an end.
Its quiet in here today.......everyone in here must be celebrating Father's Day.
ReplyDeleteThe blogs have been quiet all weekend, but especially today.
ReplyDeleteReuters:
ReplyDeleteOil prices touched a 10-month high on Friday sparked by worries of low U.S. fuel supplies from creaking refineries and an upsurge of violence in the Middle East.
It was the third day of gains after a weekly U.S. report on Wednesday showed gasoline stocks failed to build up and heating oil inventories fell. That sparked concern U.S. refiners, running at 89 percent of capacity, would be have a hard time making enough fuel during prime vacation driving season.
Another reason the war will not end, and gas will continue to climb in price.
Yeah I was busy most of the weekend as well, I think i'll be around most of next weekend though because my bikes out of commission so i wont be going to the dragstrip, and most of my buddies are out of town.
ReplyDeleteAny kind of hurricaine or trouble in an oil producing country could send gas soaring..........i think right when gasoline inventories finally start building we will have a disruption that keeps prices high or causes a spike.
ReplyDeleteThere was several deaths in Tennessee at a drag strip. A car went out into the crowd.
ReplyDeleteIf you read Bush's signing declaration on his taking complete control of the country, it could happen with a hurricane or even a series of tornado's.
ReplyDeleteUsually, home prices are an exception to the old rule that what goes up must come down.
ReplyDeleteBut in the aftermath of a historic housing boom, it now looks possible that property values in much of the nation will be weak – and possibly falling – for some time to come.
This is the case, many economists say, even though the overall economy remains on solid footing. They cite several reasons:
•Potential buyers face a new hurdle, with the cost of borrowing up sharply in recent weeks. The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed loan hit 6.74 percent last week, up from 6.21 a month earlier.
•Although the real estate market has cooled considerably from the peak sales year of 2005, inventories suggest that supply and demand haven't yet come into balance. In April, the number of homes on the market was 23 percent higher than the previous April.
•The run-up in home prices was built partly on an unprecedented surge in risky lending: To borrowers with poor credit history or no down payments. Those excesses take time to work off. Foreclosure rates have recently reached record levels and may continue to rise over the next year as adjustable-rate mortgages reset for more borrowers.
The biggest worry is that high interest rates will persist, curbing buying activity.
As one of the wealthiest men in the world predicted, a major recession by the end of 2007.
Larry said...
ReplyDeleteIf you read Bush's signing declaration on his taking complete control of the country, it could happen with a hurricane or even a series of tornado's."
Yeah, but he wouldnt get the support he needs even from the military to try that........he needs the total chaos that could only happen from an attack on Iran and the resultant oil spike, currency meltdown and economic collapse to try something like that.
Larry said...
ReplyDeleteThere was several deaths in Tennessee at a drag strip. A car went out into the crowd."
Wow, I cant picture that.
Drought has hit many parts of the country, including Florida, where the giant Lake Okeechobee became so dry and so low, dry grasses on the lake floor caught fire. But the weather isn't the only reason for the state's water woes, the author of a new book says.
ReplyDelete"Florida's groundwater has been overallocated — not just in South Florida, but all over the state," says Cynthia Barnett, author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern United States. "In addition, we just haven't taken conservation as seriously as other parts of the country.
These right wing nuts say there isn't something wrong with the climate.
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama speculated Saturday that his prescription drug plan could save seniors on Medicare $157 billion over the next decade.
ReplyDeleteThe potential saving is proof that the nation needs to change the Medicare system, he said.
"There is no reason for this other than the fact it makes the drug companies more money," said Obama. 'It's wrong that Americans have to spend more for their prescriptions because drug companies can spend billions on lobbying."
How can anyone argue that the drug lobby and the agreeing congress, aren't hurting senior citizens with this worthless drug plan!
Yeah, real estate is taking a real beating in Florida, California, Arizona, Las Vegas etc.... all the areas that have cenjoyed huge runups.
ReplyDeleteOne day after a drag-racing car careened into a crowd and killed six people, witnesses questioned on Sunday why the driver was allowed to speed down a highway with no guard rails, lined on both sides by hundreds of spectators.
ReplyDeleteThis is the wreck I was talking about.
It sounds like the dragstrip was set up wrong, the one I go to, the spectators sit near the start rather than the finish line so that wouldnt happen ..............if there are spectators near the fishline they should have guard rails and baricades.
ReplyDeleteI just saw another article that said 7 died. Drag racing is big in Tennessee, I'm surprised it wasn't set up better.
ReplyDeleteA U.S. program to combat al-Qaida in Iraq by arming Sunni Muslims undercuts the Iraqi government and years of U.S. policy, and is a tacit acknowledgment that the country's violence is really a civil war, some U.S. military officials in Washington and foreign policy experts say.
ReplyDeleteThe program, which Bush administration officials have hailed as a sign of progress in Iraq, has sparked heated debate among military and foreign policy analysts. It is opposed by the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
This is crazy. Arming the enemy and telling them to attack their own.
That's why our enemies have weapons all over the world now. They were armed by Reagan and Bush, including Saddam and Bin Laden.
The situation of the Rocky Flats survivors is, of course, deplorable, and any government with a shred of pity and humanity would set up a system to compensate the former employees promptly. But their suffering is one more expression of the contempt the Bush Administration has for ordinary working men and women. Just as they did not get proper protection when they were committed to battle, veterans wounded in Iraq often receive deplorable medical care when they are returned home. They are considered expendable. The government has also fought tooth-and-claw against the claims of more than a hundred thousand veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. Reports pour in about OSHA not protecting the workers it was set up to protect; about the Labor Department not prosecuting employers who cheat their employees and fire workers for trying to organize unions to better themselves.
ReplyDeleteLow- and middle-income Americans are finding it harder and harder to make a buck and hold onto a buck. More and more families can’t afford to send their kids to college. Interest rates on credit cards and payday loans today approach vigorish levels that would have gladdened the heart of a Mafia don. And under the Bush Administration, non-business bankruptcies hit an all-time record of 2 million in 2005. Writing in Business Week magazine, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution noted millions of Americans continue to live in inner city neighborhoods afflicted by “failing schools, unsafe streets, run-down housing, and few local jobs.” One hears of the Bush Administration struggling to find jobs for unemployed Iraqs but who recalls President Bush expressing concern for inner city neighborhoods where 72% of black male high school dropouts are unemployed? Where are the make-work and training programs for them and for the rural poor, white, black, and Hispanic? And what happened to all the summer jobs this year? Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston writes the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University “projects this summer will have the lowest teen employment rate in the past 60 years.”
This is Bush's America.
5,727.776.738,304.64
ReplyDeleteIn fiscal shorthand, that's $5.7 trillion dollars. Trillion with a "T."
Six and a half years later, the Bureau of Public Debt tells us the National Debt clocks in at a staggering:
$8,835,268,597,181.95
That's $8.8 trillion – an increase of $3.1 trillion dollars since January 20, 2001. And that amounts to a jump of 54% during Mr. Bush's watch.
If you wanted to pay it off, dividing it equally among the U.S. population (estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 302,103,675), it would come to $29,245.82 for every man, woman and child.
This is Bush's real economy!
yeah Bush kept babbling about Saddam using chemical WMD on his own people.........who gave him those weapons
ReplyDeleteWhi is Rummy and daddy.
Bin Laden was on the CIA payroll as an informant in the Reagan/Bush era.
ReplyDeleteArming future enemies. A Republican philosophy.
Most of the world wouldn't be putting up with this rape of the public will. They would massively demonstrate or go to the streets or downshift to SOME kind of hardball. But its sitcom time in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We should be outraged beyond belief by this across the board betrayal of the American will.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is America's hitting bottom. Maybe we FINALLY realize that effectively all politicians are lapdogs of America's Dictatorship of the Rich. Maybe we FINALLY realize that "politics" is a meaningless game invented by America's Greek God like elites (the 1% or less) to delude Joe and Jane America that they have some (any!) input into the national and international policies of our pseudo constitutional republic.
That certainly would be progress of a sort, wouldn't it? To slammed with the realization that this still is the Middle Ages and the pig, pig rich still control EVERYTHING -- the Democratic/Republican Party included. To snap to the realization that we (the 99%) are paying all the taxes and are fighting and dying in Oil Wars for the Bush Royal Family and corporate America.
But that's a redundant phrase, isn't' it, since "Corporate America" IS America. There is no other America. There's just an army of commode cleaners (that's us!) for the 1% obscenely rich. Paris Hilton comes to mind. And Cheney/Halliburton (a kind of dyspeptic walrus android). You, know those Greek Gods who symbolically if not literally live in the clouds and pay more for their health in an hour than most of us spend on our children's health in a year. They have cars they never drive and affairs in Asian cities on a whim. These people LIVE LIKE GODS, but to do so they need commode cleaners, tax payers (they never pay taxes), and lots and lots for cannon fodder soldiers.
So True! So True!
i cant wait till the repuggies start flip flopping on the war and supporting Bush.
ReplyDeleteI hope they will. If you listen to the roundtable on Meet the Press, the right winger seemed to say it won't happen.
ReplyDeleteMarketwatch:
ReplyDeleteAfter upbeat reports on retail sales and consumer prices last week, financial markets' attention will likely turn to a more depressing topic in the coming week: home building.
The data in the coming week "will be a sobering reminder that the housing market has yet to bottom out," said Brian Bethune and Nigel Gault, economists for Global Insight, in their weekly preview.
The economic calendar in coming week is very thin, as the only releases of note are a couple of key housing numbers and the Philly Fed sentiment survey in the factory sector.
The big release comes on Tuesday with the Commerce Department's report on housing starts and building permits.
The depression in the home building sector is no longer news; even Federal Reserve officials seem resigned to months if not years of weak activity. That means "there are no events that seem likely to change the current atmosphere" in financial markets, wrote Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist for Miller Tabak & Co.
Housing is in a depression. Another result of the Bush economy!
U.S. users of crystal methamphetamine tend to be young, poor, white men often with an incarcerated father, according to a study suggesting that its use may be more common than previously estimated.
ReplyDeleteThe findings, published in the journal Addiction, were based on interviews with 14,322 people ages 18 to 26 in 2001 and 2002. The study found that 2.8 percent of those surveyed said they used the drug, often called "crystal meth," in the past year, and 1.3 percent used it in the past month.
Bush's moral America. Following the leader.
Hey guys did you see where Bush is stuck on his ranch because of high rains washed out the roads. I hope he can't come out till spring
ReplyDeleteLarry I read an aricle that Lee Raymond the Ex CEO of Exxon made about 400 million his last year with Exxon that essentially means he made more in mere minutes than a minimum wage worker made in a year.
ReplyDeleteHolly, if its raining that hard, maybe Bush can build an Ark and take some animals on it and he can stay on the Ark till his term is over or until he sees a dove...........oops silly me, a chicken hawk like GWB wouldnt know what a dove is, no less what it symbolizes.
ReplyDeleteMike:
ReplyDeleteExxon and Chevron are making a killing from having oilmen in the White House.
I wish we could know how much is put into a silent trust for Bush and Cheney from all those oil companies, after they leavfe office.
Senate Democrats are seeking a major reversal of energy tax policies that would take billions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits from the oil industry to underwrite renewable fuels.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will take up a bill that would raise about $14 billion from oil companies over 10 years and would give about the same amount of money on new incentives for solar power, wind power, cellulosic ethanol and numerous other renewable energy sources. The bill is one of the signature issues this year for Democrats, along with immigration and the war in Iraq, and one in which they hope to clearly distinguish themselves from the Republicans.
It's about time.