Monday, March 1, 2010

Show Notes 03.01.2010

Newmaker 1: Johnathan Krohn

Book

CPAC
Johnathan at CPAC
Ron Paul's speech

Introduced William Bennett

Lots of young people attended. Many were bused in by Ron Paul, which may have affected the results of the straw poll

Ron Paul wants to end and audit the federal reserve.

Voter registration

Suppression in 5 states
Wikipedia

List of examples
Huckabee calls for suppression tactics

14th Amendment to the Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

OMG: Rachel Maddow

Facebook bobblehead dolls

Health Care Policy

Lamar Alexander: proper and prudent rules.

People who get insurance are being denied insurance for pre-existing conditions. Propose that states have regulation requiring ins. co's who do business in that state to put 5% of profits into a pool to act as secondary insurance. You can claim against the pool. Employer pools, Tax credits to subsidize private insurance purchase.

Some states control costs via regulation of Medical Loss Ratios - the percentage of premiums that are required to be paid for medical care.

Warren Buffett
“What we have now is untenable over time,” said Buffett, an early supporter of Obama’s candidacy. “That kind of a cost compared to the rest of the world is really like a tapeworm eating, you know, at our economic body.”

“We have a health system that, in terms of costs, is really out of control,” he added. “And if you take this line and you project what has been happening into the future, we will get less and less competitive. So we need something else.”

But while Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, applauded Obama for taking up the reform effort, he said that “unfortunately, we came up with a bill that really doesn't attack the cost situation that much.”

Risk pools discussion from Health Care Summit.

Defenisve medicine raises health care costs.

When a patient shows up at a doctor's office with a bruise after falling and bumping his head, the physician might order a CT scan even if she believes the injury is superficial.

Worries about a malpractice lawsuit might prompt her to take steps that aren't medically necessary. "If I don't get a CAT scan, this is that one case where I'll end up in court," the doctor might think, says Cecil Wilson, a physician who is president-elect of the American Medical Association.

This is defensive medicine -- a careful, fretful approach to treating patients, in which doctors authorize tests in part to reduce the risk that they will be sued.

Jim Masterson said his wife was left untreated for five hours and eventually died while doctors searched for an out-of-county physician who'd operate. Not a single local neurosurgeon would come in, Masterson said.

"If you have a stroke in this part of the country then you're in deep trouble because the doctors won't see you," Masterson said.

Some neurosurgeons aren't disputing his claim, saying they can't afford malpractice insurance and are afraid of being wiped out by lawsuits, so they reduce their risks by refusing emergency patients.

Dave Johnson

Web site: http://seeingtheforest.com/

Coffee Party Movement: web siteFacebook Page

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/28/841513/-Coffee-Party-Movement-now-at-29,000+:-Updated-2x

Graham-Leach-Bliley act repealed the Glass-Steagal rules on investments that had prevented risky investment bubbles, like the one that caused the current economic collapse.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Show Notes 2.23.10

The Context: New Credit Card Rules start today

Newsmaker 1: Mark Ames

Reagan tax policy and wealth shifts Brief ax timeline from 1982

- 1982: raised gasoline and cigarette taxes, lowered taxes on millionaires and billionaires from 70% down to 50%.
- 1983: increased self-employment taxes by 60 percent, huge increase in payroll taxes to create social security surplus, redirected to financing deficit.
- 1986: further reduced millionaire/billionaire tax to 28%, so wealthiest paid only 28%, while middle class paid 30%.
Why Tax the Rich? Equity and Progressive Taxation
It is well documented that the 1980s and 1990s witnessed a significant increase in inequality of both income and wealth. Indeed, the entire period from 1968 to 1998 was characterized by increased income inequality. Census data indicate that the share of before-tax family income decreased for families below the eightieth percentile of the income distribution, while the share of income for the top twenty percent of families increased by an average of 14%, and the richest five percent received a 33% increase.105
Earned Income Tax Credit History
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was originally enacted in 1975, in the wake of the failure of President Nixon’s proposed Family Assistance Plan. Although it began as a temporary and limited alternative to President Nixon’s proposal, the EITC has, in the years since, been made permanent and been refined and expanded. In 1986, the EITC was a critical reason why President Reagan could proclaim that the Tax Reform Act took millions of working poor off the income tax rolls...
Growing Inequality in the 1980s: The Role of Federal Taxes and Cash Transfers

Bush Bank Bailout

Bush seeking $700 billion for financial bailout: Plan being rushed to Congress; Treasury would get sweeping power
The Bush administration asked Congress Saturday for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression.

...

Bush said simply, "We must act now."

"America's economy is facing unprecedented challenges. We're responding with unprecedented measures," Bush declared, standing in the White House Rose Garden with Paulson, Bernanke and Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shortly after his remarks, Bush called congressional leaders with whom the administration will be working on the final plan. He spoke to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.

The administration wants to see a package emerge from the weekend, to lend calm to Monday morning's market openings, said Keith Hennessey, the director of the president's economic council. The goal is to have something passed by Congress by the end of next week, when lawmakers recess for the elections.

Bush Bank Bailout Overpaid by Billions: Study
"The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year's overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms.

The findings added to the frustrations of lawmakers already wary of the $700 billion rescue plan, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Congress approved the plan last fall, but members of both parties criticized spending decisions by the Bush administration and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson."

Chilean Economy As Model for US Chile’s Social Security Lesson For The U.S.
Chile allowed every worker to choose whether to stay in the state-run, pay-as-you-go social security system or to put the whole payroll tax into an individual retirement account. For the first time in history we have allowed the common worker to benefit from one of the most powerful forces on earth: compound interest.

Some 93% of Chilean workers chose the new system. They trust the private sector and prefer market risk to political risk. If you invest money in the market, it could go up or down. Over a 40-year period, though, a diversified portfolio will have very low risk and provide a positive rate of real return. But when the government runs the pension system, it can slash benefits at any time.

The Chilean system is run completely by private companies. We now have 15 mutual funds competing for workers’ savings.

Chile’s privatized social security may risk bankruptcy

Chile’s social security faces the prospect of major shortfalls - even bankruptcy - in the coming years. The country has gone further than any other country in privatizing social security, embracing private pension accounts in 1981. But the fund will soon be paying out more than it takes in, and is projected to be exhausted by 2036.

The Debt Crisis: Further Reforms and Recovery

One of the most hotly debated issues of the Chilean recovery of the second half of the 1980s concerns the different foreign-debt conversion plans aimed at rapidly reducing foreign indebtedness. When the debt crisis erupted in 1982, Chile's foreign debt was US$17.2 billion, one of the highest debts per capita in the world. Through the aggressive use of a variety of debt-conversion plans, between 1985 and 1991 Chile retired an estimated US$10.5 billion of its debt, most of which was converted into equity in Chilean companies.

Chile's net international reserves totaled US$9 billion in 1992, enough to cover a year of imports and equivalent to roughly half of its foreign debt. The stock of foreign direct investment in Chile was estimated to be between US$10 billion and US$13 billion, roughly 30 percent of GDP. About US$4 billion of this was acquired through debt-equity conversions. The debt-swap program was ended when the growth of direct investment and the strength of the economy had done away with the need for special incentives to attract foreign capital.

IMF Article IV Assessment of US in 2007

OMG: Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall

"disabled children are God's punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy," reports the News Leader.

Said Marshall: "The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children." (Does this mean that Sarah palin had a secret abortion? I don't think so)

No PTSD Equivalent for Abortion Since the early 1980s, groups opposed to abortion have attempted to document the existence of "post-abortion syndrome," which they claim has traits similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) demonstrated by some war veterans. In 1989, the American Psychological Association (APA) convened a panel of psychologists with extensive experience in this field to review the data. They reported that the studies with the most scientifically rigorous research designs consistently found no trace of "post-abortion syndrome" and furthermore, that no such syndrome is scientifically or medically recognized.

Abortion and Breast Cancer - No Link

April 23, 2007 -- There is no link between abortion and breast cancer, a 10-year study shows.

Researchers base the findings on a study in which they followed 105,716 women for 10 years. They found no link between abortion and breast cancers that occur before menopause. Earlier large-scale studies showed no link between abortion and breast cancers that occur after menopause.

Reconciliation Used 22 times since 1980
Some critics have charged that using reconciliation to enact a major change in policy, such as health reform, would be unprecedented and would represent a gross misuse of the process. A review of the past use of reconciliation demonstrates, however, that this charge is incorrect:

Congress has employed reconciliation many times to make major policy shifts. These include sweeping welfare reform enacted in 1996, massive tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and creation or expansion of several health coverage programs. Using reconciliation to help enact health reform would be consistent with past congressional practice, as Thomas Mann and Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute have explained.

...

The House and Senate first used the budget reconciliation process in 1980. Since then, 19 reconciliation bills have been enacted into law, and three have been vetoed.

Bush Reconciliation = Massive Debt Increase
  • Prior to 2001, good or bad bills aside – every single bill passed through reconciliation REDUCED the deficit;
  • Not one, but two of the major Bush tax DEFICIT BALLOONING cuts were passed under reconciliation;
  • The combined addition to the deficit of JUST THESE 2 tax cuts were over $2.3 TRILLION over a ten year period.

Rush Limbaugh: "Talk-radio icon Rush Limbaugh says the president has an addiction, and it is lying."

http://mediamatters.org/limbaughwire/
http://scoobievslimbaugh.blogspot.com/
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1895
http://mediamatters.org/research/200502180006

Toyota faces federal, congressional probe

Facing tough questions in Congress, Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the company's safety problems and the Securities and Exchange Commission was probing what the automaker told investors.

Lawmakers pledged to ask executives about internal documents showing that Toyota visited with regulators who "laughed and rolled their eyes in disbelief" over safety claims.

Toyota Fixed Sticky Pedal Problem in Europe Before USA

Did Toyota fix the "sticky" throttle problem in Europe before it started fixing American cars?? According to a Bloomberg News report, it appears the answer is YES.

After years of denial, including "inaccurate and misleading" statements to the public and federal investigators, news broke Tuesday that Toyota would finally stop selling some of its vehicles plagued by the sudden acceleration problem. ... Toyota just announced a potential "fix" for the "sticky" gas pedals sold in the United States (although the fix is still not available to consumers). However, Bloomberg News has reported that Toyota began phasing out the "sticky" throttles for European vehicles last August!!

Former Vice President Cheney Has Heart Attack

The team at "The Fairness Doctrine" hopes for a full and speedy recovery for Vice President Cheney, from across the political spectrum.

Former Vice President Cheney was admitted to GW Hospital after experiencing chest pain. Lab testing revealed evidence of a mild heart attack. He underwent a stress test and a heart catheterization. He is feeling good and is expected to be discharged in the next day or two.
Goodbye Glaciers
Photos of top 7 disappearing glaciers Grenland Glaciers Melting from Below

Kilimanjaro glaciers 85% smaller

Previous studies of Kilimanjaro's glaciers have relied on aerial photographs to measure the rate of the retreating ice. For this new survey, scientists climbed the mountain and drilled deep into the glaciers to measure the volume of the ice fields atop the 19,331-foot (5,892-meter) peak.

The ice sheet that capped Kilimanjaro in 2007 was 85 percent smaller than the one that covered its plateau in 1912, paleoclimatologists explained in the study. ... The mountain's ice cover shrank about 1 percent a year from 1912 to 1953, a rate that has accelerated in recent years. From 1989 to 2007, that rate jumped to 2.5 percent a year. Since 2000, the plateau's three remaining ice fields have shrunk by 26 percent, scientists found.

Photos of glacier decline - beginning with photos from 1850

Gallery of disappearing glaciers

Retreating glaciers

Video of glaciers retreating

Melting ice is pouring off Greenland and Antarctica into the sea far faster than was previously realised because of global warming, new scientific research reveals today.

The accelerating loss from the world's two great land-based ice sheets means a rise in sea levels is likely to happen even more quickly than UN scientists suggested only two years ago, the findings by British scientists suggest. ... High-resolution satellite laser measurements have shown that along both the Greenland and Antarctic coastlines, the glaciers and ice streams which for thousands of years have slowly carried ice into the sea are now rapidly thinning, meaning they are speeding up in their flow. In both cases, the increased flow rate is extending back far into the ice sheets' interior.

"The fact that the changes are so large is alarming, and you wonder how far they will go," Dr Pritchard said. "The thinning effect must be relatively recent, as it is so strong that it could not have been sustained previously without the glaciers melting away."

The scientists compared the rates of change in elevation of both fast-flowing and slow-flowing ice. In Greenland, they studied 111 fast-moving glaciers and found 81 thinning at rates twice that of slow-flowing ice at the same altitude. They found that ice loss from many glaciers in both Antarctica and Greenland is greater than the rate of snowfall further inland.

Kilimanjaro glaciers

“We have a mere 2.5 years of actual field measurements from Kilimanjaro glaciers, unlike many other regions, so our understanding of their relationship with climate and the volcano is just beginning to develop”, Dr. Douglas R. Hardy, a geologist at the University of Massachusetts and an author of the paper, wrote by e-mail. “Using these preliminary findings to refute or even question global warming borders on the absurd.” In short, Kilimanjaro may be a photogenic spokesmountain “no matter what the climatic agenda” but it is far from ideal as a laboratory for detecting human-driven warming. The debate over it obscures the nearly universal agreement among glacier and climate experts that glaciers are retreating all over the world, probably as a result of the greenhouse-gas buildup. “These climate skeptics are making generalizations not only to the rest of the tropics but the rest of the world” Dr. Hardy said. “And, in fact, global warming may be part of the whole picture on Kilimanjaro, too.”

Polar Bears

Top 10 Species Threatened by Climate Change

As part of their mission they maintain the Red List, which tracks the status of thousands of species and subspecies.

Their most recent update of that list finds that of the more than 47,000 species studied, 17,291 are threatened with extinction.

Inhoffe calls for Gore to testify:

Inhoffe says globe is cooling

Vote Suppression

Suppression in 5 states
Wikipedia

List of examples
Huckabee calls for suppression tactics
RNC-funded Voters Outreach of America suppresses votes in multiple states
Machines left in warehouse, while voters wait in lines


Voting Machine "Sleep-overs"

Ohio Disenfranchisement

In 2004, Connell was paid with state funds by GOP Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to shunt the Ohio vote count to the same basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which housed the servers for the Republican National Committee. In the wee morning hours of election day, vote counts mysteriously shifted from John Kerry to give George W. Bush his second term in the White House.

Connell has since been fingered by Stephen Spoonamore, a McCain supporter and GOP computer operative who has charged that Connell may have manipulated the Ohio 2004 vote count. As a Repubican insider, Spoonamore's sworn testimony is being given legal credence by Federal Judge Algernon Marbley, who certified the subpoena against Connell.... More than 300,000 Ohio voters were disenfranchised in the run-up to 2004, and at least 170,000 have since been eliminated in Franklin County alone. Many citizens who believe they are registered may not be.

Gina Cooper: Political Outsider

Middle Coast, LLC

Gina's personal site

Operation Free: Secure America with Clean Energy

CPAC

Roots Camp

Agree to Disagree Brown backs Obama on Jobs bill

Good move or not?

Monday, February 22, 2010

Show Notes 2.22.10

Sally Forth, etymology: 1542 (n.), 1560 (v.), from Middle French saillie "a rushing forth," noun use of feminine pluperfect of saillir "to leap," from Latin salire "to leap" The Context: Spear Phishing Criminals are getting more sophisticated about stealing your information via email and the web.
When TippingPoint's president and chief technology officer, Marc Willebeek-Lemair, received an e-mail from the Federal Trade Commission informing him that a client was filing a complaint against his network security company for overcharges, he was directed to download the complaint - a Microsoft Word file - from an FTC Web page and return the attached form with any questions about the process. ... TippingPoint researchers discovered the sender's address had been "spoofed" (faked) and the link didn't lead to the FTC's Web site. In fact, the document - which looked like an FTC complaint - was infected with a data-stealing Trojan horse. ... In these attacks, the hackers identify specific individuals or groups of people with something in common. To make their attacks more effective, criminals take pains to impersonate credible sources, adorning messages with professional graphics and composing well-written stories to hook their targets. ... The extra homework pays off. The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that less than 1 percent of people who receive one of the billions of generic phishing schemes sent every day take the bait. Meanwhile, estimates from several experts place the success rate of these tailored attacks between 25 and 60 percent.
Famous TJX Credit Card Hack
Detailing the sheer magnitude of a crime first reported earlier this year, TJX yesterday disclosed in financial reports that at least 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in 2005 and another 130,000 last year [ed: 2006] by hackers ... According to Gartner security expert Avivah Litan, the volume of stolen data gives TJX the dubious distinction of being the biggest known victim of hacker-based card fraud in history.

What you can do

  • Above all, keep your security software up to date.
  • If a link is malicious, rolling the cursor over it without clicking sometimes reveals a URL leading to a different address than the one it promises.
  • Never share personal information solicited through e-mail or through a web message (like a message on twitter or facebook). When in doubt, go directly to the Web site of the organization purporting to send the message instead of clicking on any links.
  • Be suspicious of all links and attachments sent through e-mail or social networks.
  • If you want to pay for things online, see if your credit card company offers a "one-time" card number that you can use for the purchase.
  • Don't use "open" wireless networks, if possible. If you're in a public place, try to only use a network that requires a password (like those provided at some restaurants and hotels).
For further reading: The Unprotected (a comic book) by Application Security, Inc.

Cell Phone Tracking

...argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.
This case is fallout from a 2008 court case in Pennsylvania that arose from the cell phone tracking of alleged drug dealers, during which the Bush administration pushed for "reasonable grounds" instead of "probable cause" as the standard to meet in cases where prosecutors seek cell phone position data. Judge in 2008 Case Denies Warrant in Case Without Probable Cause
The case offers a rare glimpse into the mechanics of federal criminal investigations where nearly all documents are filed ex parte and remain under seal until indictments are handed up. When prosecutors in Pittsburgh asked for cell phone location data in an ongoing narcotics case, the response from Lenihan was an emphatic rejection of the Justice Department's approach to the issue. The issue went public because Lenihan declared that her opinion "shall not be sealed because it is a matter of first impression in this district and circuit on issues concerning the statutory and Constitutional regulation of electronic surveillance which do not hinge on the particulars of the underlying investigation."
"No Expectation of Privacy" in Wireless Communications Has Been the Standard Since US v. Hoffa in 1970
(cited as precedent in Tyler v Berodt, 877 F2d 705, 1989) Because the expectation of privacy requirement for oral communication is drawn from Supreme Court holdings applicable to fourth amendment analysis, see Hall, 488 F.2d at 198, the test for the Tylers' constitutional claim and their Wiretap Act claim is the same. Courts have not accepted the assertions of privacy expectation by speakers who were aware that their conversation was being transmitted by cordless telephone. See Edwards v. Bardwell, 632 F.Supp. at 589 (no privacy expectation for conversation "broadcast by radio in all directions to be overheard by countless people"); Hall, 488 F.2d at 198 (particular speakers knew they could be overheard, and thus had no justifiable expectation of privacy); see also DeLaurier, 488 A.2d at 694 (phone came with manual alerting owner that conversation could be transmitted to others); Howard, 235 Kan. at 249, 679 P.2d at 206 (same). Cf. United States v. Hoffa, 436 F.2d 1243 (7th Cir.1970) (no expectation of privacy for conversation over mobile telephones under fourth amendment analysis), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1000, 91 S.Ct. 455, 27 L.Ed.2d 451 (1971).2 Therefore, as a matter of federal law, we do not believe the Tylers had a justifiable expectation of privacy for their conversations.3
History of Wireless Phone Tracking in the US FBI Tracking Cell Phones
Most people don't understand they are carrying a tracking device in their pockets," says Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy group that has been trying to monitor the Justice Department's practice. Much about the practice—including how many "tracking" records have been collected by the government—remains shrouded in secrecy. But in one court case in which the use of such records arose, a Philadelphia FBI agent named William Shute testified that he had obtained such records 150 times in recent years in order to track the location of federal fugitives.
Chris Christy, now Gov. of New Jersey tracked people via cell phones in NJ 79 times, starting in 2001:
"The [US Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey] USAO DNJ identified seventy-nine (79) cases, on or after September 12, 2001, in which the Court granted the government's application to permit it to obtain mobile phone location information without making a judicial finding of probably cause. The USAO DNJ determined that sixty-six (66) of these cases resulted in a criminal prosecution. This search also found that nineteen (19) applications were granted after November 16, 2007, to permit the government to obtain GPS or similarly precise location data on target cell phones without a judicial determination of probably cause. Seventeen (17) of these cases resulted in a crominal prosecution. The SUAO DNJ also advised that two of the identified cases remain under a court seal that prohibits disclosure."
Judge Ornstein in 2005 Denies Request for Tracking Data
This issue came to light in August 2005, when the first judge to publish a decision on the issue—Magistrate Judge Orenstein in the Eastern District of New York—publicly denied a government request that lacked proof of probable cause. In doing so, Judge Orenstein revealed that the Justice Department had routinely been using a baseless legal argument to get secret authorizations from a number of courts, probably for many years. Many more public denials followed from other judges, sharply rebuking the government and characterizing its legal argument as as "contrived," "unsupported," "misleading," "perverse," and even a "Hail Mary" play. But the government continues to rely on the same argument in front of other judges, most often in secret and sometimes successfully.
Couple Accidentally Intercepts Cell Phone Conversation on their Police Scanner
The story of John and Alice Martin has become a familiar one. On December 2 1, 1996, the Floridians were driving in their car, listening to an allegedly unmodified police scanner that John Martin had purchased at Radio Shack in September.(1) Suddenly, the couple "recognized some voices" that the scanner had intercepted, and they realized that the subject of the conversation they were listening to concerned an investigation of House Speaker Newt Gingrich then being conducted by the House Ethics Committee.
Interview with the Martins
ALICE MARTIN: We had a vague idea that he had white hair from physical description and that way, so we went back and we went back behind where the cameras were, and we asked, I think there was a policeman or a security guard if he could help us because we weren't exactly sure what Mr. McDermott looked like, and we said, when we see him, could you, could you point him out to us, we need to give him something. And he said, oh, sure. So it seemed like in just a few minutes Mr. McDermott became--coming down the hallway--we asked to see him, and we told him we had something to turn--we told him we had something to turn over to the Ethics Committee, and he asked us who we were. He took the envelope in his hand and he felt where the tape was, and he said he would listen to it. And then he asked if there was any way to get in touch with us. And so my husband gave him one of his STPNEA cards, and he said, thank you, and we said, thank you, and we left. KWAME HOLMAN: Two days later the contents of the tape were on the front page of the "New York Times." The tape potentially could cause problems for Newt Gingrich, who had made a deal with the Ethics Committee not to orchestrate a response to its charges. But the tape might cause problems for McDermott as well because federal law prohibits intentionally intercepting telephone calls or intentionally disclosing their contents. Late this afternoon McDermott announced he will recuse himself from any further work on the Gingrich ethics matter. As for the Martins, they too could be prosecuted for their actions.
US Spies Listening to American Citizens Coverage of Whistleblowers
Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism." ...
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080514_army_whistle_blower_palestine_hotel_on_target_list_in_baghdad/
"And unfortunately, my officer in charge ... basically told me that it was not my job to analyze ... someone somewhere higher up the chain knew what they were doing.” ... Another intercept operator, former Navy Arab linguist, David Murfee Faulk, 39, said he and his fellow intercept operators listened into hundreds of Americans picked up using phones in Baghdad's Green Zone from late 2003 to November 2007. "Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends, sometimes one phone call following another," said Faulk. Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer. "Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.
Spying for spying's sake
The Brit expressed concern about the American military eavesdropping, and the American replied that they couldn't possibly be doing that because of USSID 18. Kinne recalls that her colleagues got quite excited and behaved as if the American had divulged secrets by mentioning that directive. They continued eavesdropping on the man although they were unclear at that point whether they were permitted to spy on Americans. Shortly after this incident, however, in mid-2002, they were given a waiver to spy on Americans. This waiver was communicated to Kinne and her colleagues orally, and she assumed that it had come from the President or someone very high up. The waiver, she says, also permitted spying on Canadian, French, German, Australian, and British citizens without probable cause. Many of the people, including Americans, whom Kinne spied on were journalists.
USDA to Pay Up ... 11 Years After Legal Settlement USDA Pays for discrimination
The USDA agreed in 1999 to pay black farmers for past discrimination in farm lending and other programs. ... “USDA has made it a top priority to ensure all farmers are treated fairly and equally,” Vilsack said. “This has been a sordid chapter in USDA history.” The Obama administration requested $1.15 billion in the 2010 budget, on top of $100 million already approved in the 2008 farm bill to facilitate the settlement. If Congress appropriates the funds by a March 31 deadline, class members may pursue claims before an arbitrator.
Blackwater/Xe and Other Private Security Hiring contractors to do the military's job, leads to subcontracting to unqualified personnel:
Helicopter crash kills six in Afghanistan; two Marines die in separate incident. The chopper was operated by a contractor for Western forces. Both incidents occurred in volatile Helmand province, where a major military operation is underway.
Contractor Fraud Abtan et. al. v Prince e. al.
The complaint alleges that Blackwater and its affiliated companies violated state, federal and international law, and “created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company’s financial interests at the expense of innocent human life.” The complaint also alleged that Blackwater routinely deploys heavily-armed “shooters” in the streets of Baghdad with the knowledge that some of them are chemically influenced by steroids or other judgment-altering substances. It further alleges that the Blackwater personnel who fired on the Iraqi civilians had ignored directives from the Tactical Operations Center (“TOC”), which was manned by both Blackwater and Department of State personnel, not to go to Nisoor Square. (The Department of Justice is prosecuting five of the “shooters” involved in the Nisoor Square massacre; one additional shooter has pled guilty.)
Blackwater Tax Evasion
Since the hearing, I have learned that the IRS determined in March — six months prior to your testimony — that your classification of a security guard working in Afghanistan as an independent contractor was “without merit.” The IRS advised that “[y]ou are responsible for satisfying the employment tax reporting, filing, and payment obligations that result from this determination.” ... There is also evidence that Blackwater has tried to conceal the IRS ruling and the evasion of taxes from Congress and law enforcement officials. The terms of this agreement explicitly prohibited the guard from disclosing any information about Blackwater to “any politician” or “public official.”
Private Security Contractors in New Orleans
A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security (BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one of Quinn's associates and escort him through the chaotic city. Montgomery told me they came under fire from "black gangbangers" on an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. "At the time, I was on the phone with my business partner," he recalls. "I dropped the phone and returned fire." Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said." ...

Glenn Beck Declares "Economic Holocaust"

Reagan and Taxes

Even Reagan Raised Taxes
The first part of that path entails raising higher revenues. Everyone remembers Reagan's 1981 tax cuts. His admirers are less likely to tout the tax hikes he accepted as the 1981 recession and his own tax cuts began to unravel his long-term fiscal picture--a large tax increase on business in 1982, higher payroll taxes enacted in 1983 and higher energy taxes in 1984. A decade later, when a serious recession and higher spending began to upend the fiscal outlook again, the first President Bush similarly raised taxes on higher-income people in 1991; Bill Clinton doubled down and raised them again in 1993.

Dave Johnson

Whirlpool Exec Responds: The System Made Us Do It
  • Whirlpool closes a plant in Evansville
  • Taxpayers will shoulder the unemployment and other costs.
  • All the local supplier, transportation and other third-party jobs are destroyed.
  • Even more home foreclosures in the area as a result.
  • Local businesses are stressed or have to go out of business.
  • They are playing nearby Iowa against Indiana for tax breaks and subsidies to keep just a few of the jobs.
  • Whirlpool is profiting from making all this someone else's problem.
  • And, of course, Wall Street celebrates the move
... Whirlpool says that the system made us do it. (The response in full is at the end of this post) The spokesperson for Whirlpool is exactly right. It is the system that makes them do this. They are only following the market’s orders.
Kennedy's Money Oil Interests and other investments in Kennedy Family Trust
The largest building block in the Kennedy fortune is Chicago's huge Merchandise Mart, the world's biggest commercial structure. Joe Kennedy acquired it in 1945 for just under $13 million, and turned what seemed a gigantic white elephant into a stupendous profit maker. It is now valued at $75 million. Kennedy began investing in oil in the late 1940s, principally to gain the tax break supplied by the oil depletion allowance. Kennedy's original partner, Tulsa Petroleum Engineer Raymond F. Kravis, remains a co-investor and an adviser on operations. He describes the Kennedy investment as "a big small company," amounting to some $10 million and producing an annual gross income of about $ 1,000,000. ... As early as 1926, Joe Kennedy set up a trust fund for Rose and the children then born. Another was created in 1936, and still another in 1949. The latter trust fund is the vehicle through which Kennedy settled portions of his wealth on his 28 grandchildren. The three trust funds and the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation are the chief instruments of capital conservation. At the end of 1968, the foundation had assets of $22.1 million, and it disbursed $1.6 million, almost entirely for research in mental retardation.
Jerrold Nadler
"The president's mistake, and it was a mistake, was to underestimate how bad the situation was we inherited under [President George W.] Bush because he should not have said that unemployment would peak at 8 percent when Mark Zandi, [Sen. John] McCain's [R-Ariz.] adviser, was saying it would be going to go to 12 percent without the stimulus and 10 percent with the stimulus."

2007 Stimulus Checks

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120286096062963791.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks
Q: But what about all these rumors that the payments will cut into what I get as my refund next year? A: They're wrong, congressional staffers say. "Please be aware that there have been erroneous reports that stimulus rebate checks are an advance on next year's tax refund, so that any refund a taxpayer might normally receive would be reduced by the amount of the 2007 stimulus check," says the Baucus aide. "This is not correct." But, the money was taxed in 2008, after all: [PDF FILE] 2008 Federal Tax form - line 70. Health Care Plan

<"http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rate-regulation-for-health-insurance-obama-administration-should-look-to-cas-model-law-which-has-saved-drivers-62-billion-since-1988-84961667.html">Rate Regulations

The president's bill would grant the federal health and human services secretary new authority to review, and to block, premium increases by private insurers, and it would create a new Health Insurance Rate Authority, comprised of health industry experts that would issue an annual report setting the parameters for reasonable rate increases based on conditions in the market. The legislation would call on the secretary of health and human services to work with state regulators to develop an annual review of rate increases, and if increases are deemed "unjustified" the secretary or the state could block the increase, order the insurer to change it, or even issue a rebate to beneficiaries. States would be eligible for a portion of $250 million in grants finance premium review and approval.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

SHOW NOTES 2.16.10: CHUCK’S ENTRIES

NOTE: This platform does not allow us to post Patrick’s and Chuck’s notes side by side. Until we can redesign the page, they will be sequential, but the sequence will relate only to when they put up, not which is more important

The Context: CNN Poll Anti-incumbent fever at record high
The anti incumbent sentiments go back to the mid-term election of 2006 with the election of a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Voters rejected the leftward trend of many Republicans who had supported big spending, had ignored government reforms that would’ve streamlined the size and scope of government, and had failed to adequately deal with the problem of illegal immigration. Many conservative Democrats, so-called blue dog Democrats were elected.
The ascendancy of the Democrats in the House led to Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker and the left-wing of the Democratic Party taking over. Pelosi proved to be unpopular for this reason as polls indicated that Pelosi and the liberal Democrats were consistently less popular than was President George Bush in his last 2 years in Office. Bush was also perceived in those years as a big spender and as ineffective on the immigration issue.

Barack Obama ran a campaign that offered undefined promises of “change” and “yes we can” and this pitch appealed to many moderates and even conservatives who convinced themselves that Obama would govern more conservatively than Bush. This proved not to be the case which is why Obama’s poll numbers have dipped as low as were Bush’s and are among the lowest for a President in his first year in office. The Democratic Congress remains as unpopular as ever as evidenced by the election of Republican Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy, widely viewed as the Liberal Lion of the Senate.

Scott’s election coincided with the announcement by liberal Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd that he would not run for another term, Delaware Attorney General Joe Biden Jr. announcing that he would not run for his father’s Senate seat, the announcement by Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy that he would not run for re-election after the release of a poll showing him with less than 40% support, and now the announcement of Indiana Senator Evan Bayh that he’s bowing out.

The list of Democratic incumbents not seeking re-election, posted here from Roll Call Magazine, is unusually long and will probably grow. The Republican list is more proportional and includes three names of members that are 70, 73, 74, 76, and 78 years old. John Shadegg is retiring from a district that is comfortably Republican in Arizona where Senator John McCain will face off against a conservative Republican, former congressman J.D.Hayworth. Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart are also retiring from safe Republican districts according to the Congressional Quarterly and Politico, Lincoln Diaz-Balart wants to work to help Cuba in the coming years after it emerges from a half century of left-wing tyranny and Mario Diaz-Balart is running for his brothers seat. New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg said that he would “probably not” run for re-election in February 2009 but this remains to be seen in a year that looks promising for Republicans overall in New Hampshire. Republican congressman Steve Buyer of Indiana is leaving amidst an ethics probe, his district is relatively safe for Republicans,
The anti-incumbent fever, I contend, is because the American people are ready for a real change, the change promised but not delivered by president Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

Guest 1: Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon makes legitimate arguments against the War in Iraq and Afghanistan and against the large military spending accompanying those efforts. I do not agree with his position but it is a legitimate position worthy of public debate. There are many legitimate spokespeople, both on the left and on the right, who oppose the war for a number of important reasons.

The problem I have with Norman Solomon is that he stated, in his first appearance on The Fairness Doctrine, and completely out of context, that Israel has “killed 100 children.” I responded by asking him to clarify the remark by posing the question, “was he meaning to imply that Israel deliberately killed 100 children as a matter of policy or were these tragedies as a result of collateral damage as a result of war.” Solomon ignored my question and instead backed up his assertion by quoting from a pro Palestinian website. Patrick invited him back on the show. I asked him again to qualify his statement. He once again ignored my request that he put the remark into context an instead once again began quoting from a website, this time from the legitimate group Betsalem. I concluded at that point that the interview was an exercise in futility so I terminated the conversation.

In my opening remarks I acknowledged that in the course of its many wars Israel no doubt has “killed 100 children” possibly even more. In his response he pretended that I had not said this and instead continued to present his evidence. I put this fact into context by pointing out that the United States probably killed 100 Nazi children in World War II and that the Union Army no doubt killed 100 confederate children during the Civil War. Obviously my point was that the Allied Forces, the Union Army, and that Israel did not intend to kill innocent children. In fact the tragic deaths of the children in the course of the wars was an issue of great anguish in those cases.

I pointed out that Israel generally goes out of its way to avoid the deaths of innocent people even to the degree that they put their own lives at risk in order to adhere to rules of engagement that avoids innocent casualties. Certainly mistakes are made in warfare but Israel’s record is very good in this regard. The Israeli people are keenly aware of human rights and the value of innocent human life.
I contended that by making this charge, Norman Solomon was fanning the flames of the Middle East conflict by re-enforcing anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews in a part of the world that is vulnerable to anti-Semitism. Such charges against the Jewish State remind me, I stated, of the blood libel leveled against Jews which is that Jews killed Christian or Muslim children to use there blood to bake matzo on Passover. If Norman Solomon were on the right, and he had made an anti-Semitic statement like that on an American radio show, I would imagine the ADL and other groups would rightfully be all over it. I try to avoid giving anti-Semites time on the air for the same reason that I avoid interviewing Holocaust deniers and white supremacists.

I’ve interviewed Palestinians over the years who have made these sorts of charges against Israel and while I obviously don’t agree with their sentiments I understand that they are engaged in a real and legitimate conflict with Israel so I grant them some latitude. Norman Solomon is a different story. He is an American, he is probably of Jewish background himself, and he poses as someone who advocates peace and de militarization, at least when the United States and the liberal democracies are involved. When he comes out with such a inflammatory statement as “Israel killed 100 children” he shows his hand as a partisan in a war and abrogates any legitimacy he might have as a spokesman for peace. It is ok to take sides in a war but one should be honest about it and not distort things to the degree that it encourages unnecessary violence and a furthering of the conflict.

One last thing. When Norman Solomon stated that “Israel killed 100 children” he failed to make the same accusation against the Arabs. Clearly the Arab side has killed 100 Israeli children in the course of their wars as well, a fact that Norman Solomon failed to mention. The difference, furthermore, is that the Arab side deliberately sought to kill Israeli children with suicide bombers in a Tel Aviv discothèque, Sbarro’s pizza parlor, a Tel Aviv shopping mall filled with children shopping for Purim costumes, and a cafeteria at Hebrew University.

OMG: Meg Whitman
We’ve got to focus – we’ve got to create jobs, cut spending, and invest in fixing our educational system,” The slogan for Meg Whitman’s $29 million “introduction ad campaign for CA governor. How do you do that?

I’m not from California but it seems to me that Meg Whitman, a relatively conservative Republican, believes that the best way to create jobs is to hold the line of new taxes and on slowing don the growth and cost of government thus leaving more capital in the hands of those who created capital, working people and companies. Likewise with education as throwing taxpayer money at the system is not necessarily the best way to fix it. The money that is too often absorbed by bureaucrats who are not actually teachers and by public teachers unions. The conservative answer is to change the curriculum into one that teaches young people how to think cognitively as opposed to one based on behaviorism.

Education - Phonics vs(?) Whole Language
What is a “global learner?” English is a phonetic language and massive evidence exists as well as common sense indicates that therefore it makes to teach English language reading through comprehensive systematic phonics. Wherever phonics is used literacy goes up, wherever look-say, or whole language, or whatever its called this year is used literacy goes down. A good source on this is the book “Why Johnny can’t Read” by Rudolf Flesch. English is read in the form of vowels and consonants. Phonics teaches the reader how to sound out a word on their own by melding the vowels and consonants. The other methods treat words like hieroglyphics requiring the reader to memorize thousands works as if they were pictures. No wonder a rise in learning disabilities such as ADD increase every time children are taught to read using look-say or whole language. A good source on this is the book “NEA-Trojan Horse in American Education” by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Show Notes 2.16.2010

The Context: CNN Poll Anti-incumbent fever at record high

CNN Analysis
[quote]The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Tuesday, indicates that only 34 percent feel that current federal lawmakers deserve re-election, with 63 percent saying no.

According to the survey, 51 percent feel their own member of Congress should be re-elected — also an all-time low in CNN polling — while 44 percent say their representative doesn’t deserve to be returned to office in November.[/url]

Full poll (PDF FILE)

Who is leaving or has left Congress in 2009/2010 (for reasons other than changing political office or death):

DemocratsRepublicans
Brian Baird (D-Wash.), 53, 6 termsHenry Brown (R-S.C.), 74, 5 terms
Marion Berry (D-Ark.), 67, 7 termsSteve Buyer (R-Ind.), 51, 9 terms
Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), 61, 13 termsLincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), 55, 9 terms
Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), 42, 8 termsMario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), 48, 4 terms*
Dennis Moore (D-Kan.), 64, 6 termsVernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), 76, 10 terms
George Radanovich (R-Calif.), 54, 8 termsJohn Shadegg (R-Ariz.), 60, 8 terms
Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), 62, 7 termsJim Bunning (R-Ky.), 78, 2 terms
John Tanner (D-Tenn.), 65, 11 termsJudd Gregg (R-N.H.), 62, 3 terms
Diane Watson (D-Calif.), 76, 5 termKit Bond (R-Mo.), 70, 4 terms
Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), 71, 10 termsGeorge Voinovich (R-Ohio), 73, 2 terms
Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), 54, 2 terms
Roland Burris (D-Ill.), 72, 1 term
Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), 65, 5 terms
Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), 67, 3 terms
Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), 70, 1 term

Guest 1: Norman Solomon

Web Site
From the show:

2 billion dollars a day is being spent on the military. Let me repeat that, because it’s “billion” with a “b”. 2 billion dollars a day is being spent on the military. … The vast majority on projects, efforts, and warfare that has nothing to do with keeping people secure in the United States. … Each soldier costs $1 million dollars per year to station in Afghanistan.”

If you go and talk to homeless people all around the country, you’ll find a large percentage of them are veterans from the Vietnam war, the Gulf war and now Iraq and Afghanistan. …

Don’t Call It a ‘Defense’ Budget

The new budget from the White House will push U.S. military spending well above $2 billion a day.

Foreclosing the future of our country should not be confused with defending it.
…

“When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, social programs must inevitably suffer,” Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out. “We can talk about guns and butter all we want to, but when the guns are there with all of its emphasis you don’t even get good oleo. These are facts of life.”

More troops returning from urban warfare to battle homelessness

According to the VA, as of 2009, more than 3,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had sought housing assistance in the past four years, up from 1,800 in 2008. And the number of female veterans who are homeless has doubled in the past decade. But officials say getting an accurate number of younger Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have become homeless is difficult because many are too embarrassed to seek help or avoid the streets by house-surfing with friends and family. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans continue to represent just a fraction of the nation's homeless veteran population, estimated at 131,000. But the numbers are unprecedented. "We haven't really dealt with (homeless families) before," Wood said. "Before, we would see maybe one per year. ... It's just unreal. It's not substance abuse; it's unemployment."

Israel/Palestine (killing children as policy?)
BT’selem

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

[–discussion ends here–]

OMG: Meg Whitman

How is it possible to cut taxes even more, while doing these other things, which cost money in a state that’s already broke?

Lower Taxes, Create Jobs and Improve Education

image from Meg Whitman's site

Whitman ad

Education - Phonics vs(?) Whole Language
WHO SUCCEEDS AND WHO FAILS?

Writing in Principal, Marie Carbo asserts that “Children who do well in whole-language programs tend to have visual, tactile, and global reading styles.” Global learners such as these, she maintains, tend to enjoy and learn from the popular literature, hands-on learning and peer interactions prominent in the whole language approach.

To analytic as opposed to global learners, however, the whole language approach can feel disorganized, Carbo says. If the systematic teaching of phonics doesn’t take place, analytic learners can fall behind and fail to develop the tools they need for decoding words.

Using a single approach to reading generally doesn’t work, Carbo concludes. Many combinations and permutations are necessary to provide an optimal learning environment for an entire class of readers. She cites an extensive body of research that backs “the global approach of whole language as a framework for teaching young children and poor readers — but only as a framework.” Within that framework, strategies from different approaches need to be utilized.

Experience And Education

The granddad of your granddad’s schooling
You can thank Dewey for making all Americans think that school should be relevant to real life and that solving problems is more important than reciting factoids. The man wrote the book on it, and this little book is his effort much later to clarify what he really meant, which is to have a balanced and informed experience, not a forced choice between extremes of the didacticc and the practical. So if you are only going to read one book to find out why he should be remembered (and revered) for much more than a decimal system in the library, read this book. And be ready to become passionate, even political, about liberating our children from factory schools which make them passive and stupid. A good companion book is C.S. Lewis’ “The Abolition of Man”, at least the first chapter, followed by “The Paideia Proposal” by Mortimer J. Adler.

Agree to Disagree: Health Care Reconciliation

Today, 4 Democrats sent a letter to Senate Leader Reid, recommending that the Senate use reconcilliation to pass health care with a public option.

Text of Letter

LETTER FROM SENATE DEMOCRATS TO LEADER REID

 
Dear Leader Reid:
 
We respectfully ask that you bring for a vote before the full Senate a public health insurance option under budget reconciliation rules.

There are four fundamental reasons why we support this approach – its potential for billions of dollars in cost savings; the growing need to increase competition and lower costs for the consumer; the history of using reconciliation for significant pieces of health care legislation; and the continued public support for a public option.

A Public Option Is an Important Tool for Restoring Fiscal Discipline.

As Democrats, we pledged that the Senate health care reform package would address skyrocketing health care costs and relieve overburdened American families and small businesses from annual double-digit health care cost increases. And that it would do so without adding a dime to the national debt.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that the Senate health reform bill is actually better than deficit neutral. It would reduce the deficit by over $130 billion in the first ten years and up to $1 trillion in the first 20 years.

These cost savings are an important start. But a strong public option can be the centerpiece of an even better package of cost saving measures. CBO estimated that various public option proposals in the House save at least $25 billion. Even $1 billion in savings would qualify it for consideration under reconciliation.

Put simply, including a strong public option is one of the best, most fiscally responsible ways to reform our health insurance system.

A Public Option Would Provide Americans with a Low-Cost Alternative and Improve Market Competitiveness.

A strong public option would create better competition in our health insurance markets. Many Americans have no or little real choice of health insurance provider. Far too often, it’s “take it or leave it” for families and small businesses. This lack of competition drives up costs and leaves private health insurance companies with little incentive to provide quality customer service.

A recent Health Care for America Now report on private insurance companies found that the largest five for-profit health insurance providers made $12 billion in profits last year, yet they actually dropped 2.7 million people from coverage. Private insurance – by gouging the public even during a severe economic recession – has shown it cannot function in the public’s interest without a public alternative. Americans have nowhere to turn. That is not healthy market competition, and it is not good for the public.

If families or individuals like their current coverage through a private insurance company, then they can keep that coverage. And in some markets where consumers have many alternatives, a public option may be less necessary. But many local markets have broken down, with only one or two insurance providers available to consumers. Each and every health insurance market should have real choices for consumers.

There is a history of using reconciliation for significant pieces of health care legislation.

There is substantial Senate precedent for using reconciliation to enact important health care policies. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare Advantage, and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA), which actually contains the term ‘reconciliation’ in its title, were all enacted under reconciliation.
 
The American Enterprise Institute’s Norman Ornstein and Brookings’ Thomas Mann and Molly Reynolds jointly wrote, “Are Democrats making an egregious power grab by sidestepping the filibuster? Hardly.” They continued that the precedent for using reconciliation to enact major policy changes is “much more extensive . . . than Senate Republicans are willing to admit these days.”

There is strong public support for a public option, across party lines.

The overwhelming majority of Americans want a public option. The latest New York Times poll on this issue, in December, shows that despite the attacks of recent months Americans support the public option 59% to 29%. Support includes 80% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and even 33% of Republicans.

Much of the public identifies a public option as the key component of health care reform -- and as the best thing we can do to stand up for regular people against big insurance companies. In fact, overall support for health care reform declined steadily as the public option was removed from reform legislation.

Although we strongly support the important reforms made by the Senate-passed health reform package, including a strong public option would improve both its substance and the public’s perception of it. The Senate has an obligation to reform our unworkable health insurance market -- both to reduce costs and to give consumers more choices. A strong public option is the best way to deliver on both of these goals, and we urge its consideration under reconciliation rules.

Past Use of Reconciliation
Battle Brewing over Reconciliation

But there are a couple of problems for Republicans as they push back furiously against the idea, chief of which is the fact that they used the process themselves on several occasions, notably when enacting more than $1 trillion in tax cuts in 2001.

That means critics can have a field day lampooning Republicans and asking them — as Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, did repeatedly the other day — why reconciliation was such a good idea when it came to giving tax cuts to millionaires but such a bad one when it comes to trying to provide health care to average Americans. ... “We are using the rules of the Senate here,” Mr. Gregg said in 2005 as he fought off Democratic complaints that reconciliation was wrongly being employed to block filibusters against opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. “Is there something wrong with majority rules? I don’t think so.”

Lobbying re: Health Care
Pro or Con, Lobbying Thrived

In addition to the $648 million that all sides spent lobbying on health care, they also poured $210 million into television advertising, according to Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks television commercials.

…

The drug industry’s powerful trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, devoted $26 million to lobbying and separately spent $120 million to $130 million for a television campaign and grass-roots activity, an industry official said.

What happened to Usury Laws?
Credit cards trump state usury law

The 1978 Supreme Court decision Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp. concluded that national banks, such as Bank of America and Citibank, can charge the highest interest rate allowed in the bank's home state, regardless of where the borrower lives. This means that credit card issuers located in states with liberal or nonexistent usury laws, such as Delaware and South Dakota, can "export" the lack of an interest rate cap to customers in states with usury laws in place. These companies can ignore the "Natural State's" 17-percent constitutional limit.

Next, section 521 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980, or DIDMCA, gave state-chartered banks the same rate-exporting powers. The law allows all federally insured banks, including state-chartered banks, to charge out-of-state customers the highest interest rate permissible in the state, territory or district where the bank is headquartered.

Federal law delivered the death blow for Arkansas's usury limit in 1999. President Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act into law, a section of which permitted local Arkansas banks to charge the greater of the state usury limit or the rate charged by an out-of-state bank with a branch in Arkansas.

"All our in-state banks could now basically import the rates of competing banks and now force that rate down the throat of consumers,” says Ken Clark, a Certified Financial Planner based in Little Rock, Ark.

The Ascendancy of the Credit Card Industry

What allowed Wriston to make good on his threat to leave New York was a little-noticed December 1978 Supreme Court ruling. The Marquette Bank opinion permitted national banks to export interest rates on consumer loans from the state where credit decisions were made to borrowers nationwide.

…

In an effort to stimulate the local economy, South Dakota was in the midst of eliminating its usury laws. Mr. Wriston told Mr. Janklow that if South Dakota would quickly pass a bill inviting Citibank into the state, he would bring 400 jobs. To preempt concerns from local banks about new competition, Citibank also promised to open only “a limited” bank. “We’ll put the facility in an inconvenient place for customers and we’ll pay different interest rates,” Mr. Wriston recalled telling Mr. Janklow. “All we want to do is use it to issue cards.'’

Political Outsider with Gina Cooper

Media Strategy Company
Gina’s Blog

Open Government
Justice Department Open Government Site
Click the “Share your ideas” banner to participate in the discussion, through March 19, 2010.

Tidbits from the show:

On his first day in office, President Obama signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. The basic idea behind the memo is that government can be made more transparent, participatory, collaborative and innovative by using technology to make data more available and processes more open. In this way, Washington can be changed because regular people, voters, will have the information they need, themselves, to hold government officials accountable. ... There are several lessons to be taken from this exchange:

  1. The internet will not transform government bureaucracy overnight, as much as we would like for it.


  2. There are a lot of people eager to share their ideas, and some of those ideas are pretty good.


  3. Many people don’t trust our democratic institutions.


  4. People are frustrated, not only with the behavior of government, but often, with the behavior of their fellow citizens when it comes to discussing important issues.

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