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POPSDems Move to Block WH on Vet Injuries I don't know who's idea this was, but it's Bushian in it's disregard for veterans. "We cannot compromise on the promise we have made to those who serve our Nation," said Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ.). "Treatment for service-connected injuries is clearly within the responsibility of the U.S. government through the Department of Veterans Affairs -- period," said Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). There may be some things we can get away with going cheap on. Veterans shouldn't be on that list.
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POPSAbout Those AIG Retention Bonuses... So they need to pay bonuses to retain good employees. That's the argument, anyway. But the numbers show they they gave huge bonuses to 73 of their worst employees. Further, these bonuses failed to retain employees, since "eleven of those who received 'retention' bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer working at A.I.G." There's nothing about any of this that makes a damned bit of sense. Anyone else starting to suspect that "Titan of finance" and "complete moron" are synonymous?
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POPSWhite House: States Can't Use Stimulus to Pay Off Debt "Congress has not authorized the executive branch to waive any of the above statutory requirements governing the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund," Orszag wrote. "Accordingly, states' spending... must satisfy the statutory requirements." It looks like states who want to fill their budget holes with federal taxpayer dollars will have to push for separate legislation. Somehow, I don't see Sanford begging for a taxpayer-funded bail-out for S. Carolina -- it'd look bad when he runs for president in '12.
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POPSRep. Requests Probe into Cheney Hit Squad “If true, these operations violate longstanding U.S. policy regarding covert actions and illegally bypass Congressional oversight," Kucinich writes. "Hersh is within a year or more of releasing a book that is said to include evidence of this allegation. However, we cannot wait a year or more to establish the truth.” Kucinich's full letter is available at Raw Story . In my morning post, I used this assassination squad to question Cheney's sanity . Why would you do this -- along with the torture and illegal detentions -- if you didn't think it was absolutely necessary? How paranoid would you have to be? Here's hoping Kucinich's investigation gets rolling. We need to know just how lunatic our government has been for the past 8 years.
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POPSFrom the Front of the War on [Libertarian] Terror From the report: Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr... Militia members commonly display picture, cartoons, bumper stickers that contain anti-government rhetoric. Most of this material will depict the FRS, IRS, FBI, ATF, CIA, UN, Law Enforcement and “The New World Order” in a derogatory manner. Be on the lookout for anti-government rhetoric, because that has absolutely no place in a democracy. Seriously though, I can't remember the last time I heard anyone who had something good to say about the CIA or the IRS. Still, you Ron Paul Revolutionaries better watch your step. We're on to you now.
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POPSCheney on the Economic Crisis: 'Stuff Happens' Faced with the employment numbers, Cheney chose to ignore them. Instead, he defended the budget deficits -- which, of course, have almost nothing to do with the economic downturn. "There's something that's more important than the specific numbers you're talking about," he told King. "Eight months after we arrived we had 9/11. We had three thousand Americans killed one morning. ... We immediately had to go into wartime mode. ... We had major problems with respect to things like Katrina. ... All of these things required us to spend money." "Stuff happens," Cheney summarized," and an administration has to be able to respond to that -- and we did." 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! It's like a reflex with these guys -- back them into a corner and they throw 9/11 at you. In any case, I think defending the Bush admin's economic performance is a futile effort -- that ship has sailed.
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POPSCheney Says Torture was 'Essential' "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," Cheney said. Here's a wild idea -- and I'm just spitballing here -- but how about people involved in the greatest counter-terrorism failure in history shut the hell up about how to fight terrorism? Seems to me that we have plenty of evidence that they really sucked at it. 3,000 people are dead because the Bush admin. couldn't be bothered to worry about Bin Laden -- they had online porn to fight. This is like having Micheal " Brownie " Brown lecturing you on how to respond to a hurricane. Just shut up, Dick.
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POPSAIG to Pay Out Millions in Bonuses AIG almost had me with their argument that they were legally obligated to pay the bonuses. Then I got to this part. "We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of American taxpayers — if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury,” wrote Mr. Geithner on Saturday. Yeah, they've been freakin' brilliant so far. When it came to bailing out car companies, the talk was about all the concessions union workers were going to have to make; they absolutely had to renegotiate their contracts. When it comes to Wall St. execs, they get every dollar they were promised -- no renegotiation is possible. What exactly is the big freakin' difference between these two groups of employees?
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POPS$100 Billion in Fat Cat Tax Evasion "The United States Treasury isn’t the only one being shorted," the Times reports. "The Tax Justice Network, a research and advocacy organization, estimates $11.5 trillion in assets from around the world are hidden in offshore havens." So that's not just $100 billion in tax revenue from wealthy tax cheats, it's $11.5 trillion taken out of our economy and moved overseas. And this isn't some loophole, this is tax fraud -- these are hidden assets and this is criminal.
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POPSNBC's 'Daily Show' Blackout Extends to Cramer's Own Show At the end of the Martha Stewart clip, Cramer said, "Now back to business as usual." There wasn't any mention of Jon Stewart. Look, I realize that the TDS appearance must've been a tremendous embarrassment for Cramer, but come on... This isn't something you can just laugh off. The credibility of the entire network has been brought into question in a very well-reasoned argument. Is CNBC actually journalism or is it just an infomercial for stock traders? CNBC needs to answer that question. If it's just about money worship and BS "stock tips" straight off the fax from some PR firm, then screw 'em -- they're freakin' worthless.
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POPSMeet Japan's New Diplomatic Corps The piece goes on: " would like to communicate and spread the cuteness by visiting many countries, and if they would come to like Japan as well." The ministry said the women would spend the next year travelling the world, promoting Japan. What the hell, it beats giant robots.
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POPSFor MSNBC, Cramer/Stewart Interview Never Happened I just got done writing about how Jon Stewart humiliated Jim Cramer on The Daily Show , so it doesn't come as any surprise that CNBC's parent network isn't willing to highlight how indefensible their financial channel's performance has been. Still, a press blackout on a story -- one that's all over the internet, BTW -- that makes CNBC look bad isn't the best example of good journalism out there.
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POPSCritic: Leahy's 'Truth Commission' a 'Whitewash' Ratner's not the only one who feels this way. Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley agrees -- passionately. "It is shameful that we would be calling for this type of commission..." Turley said . "We're obligated to investigate. This whole discussion in front of the whole world is basically saying that we are not going to comply with the promise we made, not to ourselves, but to the world." And he's right. prosecuting torture is not optional under the treaty against torture. We're required by international law to hold torturers accountable. Either we put these people in court or we become a nation where law doesn't mean a damned thing.
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POPSSC Gov. Sanford to Reject Stimulus Money Good advice, Mark. You ought to take it. Your hole's as big as it needs to be right now. The article tells us: is announcement came the same week that South Carolina's unemployment rate shot to 10.4 percent, the second highest in the nation. With those dire figures as a backdrop, national Democrats -- keenly aware of Sanford's rising national stature -- piled on. When your unemployment's the second worst in the nation, you don't turn down funds to expand unemployment benefits. That's what most experts refer to as "stupid as all hell." Of course, Sanford's already running for president in 2012 and is burnishing his flat-Earth economic bona fides. Too bad he feels the need to do make that run the backs of his citizens.
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POPSBernie to Have a Tough Time in Prison "In the beginning, he will be besieged by mail that will be threatening and accusatory," says Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist at the David Geffen School of Medicine of University of California at Los Angeles. "There will be people trying to scam him and people who think he’s hiding money. There will be inmates asking for money, and you don’t want them to disbelieve you when you say you don’t have it." I'm not sure I believe him when he says he doesn't have it.
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POPSMadoff Pleads Guilty to 11 Charges Investor Richard Friedman, who lost $3.1 million in the scheme, believes someone out there is getting away with a crime. "The crime is really unimaginable. It's not just a typical Ponzi scheme. It affects society as a whole. You don't just have to be a Madoff investor to be affected by this..." he told CNN. "There's no way he could have acted alone. There had to be other people involved. The whole family, as far as I'm concerned, once proof becomes available, should be thrown in jail." Pleading guilty without a plea bargain suggests that Madoff was unwilling to cut a deal. If that's the case, Friedman is most likely correct.
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POPSIn Interview, RNC Head Steele Embraces Sanity Only in the GOP would not being crazy be a handicap, but this can't help Steele any. There's already talk of a no-confidence vote for kissing Rush Limbaugh's butt, among other things (that's a no-win, he would've gotten just as much flack for not doing it), and now he's setting himself up for accusations of not being crazy enough for the base. It's nice to see a Republican acknowledge that certain truths exist, regardless of how the Republican party feels about those truths, but this embrace of reality isn't going to score him any points in the party. Expect a "clarification" in the near future.
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POPSObama Signs 'Imperfect' Spending Bill The problem with pork is that the definition is always "stuff those other guys want." Pork is never the money your guy brings to your state or district. And earmarks aren't really the problem -- all they do is allocate funding that's already been approved. It's a way to split up the money, not the way you run up the bill. Still, how many people will buy Obama's "it's not my fault" defense is an open question.
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POPSChild Homelessness at its Worst Since '30s The report found: 25% have witnessed violence. 22% have been separated from their families. Half have problems with anxiety and depression. 20% of preschoolers have emotional problems that require professional care. "It is unacceptable for one child in the United States to be homeless for even one day," it said, slamming the US government and media for ignoring the plight of homeless children while doling out huge sums of money to help "grossly overpaid bankers, captains of industry and carmakers" in 2008. "What does it say about our country that we are willing to bail out banks but not our smallest most vulnerable citizens?" the report asked. Good question. At what point do we decide that the American family is "too big to fail?"
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POPSUN to Investigate Secret CIA Prisons I hesitated using the word "secret" in the headline, since everyone knows about them. But that's what everyone calls them, so "secret prisons" they are. Either way, some right wing fool is going to pretend it was all a big secret and the UN is compromising US security. The piece goes on: Scheinin said such prisons were "one of the most horrendous practices" that emerged after the September 11 attacks in the US, while Nowak hoped that this "will stop, and perhaps is in the process of being stopped." The results of the probe should be ready in a year. The report tells us that the UN officials "hailed US President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo prison and all CIA prisons operating abroad."
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POPSReleased Documents Show Prisoners Tortured to Death The piece continues: were handcuffed to fixed objects above their heads in order to keep them awake," reads the document. "Additionally, interrogations in both incidents involved the use of physical violence, including kicking, beating, and the use of "compliance blows" which involved striking the legs with the knees. In both cases, blunt force trauma to the legs was implicated in the deaths. In one case, a pulmonary embolism developed as a consequence of the blunt force trauma, and in the other case pre-existing coronary artery disease was complicated by the blunt force trauma." In related news, the guy who wrote torture justifications and defenses for the Bush administration can't find work . Sucks to be David Addington. He should be breaking rocks in prison, along with most of the rest of the Bush administration. It's definitely the jo
5
POPSTop Republican: Stem Cells a 'Distraction' A couple of points here. First, the ban on federal funding embryonic stem cell research was an executive order -- it'll take no time to reverse. The time it'll take away from focusing on the economy is roughly equal to the time Cantor will take for lunch Monday. Second, how powerless has the evangelical right become that a top Republican can basically say, "Stem cell research? Pffft! Who cares about that?" It wasn't that long ago that Republicans were saying that the research was pretty much equal to a second Holocaust. Apparently, the Republican party no longer feels the need to kiss up to the religious right.
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POPSFormer Bush Speechwriter Fires Shot in GOP Civil War That's David Frum, author of Bush's "axis of evil" line. He's absolutely right -- it's not in Limbaugh's best interests that the GOP do well. Limbaugh is also an egotist who'll rise to the bait every time the Democrats criticize him. He's guaranteed to do exactly what dems want him to by virtue of being reactionary. In this way, he does become the leader of the Republican party, because he keeps putting himself in that position. Having Rush Limbaugh -- a race-baiting, narrow-minded, hypocritical demagogue -- as the face of the party can only help Democrats. And, since elected Republicans are terrified of him, there's nothing the GOP can do about it.
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POPSConservative Columnist Brooks: Spending Freeze is 'Insane' The problem here is the media, as Matthew Yglesias points out. "Obviously, it’s appropriate for the press to devote more scrutiny to the powers that be than to the opposition party’s ideas," he writes. "But virtually none of the coverage I’ve read of Republican criticisms of Obama’s economic strategy is taking note of the fact that the alternative being offered us is insane." This is the " two sides of the story " reporting again. They'll report both arguments to any question as if they were equally sound, even when one is completely irrational. The job of a journalist isn't to provide balance, the job of a journalist is to inform. And they routinely fail in that simple task.
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POPSEx-UN Prosecutor Says Bush Could Face International Criminal Court The article continues: "Crane also said that the indictment may even be extended to the former president George W. Bush, on the grounds that some officials in terms of his administration engaged in harsh interrogation techniques on terror suspects which mostly amounted to torture," said Turkish Weekly . Before you get too excited, remember that Bashir is still in power, right out there in the open. The UN has no power to arrest. However, if a warrant were issued for Bush, there wouldn't be many places on Earth he could go without risking arrest by that country's government.
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POPSObama to Reverse Bush Stem Cell Policy As you can imagine, this move isn't popular among those who think a fertilized cell deserves a social security card and a listing in the phone book. "Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for experiments that require the destruction of human life," said Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council. "President Obama's policy change is especially troubling given the significant adult stem cell advances that are being used to treat patients now without harming or destroying human embryos." Of course, adult stem cells don't have the protean nature of embryonic stem cells -- which can literally become any kind of cell -- which is why researchers are eager for subsidized embryonic research. As far as the religious right goes, screw 'em. They aren't happy unless they're unhappy. Trust me, they're much happier with something to totally freak out over.
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POPSGingrich 2012? Meanwhile, Washington Post has the numbers: In a Gallup poll after the November election, Republicans and GOP-leaning independents split evenly on the question of whether the former speaker should seek their party's nomination; 47 percent said they'd like to see him run, 47 percent would prefer he sit out. I think that's the definition of "lukewarm."
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POPSProp. 8 Goes to CA Supreme Court The main question here is whether the majority can take rights from away the minority. Forget about gays and marriage, can Californians take voting rights from people, for example? The question is much broader than this one case, as would be the consequences. It could easily be argued that, if Prop. 8 is allowed to stand, Californians have no rights -- at least, not as far as the state constitution is concerned -- they only enjoy privileges that can be taken away by a simple majority vote at any time.
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POPSObama Announces Contracting Overhaul The president said this could save as much as $40 billion annually. Also of interest: "We will stop outsourcing services that should be performed by the government and open up the contracting process to small businesses," he said. "We will end unnecessary no-bid and cost-plus contracts that run up a bill that is paid by the American people. And we will strengthen oversight to maximize transparency and accountability." They'll stop "outsourcing services that should be performed by the government?" Decades of Republican BS take a hit as it now becomes clear that the private sector can't provide government services better than the government itself. Apparently, John McCain is now cool with that.
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POPSColeman Calls for Election Results to be 'Set Aside' The piece goes on: "Some courts have held that when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates -- and it cannot be determined for which candidate those illegal votes were cast -- the most appropriate remedy is to set aside the election," Langdon wrote , according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune . Unfortunately for Coleman, he has absolutely no evidence that "the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates." This is just part of the Republican strategy of keeping Franken out of his senate seat for as long as possible . The one vote is damned important, as the stimulus fight demonstrated. Expect this to be laughed out of court.
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POPSObama Talks Missile Defense with Russia Not long ago, I wondered if Obama would scrap missile defense as a budget cutting measure. It's ineffective, it's expensive, and it's not extremely helpful in international relations. I didn't foresee it being used as a diplomatic bargaining chip. It'd be nice to see Obama get two birds with one stone, but if Russia doesn't bite, he should scrap this pricey -- but useless -- boondoggle anyway.
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POPSGOP Says They Won't Be Able to Block Obama Budget I'd say this gives the GOP free reign to go full-on crazy in their opposition to the budget. No matter what they do, it's going to pass. The initial (albeit admittedly uninformed) reaction to Obama's budget is largely positive , so Republicans will be freed up to play to their base -- who have a 63% negative reaction to the proposed budget. (h/t to Political Wire .)
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POPSSite of Union Sit-In to Reopen as Green Company Republicans hoping that Obama will fail are gonna hate this one, since the new owners cite the stimulus as the reason for buying the plant. As failures go, this isn't one. "They are promising to hire all of us back sooner or later, but they will start with a small crew," said former Republic employee Armando Robles. "Having another company reopen the factory was always our hope when we occupied the factory in December." "When I got the phone call, I woke up my wife, and we did a little victory dance," said fellow former employee Melvin Maklin. "This is not only a victory for the Republic workers, but for laborers and unions everywhere." And remember how it was all the union's fault and the company had to move to open a non-union in Iowa plant to stay alive? Yeah, that plant closed. So much for that argument.
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POPSA Way to Bypass Filibuster? while I'd rather not let this genie out of the bottle, the GOP has almost literally been filibustering everything . Last year, they'd broken the previous record of bills filibustered -- 62 -- by June . Being such obstructionists, the Republicans are practically begging for drastic Democratic action designed to cut them out of the loop. However, the report tells us, " sing budget reconciliation to pass policy proposals is controversial, even among some Democrats who believe doing so strains Senate rules and tradition." I suppose this means things could go either way. At least this solution doesn't require a change in senate rules, which Democrats would eventually have to work under as a minority at some point.
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POPSObama Ready for Budget Fight He went on: "In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. "My message to them is this: So am I." He should've added, "You want a piece of me? Cuz here I am!" but he didn't. I suppose the language is tough enough for government. Full remarks here .
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POPSDems Disappointed with Obama's Iraq Plan Woolsey continued: "Such a large number can only be viewed by the Iraqi public as an enduring occupation force," Woolsey said. "So long as the U.S. is viewed as an occupier, the Iraqis will be unable to achieve the necessary unification, reconciliation, and further democratization efforts that will be required for them to bring long-term stability to the country." Meanwhile, AP reports that Obama "leaned heavily toward field commanders' preferences" in drafting his plan. Maybe someone should remind him who's in charge here.
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POPSMemo Questions Los Alamos Plutonium Security This come hot on the heels of an earlier report that an Inspector General with the Energy Dept. found that the US couldn't account for "significant quantities" of nuclear materials -- including "20,580 grams of enriched uranium, 45 grams of plutonium, 5,001 kilograms of normal uranium and 189,139 kilograms of depleted uranium." As is often the case these days, the lax security can be traced to a security contractor, Los Alamos National Security LLC. Despite their poor performance, LANS was awarded "a performance bonus of $1.4 million last year." "The performance award was for security during the 2007-2008 period and included criteria related to nuclear material control and accountability, raising questions about the integrity of contract oversight..." the report tells us. Oversight from the Bush admin.? You're kidding, right?
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POPSObama to Rescind Bush Abortion Rule Watch for the religious right to totally freak out and claim the end of the world. The necessity of the rule is demonstrated by the fact that Bush waited until he was on the way out to institute it -- i.e., it's not necessary at all. Not even Mr. "Culture of Life" thought so.
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POPSPentagon Inspector Details Billions in Contractor Waste Rep. James Moran, D-Va., chairing the subcommittee, said that we're spending more on contractors than we are on military personnel and benefits. Also troubling: also described how private contractors were given control of a program to provide encrypted "common access cards" to military facilities -- including classified spaces -- and gave cards to their employees without proof of background security checks. Anyone notice how we have to bailout banks and car companies and airlines and homeowners, but we don't have to bail out military contractors? Yeah, that's because we already have.
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