Sherman's Blog - Political & Social Commentary

California: Issuing IOU’s Still, No way out

An ever-widening budget gap joined with intractable political paralysis to deliver California its biggest fiscal blow in decades on Thursday, when the state’s controller began printing i.o.u.’s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments.

It was only the second time the state had adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression. The National Conference of State Legislatures had no record of any other state’s ever using them.

It was unclear whether the i.o.u’s, known as warrants, would be accepted by all of the banks in California, which were caught off guard by the move and seemed hesitant to entrust the state to repay the them — at an interest rate of 3.75 percent — in October, as promised.

The state controller, John Chiang, issued 28,742 warrants totaling $53.3 million. If state lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement by the end of August, the amount would grow to $4.8 billion.

While the emergency move resulted from California’s unique combination of outsized budget gaps, unusual budget rules and a morass of financial obligations approved at the polls, the action was seen as a warning flag to other states that have failed to close their budgets this fiscal year because of the economic downturn. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03calif.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Illegal Employers: Taking Action? The Obama administration has begun a round- or more- of investigations of scores, if not hundreds of businesses to force compliance w/ immigration laws. The vehicle: examining employment eligibility documents.

The Obama administration launched investigations of hundreds of businesses around the country Wednesday as part of its strategy to focus immigration enforcement on the employers who hire illegal workers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun notifying businesses of plans to audit their I-9 forms - employment eligibility documents that employers fill out for every worker - the agency told members of Congress in an e-mail Wednesday.

Immigration officers served "Notices of Inspection" to 652 businesses, the Homeland Security Department said. By comparison, 503 such notices were issued to businesses last year, the agency said. Businesses were chosen for inspections based on leads and other investigative work, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Employers are required to keep the I-9 forms and must check the authenticity of documents provided by the employee. The Homeland Security Department said it would not release the names or locations of the businesses that are being audited because of the ongoing investigations.

"ICE is committed to establishing a meaningful I-9 inspection program to promote compliance with the law," John Morton, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, said in a statement. "This nationwide effort is a first step in ICE's longterm strategy to address and deter illegal employment." http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090701/D995U4N00.html

Madoff and Investment Advising: Our U.S. way of thinking, reinforced by the Major Media-- to see Madoff as a unique “rotten apple.” Former SEC Chief Arthur Levitt argues that the problem is systemic:

"Since 2002, the number of investment advisers--such as Madoff Securities--has increased by 50 percent. Yet enforcement resources have been flat or even reduced....As a result, only about 10% of investment advisers can expect to be examined every three years, and the goal of inspecting every adviser once every five years--laughably light oversight in its own right--has been abandoned."

Money for proper oversight was not allocated because the prevailing ideology regarding private investment firms--embraced by President Bill Clinton ever as fervently as President George W. Bush would later--was the gospel of radical financial deregulation, a practice that has landed us in the larger banking mess. As with the trading in unregulated derivatives, all of the operations of private investor groups, such as hedge funds, were thought not to require government supervision because these were conducted by professional financiers dealing with sophisticated investors who knew what they were doing. If the investment went south, it was on their dime and there would be no innocent victims.

As we saw with the collapse of AIG and now Madoff, that notion is false because private investment contracts can involve the resources of charitable organizations and pension funds and can end up costing the homes, savings and jobs of ordinary citizens who have no idea of which end of this arcane stuff is up.

When Levitt worked for Clinton as head of the SEC, he teamed up with Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers to destroy what remained of financial service industry regulation imposed by President Franklin Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. In recent years Levitt, alone among that gang of four, has criticized that action and accepted some personal responsibility for the subsequent financial meltdown.

He was right again when he stated in his January article: "The Madoff scandal should be a wake-up call for more consistent, uniform, and rigorous regulation of investment advising...the final prod for a fundamental reform of the financial regulatory structure...." http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090713/scheer?rel=emailNation

When is an Organic Product Organic? Not always.

Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula.

The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products.

Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture.

Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest growing segment of the food industry. Half of the country's adults say they buy organic food often or sometimes, according to a survey last year by the Harvard School of Public Health.

But the USDA program's shortcomings mean that consumers, who at times must pay twice as much for organic products, are not always getting what they expect: foods without pesticides and other chemicals, produced in a way that is gentle to the environment. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203365_pf.html

Missile Defense: Russia-U.S. Talks next week:

The US and Russia are digging in for a fight over American plans for missile defence bases in eastern Europe in spite of efforts by both sides to create a positive atmosphere before next week’s summit between Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

A senior Russian official told the Financial Times on Thursday it was not enough for the US to say it was reviewing the missile defence project as the US president had already done. Washington had to go further and “show that it really can work together with Russia in the new [geopolitical] situation and the new threats we face”. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/23cf9eee-674c-11de-925f-00144feabdc0.html

60 Dems in the Senate: Harry Reid, then and now: Still searching for Backbone

May 1, 2009, when it was all about the 60 votes/seats:

When Sen. Arlen Specter joined the Democratic Party a few days ago he said his old party had "moved far to the right."

It's the truth. All the GOP has is the same low wage, no regulation economic platform and cultural warfare garbage that's like a gallon of milk out past its sell date.

We want universal healthcare? A climate change bill? We got to help the DSCC beat its goal before the April 30 fundraising deadline so they can deliver President Obama a filibuster proof 60 seat Democratic Senate majority in the 2010 elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/us/politics/02cong.html

July 1, 2009:

"We have 60 votes on paper," Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said Wednesday in an interview. "But we cannot bulldoze anybody; it doesn’t work that way. My caucus doesn’t allow it. And we have a very diverse group of senators philosophically. I am not this morning suddenly flexing my muscles." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/us/politics/02cong.html

-R

“Climate Change” Bill: House Passage, Uncertain Senate Fate. Opposed by the Right and some on the Left. It does less than its proponents claim, but it’s a start—the first time any bill had curbs the heat-trapping gases that are so deadly. Forty-four Democrats didn’t sign on, despite it’s being softened to appeal to those 44. Familiar story. Kudos to Mary Bono and 7 other Republicans who made it possible. Sonny would be proud.

The House measure, co-sponsored by Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), would impose a limit, or "cap," on greenhouse emissions starting in 2012, while setting up a complex system for trading allowances and permitting offsets. By 2020, the cap would lower emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels. Unlike Obama's initial proposal, in which the federal government would have auctioned 100 percent of emission allowances, the Waxman-Markey bill would give 85 percent of them at no charge for a prolonged transition period.

Obama brushed aside criticism of compromises House leaders made by giving away free emission allowances to a long list of industries and interest groups, including coal-fired utilities, oil firms, algae makers and superconductor makers. He said the allowances were needed to ease regional differences, help industries adjust to carbon pricing, protect low- and middle-income households from higher electricity costs, and round up enough votes in Congress.

"Part of the reason I think that business was supportive, and ultimately we got support from legislators who in the past had been opposed, is because of the flexibility that was built . . . into this bill," he said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062801229_pf.html

Iran: Not Quite Back to Normal, or It Ain’t Over. Business is down, arrests are up, tension is high.

Iran’s government said Sunday that it had arrested Iranian employees of the British Embassy, while the police in Tehran beat and fired tear gas at several thousand protesters who joined a demonstration at a mosque in support of the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi.

The government’s arrest of nine Iranian employees of the British Embassy was a significant escalation in its conflict with Britain, which Tehran has sought to cast as an instigator of the unrest since the disputed June 12 election. It said the embassy employees played a significant role in organizing the protests, which have reached across the country and across social and economic lines.

Tehran also continued to charge journalists with working as agents of discord, publishing one editor’s “confession” while continuing to keep others behind bars without charge, or barred from working.

The arrests, detentions and restrictions added to Iran’s growing international isolation, as European Union foreign ministers meeting in Corfu, Greece, warned in a statement that there would be a “strong and collective E.U. response” to any intimidation of its members’ diplomatic staffs. The British Foreign Ministry said some of its personnel had been released, but declined to provide details. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/middleeast/29iran.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Cyber Talks: Looking to avoid Cyber Warfare

The United States and Russia are locked in a fundamental dispute over how to counter the growing threat of cyberwar attacks that could wreak havoc on computer systems and the Internet.

Both nations agree that cyberspace is an emerging battleground. The two sides are expected to address the subject when President Obama visits Russia next week and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, according to a senior State Department official.

But there the agreement ends.

Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official.

The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups. If these groups cooperate to make cyberspace more secure against criminal intrusions, their work will also make cyberspace more secure against military campaigns, American officials say. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/world/28cyber.html?pagewanted=print

Iraq: Wednesday is a National Holiday to mark the ostensible shift of U.S. troops back to their bases and out of major cities. And, it’s a big day for auctioning oil fields:

Iraq is poised to open its coveted oil fields to foreign companies this week for the first time in nearly four decades, a politically risky move in a country eager to shake off the stigma of occupation.

Iraqi politicians and some veteran oil officials have said the deals are unduly beneficial to oil giants, which are viewed warily by many in this deeply nationalistic but cash-strapped country.

Oil executives have been following the matter with apprehension, industry analysts said, but they are eager to get a foothold in Iraq, which has the world's second-largest proven crude reserves and is seen as the only major penetrable market.

"It's something the industry really wants," said Ben Lando, editor of Iraq Oil Report, an Iraq energy news Web site. "The number of reserves around the world that they have access to is declining. And Iraq has so much oil."

Iraq's Oil Ministry is expected to auction eight contracts for six active oil fields and two largely undeveloped gas fields Monday and Tuesday. Thirty-five companies have been selected to submit bids for the 20-year service contracts.

The winners will be required to give the Iraqi government a total of $3 billion in loans. They will be compensated for costs and will earn a per-barrel fee for boosting production at the fields, ravaged by years of war and sanctions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702233_pf.html

Violence is Iraq is Up:

Many observers see Iraq's most crucial milestone being the parliamentary election next January, rather than the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from town and cities by the end of this month.

That vote will be a defining test of whether the country's feuding factions can live together after the years of sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion.

"Security gains in a narrow sense will be of limited value unless the ... election is turned into a thoroughly inclusive affair where Iraqis get the opportunity to discuss fundamental issues of national reconciliation in an open atmosphere," said Reidar Visser of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and editor of Iraq-focused website www.historiae.org. http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSLP064310

Indefinite Detention: Considering the Executive Order route. Perhaps this remains a trial balloon, still testing the waters…

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president's January deadline. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062603361.html

Viet Nam: Dams- Destroying a Way of Life. A no longer uncommon development. Turkey played with the Tigris, the U.S. w/ the Colorado / Rio Grande. In Viet Nam, it’s the great Mekong

Vietnam is now a fast-growing, Westernizing economy. But, paradoxically, peace and prosperity is currently the biggest threat to what is one of the world's last great wild rivers. Almost half a century of wars in southeast Asia kept engineers away from the Mekong. Their plans for giant hydroelectric dams on the river gathered dust. But all that is changing. And on the delta, they have reason to fear the consequences, for the tens of millions of people who rely on the river's wildness for their supper could soon see their main source of protein dry up.

Last October, Chinese engineers finished construction of the Xiaowan dam on the upper reaches of the River Mekong,

This cascade of dams will be able to store half the entire flow of the Mekong as it leaves China and rushes downstream toward Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. In the future, the annual flood will be released gradually as turbines are switched on and off to supply year-round electricity. From then on, the river will rise and fall at the whim of engineers rather than nature.

In late May, a report from the United Nations Environment Programme warned that these dams are "the single greatest threat" to the future of the river and its fecundity. The new regime will largely eliminate the river's annual flood pulse, one of the natural wonders of the world, and wreck the ecosystems that depend on it.

Aviva Imhof, campaigns director at the International Rivers Network, said that the dams will cause incalculable damage downstream. "China is acting at the height of irresponsibility," said Imhof. "Its dams will wreak havoc with the Mekong ecosystem as far downstream as the Tonle Sap. They could sound the death knell for fisheries which provide food for over 60 million people."

Experts in downstream countries have been reluctant to criticize China's policies. But Professor Ngo Dinh Tuan from Hanoi Water Resources University told Vietnamese reporters last month, "If China builds dams to serve power production, the first impact would be a remarkable reduction of aquatic resources. It would be very dangerous for people who live in the lower section."

…The Mekong is a reminder of how the world's rivers used to be before the dam-builders got to work. Two-thirds of our rivers today, including most of the largest, have dams holding back their natural flood pulses on their main channels. China has already dammed the other major Asian rivers that flow out of Tibet, including the Yellow River and the Yangtze, which is now stopped by the Three Gorges Dam.

They are tamed, but much less productive as a result. The Mekong is the exception. No river on Earth has such variation in flow. Only the Amazon has greater biodiversity. Only the Amazon produces more fish.http://www.alternet.org/water/140842/the_damming_of_the_mekong%3A_major_blow_to_an_epic_river_/

-R

QUESTION: Wouldn’t that drive private insurance out of business?

OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical. – Obama on the public option

Health Care: Massachusetts as Model? At best a mixed bag, at worst, an expensive insurance plan that does nothing about health care:

On paper, the experiment was a resounding success. According to an Urban Institute estimate, the number of uninsured residents quickly fell from 13 percent to 7 percent following the law's passage.

And yet, something strange happened. Despite having health insurance, roughly one in 10 state residents still failed to fill prescriptions, ended up with unpaid medical bills, or skipped needed medical care for financial reasons. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to insure more Massachusetts citizens, but many people still weren't getting necessary care. What happened?

Assume you're looking to buy insurance. The state has a handy Web site where you can find the cheapest plan. For a young family of four, that plan costs roughly $9,500 per year, which doesn't include a minimum annual deductible of $3,500 before many benefits kick in. (The state helps cover some of the premiums for those who make very little money, but many still have to pay the other fees.) And if anyone is hospitalized or needs a lot of specialized care, you also pay 20 percent of that bill. In this relatively cheap plan, the family can be liable for an extra $10,000 per year of medical costs. This sort of "high deductible" health plan is clearly structured to discourage medical care.

…The expensive Massachusetts plan is not well-designed to systematically improve anyone's health. Instead, it's a superficial effort to clear the uninsured from the books and then clumsily limit further costs by discouraging care.http://www.slate.com/id/2221031/

Iran: A long process… as protesters have been forced off the street, hundreds of arrests with more to come. As word / unrest spreads, pundits predict a long struggle, assuming the mullahs can’t stop the all but inevitable thirst for “freedom.”

The Iranian government stepped up pressure Tuesday on opponents challenging the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, setting up a special court to try detained protesters, carrying out new arrests and launching a campaign to publicly vilify those calling for a new vote.

Authorities also formally rejected the opposition's demands to annul the disputed June 12 presidential election on grounds of massive fraud and set a deadline of mid-August for Ahmadinejad's inauguration and the confirmation of his new cabinet.

But in an apparent effort to assuage the opposition, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed to give a powerful supervisory body an additional five days to review the complaints of fraud.

President Obama's remarks Tuesday on the tumult seemed to strike a chord with at least some opposition supporters in Iran.

In an affluent North Tehran neighborhood, where people watched Obama's White House news conference on a big-screen satellite television, one woman commented: "He is following the right line. He should not give the regime an excuse to blame the U.S. for the protests."

Reporters "should grill him on human rights," a man said of Obama, while trying to work around censored Web sites on his computer.

On a day of relative calm after security forces broke up protests Monday, the government vowed to make an example of detained "rioters" and teach them a lesson. Hundreds of Iranians have been arrested in the past 10 days since the Interior Ministry declared that Ahmadinejad outpolled his nearest rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, by nearly 2 to 1. Mousavi has vowed to continue protesting despite a government ban on demonstrations and a public warning from Khamenei.

Truckloads of police in riot gear deployed at Tehran's main squares Tuesday to prevent a recurrence of the protests, and there were no signs of significant opposition gatherings.

A senior official of Iran's judiciary, which is controlled by the ruling Shiite Muslim clerics, said Tuesday that a special court would try detained protesters, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062300155_pf.html

Cleric Discipline: Firing football players- benign compared to other arrests and shootings, but a potent symbol

Their gesture attracted worldwide comment and drew the attention of football fans to Iran's political turmoil. Now the country's authorities have taken revenge by imposing life bans on players who sported green wristbands in a recent World Cup match in protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

According to the pro-government newspaper Iran, four players – Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka'abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32 – have been "retired" from the sport after their gesture in last Wednesday's match against South Korea in Seoul.

They were among six players who took to the field wearing wristbands in the colour of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, which has been adopted by demonstrators who believe the 12 June election was stolen. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/23/iran-football-protest-ban

The Critics: Obama has carefully kept the U.S. from becoming the issue in Iran. He condemns the violence, but conveys respect of/for Iran; he somewhat intensifies his rhetoric in response to the increased repression, but reiterates that we won’t become the issue. The Republicans try to bait him with the usual critique of Democrats, that Obama is weak and timid. He ignores. Reporters try to get him to admit he’s changing his tune (he isn’t) or that he’s merely responding now because of McCain (and others’) criticism. He just scoffs, and refrains from sounding like another pundit or Republican who’s sounding off without concern about consequences.

Wednesday is “Afghanistan Exit Action Day” What’s urged:

U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and Pakistan has killed hundreds of civilians and created hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Yet Congress is set to authorize $550 billion in military spending with an additional $130 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than George W. Bush ever requested.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) wants an exit strategy from Afghanistan and his bill ( H.R. 2404 ) has 89 Congressional co-sponsors. On Wednesday, he will propose it as an amendment to the war funding bill - but he needs our help.

Tell Congress to Demand an Afghanistan Exit Strategy Call your Representative today at (202) 224-3121 to co-sponsor Rep. McGovern's Afghanistan Exit Strategy bill H.R. 2404, and to vote for Rep. McGovern's amendment to the Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 2647).

Thursday: Torture Accountability Action Day What’s happening:

A large coalition of human rights groups will hold rallies and marches in major U.S. cities, including a rally in Washington, D.C.'s John Marshall P ark at 11 a.m. followed by a noon march to the Justice Department where some participants will risk arrest in nonviolent protest if a special prosecutor for torture is not appointed.

Events are planned in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, CA; Pasadena, CA; Thousand Oaks, CA; Boston, MA; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Honolulu, HI; Tampa, FL; Philadelphia, PA; and Anchorage, AK, with details available online:
http://tortureaccountability.webs.com/eventsacrossus.htm

Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor for torture:
Call Eric Holder at 202-514-2001. Fax him at 202-307-6777 or
send him a free fax: http://www.peaceandjustice.it

Torture Accountability Action Day in Boston

June 25th, 2009 at 2 PM, Harvard Square T-Stop

Speakers:

Shahid Buttar, Executive Director of Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) http://www.bordc.org/

Faisal Fahad, brother of a detained peace activist http://freefahad.com/

Tausif Paracha, whose uncle has been detained in Guantanamo since 2003 http://www.freeparachas.org/

http://tortureaccountability.webs.com/boston.htm

And: In the evening: Newton Dialogues and Social Workers for Peace are sponsoring at the Eliot Church in Newton Corner, 7:30PM

Guantanamo: Change Under Obama? A talk given by Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell – Newton lawyers working pro-bono in defense of a young Algerian man who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for over 7 years without trial or charges.

Trend: Naming Rights Selling assets to make budget. More municipalities are resorting to the quick fix. And, there’s privatization in its purer form: The City of Chicago sold control of the parking meters to a private company that over the next few years quadrupled the price of parking.

Selling the name of a subway station has been a goal of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for nearly five years. But interest has been low, even for a piece of real estate so recognizable to the public.

So it was with surprisingly little fanfare that the authority announced on Monday that it had finally found a buyer.

If a $4 million deal is approved on Wednesday, the nexus of subway stops at Atlantic Avenue, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn will add an additional name to its already lengthy title: Barclays.

This may seem odd, since Barclays is a bank based in London with offices in Manhattan, and the only Barclay Street on the city map is not even in Brooklyn. (It’s in Manhattan, in the financial district.)

There will, however, soon be a Barclays Center, the sports arena planned as the focal point of the Atlantic Yards project, and the developer, Forest City Ratner, has agreed to pay the transportation authority $200,000 a year for the next 20 years to rename one of the oldest and busiest stations in the borough.

This raises a few questions. An academic might talk of the intersection between public and private space. A straphanger may ask how all those names can fit into one announcement.

And if a company can pay to get its name on any station, a New Yorker might wonder what’s next: Coca-Cola Presents 59th Street-Columbus Circle?

The answer is maybe. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24naming.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Chinese Trend: Plastic Surgery

Big eyes, big noses, big breasts and now humungous Hummers – China seems to be indulging an obsession with size, just when the rest of the world is learning the virtues of moderation.

In Shanghai, for example, business is booming on eyelifts, noselifts, chestlifts and other surgery aimed at enlarging classically Asian narrow eyes, flat noses and unobtrusive mammary glands. At the Shanghai Time Plastic Surgery Hospital, Dr Liao Yuhua says business is up 40 per cent since the end of last year – not despite the global economic crisis, but because of it. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e8c03462-5f44-11de-93d1-00144feabdc0.html

-R

"The Obama administration's adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the President's stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government....

It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known - whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration's complicity in covering them up." – Anthony Romeo, ACLU executive director

Iran: Ongoing. Twitter excerpts:

If you catch militia - do not use violence do not kill him - treat him as your brother

People of Iran - THIS IS THE DAWN - This is the new begining - have hope and prepare

Soon Mousavi will announce full national strikes, probably starting with Petrochemical - prepare for this

Expect food shortage - transport stoppage - money shortage in bank

The Challenge continues. Many posit that there is a split amongst the ruling clerics, though other conjectures include ‘The Assembly of Experts…has expressed its full support of Ayotollah Khamenei.’ Regardless, the system’s legitimacy is at question, challenging the political rule of Islamic jurists, the divine guardians of morality and politics. Rumors as to unrest outside of Tehran, but information remains oddly unreliable, yet plentiful.

The Iranian government and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi stepped up their war of words Sunday after at least 10 people were killed in clashes on Saturday, while an uneasy calm prevailed on the streets of Tehran on Sunday for the first time since Iran's worst political crisis in 30 years began a week ago.

Government media lashed out Sunday at Mousavi, suggesting that some of his actions were illegal and blaming "terrorists" for Saturday's violence, in which at least 100 people were injured. The semiofficial Fars News Agency, which has strong ties to the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quoted a law professor at Tehran University as saying that Mousavi's actions were criminal.

"Through uncivil and illegal means, he created an environment for unrest and hooliganism," Firouz Aslani told Fars News. "Contrary to his claims of lawfulness, he acted against the security of the nation and the interests of the system."

Some analysts in Tehran said those comments and others carried in the state-run news media questioning the legality of Mousavi's actions could be the government's way of preparing the ground for his arrest. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/21/AR2009062100146_pf.html

Juan Cole:

The regime has arrested Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, daughter of the former president, who spoke at a pro-Mousavi rally, along with 4 other members of that family. This step is typical of an old Iranian ruling technique, of keeping provincial tribal chieftains in check by keeping some of their children hostage at the royal court.http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/daughter-of-rafsanjani-arrested-death.html

Iraq: Our troops are slated to pull out of the cities in less than 10 days

Rescue and recovery operations are still under way in the Iraqi town of Taza, a day after a lorry bomb near a mosque killed 75 people and wounded about 185.

The suicide attack took place as worshippers were leaving the Shia mosque following noon prayers on Saturday.

Dozens of homes were flattened by the blast, the deadliest in nearly two months. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096211190147404.html

Health Care: Will Democracy Rule? Not if the insurance companies and their many captive politicians overrule the popular will. A NBC/WSJ poll last week found that 76% of Americans believe it's either "extremely important" or "quite important" to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance." This one’s another goodie:

Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.

…The national telephone survey, which was conducted from June 12 to 16, found that 72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers. Twenty percent said they were opposed. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Optimism:

President Barack Obama’s plans for health reform received a double boost over the weekend, with drugmakers agreeing to cut prescription charges and an opinion poll showing a significant majority of Americans want the option of public health insurance.

Pharmaceuticals companies agreed to cut about $80bn over the next decade in charges for prescription drug users aged 65 and over, the Obama administration announced on Saturday. These users of the Medicare government-backed scheme currently have to pay the full price of medicines that cost between $2,700 and $6,153 a year.

“The existence of this gap in coverage has been a continuing injustice that has placed a great burden on many seniors,” Mr Obama said in a statement. “This deal will provide significant relief from that burden.”

A second fillip for healthcare reform came from a New York Times/CBS poll on Saturday that showed 72 per cent of Americans supported the creation of government-administered health insurance available to all… http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/000052a4-5e93-11de-91ad-00144feabdc0.html

Pessimism: Slowing it down

“So we’re in the position of dialing down some of our expectations to get the costs down so that it’s affordable,” Mr. Grassley said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” “and most importantly, so that it’s paid for because we can’t go to the point where we are now of not paying for something when we have trillions of dollars of debt.”

The Finance Committee’s plan is expected to attract more bipartisan support than legislation being written by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. The proposal by Mr. Dodd’s committee was estimated to cost $1 trillion over 10 years but would only increase the number of insured Americans by 16 million.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina who appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” said estimates on overhauling health care were “a death blow to a government-run health plan.”

Dianne Feinstein of California joined Republicans in voicing reservations. Ms. Feinstein, who appeared on “State of the Union,” said that controlling the cost of a new health-care system “is a very major and difficult subject.”

Ms. Feinstein also said that Mr. Obama might not have the votes in the Senate to pass his legislation. “I think there’s a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus,” she said.

Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, appearing with Ms. Feinstein, said that overhauling the health care system should be done slowly and not this year, as Mr. Obama has insisted. “I think it should be incremental steps,” Mr. Lugar said. Mr. Lugar also suggested a period of study to find and consider alternatives. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/health/policy/22healthcare.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Secrecy: Obama Administration Over-the-top: Downright embarrassing

A federal judge yesterday sharply questioned an assertion by the Obama administration that former Vice President Richard B. Cheney's statements to a special prosecutor about the Valerie Plame case must be kept secret, partly so they do not become fodder for Cheney's political enemies or late-night commentary on "The Daily Show."

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan expressed surprise during a hearing here that the Justice Department, in asserting that Cheney's voluntary statements to U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald were exempt from disclosure, relied on legal claims put forward last October by a Bush administration political appointee, Stephen Bradbury. The department asserted then that the disclosure would make presidents and vice presidents reluctant to cooperate voluntarily with future criminal investigations.

But career civil division lawyer Jeffrey M. Smith, responding to Sullivan's questions, said Bradbury's arguments against the disclosure were supported by the department's current leadership. He told the judge that if Cheney's remarks were published, then a future vice president asked to provide candid information during a criminal probe might refuse to do so out of concern "that it's going to get on 'The Daily Show' " or somehow be used as a political weapon.

Sullivan said Bradbury, who was the acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel, was not obviously qualified to make such claims and that they were in any event unsubstantiated. Sullivan said the department needed new evidence, if it hoped to prevail, and said the administration should supply him with a copy of Cheney's statements so he could directly assess whether the claims are credible. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/18/AR2009061803879_pf.html

Afghanistan: Suffering of the Villagers Graphic account of the casualties of the American drones, bombing. We have not been winning the ‘hearts and minds.’

“The people were afraid. About 10 to 15 families gathered in the same place to be safe together. This was in the evening and it was dark,” says the elder. He recalls a small “helicopter” with no pilot that made a “zzzz” sound. He appears to be describing one of the pilotless drones used by Nato troops to relay video film of the battlefield.

“My cousins, my sister, my nephews and also my nieces were all killed in this place,” he says.

“About 13 or 14 people related to my sister were killed here. I found my nephew’s body recently over there. A farmer found another body over there.”

On the hill, beyond the village, are traditional Muslim graves ranged as far as the eye can see.

The fresh ones number more than 70. The elder points to those of his sister and her children. Then at the far end of the cemetery he stands before one enormous grave stretching more than 50 metres across.

“This is the grave that almost 55 people are buried in because their bodies are in pieces,” he says.

The elder adds: “With this situation going on, the people are becoming more separate from the government. However, they hate the Taliban also.

“These are poor people. They hate the government, they hate the Americans and they hate to live in this place. We think that this country is like a prison for us.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f45d0ce-5c25-11de-aea3-00144feabdc0.html

…leading to an announced (ostensible) shift:

The new American commander in Afghanistan said he would sharply restrict the use of airstrikes here, in an effort to reduce the civilian deaths that he said were undermining the American-led mission.

In interviews over the past few days, the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, said the use of airstrikes during firefights would in most cases be allowed only to prevent American and other coalition troops from being overrun.

Even in the cases of active firefights with Taliban forces, he said, airstrikes will be limited if the combat is taking place in populated areas — the very circumstances in which most Afghan civilian deaths have occurred. The restrictions will be especially tight in attacking houses and compounds where insurgents are believed to have taken cover.

“Air power contains the seeds of our own destruction if we do not use it responsibly,” General McChrystal told a group of his senior officers during a video conference last week. “We can lose this fight.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/world/asia/22airstrikes.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

China Stimulus: It’s working for them

Despite bitter criticism out of Beijing in February when American lawmakers passed a stimulus package that contained a “buy American” provision, the Chinese government has directed its localities to do much the same.

State-run media in China began reporting on the “buy China” clause this week, complete with full-throated defenses of the measure even after calling the American version “poison” and warned that the American measure could spark a “trade war.”

According to those sources, the Chinese government’s economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, handed down an edict requiring any projects using part of China’s $586 billion package to obtain official permission before using any imported goods.

“Government investment projects should buy domestically made products unless products or services cannot be obtained in reasonable commercial conditions in China," says the order, dated June 1. "Projects that really need to buy imports should be approved by the relevant government departments before purchasing activity starts." http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/3032

The World Bank raised its forecast for China’s 2009 gross domestic product growth to 7.2 per cent on Thursday, saying the apparent success of the government’s stimulus package had improved the outlook from March – when the bank predicted 6.5 per cent growth for the year.

But the World Bank said a sustainable recovery was not yet assured, in spite of the government’s Rmb4,000bn ($590bn) fiscal stimulus, and that Beijing might have little room for additional measures this year. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f7abf38-5bc0-11de-be3f-00144feabdc0.html

Long-Term Jobless: Ranks are Growing

On the surface, the government seemed to signal Thursday that more Americans are finding jobs: The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell for the first time since early January.

But that doesn't necessarily mean more companies are hiring. Fewer people are receiving jobless aid largely because more of them have exhausted their standard unemployment benefits, which typically last 26 weeks.

Government figures, in fact, show the proportion of recipients who used up their jobless benefits averaged 49 percent in May, a record.

And while many analysts expect the recession to end by late summer, they warn that unemployment will stay high into 2010. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNiyJ905Ho0Ur96V2TQhsBX19lGwD98TCIH81

"Mainstream-media political journalism is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant, but not because of the Internet, or even Comedy Central. The threat comes from inside. It comes from journalists being afraid to do what journalists were put on this green earth to do…” - Dan Froomkin, excellent journalist-blogger at the Washington Post, fired last week by the very conservative Fred Hiatt-led editorial board

-R

Iran: What’s Next? No one knows. Will the leaders back off, confront, or find a yet to be defined middle ground?

As another day of defiance, concessions and ominous threats transfixed Iran’s capital, it was increasingly apparent on Thursday that there was no clear path out of a deepening confrontation that has posed the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in its 30-year history.

The situation had all the hallmarks of a standoff. Hundreds of thousands of silent protesters flooded into the streets. They roared a welcome to their champion, Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition candidate for president whose reported defeat by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Friday’s election touched off the crisis.

Iran’s leaders offered conciliation, while simultaneously wielding repression.

With one hand, the government offered to talk to the opposition, inviting the three losing presidential candidates to meet with the powerful Guardian Council. While that reflected a continuing retreat from the initial insistence by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the election results were accurate, many Iranians saw the offer as an effort to buy time and shield the ayatollah from public accountability. The Guardian Council is loyal to him.

Even Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has kept a defiant if low profile, made an unusual public concession. After insulting the huge crowds that poured into the street by dismissing them as “dust,” the president issued a statement on state television, according to The Associated Press:

“I only addressed those who made riot, set fires and attacked people. Every single Iranian is valuable. The government is at everyone’s service. We like everyone.”

With the other hand, the government continued to arrest prominent reformers, limit Internet access and pressure reporters to stay off the streets, and security officials signaled their waning tolerance.

It was not clear whether Iran’s government, made up of fractious power centers, was pursuing a calculated strategy or if the moves reflected internal disagreements, or even uncertainty. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Distraction: Blaming Foreign Meddling One track the Iranian regime is following:

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said on Thursday it had uncovered a terrorist plot linked to Israel and other foreign enemies to plant bombs in mosques and other crowded places in Tehran during the country's June 12 presidential election.

State television aired a statement by what it said was one of those involved in the plot saying Americans in neighboring Iraq had given them the know-how to build explosive devices.

The website of state broadcaster IRIB quoted a ministry statement as saying several terrorist groups had been discovered, adding they were linked to Iran's foreign enemies, also including Israel. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094007.html

HEALTH CARE

Insurers: Rescission- i.e. finding something in your past so as to ‘justify’ canceling your policy when you’re about to collect on that policy. The insurance industry – the folks that have run health care while adding 20 – 30% to its cost- figure ways to drop your coverage once you require expensive medical treatment. Insurance executives admit the practice and say it’s here to stay, that they’re “stopping fraud…”

My, do we need that public option.

Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.

The hearing on the controversial action known as rescission, which has left thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, began a day after President Obama outlined his proposals for revamping the nation's healthcare system.

An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.

It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.

…A Texas nurse said she lost her coverage, after she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, for failing to disclose a visit to a dermatologist for acne.

The sister of an Illinois man who died of lymphoma said his policy was rescinded for the failure to report a possible aneurysm and gallstones that his physician noted in his chart but did not discuss with him.

The committee's investigation found that WellPoint's Blue Cross targeted individuals with more than 1,400 conditions, including breast cancer, lymphoma, pregnancy and high blood pressure. And the committee obtained documents that showed Blue Cross supervisors praised employees in performance reviews for rescinding policies.

One employee, for instance, received a perfect 5 for "exceptional performance" on an evaluation that noted the employee's role in dropping thousands of policyholders and avoiding nearly $10 million worth of medical care.

Committee members took turns, alternating Democrats and Republicans, condemning such practices.

"When times are good, the insurance company is happy to sign you up and take your money in the form of premiums," said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). "But when times are bad . . . some insurance companies use a technicality to justify breaking its promise, at a time when most patients are too weak to fight back."

"I think a company does have a right to make sure there's no fraudulent information," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.). "But if a citizen acts in good faith, we should expect the insurance company that takes their money to act in good faith also."

Late in the hearing, Stupak, the committee chairman, put the executives on the spot. Stupak asked each of them whether he would at least commit his company to immediately stop rescissions except where they could show "intentional fraud."

The answer from all three executives:

"No."

… In November 2007, The Times reported that insurer Health Net Inc. paid bonuses to employees based in part on their involvement in rescinding policies. According to internal corporate documents disclosed through litigation, Health Net saved $35 million over six years by rescinding policies. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rescind17-2009jun17,0,1446563,print.story

Blue Dog Democrats Support GOP: Health Care Needs 60 votes They are opposing use of Reconciliation, employing majority rule. That has become, in these few months, seemingly an outlier position. Instead, the supermajority of 60 is being described as routine for Senate business. That’s not what we learned- and practiced- all these years, but there’s little media push-back thus far.

A bipartisan group of House members is demanding that special budget rules allowing Democrats to pass healthcare legislation by a simple-majority vote be taken off the table.

Democratic leaders have signaled they are open to using reconciliation to force President Obama's signature domestic issue through the Senate along party lines if need be.

The House group says that is not acceptable.

"Reconciliation is not an option for health care reform," read a news release sent out Thursday morning by Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.), a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition. "By rule, any bill that passes under reconciliation cannot make the changes needed to reform the American health care system," the release read. "Working together is the only option." http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/bipartisan-group-wants-reconciliation-off-table-2009-06-18.html

Daschle to Obama: Drop the Public Option. Hardly surprising. The man was spineless as the Senate leader and as he took enormous amounts from the health insurance industry, I was thrilled when he dropped out after being nominating for the Health and Human Services job; Sebelius is a markedly superior choice.

The man once slated to head Barack Obama's health care system overhaul is now coming out against one of the chief components of that effort.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said on Wednesday that the Obama White House would likely have to scrap a public option for health insurance coverage if it wanted to get the votes needed to pass systematic change.

"We've come too far and gained too much momentum for our efforts to fail over disagreement on one single issue," the Senator and one-time HHS Secretary nominee said, according to ABC News.

The remarks came after Dashcle, along with former Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Howard Baker introduced his own proposal for health care reform that. That plan actually included a pseudo-version of a government-run option. The Daschle proposal calls for (among other things) public insurance pools to be administered by state government, not the feds.

In coming out against a public plan, Daschle adds kindling to an already roaring debate on health care reform. On Thursday morning, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean repeated the mantra that you cannot have effective legislation if it does not include a public option. At the White House on Wednesday, several state legislators who had met with current HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued the same point. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/18/daschle-urges-obama-to-dr_n_217329.html

Obama Fiscal Policy: Inadequate … at best. A consensus on regulatory reform amongst those who matter. Even Republicans blanched at the notion of further empowering the Fed:

(1) Regulatory Reform: Joe Nocera:

…in terms of the scope and breadth of the Obama plan — and more important, in terms of its overall effect on Wall Street's modus operandi — it's not even close to what [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt accomplished during the Great Depression.

Rather, the Obama plan is little more than an attempt to stick some new regulatory fingers into a very leaky financial dam rather than rebuild the dam itself. Without question, the latter would be more difficult, more contentious and probably more expensive. But it would also have more lasting value....

If Mr. Obama hopes to create a regulatory environment that stands for another six decades, he is going to have to do what Roosevelt did once upon a time. He is going to have make some bankers mad. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/business/18nocera.html?ref=todayspaper

(2) The Fed:

The Federal Reserve, which has been at the center of the government rescue of the financial system, is now on the hot seat, with a debate on Capitol Hill emerging over its responsibility for the crisis and its proper role in preventing such events in the future.

Lawmakers are simultaneously annoyed that the Fed did not do more to rein in the bad lending and other financial excesses that led to the financial crisis and recession, and wary of the Fed's aggressive steps over the past two years to combat them. The criticism of the Fed is increasingly loud, bipartisan and from both chambers of Congress.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it wants to give the central bank more power to oversee risks to the U.S. economy even as it strips the Fed of power to protect consumers and limits its authority to make emergency loans. But the expansion of its role is already proving to be the most controversial element of the president's plan to revamp financial regulation.

As Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner testified before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday about the administration's sweeping proposal for financial regulation overhaul, senators repeatedly returned the discussion to provisions involving the Fed. Geithner envisions giving the central bank the power to directly oversee any firm that is large and complex enough that its activities could endanger the U.S. economy as a whole.

Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) quoted an academic who compared the administration's proposal to "a parent giving his son a bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon."

"Mr. Secretary, the Federal Reserve system was not designed to carry out the systemic risk-oversight mission the administration proposes to give it," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/18/AR2009061804110_pf.html

-R