Americablog: Where are all of the "free market" people now?

by Chris in Paris · 3/15/2008 06:38:00 AM ET · Link

Now that the Fed has chopped interest rates (and will chop again, not that it's going to translate into lower rates for consumers) and they pumped $200 billion into Wall Street, I'd like to know where exactly the so-called free market/industry self-regulate people are. Where are they? They're all at the front of the bloody line calling for more handouts. When Democrats ask for money for SCHIP or food money for the poor or unemployment extensions, all we hear is about cost. What is the matter with Democrats? Is it so hard to scream and yell like the GOP? Why are they so silent on this bailout? Even the homeowner bailout is a pittance compared to the Wall Street bailout.

The Rise of American Incompetence

We used to be the world's most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we're laughingstocks. What happened?

By Daniel Gross

Posted Saturday, March 15, 2008, at 7:12 AM ET

The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar's weakness reflects the world's collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world's largest economy. Countries that outsourced their monetary policy by pegging domestic currencies to the dollar are having second thoughts. Kuwait last year detached the dinar from the dollar, and Qatar government officials last week said they were considering doing the same with their currency. International financiers are unnerved by the toxic combination of "misplaced assumptions about housing, a lack of necessary regulation and irresponsible use of debt with sophisticated financial instruments," said Ashraf Laidi, currency strategist at CMC Markets.

Wall Street fears for next Great Depression

By Margareta Pagano, Business Editor
Sunday, 16 March 2008

Wall Street is bracing itself for another week of roller-coaster trading after more than $300bn (£150m) was wiped off the US equity markets on Friday following the emergency funding package put together by the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase to rescue Bear Stearns.

One UK economist warned that the world is now close to a 1930s-like Great Depression, while New York traders said they had never experienced such fear. The Fed's emergency funding procedure was first used in the Depression and has rarely been used since.

A Goldman Sachs trader in New York said: "Everyone is in a total state of shock, aghast at what is happening. No one wants to talk, let alone deal; we're just standing by waiting. Everyone is nervous about what is going to emerge when trading starts tomorrow."

Robert Fisk: The cult of the suicide bomber

Friday, 14 March 2008

Khaled looked at me with a broad smile. He was almost laughing. At one point, when I told him that he should abandon all thoughts of being a suicide bomber – that he could influence more people in this world by becoming a journalist – he put his head back and shot me a grin, world-weary for a man in his teens. "You have your mission," he said. "And I have mine." His sisters looked at him in awe. He was their hero, their amanuensis and their teacher, their representative and their soon-to-be-martyred brother. Yes, he was handsome, young – just 18 – he was dressed in a black Giorgio Armani T-shirt, a small, carefully trimmed Spanish conquistador's beard, gelled hair. And he was ready to immolate himself.

A sinister surprise. I had travelled to Khaled's home to speak to his mother. I had already written about his brother Hassan and wanted to introduce a Canadian journalist colleague, Nelofer Pazira, to the family. When Khaled walked on to the porch of the house, Nelofer and I both realised – at the same moment – that he was next, the next to die, the next "martyr". It was his smile. I've come across these young men before, but never one who so obviously declared his calling.

A $3 trillion debacle

March 15, 2008

NEARLY FIVE years since the start of the Iraq war, the Bush administration is still funding much of it through emergency appropriations, and only partially through the regular defense budget. This is one of several ways in which the administration has managed to hide the true cost of the war from the American people. Until Congress insists on a full and open accounting, the nation won't know how much of a drag it is on the economy.

Economists once believed that wars stimulated an economy. But when much of the funding goes to Iraqi or Filipino contractors working in Iraq, the benefit to the US economy diminishes, especially in light of what the funding could achieve if used for home-front needs.

In the run-up to the war, President Bush's top economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, said it might cost as much as $200 billion. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the actual amount would be just $50 billion to $60 billion, calling Lindsey's projection "baloney," much as Rumsfeld had belittled General Eric Shinseki's estimate that it would take several hundred thousand US troops to fight the war successfully.

F.D.R.’s Safety Net Gets a Big Stretch

By FLOYD NORRIS

It was an old-fashioned bank run that forced Bear Stearns to turn to the government for salvation on Friday. The difference is that Bear Stearns is not a commercial bank, and is therefore not eligible for the protections those banks received 75 years ago when Franklin D. Roosevelt halted bank runs with government guarantees.

Bear was, instead, emblematic of a financial system that grew up over the last two decades, one that largely marginalized traditional banking and that enabled lenders to evade much of the regulatory framework that had also begun during the Roosevelt administration.

Bad News at the Pump: The Dangerous Implications of $100-Plus Oil

By Michael T. Klare, Tomdispatch.com
Posted on March 15, 2008, Printed on March 15, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/79505/

On Monday March 3, the price of crude oil reached $103.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, surpassing the record set nearly 30 years ago during another moment of chaos in the Middle East. Will that new mark prove distinctive in the annals of world history or will it be forgotten as energy prices drop, just as they did following their April 1980 peak?

When oil costs are plotted over time, the 1980 oil crisis -- prompted by Ayatollah Khomeini's Iranian revolution -- stands out as a sharp spike on that price curve. Both before and after that moment, however, oil supplies proved largely sufficient to meet rising global demand, in part because the Saudis and other major producers were capable of compensating for declining Iranian production. They simply increased their output substantially, dumping a surplus of oil onto the global market. Aided by the development of new fields in Alaska and the North Sea, prices dropped precipitously and stayed low through the 1990s (except for a brief spike following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990).

President weakens espionage oversight

Board created by Ford loses most of its power

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | March 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - Almost 32 years to the day after President Ford created an independent Intelligence Oversight Board made up of private citizens with top-level clearances to ferret out illegal spying activities, President Bush issued an executive order that stripped the board of much of its authority.

The White House did not say why it was necessary to change the rules governing the board when it issued Bush's order late last month. But critics say Bush's order is consistent with a pattern of steps by the administration that have systematically scaled back Watergate-era intelligence reforms.

U.S. faces severe recession: NBER's Feldstein

Friday March 14, 10:55 am ET
By Ros Krasny

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) - The United States is in a recession that could be "substantially more severe" than recent ones, National Bureau of Economic Research President Martin Feldstein said on Friday.

"The situation is very bad, the situation is getting worse, and the risks are that it could get very bad," Feldstein said in a speech at the Futures Industry Association meeting in Boca Raton, Florida.

"There's no doubt that this year and next year are going to be very difficult years."

NBER is a private sector group that is considered the arbiter of U.S. business cycles. Feldstein is also a Harvard economics professor and former economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan.

Oil Rises Above $110 to Record as the Dollar Falls Against Euro

By Mark Shenk

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $110 a barrel to a record in New York after the dollar weakened to an all-time low against the euro, prompting investors to buy commodities.

The dollar fell to $1.556 per euro, the lowest since the currency's 1999 debut. The declining U.S. currency has spurred investors to move funds into commodities such as oil and gold. Prices fell earlier after a government report showed that U.S. oil and gasoline supplies rose.

Paul Krugman: Betting the Bank

Four years ago, an academic economist named Ben Bernanke co-authored a technical paper that could have been titled “Things the Federal Reserve Might Try if It’s Desperate” — although that may not have been obvious from its actual title, “Monetary Policy Alternatives at the Zero Bound: An Empirical Investigation.”

Today, the Fed is indeed desperate, and Mr. Bernanke, as its chairman, is putting some of the paper’s suggestions into effect. Unfortunately, however, the Bernanke Fed’s actions — even though they’re unprecedented in their scope — probably won’t be enough to halt the economy’s downward spiral.

Future unclear for Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

After seven years both Democratic presidential candidates express support for and reservations about Republican religious patronage system

The seventh anniversary of President George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative passed quietly. Unlike the much ballyhooed launching of his faith-based initiative in January 2001, when a string of religious officials witnessed Bush sign executive orders bringing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI - website) into existence, this year the president was apparently occupied by more pressing matters; convincing the public that a recession wasn't looming, trumpeting so-called successes of the surge in Iraq, and no doubt wondering what else he's going to be doing until its time to scurry back to Texas next January.

Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush's Behest

EPA Scrambles To Justify Action

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 14, 2008; A01

The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.

EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.

Leading Engineers and Scientists Identify Advances That Could Improve Quality of Life Around the World

February 20, 2008

A diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced 14 grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century that, if met, would improve how we live.

"Tremendous advances in quality of life have come from improved technology in areas such as farming and manufacturing," said committee member and Google co-founder Larry Page. "If we focus our effort on the important grand challenges of our age, we can hugely improve the future."

Learning From the Cultural Conservatives, Part III: Taking It To The Street

By Sara Robinson
March 11th, 2008 - 10:51am ET

Part I
Part II

The conservative worldview has succeeded so wildly -- and is still holding such tenacious sway over the ways Americans approach their current stack of problems -- because the conservatives started out 30 years ago with a focused plan that put promoting their model of reality at the center of every other action. Over the past two posts, I've been mining the specific strategies that early planners like Paul Weyrich used to advance the conservative worldview, in the hope that we might gain some insight that will help us engage them directly on this deepest, most important territory.

Progressives will not be able to implement their vision of the future until we're able to supplant the conservative worldview with our own. We won't win until we take control of the discourse, offer Americans new ways to make meaning and evaluate and prioritize events, and get them to abandon conservative assumptions about how reality works.

White House won't remove loophole allowing foreign contractors to ignore fraud

03/13/2008 @ 8:32 am
Filed by John Byrne

The White House has indicated it will not remove a loophole quietly inserted into a budget rule which allows contractors abroad to keep silent if they observe fraud or abuse on US government contracts.

The proposed rule, put forth by the White House Office of Management and Budget last year, exempts all companies who do work overseas from a new regulation requiring US contractors to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while doing work for the government.

Are We Closer to War?

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; 11:51 AM

The abrupt resignation yesterday of the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon, has sparked a new round of speculation that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have some sort of plan in the works to attack Iran before their time is up.

Fallon's resignation -- or firing -- was apparently precipitated in part by a recent Esquire profile that depicted him as brazenly pushing back against the White House hawks eager to launch another war.

Feds warn entire salmon season could be halted

Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

(03-12) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - --

So few salmon are living in the ocean and rivers along the Pacific Coast that salmon fishing in California and Oregon will have to be shut down completely this year unless an emergency exception is granted, Pacific Fishery Management Council representatives said Tuesday.

It would mark the first time ever that the federal agency created 22 years ago to manage the Pacific Coast fishery canceled the coast's traditional salmon fishing season from April to mid-November.

Gold hits $1,000 for first time

The price of gold reached a record, trading at $1,000 an ounce for the first time, pushed higher by a weak US dollar and fears about the US economy.

Concerns about a possible US recession are seeing investors buy up commodities such as gold as an alternative to company shares and the US dollar.

Hedge fund on verge of collapse

Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC), a unit of the private equity firm Carlyle Group, has said it will not be able to meet lenders' demands for money.

The US mortgage-backed bond fund will collapse if, as expected, its lenders seize its remaining assets.

CCC's problems are the latest sign of the credit market turmoil that has prompted billions of dollars of losses at some of the world's biggest banks.

Spitzer’s Shame Is Wall Street’s Gain

Posted on Mar 12, 2008

By Robert Scheer

Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex? Will it bring back to life the eight U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq that same day in a war that makes no sense and has cost this nation trillions in future debt? Will it save those millions of homes that hardworking folks all over the country are losing because of financial industry shenanigans that Eliot Spitzer, as much as anyone, attempted to halt? Perhaps it provides some insight into why oil has risen to $108 a barrel, benefiting most of all the oil sheiks whom our taxpayer-supported military has kept in power?

Appalling Spread of False Information Requires Stronger Media Accountability

By Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet
Posted on March 12, 2008, Printed on March 13, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/79465/

"A free press is supposed to function as our democracy's immune system against . . . gross errors of fact and understanding," wrote Al Gore in his book, The Assault on Reason. But it doesn't - as Gore explains -- and that is what makes the mass media one of the most important obstacles to social and economic progress in the 21st century.

How the media treats repeated falsehoods is a key issue. For example, when the New York Times reports on the allegation -- spread by his enemies -- that presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Muslim, there is a sentence that follows immediately: "In fact, he is a Christian. . ."

Paulson: Time to toughen rules on mortgage brokers

Thursday March 13, 12:11 pm ET
By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Financial regulators pledged on Thursday to toughen rules for mortgage brokers, lenders and credit agencies in a bid to ease a credit crunch and to try to restore investor confidence in markets.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, unveiling a 20-page set of recommendations from the top-level President's Working Group, blamed a "dramatic weakening" of underwriting standards for lower-quality home loans for helping trigger turmoil in credit markets that raged on unabated as he spoke.

Stock prices tumbled on rising fears of U.S. recession, gold prices soared and the dollar's value plumbed fresh record lows as investors shunned it in favor of the euro and other stronger currencies.

Digby: Economic National Security

According to Steve Clemons and others with contacts inside the national security community, Fallon was fired for insubordination and it doesn't portend any change in Iran policy. As I wrote yesterday, Fallon was arguably insubordinate so that isn't something to be taken lightly. The principle of civilian leadership is important. Fallon's disagreements with the administration left him only one option --- resign, and then talk to the press. You can't do it while in uniform.

Digby: Stick This In Your Stovepipe

...and smoke it.

Last week a reader sent me this and considering today's news about Admiral Fallon, it takes on new urgency:

I just saw your post about Fallon being canned. I had a similar, sinking feeling as I was reading this William Broad piece from last Friday on how the recent Iran NIE report conclusions were a result of a “rules change” allowing the focus in the NIE to shift from uranium enrichment to weapon design.

He pointed out that the article sounded very much like it could have been written by Judy Miller and that this looked like a conscious strategy to put last December's bombshell NIE back on the shelf.

Federal Reserve intervenes and market soars

Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: March 11, 2008 09:45:04 PM

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it will provide up to $200 billion in short-term loans, accepting a wide range of mortgage bonds as collateral in a bid to boost credit markets, keep housing finance alive and avoid a recession.

In a short statement, the Fed noted the increasing "pressures in some of these markets" and announced the new loans and a coordinated loan-financing effort with the central banks of Canada, England, Switzerland and the European Union.

Stocks, which had slumped over the past three sessions, soared throughout the day on news of the Fed's action. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 416.66 points. The S&P 500 was up 47.28 and Nasdaq jumped 86.42 points.

401(k)s tapped to save homes

By Christine Dugas, USA TODAY

Struggling to save their homes from foreclosure, more Americans are raiding their 401(k) retirement accounts to pay their bills — and getting slammed with taxes and penalties in the process, according to retirement plan administrators.

Rather than borrow money from their 401(k) accounts, which would have to be paid back, a growing number of beleaguered families have been cashing out, plan administrators say.

Dollar Trades at Record Low Versus Euro as Fed Plan Disappoints

By Ye Xie

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded at a record low against the euro as firms from Citigroup Inc. to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the Federal Reserve's plan to inject $200 billion into the banking system may fail to break the freeze in money-market lending.

The U.S. currency plunged yesterday against the euro, yen and Swiss franc, erasing a rally from March 11 when the Fed said it would lend Treasuries to financial institutions and take mortgage debt as collateral. Traders bet the Fed will cut rates by as much as three quarters of a percentage point next week to avert a recession, while the European Central Bank keeps borrowing costs unchanged at 4 percent.

UK top cop who led CIA probe found dead

Manchester Police Chief Who Cleared Britain of Helping Secret CIA Flights Is Found Dead

ROB HARRIS, AP News
Mar 11, 2008 13:45 EST

A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said Tuesday.

Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, about 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. He had been missing since going out for a walk Monday during his day off.

Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Permanent Energy Crisis Hits Home

Back in January, on his trip to the Middle East, the President all but begged the Saudi royals -- the New York Times referred to his requests as "entreaties" -- to put more oil on the global market and so lower prices at the pump in the U.S., essentially saving his "legacy." In April 2005, in his previous meeting with then-Crown Prince, now Saudi King Abdullah, Bush was also fretting about oil prices. A barrel of crude was then pegged at $54. This time, the President who, in his seven years in office, has told the leaders of more nations more times what they "must" do, approached the Saudi king with the sort of diffidence (by his own description) that a needy vassal might employ with his liege lord.

The Man Between War and Peace

As the White House talked up conflict with Iran, the head of U.S. Central Command, William "Fox" Fallon, talked it down. Now he has resigned.

1.

If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to war with Iran, it'll come down to the same man. He is that rarest of creatures in the Bush universe: the good cop on Iran, and a man of strategic brilliance. His name is William Fallon, although all of his friends call him "Fox," which was his fighter-pilot call sign decades ago. Forty years into a military career that has seen this admiral rule over America's two most important combatant commands, Pacific Command and now United States Central Command, it's impossible to make this guy--as he likes to say--"nervous in the service." Past American governments have used saber rattling as a useful tactic to get some bad actor on the world stage to fall in line. This government hasn't mastered that kind of subtlety. When Dick Cheney has rattled his saber, it has generally meant that he intends to use it. And in spite of recent war spasms aimed at Iran from this sclerotic administration, Fallon is in no hurry to pick up any campaign medals for Iran. And therein lies the rub for the hard-liners led by Cheney. Army General David Petraeus, commanding America's forces in Iraq, may say, "You cannot win in Iraq solely in Iraq," but Fox Fallon is Petraeus's boss, and he is the commander of United States Central Command, and Fallon doesn't extend Petraeus's logic to mean war against Iran.

HUD E-Mails Refer to Retaliation

High-Level Officials Wrote of Punishing Philadelphia Housing Director

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; A03

After Philadelphia's housing director refused a demand by President Bush's housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.

"Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?" Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene.

Pentagon Hyperventilates About China's Military 'Intentions'

By Amitabh Pal, The Progressive
Posted on March 12, 2008, Printed on March 12, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/79272/

The Pentagon is hyperventilating about China. It recently issued a report accusing China of understating its military spending and of not clearly stating its "intentions."

"China's military buildup has been characterized by opacity," David Sedney, deputy assistant defense secretary for East Asia, told reporters, and "by the inability of people in the region and around the world to really know what ties together the capabilities that China's acquiring with the intentions it has."

Barbara Ehrenreich: The Fall of the American Consumer

By Barbara Ehrenreich, Barbaraehrenreich.com
Posted on March 12, 2008, Printed on March 12, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/79389/

How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off, and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss -- hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.

It could go a lot lower of course. This guy could start saving the little morsels he flosses out and boil them up to augment the children's breakfast gruel. Already, as the recession or whatever it is closes in, people have stopped buying homes and cars and cut way back on restaurant meals. They don't have the money; they don't have the credit; and increasingly they're finding that no one wants their money anyway. NPR reported on February 28 that more and more Manhattan stores are accepting Euros and at least one has gone Euros-only.

Think Again: FCC vs. The Public

By Eric Alterman, George Zornick

March 6, 2008

Regulation is to the Bush administration what frugality is to George Steinbrenner. Conservative distaste for government oversight is evident throughout the current federal government. But among its most dramatic manifestations lies in the decline of the Federal Communications Commission as a true regulatory body, empowered to protect the public's interest in public airwaves.

The FCC's duties, or neglect thereof, rarely enjoy much discussion in the mainstream media, as evidenced by the recent hubbub over John McCain and Vicki Iseman: at the heart of the issue isn't romance, but lobbying. Specifically, McCain allegedly lobbied the FCC to approve the sale of a television station to a major financial contributor. The issue beneath the screaming headlines and campaign spin is really how corporations use their financial influence to control media ownership.

Glenn Greenwald: Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

Regarding all of the breathless moralizing from all sides over the "reprehensible," outrageous crimes of Eliot Spitzer: are there actually many people left who care if an adult who isn't their spouse hires prostitutes? Are there really people left who think that doing so should be a crime, that adults who hire other consenting adults for sex should be convicted and go to prison?

Just as was true for moral crusaders David Vitter and Larry Craig, there is unquestionably a healthy chunk of hypocrisy in Spitzer's case, given that, as Attorney General, he previously prosecuted -- quite aggressively and publicly -- several citizens for the "crime" of operating an adult prostitution business. That hypocrisy precludes me from having any real personal sympathy for Spitzer, and no reasonable person could defend him from charges of rank hypocrisy. And he should be treated no differently -- no better and no worse -- than the average citizen whom law enforcement catches hiring prostitutes.

Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida

Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: March 10, 2008 07:39:58 PM

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

Climate change will have a significant impact on transportation infrastructure and operations

WASHINGTON -- While every mode of transportation in the U.S. will be affected as the climate changes, potentially the greatest impact on transportation systems will be flooding of roads, railways, transit systems, and airport runways in coastal areas because of rising sea levels and surges brought on by more intense storms, says a new report from the National Research Council. Though the impacts of climate change will vary by region, it is certain they will be widespread and costly in human and economic terms, and will require significant changes in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems.

The U.S. transportation system was designed and built for local weather and climate conditions, predicated on historical temperature and precipitation data. The report finds that climate predictions used by transportation planners and engineers may no longer be reliable, however, in the face of new weather and climate extremes. Infrastructure pushed beyond the range for which it was designed can become stressed and fail, as seen with loss of the U.S. 90 Bridge in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Making The World Safe For Jack Bauer

By Digby
March 8th, 2008 - 7:37am ET

---

I urge everyone to listen to the president's radio address this week-end if you get the chance. (Not that any of you would normally miss it, I'm sure. What could be more riveting?) But it does promise to be a good one this time. He's going to tell us all why he needs to veto the ban on torture.

Greg Mitchell Got It Right When So Many Others in the Media Got Iraq Wrong

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

It's funny that, with all the claims of how successful the surge is, you haven't seen a big surge in the amount of on-the-ground reporting by American journalists. You would think, if things were so calm there, that you'd be getting a tremendous surge in the on-the-scene reporting by Americans. But they still seem to be mainly relying on their Iraqi staffers. That seems to be a tip-off that things are not so hunkey-dory.

-- Greg Mitchell, author, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq [0]

* * *

Greg Mitchell, editor of the newspaper business trade publication, Editor and Publisher, has doggedly reported on how the mainstream media botched the pre-Iraq War coverage, and the follow-up, for many years.

We e-mail back and forth with Greg from time to time and his indignation at how superficial and wrong most of the reporting on Iraq was remained strong. Most journalists, even if they saw the errors in the mainstream media reporting, kept quiet. It doesn't gain you a lot of friends in your profession when you point out their flaws. But Mitchell felt his calling was to the truth, not to participate in a cover-up.

Gulf War illness 'chemical link'

There is evidence linking chronic health problems suffered by Gulf War veterans to exposure to pesticides and nerve agents, US research has found.

A third of veterans of the 1991 war experienced fatigue, muscle or joint pain, sleeping problems, rashes and breathing troubles, the research found.

A US Congress-appointed committee on Gulf War illnesses analysed more than 100 studies in the research.

Gas Prices Rise to New National Record

Tuesday March 11, 3:46 pm ET
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer Gas Prices Rise to New National Record, Driven by Crude Oil's Own Record-Breaking Rally

NEW YORK (AP) -- The cost of filling up the family car climbed to a record high Tuesday, adding to the challenges consumers already face with falling home values and rising food prices.

Gas prices at the pump rose overnight to a record national average of $3.2272 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That's a tad higher than the previous record of $3.2265, set last May.

Doesn't all the war spending stimulate the economy?

Dear Dr. Dollar:
Doesn't all the war spending stimulate the economy? And shouldn't the Bush tax cuts do the same? So why are we falling into recession?—Caitlin Young, Whitehall, NY

Neither war spending nor the tax cuts are able to overcome serious weaknesses in the U.S. economy.

Yes, this combination of war spending and tax cuts has created a federal budget deficit—a situation in which the federal government is spending more than it is taking in as taxes. And in times of weak economic growth, a deficit does tend to promote expansion because the government is increasing demand for goods and services with its spending more than it is reducing private demand through taxes. The use of a federal budget deficit to counteract an economic slowdown is the central policy insight of Keynesian economics and has been a generally accepted practice since the 1930s.

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Cars: How They'll Solve the Fuel Crunch

By Ben Hewitt

Published in the May 2007 issue.

The future of American motoring can be found in any hardware store. It's not in the automotive section, but over in the power tools aisle. There it sits, proudly displayed as the newest must-have tool in DIY America: the high-powered cordless drill. It's the battery we're interested in, a lithium-ion pack so densely charged with energy that a new 28-volt ­power pack is slimmer than an older 18-volt nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery. In just over a year, li-ion completed a leap from cellphones to power tools and grabbed the spotlight in that market. Now its boosters say the battery is preparing to graduate to the big time, 4 million miles of American road.

That is the vision articulated by automotive executives, shade-tree Prius hackers, Department of Energy officials and — especially — budding battery impresarios such as Ric Fulop. To hear Fulop tell it, electric motors powered by li-ion batteries are the future. Specifically, his batteries. Fulop is always excitable, but he really starts to rev up when the talk turns to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs — and he makes sure the subject comes up often. Then he tends to cut loose with a "Dude!" As in: "Dude! We're getting 7000 charge cycles." Or: "Dude! Have you driven an electric car?"

Oil hits record at $108 a barrel

The price of crude oil has hit an all-time high for the fifth time in six trading sessions.

New York sweet light crude touched a new high of $108.21 a barrel, before edging down to trade at $107.93.

Analysts say traders are investing in commodities to protect themselves against the falling dollar.

NSA quietly expands domestic spying program, even as Congress balks

03/10/2008 @ 7:52 am
Filed by RAW STORY

"The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed," The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman reports on Monday page ones. "But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks."

"According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records," Gorman adds.

Paul Krugman: The Face-Slap Theory

Friday’s employment report — which was so weak that it had many economists declaring that we’re already in a recession — was bad news. But it was actually less disturbing than what’s going on in the financial markets.

The scariest thing I’ve read recently is a speech given last week by Tim Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Geithner came as close as a Fed official can to saying that we’re in the midst of a financial meltdown.

To understand the gravity of the situation, you have to know what the Fed did last summer, and again last fall.

Our three-decade recession

The American quality of life has been going downhill since 1975.

By Robert Costanza
March 10, 2008

The news media and the government are fixated on the fact that the U.S. economy may be headed into a recession -- defined as two or more successive quarters of declining gross domestic product. The situation is actually much worse. By some measures of economic performance, the United States has been in a recession since 1975 -- a recession in quality of life, or well-being.

How can this be? One first needs to understand what GDP measures to see why it is not an appropriate gauge of our national well-being.

Digby: Content Of Their Characters

CNN reports:

Come election time in November, voters in five states might have a decision to make as big as whom to elect president.

Ballot initiatives have been proposed in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma that would give voters the chance to decide whether they want to do away with affirmative action in government-funded projects and public schools.

Digby: As The Stomach Churns

Noting the absence of virtually anything but primary campaign coverage in the news, LA Citybeat columnist, Mick Ferren writes:

[T]he saturation coverage has morphed into some surreal, verging-on-fantastic soap opera, maybe closer to Twin Peaks than As the World Turns, but a soap all the same.

The male lead is, of course, the poised, handsome Barack Obama, with his elegant mannerisms and even more elegant suits, but who, according to the portion of the script written by the attack dogs of the right, is a secret Muslim fifth-columnist, a one-man terror cell, who, if elected, will sell us out to Al Qaeda within hours of his inauguration. (And if his middle name and picture of him in turban aren’t sufficient proof, his refusal to wear an enamel pin of the flag in his lapel clearly brands him as un-American.)

Bush, Colombia & Narco-Politics

By Andrés Cala
March 9, 2008 (Originally published August 8, 2007)

Editor's Note: On March 1, Colombian armed forces crossed into Ecuador to kill 24 leftist Colombian guerrillas, including a senior commander, Raul Reyes. The attack touched off a confrontation pitting Colombia against Ecuador and Venezuela, which condemned the violation of Ecuador's sovereignty and noted that Reyes was a key figure in negotiations over prisoner releases and a possible reduction in political tensions.

The Bush administration defended Colombia's right to attack "terrorists" even if that requires crossing a border, a position echoed by this year's presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Indeed, from the opinion circles of Washington, there was almost no criticism of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe although his inner circle has long been linked to both right-wing terrorism and cocaine trafficking.

Some free advice for Obama

The Clintons' personal and financial affairs have already been investigated ad nauseam. He should focus on answering any serious questions raised about his own.

By Joe Conason

March 7, 2008 | Whether the Democrats know enough about Barack Obama to nominate him for president -- and whether the nation will endorse that nomination in November -- remains to be seen. So far, as the trial of his former patron Antoin Rezko unfolds, nobody has even suggested that Obama did anything illegal or unethical to advance his relationship with the indicted Chicago developer. Yet many questions are still unanswered about that relationship, which included well over a hundred thousand dollars in political contributions and simultaneous real estate purchases that concluded three years ago with the Obama family owning a South Side mansion (and the Rezko family owning an adjacent lot that enlarged their celebrated neighbor's yard space).

Banks face "systemic margin call," $325 billion hit: JPM

By Walden Siew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street banks are facing a "systemic margin call" that may deplete banks of $325 billion of capital due to deteriorating subprime U.S. mortgages, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said in a report late on Friday.

JPMorgan, which sent a default notice to Thornburg Mortgage Inc. (TMA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) after the lender missed a $28 million margin call, said more default notices and margin calls were likely. The Carlyle Group's mortgage fund also failed to meet $37 million in margin calls this week.

US fails a fourth time to hit al-Qa'ida suspect in Somalia

By Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi
Sunday, 9 March 2008

A US missile strike in Somalia, aimed at a man described by the Pentagon as a "known al-Qa'ida terrorist", succeeded only in hurting six civilians and killing three cows and a calf, the IoS has learned.

At least one Tomahawk missile was believed to have been fired from a US submarine off the Somali coast on Monday. It hit a shack in the small town of Dobley, four miles from the Kenyan border. Dobley is one of several towns and villages in southern Somalia that are now under the administration of Islamists connected to the former Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which briefly controlled most of southern and central Somalia in 2006.

Bill Moyers: John McCain's far right support

03/08/2008 @ 6:47 pm
Filed by David Edwards and Chris Tackett

Senator John McCain once famously shunned religious right leaders as being "agents of intolerance," however, he was recently endorsed by televangelist John Hagee, who has been a controversial figure due to anti-Catholic statements he has made in the past.

But who is John Hagee and what role will the religious right play between now and Novemeber? Those are two questions Bill Moyers attempts to answer in this in-depth piece from PBS's Bill Moyers Journal, broadcast on March 07, 2008.