Constituents in Upton's and Other House Districts: Let EPA Do its Job!

Yesterday members of Fred Upton's House Energy and Commerce Committee held their first hearing on Chairman Upton's proposal to block the Environmental Protection Agency from updating Clean Air Act safeguards to protect our health from life-threatening carbon pollution. (Hat tip and bow to EPA Chief Lisa Jackson who withstood hours of Dirty Air Extremism from panel members, and didn't give one inch on the EPA's obligation to protect public health by limiting carbon pollution.)

Beyond Reason on the Budget

After two years of raging at President Obama’s spending plans, House Republican leaders have finally revealed their real vision of small government: tens of billions in ideologically driven cuts to job training, environmental protection, disease control, crime protection and dozens of other critical functions that only the government can perform.

In all, they want more than $32 billion in cuts below current spending packed into the next seven months. They would be terribly damaging to a frail recovery and, while spending reductions must be part of long-term deficit control, these are the wrong cuts, to the wrong programs, at the wrong time.

Administration Calls for Cutting Aid to Home Buyers

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s much-anticipated report on redesigning the government’s role in housing finance, published Friday, is not solely a proposal to dissolve the unpopular finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It is also a more audacious call for the federal government to cut back its broadly popular, long-running campaign to help Americans own homes. The three ideas that the report outlines for replacing Fannie and Freddie all would raise the cost of mortgage loans and push homeownership beyond the reach of some families.

That fact is already generating opposition in Congress and among groups like community banks and consumer advocates.

Left is mean but right is meaner, says new study of political discourse

Tufts finds 'outrage talk' on the rise among liberals and conservatives

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass.—While the tragic shooting in Arizona has spotlighted the vitriol that seems to pervade political commentary, objective research examining the scope of this disturbing phenomenon has been lacking. In the first published study of its kind, social scientists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have found that outrage talk is endemic among commentators of all political stripes, but measurably worse on the political right, and is more prevalent than it was even during the turmoil of the war in Viet Nam and the Watergate scandal.

What Did Bank CEOs Know And When Did They Know It?

By Simon Johnson

One view of executives at our largest banks in the run-up to the crisis of 2008 is that they were hapless fools. Not aware of how financial innovation had created toxic products and made the system fundamentally unstable, they blithely piled on more debt and inadvertently took on greater risks.

The alternative view is that these people were more knaves than fools. They understood to a large degree what they and their firms were doing, and they kept at it up to the last minute – and in some cases beyond – because of the incentives they faced.

Paul Krugman: Abraham Lincoln, Inflationist

There was a time when Republicans used to refer to themselves, proudly, as “the party of Lincoln.” But you don’t hear that line much these days. Why?

The main answer, presumably, lies in the G.O.P.’s decision, long ago, to seek votes from Southerners angered by the end of legal segregation. With the old Confederacy now the heart of the Republican base, boasting about the party’s Civil War-era legacy is no longer advisable.

But sooner or later, Republicans were bound to notice other reasons to disavow Lincoln. He was, after all, the first president to institute an income tax. And he was also the first president to issue a paper currency — the “greenback” — that wasn’t backed by gold or silver. “There is nothing more insidious that a country can do to its people than to debase its currency,” declared Representative Paul Ryan in one of two hearings Congress held on Wednesday on monetary policy. So much, then, for the Great Liberator.

A Rich Fantasy Life

William Rivers Pitt | Wednesday 09 February 2011

I know I should be immune to this by now, but I still find myself awestruck by the incredibly detailed, insulated fantasy world that the American conservative "movement" has created for themselves. No lie is too big to be told, no fact is too firm to be bent around ideology, no myth is too absurd to defend to the knife. The ability to spew deliberate nonsense into the credulous ears of Fox-watching right-bent voters - and to be utterly without shame while doing it - is the core of this "movement's" political muscle, and has been for a number of decades now.

Take, for example, this past weekend's festival of Reagan. The late president's 100th birthday opened the floodgates for an ocean of nonsense to be dumped on the American people. He was a great leader, the conservative's conservative, a small-government hero who deserves a place on Mt. Rushmore.

Discover The Network Out To Crush Our Public Workers

By Dave Johnson

Created 02/09/2011 - 11:11am

It is difficult to read, watch or listen to the news without hearing that public employees are paid too much and get “lucrative” pensions and this is “bankrupting” your state, county or city. Public officials are "in bed" with "union bosses" and state and local government; taxpayer dollars are wasted to pay for people who don’t do much work but live the good life. "Reports" and "studies" confirm this.

People hear the same story over and over and over and over, seemingly coming from everywhere: public employees have it good, with extravagant pay and "lavish" or "plush" pensions, while taxpayers are taking it in the shorts. Public-employee pensions are "bankrupting" the state/county/city. "Unfunded liabilities" are "out of control" and it is time to do something about it before it is too late.

This is part of a broad, nationwide attack on public employees and their unions, and through them, on government and democracy itself.

Americans Want To Cut Spending, But Polls Show They Don't Agree How

Jon Terbush | February 8, 2011, 8:30AM

When Congress looks for ways to trim the federal budget, they might want to be careful of how closely they listen to their constituents. That's because several polls have shown that Americans are typically terrible estimators of how much money the U.S. spends on particular areas of the budget -- suggesting that public opinion about potential cuts is often influenced by gross misconceptions.

The real effect of 'Reaganomics'

Ronald Reagan promoted the idea that conservatives prefer to leave the economy to the market. Nonsense – we've been gulled

Dean Baker
Monday 7 February 2011 18.30 GMT

At the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, his most important legacy has gone largely overlooked. Reagan helped to put a caricature of politics at the centre of the national debate and it remains there to this day. In Reagan's caricature, the central divide between progressives and conservatives is that progressives trust the government to make key decisions on production and distribution, while conservatives trust the market.

This framing of the debate is advantageous for the right, since people, especially in the United States, tend to be suspicious of an overly powerful government. They also like the idea of leaving important decisions to the seemingly natural workings of the market. It is therefore understandable that the right likes to frame its agenda this way. But since the right has no greater commitment to the market than the left, it is incredible that progressives are so foolish as to accept this framing.

Corporate Media Push Wrong Story on Obama's Relationship With Business

Rose Aguilar | Monday 07 February 2011

President Barack Obama is hoping to “mend ties” with big business by speaking to the US Chamber of Commerce (COC), Washington DC’s top lobbyist. That’s the frame we’re hearing in the corporate media even though the President has extended the Bush tax cuts, recently named JP Morgan Chase executive and former COC board member William Daley as his chief of staff, and chose General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head the new “White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.”

Since 2009, GE has closed more than 25 manufacturing plants in the US and slashed thousands of jobs, according to the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. While GE has laid off at least 10,000 workers in the US, it has created more than 30,000 jobs in India over the past decade. The administration’s job czar runs a company that employs more workers overseas than it does in the US.

US unemployment to remain high for years, says Bernanke

The US unemployment rate will not return to pre-financial crisis levels for "several years", Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said.

Until the economy sees sustained and strong job creation, "we cannot consider the recovery to be truly established", he added.

Mr Bernanke also said the US government budget deficit, which rose sharply during the crisis, was "unsustainable".

The long-term challenges of reducing the deficit were "daunting", he added.

Healthy diet 'boosts childhood IQ'

Eating chips, chocolate and cake may be damaging to a child's intelligence, according to researchers at Bristol University.

Their study suggests a link between a diet high in processed foods and a slightly lower IQ.

Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they suggest poor nutrition may affect brain development.

The British Dietetic Association said more young parents needed to be educated about healthy eating.

Rich Take From Poor as U.S. Subsidy Law Funds Luxury Hotels

By David Dietz - Feb 8, 2011

Bloomberg Markets Magazine

The landmark Blackstone Hotel in downtown Chicago, which has hosted 12 U.S. presidents, opened in 2008 after a two-year, $116 million renovation. Inside the Beaux Arts structure, built in 1910, buffed marble staircases greet guests spending up to $699 a night for rooms with views of Lake Michigan.

What’s surprising isn’t the opulent makeover: It’s how the project was financed. The work was subsidized by a federal development program intended to help poor communities.

4 Things Our Government Should Stop Wasting Money On

By Daniel Denvir, AlterNet
Posted on February 7, 2011, Printed on February 9, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/149818/

A Tea Party-infused GOP is calling for major cuts to federal spending. But for most Republicans, the newfound concern with deficits is demonstrably cynical. Just look at the deafening silence from the Right that greeted the $1.2 trillion (and growing) deficit that President Bush ran up. Conservative fearmongering is mostly an excuse to plunder the safety net. “The idea that somehow we’re going to be Greece is just flat out silly,” says Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research. “Basically, it’s a cheap scare tactic to force austerity.”

MONDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2011 * * * * * * * * * * * * State Budget Cuts: Starting at the Top

Dean Baker | Monday 07 February 2011

The elite media are on yet another jihad. They are determined to cut the pay and benefits of public-sector workers who can still enjoy a middle-class lifestyle.

The idea that a schoolteacher or highway worker can retire with a pension of $2,000-$3,000 a month is directly at odds with their view of government. They believe that government exists to redistribute income from everyone else to those who already are rich and powerful. To these people, the money that is going to pay the wages and pensions of ordinary workers is money that could be in the pockets of the rich.

The Republicans' Economic Triumph

The administration gave the GOP tax cuts for the rich and a freeze on domestic spending. That's total victory.

By Eliot Spitzer
Posted Monday, Feb. 7, 2011, at 11:16 AM ET

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Last Friday was our economic Groundhog Day. The horrendous job numbers that came out prove that we're stuck in the same old script of bad policy and bad economics that got us into the mess we are in.

Remember the rallying cry from Republicans and business leaders last December? If you extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, then we will open the floodgates to hiring and the $2 trillion in retained earnings—cash—that we're sitting on will pour into the economy. Well, it hasn't happened. The gears of the job creation engines have ground to a halt. The paltry 36,000 jobs created in January (50,000 in the private sector—government shrank by 14,000 jobs) are a harsh reminder that we're stuck. (Remember, just to accommodate population growth, we need 150,000 jobs every month just to break even.)

As debate begins, here are the facts on Fannie and Freddie

By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — What role should government play in housing finance?

A struggle over that $5 trillion dollar question, which divides Democrats from Republicans, will begin Wednesday when a subcommittee of the GOP-controlled House of Representatives considers the fate of mortgage-finance titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie and Freddie have been in government conservatorship since the Bush administration seized them in September 2008 in an effort to quell global financial panic. Republicans vow to get the government mostly out of the business of mortgage lending; Democrats want to change the role of government support, but not end it.

Key Hand Sanitizer Ingredient May Cause More Harm than Good

Triclosan can impair thyroid function, upset estrogen and testosterone levels, and promote problems that could interfere with fetal development.

by Wenonah Hauter

Every year, U.S. consumers spend an estimated $1 billion on household and personal care products to shield themselves from a host of unseen germs. Yet many items marketed for their so-called "anti-bacterial" properties contain an ingredient perhaps more insidious than the microorganisms they're designed to combat: triclosan.

Invented by the chemical company Ciba in the 1960s to kill germs in medical settings, triclosan now appears in an array of popular hand-sanitizers, soaps, toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, clothing, and children's toys. Yet a mounting body of scientific evidence shows that the chemical is no more effective at killing germs than plain soap and water. And it may cause more harm than good.

Recognizing the Language of Tyranny

by Chris Hedges

Empires communicate in two languages. One language is expressed in imperatives. It is the language of command and force. This militarized language disdains human life and celebrates hypermasculinity. It demands. It makes no attempt to justify the flagrant theft of natural resources and wealth or the use of indiscriminate violence. When families are gunned down at a checkpoint in Iraq they are referred to as having been “lit up.” So it goes. The other language of empire is softer. It employs the vocabulary of ideals and lofty goals and insists that the power of empire is noble and benevolent. The language of beneficence is used to speak to those outside the centers of death and pillage, those who have not yet been totally broken, those who still must be seduced to hand over power to predators. The road traveled to total disempowerment, however, ends at the same place. It is the language used to get there that is different.

This language of blind obedience and retribution is used by authority in our inner cities, from Detroit to Oakland, as well as our prison systems. It is a language Iraqis and Afghans know intimately. But to the members of our dwindling middle class—as well as those in the working class who have yet to confront our new political and economic configuration—the powerful use phrases like the consent of the governed and democracy that help lull us into complacency. The longer we believe in the fiction that we are included in the corporate power structure, the more easily corporations pillage the country without the threat of rebellion. Those who know the truth are crushed. Those who do not are lied to. Those who consume and perpetuate the lies—including the liberal institutions of the press, the church, education, culture, labor and the Democratic Party—abet our disempowerment. No system of total control, including corporate control, exhibits its extreme forms at the beginning. These forms expand as they fail to encounter resistance.

Paul Krugman: Droughts, Floods and Food

We’re in the midst of a global food crisis — the second in three years. World food prices hit a record in January, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. These soaring prices have had only a modest effect on U.S. inflation, which is still low by historical standards, but they’re having a brutal impact on the world’s poor, who spend much if not most of their income on basic foodstuffs.

Frank Rich: Wallflowers at the Revolution

A month ago most Americans could not have picked Hosni Mubarak out of a police lineup. American foreign policy, even in Afghanistan, was all but invisible throughout the 2010 election season. Foreign aid is the only federal budget line that a clear-cut majority of Americans says should be cut. And so now — as the world’s most unstable neighborhood explodes before our eyes — does anyone seriously believe that most Americans are up to speed? Our government may be scrambling, but that’s nothing compared to its constituents. After a near-decade of fighting wars in the Arab world, we can still barely distinguish Sunni from Shia.

The live feed from Egypt is riveting. We can’t get enough of revolution video — even if, some nights, Middle West blizzards take precedence over Middle East battles on the networks’ evening news. But more often than not we have little or no context for what we’re watching. That’s the legacy of years of self-censored, superficial, provincial and at times Islamophobic coverage of the Arab world in a large swath of American news media. Even now we’re more likely to hear speculation about how many cents per gallon the day’s events might cost at the pump than to get an intimate look at the demonstrators’ lives.