Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Why 'Constitutional Conservatives' Like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry Have No Respect for the Constitution
A great irony of our political discourse is that those who describe themselves as “constitutional conservatives” display not only habitual ignorance of what our founding documents proscribe, but also show blatant scorn for the most important principle they enshrine: the separation of powers.
For much of our history, people across the political spectrum laid competing claims to being the true champions of the United States constitution, but in recent years that ground has largely been ceded to the far-right. When the Tea Partiers stormed into Congress, one of their first acts was a bit of political theater arranged by Tea Party caucus leader Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota: reading the Constitution (with the embarrassing bits edited out) aloud on the floor of the House.
In her book, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle Over American History, historian Jill Lepore writes that the problem with the Tea Partiers’ claimed fealty to the Constitution is that it's a form of religion rather than analysis. “Originalism,” Lepore writes, “looks like history, but it is not; it’s historical fundamentalism, which is to history what astrology is to astronomy, what alchemy is to chemistry, what creationism is to evolution.”
Galaxies are Running Out of Gas
A new study has shown why the lights are going out in the Universe.
The Universe forms fewer stars than it used to, and a CSIRO study has now shown why - the galaxies are running out of gas.
Dr Robert Braun (CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science) and his colleagues used CSIRO’s Mopra radio telescope near Coonabarabran, NSW, to study far-off galaxies and compare them with nearby ones.
Light (and radio waves) from the distant galaxies has taken time to travel to us, so we see the galaxies as they were between three and five billion years ago.
Galaxies at this stage of the Universe’s life appear to contain considerably more molecular hydrogen gas than comparable galaxies in today’s Universe, the research team found.
Stars form from clouds of molecular hydrogen. The less molecular hydrogen there is, the fewer stars will form.
Egypt Acts on Border Region as Israel Tensions Linger
Egypt announced plans to develop a region bordering Israel on Monday after Israeli officials blamed its loosening grip on the area for the killing of eight Israelis by armed militants, inflaming tensions between the two neighbors. Five Egyptian security personnel died when Israeli troops repelled the gunmen following the attack near Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday. Egypt said Israel's actions breached their 1979 peace treaty. Israel said the gunmen had entered the country by crossing the Egyptian Sinai from Gaza. Cairo has struggled to assert its grip on the isolated desert peninsula, especially after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February left a power vacuum that was quickly exploited by a local population resentful of the government in Cairo. Israel expressed its regret for the Egyptian deaths and said it was investigating the incident, but pressure was growing in Egypt for sterner sanctions. A group of politicians including former Arab League head Amr Moussa and other candidates for Egypt's presidency called for the return of the Egyptian ambassador from Israel, more troops in Sinai and trials for Israelis responsible for the killings.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-egypt-israel-idUSTRE77J1Y620110822
Standard & Poor's President to Step Down
The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said late on Monday that its president, Deven Sharma, who has become the public face of the firm in the wake of its historic downgrade on the United States’ long-term debt rating, will step down and leave the company by the end of the year.
The decision by Mr. Sharma to resign comes as the ratings agency is under pressure from several fronts, including an inquiry by the Justice Department into its ratings of subprime mortgage securities and a push by activist investors to break up its parent company, McGraw-Hill.
Mr. Sharma will be replaced by Douglas Peterson, a top executive at Citigroup, the company said on Monday.
The management change had been in the works for months and was unrelated to either the Justice Department’s inquiry or to the emergence of the activist investors, Jana Partners and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, according to people briefed on the matter.
Mr. Sharma, 55, will step down on Sept. 12, but will remain with the company through the end of the year to help oversee McGraw-Hill’s review of its businesses.
His replacement, Mr. Peterson, 53, is currently the chief operating officer of Citibank, the banking unit of Citigroup.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/s-p-president-to-step-down
Japan’s Premier Plans to Resign
Prime Minister Naoto Kan told his cabinet on Tuesday that he would announce his intention to resign on Friday, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.
Mr. Kan had canceled plans to meet with President Obama in Washington next month. His resignation would set in motion an election within his Democratic Party to choose a successor.
Mr. Kan has faced increasing criticism for his handling of the Japanese government’s response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/world/asia/23japan.html?_r=1&hp
Gallup Poll: Ron Paul Trails President Obama by 2 Percent
Texas Rep. Ron Paul trails President Obama by just 2 percentage points, according to the latest Gallup Poll released Monday.
The poll, which finds former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Republican governor Rick Perry as the leading candidates to challenge Mr. Obama, shows Mr. Paul trailing Mr. Obama by just two percentage points, 47 to 45 percent.
http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/gallup-poll-ron-paul-trails-president-obama-45-to-47-percent
GOP: No Tax Hikes -- Except for the Poor
How does the Republican Party continue to win elections? The Associated Press is reporting that GOP legislators are opposing the extension of a payroll tax cut that will expire on Jan. 1. The clear, unavoidable message: Americans workers should pay more taxes, while the rich should pay less.
That's not a joke, and it's not an Onion headline. The very same Republicans who have fought tooth-and-nail to keep George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy from expiring are now in favor of doing away with a tax cut that will primarily hit wage-earners -- people who actually have to work for a living, people who are struggling to pay their mortgages and wincing every time they fill up their gas tank.
There's not even any attempt to hide the hypocrisy.
http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/08/22/republican_tax_increase/index.html
Monday, August 22, 2011
Debunking The Myth Of Free Market Self Regulation
If Goldman Sachs is in the Oversight Committee and former employees of Wall Street are in the SEC, doesn’t this equal self-regulation of the free market? It seems to me that it is by definition, self-regulation.
So if we did what those in the GOP want and eliminated the SEC would we be better, worse or just the same? I think we would be just the same, considering like I stated earlier, Wall Street is already regulating itself through the SEC.
How do we change this situation? We need honest leadership without ties to Wall Street to make sure the SEC is cleared of all the moles and rats. Considering that to be a huge uphill battle, President Obama started the CFPB.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was target number one on Wall Street’s radar. We have an agency that isn’t infiltrated by the Wall Street elitists and Elizabeth Warren would not have allowed them in. That is why they tried their hardest to kill it and kill it’s funding through the GOP.
Free market self-regulation is a myth, and it’s time to stop believing in conservative fairy tales.
Life on Mars? Fossil Find Shows It's Possible
Scientists have found Earth's oldest fossils in Australia and say their microscopic discovery is convincing evidence that cells and bacteria were able to thrive in an oxygen-free world more than 3.4 billion years ago.
The finding suggests early life was sulphur-based — living off and metabolizing sulphur rather than oxygen for energy — and supports the idea that similar life forms could exist on other planets where oxygen levels are low or non-existent.
Hand out picture released by journal Nature Geoscience of Strelley Pool in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia."Could these sorts of things exist on Mars? It's just about conceivable. This evidence is certainly encouraging and lack of oxygen on Mars is not a problem," said Martin Brasier of Oxford University, who worked on the team that made the discovery.
The microfossils, which the researchers say are very clearly preserved and show precise cell-like structures, were found in a remote part of western Australia called Strelley Pool.
In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday, Brasier's team explained that the tiny fossils were preserved between the quartz sand grains of the oldest shoreline known on Earth in some of the oldest sedimentary rocks ever discovered.
"We can be very sure about the age as the rocks were formed between two volcanic successions that narrow the possible age down to a few tens of millions of years," he said. "That's very accurate indeed when the rocks are 3.4 billion years old."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44221621/ns/technology_and_science-space
The Republican 'Anchor Baby" Myth
A new analysis by the Arizona Republic suggests that the phenomenon of “birth tourism” — non U.S. citizens who come to the U.S. to give birth so that their children will be born Americans—may not be the widespread phenomenon that some U.S. politicians suggest.
Less than 2 percent of babies born last year in the border state of Arizona had non-resident mothers, the story said. Those numbers don’t distinguish between women who were living in other U.S. states and those who came from other countries.
The most recent national figures, which also include women studying at U.S. universities and international visitors, are even smaller, at about 0.2 percent, even though it notes that the figure has increased in recent years.
The Republican party in the U.S. has been wringing its hands over birth tourism — or “anchor babies,” the more racially-charged term for the phenomenon — for years.
More recently, the debate has escalated to a question of whether the U.S. should abandon the Constitution’s 14th amendment, which guarantees citizenship for any child born within U.S. borders. If you don’t know the provisions of the 14th amendment, well, it’s kind of a big deal.
Huntsman Slams Perry on Climate and Evolution: We Are “On the Wrong Side of Science and Therefore in a Losing Position.”
There’s no question that having one of the two major political parties in the most powerful country in the world being anti-science is a disaster for the nation and the world
Oil Prices Fall as Rebels Enter Tripoli
Oil prices have fallen on speculation the conflict in Libya may be coming to an end after rebels entered the capital Tripoli.
Brent crude futures fell 1.7% to $106.8 a barrel, while US sweet, light crude was steady at $82.9 in early European trading.
Victor Shum is a senior principal at the energy consultancy firm, Purvin and Gertz. He explained why Libyan oil is valuable to the market.
Iraqi Civilians 'Killed' in Turkey Air Strike
Seven Iraqis have been killed in a Turkish air strike, a part of Ankara's bombing campaign against Kurdish separatist fighters in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish zone, officials said.
A rocket from a Turkish plane hit a civilian lorry, killing all seven passengers on Sunday near Qalat Dizah, a town located northeast of the city of Sulaimaniya, Hasan Abdullah, the town mayor, said.
"The rocket has badly damaged the car ... We could not recognise the bodies, their ages, their identities or even their sex," Abdullah said.
Ankara has not confirmed Sunday's strike, which would be the first daylight attack.
Turkey launched a bombing campaign on Wednesday targeting suspected rebel positions across the border in Iraq, after some 40 soldiers were killed since July in stepped-up attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey.
The PKK, which the US and the European Union consider a terrorist organisation, is fighting for autonomy in the region.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/2011821192223816952.html
Wiki War: 3500 Unpublished Leaks Destroyed Forever as Assange Hits Out
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's former right-hand man has irrevocably destroyed 3500 unpublished files leaked to the whistleblower site including the complete US no-fly list, five gigabytes of Bank of America documents and detailed information about 20 neo-Nazi groups.
Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who left WikiLeaks last year after a falling out with Assange, revealed the document destruction in an interview with Der Spiegel.
WikiLeaks has hit back, accusing Domscheit-Berg of being in bed with US intelligence agencies and of jeopardising the leaking of “many issues of public importance, human rights abuses, mass telecommunications interception, banking and the planning of dozens of neo-nazi groups”.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Alabama Unemployment Up to 10.0 percent for July
Alabama's unemployment rate went up for the fourth consecutive month to 10.0 percent, the highest figure since March 2010.
Figures compiled by the state Industrial Relations Department show Alabama had its lowest rate of the year with 9.2 percent in March. Then the rate rose to 9.3 percent in April, 9.6 percent in May and 9.9 percent in June. July's rate of 10.0 percent compares with 9.2 percent a year ago, and it represents 215,902 people looking for work.
Keivan Deravi, an economist at Auburn University Montgomery, said Friday the state is seeing the impact of the federal stimulus money running out, with employment levels in state and local governments and in education down from a year ago.
He said the rate is also impacted by unemployed people who had quit looking for work resuming their job searches, which means they show up in the unemployment numbers again.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Alabama-unemployment-up-to-10-0-percent-for-July-2123287.php
An Angry and Battered America Demands Tax Increases On The Rich
Approximately thirty years ago, an actor-turned-god told the American people that government was their enemy and was single-handedly responsible for their economic plight, and it started the neo-conservative movement that is ravaging the country today. Ronald Reagan convinced many Americans that if the wealthiest citizens in the country got all the breaks they would allow miniscule amounts of their wealth to trickle down to the peasants who would in turn pay more taxes to feed the wealthy’s low tax rate.
When Bill Clinton was president, he raised the wealthy’s taxes to a level that is 3% higher than it is today and the economy made a recovery that has stood as the most prosperous era in recent memory. When George W. Bush took office in 2001, he immediately took the budget surplus President Clinton left and turned it over to the wealthy with repeated assurances that the rich would let some of their crumbs trickle down to working Americans who paid for his two wars and gave the rich tax breaks.
Now the economy is once more near the brink of disaster and Republicans are refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy; all the while they help corporations send Americans’ jobs overseas to avoid paying taxes on the foreign income. So what is the Republicans answer to save the economy and create jobs? They are still trumpeting that tired canard that if the rich keep their tax breaks and regulations are eliminated, the job creators will get the economy working again.
The problem with telling the same nonsense story ad nauseum without positive results is that even the staunchest Republican supporters and working-class Americans become weary of being fooled and understand the conservatives are lying now like they have been since 1981.
Americans are finally speaking out and telling Republicans that their plan of helping the rich at the expense of economic stability, jobs, and welfare of the people is bogus and will never improve the economy. Although the media is remiss in reporting the backlash against Republicans’ economic malfeasance, it does not mean Americans are not angry that they are struggling to survive Republican attacks on the middle class.
Corporate entitlements, union busting, outsourcing jobs, and oil subsidies may work out well for corporations, but they are killing what is left of the American middle class.
German Pirate Party on Course to Election Win
With the elections for the Berlin state parliament just four weeks away, the German Pirate Party is on course to an impressive election win. A recent poll shows that support for the Pirate Party is growing, and with 4.5 percent of the votes the pirates are getting close to the minimum 5 percent needed to enter parliament with several seats.
Founded in September 2006, the German Pirate Party has already booked several successes in its relatively short existence. The party currently has 50 members in elected offices across Germany for example, which is more than in all other countries combined.
However, thus far the Pirate Party hasn’t managed to get a member elected in a state or federal parliament. With 845,904 votes during the 2009 federal elections, the party got stuck at 2 percent of the vote, where 5 was needed to enter the Bundestag.
But this year the local success of the Pirate Party may finally translate into a success at the state elections. With only four weeks to go until the Berlin state parliament election, the Pirate Party is predicted to gain 4.5 percent of the total vote.
If this upward trend continues and the 5 percent floor is met, the German Pirates will be the first Pirate Party worldwide to gain seats in a state or national parliament. The party’s leaders are cautiously optimistic about the promising outlook, but also warn that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“We are delighted that our demands for more transparency, participation and democracy for the people of Berlin are shared by the public. The Berlin people want change, and they recognize that a vote for the Pirate Party is not wasted,” Pirate Party’s Gerhard Anger said.