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Everything will be better in September when Congress comes back, and so the better days start tomorrow. Right?
• Hearing that Robert Kelly, the CEO of Bank of New York Mellon, stepped down. Not only is this due to Eric Schneiderman accusing the bank of fraud and corruption in the BofA settlement, but that Kelly was one of 25 CEOs who took more in compensation in 2010 than BNYM paid in federal taxes.
• So the President called for a joint session of Congress the same day as a GOP Presidential debate, Boehner asks him to move it to the next day, it turns out Boehner was consulted on the date beforehand, and none of this matters anyway because Republicans won’t agree to a single proposal Obama makes. So you’re up to date.
• Flooding looks unspeakably bad in Vermont. Here’s just one local report. Incidentally, the Vermont National Guard doesn’t have enough choppers to be used in rescue and relief operations… because they’re all in Iraq.
• We’ve heard this before, but rebel forces in Libya think they have the town surrounded where Moammar Gadhafi is hiding.
• Meanwhile, all this Al Jazeera report shows is that Libyan regime officials were talking internally about Dennis Kucinich, not that he was helping them in any way, unlike the former Bush Administration official. I have much more scorn for Chuck Schumer pushing this “release the Lockerbie bomber” thing, especially since the trial is reputed to have been unfair, and the bomber in question is in a coma.
• Best health care in the world: the US newborn death rate is higher than 40 countries, and 1 in 7 hospital infections lead to death in the US, compared to 1 in 122 in Europe.
• The Wartime Contracting Commission finds that as much as $60 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan contracting dollars was flat-out wasted. The White House alleges that this looks back at Bush-era abuses and that they have improved the contracting process.
• State insurance regulators are blocking efforts to reduce services in Medigap policies. I’m a bit surprised to see them go all in on this, although they appear to be defending policies that outside carriers cover.
• The COBRA subsidy from the stimulus ends today. Expect a spike in the uninsured over the next year.
• Under President Obama, there’s been a surge in domestic oil production, but this has not moved oil prices, or overall worldwide production, in any meaningful way. Drill baby drill is a myth.
• Foreclosures make you sick. Particularly from a mental health standpoint. The stress is almost unbearable; I’ve seen this up-close.
• Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell breaks with Eric Cantor and calls for emergency disaster relief for his state without offsets. Turns out Cantor has voted for this kind of unfunded relief in the past.
• The flood insurance program is kind of complicated, but it’s under crisis right now, and the premiums should be allowed to grow. Tell me why I’m wrong!
• Kevin Drum says that children’s test scores show consistent improvement at all levels of the US education system. Maybe we’re not falling behind after all.
• Forget about the Iraq long-term training agreement, the US is negotiating something similar with Afghanistan.
• I don’t buy the sunny optimism of the idea that there are no limits to growth. As long as we are a petroleum-based economy, growth will always bump up against oil price shocks, which will lead to recessions.
• It’s not like there isn’t evidence to back up Andre Carson’s claims. Google “rope tree justice.”
• Yes, this is a funny shot by Jerry Brown on Republicans and taxes, but he needs to step up and support the farmworker unionizing bill.
• I get the sense that Mitt Romney is not well-liked by the Republican base. Call me crazy. By the way, Jon Huntsman can go as far to the right on taxes as he wants, he’s in the same predicament.
• Can we call this the Spainding cap? Bad puns aside, that’s a terrible idea.
• Ford is employing a very smart strategy by partnering with Zipcar.
• Dick Cheney is afraid of being tried as a war criminal, according to Larry Wilkerson. He should only fear a Wilkerson Presidency, then, because otherwise it ain’t gonna happen.
• Here’s something I couldn’t care less about: whether Christine O’Donnell will appear with Sarah Palin at a Tea Party rally. This is why I don’t get lots of Politico-level clicks.
• Looking forward to a Richard Linklater-directed Karl Rove biopic.
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Impossible. Combat operations ceased last year. Whatever that means.
Regardless of who’s to blame for the Weds-Thurs fiasco the WH will come out the loser. There’s a reason you ask for things in writing.
…especially when dealing with imbeciles.
In regards to the Boner/Obummer brouhaha, I thought Dave Weigel nailed it in a tweet…
daveweigel
I can guess how this ends. In compromise, Obama lets Boehner give the speech
Not good. Employment among US youth 16-24 years of age is the lowest it’s been (since July 1951).
Awful:
A win! A win! We have a win–Goodwin Liu to the CA Supreme Court.
Wilkerson has now used the term “Nazis” to describe Cheney, Scooter, et al. Wow.
We were talking a few days ago about the risks of overbuilding clean energy (in that case car batteries). Here we have a $527 million loss for taxpayers as solar panel maker Solyndra goes bankrupt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/business/energy-environment/solyndra-solar-firm-aided-by-federal-loans-shuts-doors.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw&adxnnlx=1314856801-3Y9wzcWP1lpN3gHplfRS3g
Surprisingly this was a direct loan not a loan guarantee so taxpayers are on the hook for the full amount.
There hasn’t been a lot of clarity about what’s up with the Wikileaks breach. That hasn’t stopped the MSM from blaming Wikileaks.
The best I can piece together so far is that Assange nemesis Daniel Domscheit-Berg realized that The Guardian had published an old password for the complete unredacted Cablegate memos. DDB had previously stolen materials that included this file. “Somehow” the file found its way onto the internet and its location was publicly disclosed to German media by DDB.
We know DDB is cooperating with U.S. authorities, so this seems like yet another attempt by the powers that be to discredit and undermine Wikileaks. In any event the blame for all this clearly lies with DDB, who is a truly despicable individual.
Anyway that’s my version. Here’s CNN’s version of what happened: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/31/wikileaks.security.lapse/
I doubt very much that $60 billion has been wasted in Iraq & Afghanistan. It’s more like $600 billion or $6 trillion.
“We don’t care, we don ‘t have to, we’re the phone company.”
Che would never agree to any kind of submission to mediocrity.Socialism demands excellence.I am slowly getting tired with people not interested in revolution here.
That’s what they are, no surprise.
Never the read where the Nazis handcuffed 5 month old so the wouldn’t squirm when being shot in the head like the rest of the family.
We put the Nazis to shame comparing our Magnificent Mindless ‘Merican Murder Machine to theirs makes them look like pikers.
I suspect all of the Iraq War money was wasted, but that’s an overall view.
The money that can’t be accounted for probably just went into the hands mercenary of American contractors and American opportunist “businessmen”.
That is very profound coach Bill.You will be the first person I go to when I want an explaination of quantum physics.Not!
“Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell breaks with Eric Cantor and calls for emergency disaster relief for his state without offsets. Turns out Cantor has voted for this kind of unfunded relief in the past.”
Typical Republohypocrite. Tidewater Virginia Voters!! Are you listening to your Congresscritter? He wants to link your recovery from two disasters to budget cuts to your Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid if you are uninsured. Vote this clown out of office in 2012!
Your statement is totally stupid. Che has always stated,” use true information against the capitalist fools”.Don’t make up crap,it only hurts the coming revolution.
That seems about right. Talk about a liquidity trap!
Stop it you fool it is not going to happen.
Beware who you call stupid, especially our eCHAN.
Beware who you call a fool and before you use it you can skip “you people” when that opening arises.
Mornin’ Firedogs,
the COBRA links say the subsidy helped millions and I have a tough time believing that as it was easily one of the best kept secrets in DC — even well informed Firedogs were unaware of it — let alone that it was extended three times
During the Iraq War, Rumsfelt admitted in public that the US Defense Department could not account for $2.3 trillion of its budget. Now apparently the wasteful spending from that War is down to “only” $60 billion. How can they know its $60 billion unless they found and accounted for the rest? Is this the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say? Or is the $2.3 trillion still missing and they’ve accounted for $60 billion, all of it misspent?
I see we’ve got a nice polite fellow who’s stopped by to edumacate us.
wikileaks just released a mystery file and said it will release password so. Frankly, I am tired of all the BS teasing. release it or don’t release but this kind of teasing sound like something a TV shows at the end of its seasons to keep viewers hanging on.
JA went on 60 minutes early this year and bragged he had bank info that would take down a big bank. We all know that if true and we could take down the banking cartel we might actually seem some real change. Now he claims his nemesis destroyed the info. Really? he didn’t have a back-up? Please, i find the whole thing to be BS
p.s.
not wanting to be to the right of a Republican Gov. or Congressman from flyover country, Al Gore released a statement in support of the Tar Sands Activists last night
I find it tepid, but give major credit to Bill McKibben and all those involved in stopping this travesty for flushing ol Waldo out
(the congressman is Jeff Fortenberry NE-1)
Ooops!
“A billing dispute in New York has revealed details of secret CIA rendition flights that transported terror suspects around the world following the September 11 attacks, newspapers reported.
“The Washington Post, one of a handful of media outlets alerted to the public court documents by a London-based rights group, said they include flight logs and logs of phone calls to CIA headquarters and officials.
“The Post said on its website late Wednesday dozens of rendition flights — to locations including Bucharest, Baku, Cairo, Djibouti, Islamabad and Tripoli — were organized by Sportsflight, a one-man aircraft business on Long Island, which secured a plane from Richmor Aviation, which is now suing Sportsflight for breach of contract.”
More here.
It has been said that the way to win a guerilla war is to put Che in charge.
A little good news lately: Glenn Greenwald has six newborn pups.
David Dayen,
Unlike the Obama administration, I’m not usually one to do Republicans’ dirty work for them, but this story caught my eye, and may be in the news for some time, being fodder for investigation.
Even if there’s not prosecutable corruption here it’s corrupt, and incompetence typical of the pseduo-market half-measures Obama loves to promote. Look what not advocating a carbon tax has gotten him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-solar-company-fails-after-getting-controversial-federal-loan-guarantees/2011/08/31/gIQAB8IRsJ_story.html?hpid=z4
Let me rephrase that: The best way for the Establishment to win a guerilla war would be to have Che (RIP) run it.
Maybe CIA limited hang out or disinformation who the hell knows.
Regardless of oil, unlimited growth seems like the definition of cancer to me.
Good roundup, David, informative as always.
Say what you will about HuffPo using celeb T&A to get viewers, a shitload of people are looking at this headline this morning…and they should:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
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“Europe’s human rights chief launched a blistering attack Thursday on European governments’ counterterrorism actions, accusing them of helping the United States commit ‘countless’ crimes in the past 40 years.
‘”In attempting to combat crimes attributed to terrorists, countless further crimes have been committed in the course of the U.S.-led ‘global war on terror,’” he said in a statement. “Many of those crimes have been carefully and deliberately covered up.”
“European governments were “deeply complicit” in U.S. counterterrorism strategies, including torture, Hammarberg said. In a 2007 probe, Swiss politician Dick Marty accused 14 European governments of permitting the CIA to run detention centers or carry out rendition flights between 2002 and 2005.
‘”They permitted, protected and participated in CIA operations which violated fundamental tenets of our systems of justice and human rights protection,” Hammarberg said, adding that the governments involved have blocked proper investigations into rendition cases in line with Washington’s wishes.”
Somebody spoke up--now what?
Another little kid who thinks he’s seen it all and is really smarter than the grownups.
and that it’s cool to come in to new blog and start insulting the regulars.
Try doing that in a local bar, Sparky
NOT someone I’d invite over to dinner.
No wonder the Hague isn’t interested in prosecuting.
I swear, it’s all lie when the Dutch French and Italians and Germans went into Africa and started stealing everything they could.
and destroyed the tribal cultures and enslaved them. WE’RE the tribal cultures now. We’re all Indians now
These “people” ( according to the Roberts court) are phucking parasites
Wilkerson is the type of honorable public servant that every country needs. I’d add to his list of Nazis – Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, John Yoo and David Addington = all scum.
Huffpo gets another point for breaking this, about Obama’s ties to 10 of the 25 CEO’s who were paid more than their companies paid in taxes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/01/obama-tax-loopholes_n_943786.html#s340315&title=John_Faraci_CEO
Nosy Belgians…..
Everybody knows we are against that behavior. EXCEPT when you are battling international terrorists when, it’s OK.
Now, concerning the cover-up. Of course you have to cover it up or else everybody will know that our philosophys is “Do as we say not as we do.”
If we are to become the world leaders in hypocrisy, we have to start right here at home. And, thankfully, much of Europe is willing to help us.
ANY actions against “undeclared combatants” is considered justifiable.
I’m pretty sure the Bush administration had the DOJ draft them an opinion supporting that and now Obabma has rubber stamped that. After all, would that dick Cheney be going all around the countryh with his book acknowledging and detailing all we did if it wasn’t allright?
I don’t think so.