Early effort at news roundup -- Ancient Petroglyphs

Good evening, Firepups!  Here’s a sample of the broad range of news items that were circulating out there today.  Feel free to add others that caught your eye and interest.

❖”Obama for America” has a web site feature devoted to “Romney Economics”.  Eleven slides chronicle the history of Romney and partners’ purchase of GST Steel in Kansas City, the changes they made, and the consequences.  “When the company eventually declared bankruptcy, workers were denied their full pensions and health insurance, and the federal government was forced to step in and bail out the pension fund.”  There’s an accompanying video, too.

❖Mysterious moves.  Ron Paul announced his campaign will no longer spend tons of money campaigning “in primaries in states that have not yet voted” when those states include KY (son Rand’s state), TX (Paul’s state), MT (where he won votes in 2008), and CA (where he “can pick up hundreds of thousands of protests [sic] votes”).  At the same time, his supporters “are engaged in an active–and increasingly contentious–effort [to] take over delegate slates in states that have already voted.  Paul said that the practice would continue . . . .”

❖By executive order, Gov. Lincoln Chafee has declared “that Rhode Island will recognize out-of-state same sex marriages”.    There is currently a bill proceeding through the legislature that would also grant CT same-sex couples married out-of-state the right to sue for divorce.

❖CO Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s efforts, including calling a special session of the legislature, to get same-sex couples equal rights as other married couples, met with strong Republican opposition and was defeated yesterday.  Protections in CO’s Civil Union bill would have included “letting partners make medical decisions for each other . . . [and] would enhance parental and inheritance rights.”

❖Oh, how the mighty are falling!  “Rebekah Brooks Charged In Phone-Hacking Scandal”.  And she’s not alone–her husband, an assistant of hers, her chauffeur and two security staff are also being charged.

❖It’s come to this.  Two lawsuits have been filed by drone strike victims against the Pakistani government for failure to protect them from the drones.  Victims want the government to declare the strikes as war crimes, and prosecute accordingly, and to appeal to the UN and the International Court of Justice for a halt to the strikes  And there’s another goal:  “We would like to know if Pakistan consents or has tacitly approved the drone strikes.  Or if they have an agreement with the U.S. government . . . ” about them, according to the attorney filing the suits.

❖It’s a first.  China’s government-owned Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) will be purchasing 80% “in the U.S. unit of Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia Ltd., giving it ownership of 10 branches in California and three in New York.”  The Federal Reserve approved the sale once it received  the Department of Justice’s ok.  More from Bloomberg.

❖26 Italian banks have had their credit ratings cut by Moody’s.  10 were reduced to junk status, two larger ones had ratings cut from A2 to A3,  and some were cut “by as much as four notches.”  All are on “negative credit watch”, so expect more downgrades.

❖In a summary of growing resistance in Europe to “Austerity”, is this intriguing info:  “In Italy, the economic crisis is giving rise to political instability last seen 40 years ago.  Captains of industry are being given armed escorts as the tensions and political paranoia of the blood-stained 1970s return to haunt the country.  After the knee-capping last week of a nuclear industry in Genoa . . . “  There is even talk of bringing in the army.

❖Uh-oh.  Thor at work?   French President Hollande was on the plane headed to meet with Angela Merkel when lightning struck, the plane had to turn around, a new one was readied and took to the air, and thus Mr. Hollande was late for the meeting. [cont'd]

❖Proclaimed the “World’s Largest Wind Turbine Test Facility,” the project at SC’s Clemson University  is expected to be fully operational by 2013 and “will be open for use by any qualified public or private partner . . ..”  The federal wind energy tax credit, set to expire this year,  was critical to the project’s success.

❖And just up the coast a little ways, a wind power transmission line proposed to be laid on “the ocean floor from southern Virginia to northern New Jersey cleared a hurdle on Monday when the Interior Department opened the way for the project’s sponsors to start work on an environmental impact statement.”  The new Atlantic Wind Connection will link offshore wind farms and thus “greatly reduce the number of individual radial lines needed to bring the energy to shore.”

❖Universities and colleges are increasingly feeling the squeeze on their budgets (vs their missions).  Some recognize they cannot simply depend on students to meet skyrocketing costs, are installing efficiencies, stepping up fund-raising, etc.  Critics cite excessive dollars spent on amenities, salaries, health care (education is labor-intensive), computerization, etc.  And Moody’s is involved, too, rating the institutions on their abilities to generate revenue and favoring (you guessed it) “the nation’s most elite private colleges and large states institutions.”

❖Columbia School of Law’s Professor James Liebman and five students have determined that Carlos DeLunapaid was executed in TX in 1989 for a crime he did not commit, “despite evidence not only that he did not commit the crime but that another individual . . . did.”

❖It’s probably the first time “quietly” has been applied to Limbaugh:  “Controversial conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was quietly inducted into a hall of famous Missouri natives on Monday  in a ceremony held under tight security at the State Capitol in Jefferson City, a legislative spokesman said.”  Additionally, it’s not just “a hall” but “the Hall of Famous Missourians” including Mark Twain and Harry S Truman.   Perhaps the New Madrid Fault will act up in protest.

❖Democratic senators Franken (MN),  Blumenthal (CT), Wyden (OR), the ACLU, Center for Democracy & Technology, FreedomWorks, Americans for Limited Government and others are fearful that the current cybersecurity bill by Sen. Joe Lieberman would result in consumer data being shared between companies and the government.  Franken complained that the bill set aside “decades of privacy laws to  allow companies to freely monitor American citizens’ communications and give their personal information to the federal government–and grants companies near total immunity for doing so.”

❖Florida A&M University in Tallahassee has suspended its marching band until 2013.  The band was suspended after one of its members was beaten to death and several others wounded during a hazing ritual six months ago.  The band’s director for 40 years has resigned and 13 people have been charged with the death of band member Robert Champion.

❖The mortgage mess continues.  A woman in MS wants her money back “and a lawyer to take up her case.”  She thought she had purchased a specific house, made thousands of dollars of renovations on it, and then learned she had actually bought the one next door–which was on a much smaller lot and mold-ridden.  The realty company that had sold her the house said “they had been given the wrong information by the bank in charge of the foreclosed home anyway.”

❖There’s more info on that fraudulent voter registration company, Momentum Political Services in Sacramento.  Its owner “has an extensive criminal history” and her employee was involved “in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme”.  Momentum worked for Sacramento’s Republican Party which paid $5/Repub voter registered.  There’s more and surely there will be even more in the future.  Stay tuned.

❖Attaboys!  MS state Rep Bubba Carpenter (Rep) bragged on the new law that threatens to shut down the state’s only clinic that provides abortion, stating “you have to have moral values.  You have to start somewhere, and that’s what we’ve decided to do.” He also dismissed fears of a return to the coat hanger:  “That was just some language that some of the African-Americans used.”  MS Gov. Phil Bryant (Rep) chimed in, “the true hypocrisy is that their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb.”

❖Dominique Strauss-Kahn has now counter-sued Nafissatou Diallo, the NY maid he allegedly raped, for $1 million.

❖What can you say?  “TSA Agents [at LaGuardia]  Conduct ‘Full Monty’ Pat-Down On Henry Kissinger.”

❖What your state is good at and what it’s not.

• “The European Union has agreed strict new rules for banks, intended to make them safer and eliminate the need for future bailouts.”

• “The eurozone has narrowly avoided returning to recession after recording zero growth in the first three months of the year, figures have shown.”

• “Taking a deep breath, California’s most powerful man strode to a lectern and unveiled the fiscal policy that he hopes will keep America’s most populous state from falling into bankruptcy.”

• “Millions of Japanese homes are preparing for a long hot summer after Japan’s government warned that a shortage of electricity generation could lead to mandatory power cuts. Critics say the threat is a ploy to force the restart of the nation’s idling nuclear power plants.”

• “Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari is set to be at this weekend’s Nato summit on Afghanistan. The Pakistani embassy in Washington told the BBC he was “likely to attend” the meeting in Chicago.”

• TRNN: “JP Morgan Debacle Shows Deep Systemic Risk Unchanged. Bill Black: Billions of derivative bets cannot be called a hedge but might be allowed under weakened Volker rule.”

• “Today, behind closed doors in Charlotte, North Carolina, legislators from 15 states will meet with the oil and gas industry to discuss so-called ‘model legislation’ as part of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The result could be laws that handicap renewable energy targets — while creating loopholes for fossil fuels, written directly by the oil and gas industry itself.”

• TRNN: “The Struggle Over UNCTAD (and Why It Matters). Vijay Prashad: Southern countries defend mandate as the “North” pushes a “global supply chain” that could obliterate smaller countries.” Paul Jay refers to Part 1 of this report, which is here, from late April.

• “The Syrian regime is targeting wounded civilians and medical workers, Doctors Without Borders said today, preventing people from receiving life-saving emergency care.”

• “In Rochester, New York, activists are fighting to win control of Catherine Lennon-Griffin’s foreclosed, bank-owned home as a community land trust, at her request — making this one of the first examples in the country of a neighborhood winning back a bank-owned residence and designating it for community use.”

• Zombie Ayn Rand!

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off.

So on to this week, who can Mitt bring forth to say that Willard is not a heartless corporate raider, but a living saint?

“The people that know him — the picture the media paints is not the Mitt that I know,” Romney’s oldest son, Tagg, told The Daily. “And I wish I could do something about it. I can’t tell you how many people tell me that.”

Yes, but how many people could tell you that…and also this?

Mitt Romney’s five sons — Matt, Tagg, Craig, Ben and Josh — are sitting pretty with a trust fund worth $100 million.

Link Wray — Rumble.

What’s on your mind?

I like fois gras, and the state of California now wants to pry the fatted duck liver off my fork. But this is America, and there’s room for all sorts of food lovers, from tattooed fois gras fans to vegan black metal chefs.

And thus I am very confused about this whole states rights issue that Obama brought up re: marriage equality. Like, it’s okay for states to decide if people can get married or not, and the Federal government won’t interfere, but when states decide that medical marijuana is legal, the Feds jump in and say

NO WEED!

Could some explain that to me?

Worldwide heads of the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), military generals, heads of state from the alliance’s twenty-eight member countries will be coming to Chicago for a summit on May 20-21. The city will be put on lockdown all so the military arm of the G8—a group that can dial up a “humanitarian intervention” or war when it wants it—can further expand their military agenda and plot the next steps of perpetual war for Afghanistan and the wider Asian continent at the McCormick Place convention center.

I am in Chicago and will be covering developments during and in the buildup to the summit. Infrastructure for security is already going up. Shedd Aquarium employees are planning on moving in during the summit. Another train line that runs into and out of Chicago is adopting tight and unnecessary security measures. Parking restrictions have already gone into effect. Eight-foot-tall barricades are being rolled out for McCormick Place. Protests by people who have come to Chicago to show the world that not all US citizens consent to NATO have begun.

Here’ are updates of actions related to the upcoming summit:

—Four arrested in immigrant rights protest at ICE headquarters in Chicago

Occupy Chicago and others engaged in a “No Human is Illegal” protest against “Juan Crow” laws that “destroy lives and break up families.” They marched and gathered at the headquarters for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago. In solidarity with immigrants, they denounced the “unjust and inhumane decisions” that immigration judges make on a daily basis, which result in deportations.

According to the Chicago Tribune, four people were arrested. The protest went on for an hour outside the building before management had police get on the bullhorn and order them to leave the property. A few proceeded to engage in civil disobedience and were arrested and two people were arrested on a march that left the scene shortly after. The Tribune reports that Federal Protective Services were on the scene monitoring the protest.

—Out-of-state police come to Chicago to patrol protests

The Chicago Sun-Times reports police from Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, will be here to help the city with protesters. They will join “as many as 700 state troopers” and “dozens of suburban officers.” Milwaukee is sending 100 officers. Philadelphia is sending 68 officers. The officers coming to Chicago from Charlotte will be getting experience handling a “National Special Security event” that they will then be able to use when Charlotte hosts the Democratic National Convention September 3-6 of this year.

—Boeing employees are told to work from home next Monday

The company that has been called the “CIA’s travel agency,” is, according to NBC Chicago, encouraging all of its five hundred or so employees to work “remotely” from home on Monday, May 21. This is because a major protest is planned for the day and thousands are expected to descended on Boeing’s headquarters to protest the manufacturer’s production of military equipment. [cont'd.]

—The bodyguard battalion has purchases a “high-tech video camera device” to provide security

From Crain’s Chicago Business, Paul Merrion reports the US Army’s Protective Service Battalion, which guards the Defense Secretary and other top Pentagon and State Department officials, will have “high-tech security gear” to help with security. It is a special video camera that was procured from Gans Pugh & Associates.

Here’s what the Army bought: a “Panther P4Me-u-Intrusion & Video System Kit, and integrated wireless and/or hardwired video monitoring and intrusion detection system with monitor with alarms, integrated Dual Channel SD Card DVR, Integrated Quad Band GS/Remote Monitor, 2 camera indoor RACyl wireless cam Kit, 2 cameras indoor RACyl wired camera kit, lens kit for RACyl Camera, 2 indoor 55 Deg Remote head Wired Cameras, Over-pack Rolling Case, 20 Micro view w/lock II video scrambling.”

—Media here in Chicago continue to publish violence-baiting articles on protesters.

The local CBS affiliate has a story that they published under the headline, “Protest Organizer: Violence by NATO Outweighs Any Violence Over Summit.” They quote lead protest organizer Andy Thayer, “I think any discussion of violence that focuses on what’s happening here in Chicago so totally misses the boat…I’d like you guys to start putting out statistics such as the record number of Afghans who lost their lives in America’s war – the longest-ever war – last year.” And they end with a quote that is surely taken out of context: “Yes, there will be some conveniences. There may even be some violence.”

Not only does that probably misrepresent what he said, it seems to have been written down incorrectly. Thayer probably said “inconveniences,” not conveniences. Thayer was probably talking about police committing violence. There is nothing about police attached to this quote. It is dangling out in thin air with no qualifiers. But this isn’t surprising. Media have been trying to get every protester they interview to give them some sensational nugget they can run that shows they got the scoop on where violence is going to happen this weekend.

—NATO uses summit invitation to badger and intimidate Pakistan into opening NATO supply routes.

Pakistan has been extended a last-minute invitation to attend the summit. The invitation is being extended as a way to convince Pakistan to reopen NATO supply routes that have been closed as a way of trying to leverage power against the United States. Pakistan has been engaged in talks with US, where they are trying to get the US to stop drone strikes or respect the country’s sovereignty and let the country launch attacks on “suspected militants.”

—Secrecy News has obtained a congressional report that indicates what will be the main summit agenda

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) report reads:

• Defining the next phase of formal transition in Afghanistan and shaping a longer term NATO commitment to the country after the planned end of combat operations by the end of 2014;
• Securing commitments to maintain and develop the military capabilities necessary to meet NATO’s defense and security goals, including through a new “Smart Defense” initiative; and
• Enhancing NATO’s partnerships with non-NATO member states.

Here is Col. Ann Wright at the People’s Summit, which Occupy Chicago recently hosted. She talks about how NATO is essentially a front for US wars and foreign policy that gives the US the ability to say it is not going it alone when it takes action.

And here is my presentation at the People’s Summit on what WikiLeaks revealed about the Afghanistan War. I talk about revelations but also get into how the American public reacts to soldiers that reveal what is really happening in a war zone. The presentation concludes with a side-by-side comparison of platitudes uttered by President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush on the “war on terrorism.”

Called the Heath Care Rights of Conscience Act, the new law will bar anyone from being required to prescribe or administer a drug they “reasonably believe” might result in the termination of a pregnancy. The law was signed Monday.

(…)

[The bill's sponsor, State Rep. Lance Kinzer] said the conscience protection would apply to any drug that would cause harm to an embryo after it is fertilized.

That sure sounds like Kansas pharmacists can now refuse to give any woman of childbearing age any drug that could harm an embryo, just on the off-chance that she might be pregnant and trying to induce an abortion.  What could possibly go wrong?

Via NWCN.com:

The Idaho Board of Pharmacy has concluded a Nampa Walgreen’s pharmacist did not break any state laws when she allegedly refused to fill a prescription last year.

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest filed a complaint after a nurse called last year and asked for methergine, a medication used to prevent bleeding after childbirth or an abortion.

Idaho’s conscience clause, which allows a pharmacist to opt out of filling prescriptions for drugs he or she may have moral issues with, is meant only to apply to drugs such as the morning after pill, that directly cause abortions.

Instead, the pharmacist both tried to violate privacy laws and then withheld a drug meant to stop bleeding that may be associated with abortion but also birth, and refused to pass the prescription to someone else in the pharmacy to be filled.  Yet the Board is claiming that since someone else filled it eventually despite the pharmacist’s roadblocks, the pharmacist did nothing illegal.

(h/t digby)

It’s like the passive-aggressive cousin of Stand Your Ground.  We could call it “Sit On Your Hands,” perhaps: You don’t have to help someone if you think they don’t deserve it, even if it’s a potentially life-threatening situation, and even if it’s supposed to be your job.

Funny how there never seem to be any “conscience clauses” protecting a principled refusal to limit someone’s choices.  That’s because the only reason conservatives want to get the government “off our backs” or “out of the way” is to make room for corporations and right-wing religious zealots.  For the right, the freedom to exploit, intimidate, oppress, and sometimes even kill, is the only freedom that truly matters.

TPP Protest in Addison, Texas. (photo: Kit O'Connell)

Despite a petition with over 44,000 signatures, as well as recommendations by NGOs, legal experts, and congressmen, the Office of the United States Trade Representative still refuses to release the text of the TransPacific Partnership:

The first question, from Citizens Trade Campaign, was a request that text be made available to the public so that stakeholders could have more informed positions when speaking with negotiators. Weisel said that while the U.S. position is that constantly evolving TPP chapter texts cannot be released to the public.

While activists continue to work to obtain a list of those who have seen the complete text, Congressman Darrell Issa made the dramatic move to release the copyright and intellectual property portion of the agreement. Pieces of this chapter had been previously leaked, angering activists with Electronic Frontiers Foundation, Anonymous, and supporters of an accessible, open Internet. They see the agreement as reproducing or worsening many of the more destructive portions of defeated laws like the Senate Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

In his press release, Issa said:

At a time when the American people and Internet users all around the world are rightfully wary of any closed-door negotiations that could adversely impact their ability to freely and openly access the Internet, the Obama Administration continues to pursue a secretive, closed-door negotiating process for the Trans Pacific Partnership.

My contacts suggest that this release, apparently the entire chapter on intellectual property, is more than most outside the shadowy negotiations have seen before today. The chapter is hosted on Keep The Web #Open, where the public is invited to read it and give the feedback, a process many believe should have been possible from the beginning.

Thanks to Anonymous for drawing my attention to these stories.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), discusses Volker Rule language in Dodd-Frank

In addition to asking Jeff Merkley about filibuster reform, I sought his reaction to the Fail Whale trades that have racked up massive losses at JPMorgan Chase. Merkley, along with Carl Levin, authored the Volcker rule, the ban on most types of proprietary trading, that made its way into the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. There has been a lot of slippage on the rules, however, once they left Congress and made their way through the regulatory gauntlet.

“Sen. Levin and I were very specific on risk management, that it had to apply to a specific identified risk,” Merkley said in an interview. “You can have hedges, but on a position-by-position basis. The risk was not identified for any of the multitudinous moves in the London Whale’s strategy. Even Jamie Dimon agrees with that. But he said it’s part of some vast portfolio hedge. The concept of a specific risk and a specific hedge does not fit with a portfolio hedge.”

Merkley chalked it up to two years of lobbying by Wall Street, including from Dimon and JPMorgan Chase, chipping away at the rule he authored, whittling it down to practical irrelevance. “If portfolio hedging stays in the rules, it guts the Volcker rule,” he said.

He then listed all the reasons you would want to put up a firewall between bank deposits and what amount to hedge fund trades. “If you allow hedge funds to operate inside of banks, you subsidize them with taxpayer money through the discount window and other lending facilities. You subvert the funds that should be used for lending to small businesses into this trading activity. And if the risky trades go bad, they melt down the system of credit in this country. The business community should be 100% behind the Volcker rule firewall because it sustains a reliable supply of credit.”

Indeed, one of the reasons that JPMorgan Chase had the ability to make these massive trades was because of a windfall of taxpayer-insured excess deposits. They took the money and, instead of using it to stimulate more lending or economic activity, decided to gamble with it, secure in the knowledge that, even if they lost, they would make it up or get the government to give them a fresh set of chips. This is no different from the kinds of risky practices we have seen in the financial sector since before the financial crisis.

The critique falls in line with the calls by many financial reform advocates and pundits to “make banking boring,” so that everyone stays in their lane, with the banks providing credit and the allocation of capital, and hedge funds doing the high-risk trading outside of the commercial bank framework. “I have no objection to Jamie Dimon being the head of a hedge fund,” Merkley said. “I object to having him run a hedge fund inside a large bank.”

This has led to some calls for rules stronger than what we see in even a restored Dodd-Frank. Merkley doesn’t see much hope for passage there. “I seriously doubt that any bill will get to the President’s desk that fundamentally moves in that direction,” he said. As for what it would take to get the debate going that way? “It will take another crisis to move the debate. We’ll hopefully avert much of the crisis with the rules we have in place now.” Merkley reasoned that the Volcker rule’s firewall would limit systemic risk by farming it out to hedge funds and less systemically important institutions. “You can start a fire on your patio, so nothing in the house is injured,” Merkley said by way of analogy. “If you set your living room on fire, you burn down your house.”

But this all assumes that the Volcker rule, and the other parts of the as-yet not fully implemented financial reform (including derivatives rules, which Brooksley Born called attention to today), get implemented properly. That’s not what we’re seeing right now. So Merkley and others will have to use this event as a pressuring mechanism to get the federal regulatory apparatus back on track with the language and the spirit of the law. Even then, nobody would suggest that the post-Dodd-Frank landscape is perfectly safe compared to the landscape before the legislation.

National Labor Relations Board (photo via wikipedia)

The failure to pass better rules for forming labor unions during the 2009-2010 period has now shown its full costs. Yesterday, a federal appeals court blocked the more modest union election rules approved by the National Labor Relations Board, on the grounds that the NLRB did not have a quorum when it approved the rules.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the NLRB did not technically have a quorum when it adopted the rules last year. The NLRB had three members at the time; two approved the rules and the third, Republican Brian Hayes, took no action.

Had Hayes voted or indicated his choice to abstain, that could have signified a quorum, according to the judge.

“We think the judge’s ruling is flat-out wrong,” says AFL-CIO General Counsel Lynn Rhinehart. “Brian Hayes was a sitting, working, paid member of the NLRB when the rule was adopted, and remains so today….The judge’s ruling, while in our view incorrect, is solely based on technical issues that speak to the procedure of the board and not the rule itself.”

This was certainly a technicality, not a ruling on the merits. And there is now a full complement of members on the NLRB, including three appointed by Democrats, thanks to recess appointments. The NLRB could re-approve the rules after the fact, if this ruling isn’t overturned on appeal.

However, that would run into another problem, the controversy over the recess appointments themselves. Some corporate-backed group would almost certainly sue – indeed, the lawsuits have already been put into motion – over any ruling made by an NLRB member installed at the end of last year in a recess appointment. The theory goes that the recess appointments were unconstitutional because the Senate was engaged in pro forma sessions at the time. This is a bit of uncharted territory for the legal community, so we don’t quite know how it will turn out, though the Administration has a passel of lawyers lined up to say that the recess appointments were perfectly legal.

But there are plenty of conservative judges scattered through the federal judiciary willing to say otherwise. And this drags out and delays the modestly improved election rules for unions. The obviously better solution to the problems of union intimidation and needless foot-dragging on the part of management was the Employee Free Choice Act. But not only did it not pass when Democrats had large majorities, it didn’t even come close to getting a vote. And these are the consequences.