Mar 31 2011

Under The Radar: More Outrageous and Insulting

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Some folks are determined to not only demonstrate that they are hypocrites but are hell bent to take this country back to the 1800’s. From abortion to GLBT to guns, the backward spiral continues

TAKE ACTION: Another DADT discharge? Sailor needs your help asap

Robin McGehee of GetEQUAL and I just sent out the following joint action alert to our email lists. This servicemember, Derek Morado, is having his DADT discharge hearing tomorrow, Thursday March 31. It’s absurd that the Pentagon is proceeding with DADT discharges even after the President signed the repeal legislation. But here we are.

GetEqual and AMERICAblog will be providing Derek a list of everyone who signs our petition on his behalf, he’ll then take those names into the hearing with him.

Indiana GOP Rep Says Women Will Pretend To Be Raped To Get Free Abortions

   TURNER: With all do respect to Rep. Riecken, I understand what she’s trying to do. But as you know that when the federal health care bill was going through Congress there was a lot of discussion whether this would allow for abortion coverage and of course we were all told it would not. And the bill, my house bill 1210, would prevent that for any insurance company to provide abortion coverage under federal health care bill. This [amendment] would open that window and I would ask you to oppose this amendment.

   I just want you to think about this, in my view, giant loophole that could be created where someone who could – now i want to be careful, I don’t want to disparage in any way someone who has gone through the experience of a rape or incest – but someone who is desirous of an abortion could simply say that they’ve been raped or there’s incest.

Chris Smith’s African Abortion Adventure

Most members of Congress spent last week’s recess back in their districts, talking to their constituents and getting a sense of what Americans want their elected officials to be doing back in Washington. But Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, had other plans: He spent part of the break on a taxpayer-funded trip to Kenya, where he slammed the country’s new constitution for allowing abortions in cases when the health of the mother is at risk.

snip

Smith wasn’t just meeting with Kenyan politicians and activists during his time in East Africa-he was actively politicking. On March 21, Smith spoke at an event on the new constitution sponsored by the Kenya Christian Professional Forum in Limuru, a town about 35 miles outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. A staffer for the US-based group Center for Reproductive Rights, which recently opened an office in Nairobi, took notes during the speech. In it, the congressman reportedly called for “a world free of abortion.” Smith also accused “pro-abortion NGOs” of having “hijacked” the maternal mortality issue in order to legalize the killing of the unborn, CRR says.

Jan Brewer Signs Controversial Abortion Bill Into Law

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that makes the state the first in the nation to outlaw abortions performed on the basis of the race or gender of the fetus.

KS GOP Rep. Slams Anti-Abortion Bill: I’m ‘Embarrased To Be A State That Bases Its Laws On Untruths’

The nationwide war on a woman’s right to choose secured significant victories this week. Yesterday, Arizona became the first state in the nation to criminalize abortions based on a problem that doesn’t exist. Virginia will now force 80 percent of its clinics to close. Not to be outdone, the Kansas legislature swiftly approved not one, but two anti-abortion bills yesterday. HB 2218, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, strictly limits abortions after 22 weeks “based on disputed research that fetuses can feel pain at that point of development.” Though only 1.5 percent of abortions are performed after this period, the bill marks a significant victory for anti-choice activists who “have turned fetal pain into a new front in their battle to restrict or ban abortion.”

Ohio Abortion Heartbeat Bill Approved By House Panel

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A state House committee on Wednesday narrowly approved a bill that would impose the strictest abortion limit in the nation, outlawing the procedure at the first detectable fetal heartbeat.

The Health Committee voted 12-11 to approve the so-called Heartbeat Bill. The bill would need to be approved by the House, where its future is uncertain.

Supporters led by Janet Folger Porter, the director of the Faith2Action network of pro-family groups and a former legislative director of the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life, have hoped aloud that the bill sparks a legal challenge to the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion.

GOPers Demand Sean Duffy Salary Tape Be Pulled From The Internet

First the Republican Party in Polk County, Wisconsin, pulled the tape of Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) fretting about making ends meet on his $174,000 a year salary from its own website. Now they want it gone from the whole Internet.

snip

The tape caused a stir for Duffy, a first-term conservative best known for his past as a reality TV show star on MTV’s The Real World. Democrats flagged the comments about his taxpayer-funded salary (which is nearly three times the median income in Wisconsin) and criticisms began to flow Duffy’s way.

In the clip, Duffy is asked whether he’d support cutting his own salary. Duffy says he would, but only as part of a plan where all public employees’ salaries would be cut. He then said that the $174,000 in salary (not including benefits) he receives is a squeeze for his family of seven to live on:

Appeals Court Makes it Easier for Gov’t to Hold Gitmo Detainees

by Dafna Linzer, ProPublica

In a decision that will likely make it more difficult for Guantanamo prisoners to win release, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today reversed a lower court’s ruling in the pivotal case of a Yemeni detainee.

In a 14-page decision (pdf), the appeals court rejected the lower court’s ruling to release Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, who has been held at Guantanamo without charge since 2002. Uthman’s case and the government’s attempts to classify the legal opinions it generated were the subject of a ProPublica story.

Ohio Union Bill Poised To Become Law

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Labor stronghold Ohio assumed center stage Wednesday in the fight over collective bargaining rights for public workers as the state Legislature passed a bill that was in some ways tougher than that seen in Wisconsin and sent it to the governor.

Amid shouts and jeers in both chambers, the House passed a measure affecting 350,000 public workers on a 53-44 vote, and the Senate followed with a 17-16 vote of approval. Republican Gov. John Kasich will sign the bill by the end of the week.

Cantor Debuts Bill That Would Make GOP Budget Law Of Land Should Shutdown Become Imminent

WASHINGTON — House Republicans will introduce legislation, likely by the end of this week, that would make it so that if Congress is unable to come to an agreement over an operating budget, the GOP’s version would simply become law of the land.

The bill, titled “The Government Shutdown Prevention Act,” is designed for the purpose described in its title. In terms of partisan equity, it’s lacking.

Announced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Wednesday, the legislation would make it so that “if the Senate fails to pass a measure before April 6, 2011 providing for the appropriations of the departments and agencies of the Government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, H.R. 1 (as passed by the House on February 19, 2011) becomes law.” The bill also stipulates that Members of Congress and the President will not get salary payments in the event of a shutdown or the U.S. debt limit being reached.

With New ‘Monkey Bill,’ Tennessee Takes Evolution Education Back To Scopes

Eighty six years after the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial opened Tennessee classrooms to the teaching of evolution, the state House is trying to slam the door shut again. Tennessee’s House Education Committee approved a bill Tuesday in the name of “academic freedom,” but in reality, it is a thinly veiled attempt to curtail the teaching of evolution. House Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh (D) has even taken to calling it “the monkey bill.”

Proposed South Carolina Gun Bill Would Allow For Guns In Churches, Day-Care Centers

A proposed law making its way through the South Carolina legislature would loosen gun ownership to an astonishing level. If passed, legal gun owners could bring their weapons to restaurants, day-care centers, and churches. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Thad Viers (R), says that expanding the places that one can carry a concealed weapon in the state is an effective anti-crime measure:

   “It puts criminals on the defense,” said state Rep. Thad Viers, R-Horry, a co-sponsor of the bill and the owner of about 25 firearms and a concealed weapons permit. “Criminals don’t know if you’re carrying or not.”

Amazingly, the only debate in the legislature appears to be whether the bill goes far enough.

Mar 31 2011

Six In The Morning

Libya rebels flee eastward by the hundreds

Kadafi’s forces appear poised to take Port Brega after pushing the opposition fighters out of Ras Lanuf, another oil refinery city.

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

March 31, 2011

Reporting from Port Brega, Libya- Dispirited rebel fighters continued their headlong retreat across eastern Libya on Wednesday, surrendering a strategic oil city they captured just three days earlier and fleeing eastward by the hundreds.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi appeared poised late in the day to seize a second oil refinery city, Port Brega, as rebels in gun trucks near the city turned and fled at the sound of exploding rockets and artillery. Kadafi’s men had pushed rebels out of Ras Lanuf, site of a petrochemical complex and port, on Wednesday morning.

Japan under pressure to widen nuclear evacuation zone

High levels of radiation detected outside current 20km zone

• Prime minister plans to review nuclear energy policy

• Concerns over water contaminated by reactor cooling operation

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 31 March 2011 09.16 BST

Pressure is mounting on Japan to expand the evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, as the prime minister says he plans to review the country’s nuclear energy policy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Japanese authorities should consider expanding the zone beyond its current 20km (12-mile) radius after high levels of radiation were detected at a village about twice that distance from the plant.

The government has so far resisted calls to evacuate more people from the area, but said its policy was under constant review, and that monitoring of radiation levels was being increased.

Spain’s family bonds lie at the heart and soul of great healthcare

Spain leads the world in organ transplants, but its success in the operating theatre is matched by its holistic approach outside  

Sarah Boseley , health editor

The Guardian, Thursday 31 March 2011

Looking tired, Adolfo Martínez Pérez, dressed in a white clinical coat, apologises for being late, saying he has been to see a judge. A difficult patient suing for compensation, perhaps? No. The surgeon and his fellow transplant co-ordinator, nurse Mercedes González González (her mother and father had the same surname), have just returned from witnessing the uncle of a five year-old girl sign a legal document in another part of Madrid’s Ramón y Cajal hospital, declaring that he understands the consequences of donating part of his liver to his niece.

Spain has probably the best organ transplant system in the world. Its healthcare is highly regarded – it ranked seventh in the World Health Organisation’s top 10 in 2000 (the UK was 18th) – and, like the NHS, it is free at the point of delivery. It has an excellent network of family doctors and a health centre within 15 minutes of every home. But when it comes to transplants, Spain is way out in front.

Ivory Coast war intensifies as battle for capital looms



By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent   Thursday, 31 March 2011

Ivory Coast has been plunged back into civil war after a slow-burning election crisis developed into violence with forces loyal to the internationally recognised president-elect, Alassane Ouattara, poised to take the capital.

The fighting threatens to provoke a humanitarian crisis, with civilians seeking refuge in public buildings or fleeing over the border into Liberia.

Laurent Gbagbo, who has defied the international community by refusing to relinquish power, yesterday appealed for a ceasefire.

Afghan President Condemns Actions of ‘Kill Team’

‘They Killed for Entertainment’

Spiegel

The photographs shocked the world and led to fears of revenge attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. Now, almost two weeks after the pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of Afghans were published in SPIEGEL, Afghan President Hamid Karzai publicly commented on the “Kill Team” for the first time.

Karzai told an audience of new teachers at a graduation ceremony in the capital city of Kabul on Wednesday that he had been “shocked and hurt” by the photographs. He said he was talking about the incidents now because the world has to “finally wake up.”

The Afghan leader said he had read about the story in a “German magazine,” an apparent reference to SPIEGEL. “They killed our youth for entertainment,” he said.

Pak intelligence arrests high value Bali bomber



ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has arrested a much sought after Indonesian al-Qaida militant suspected in the 2002 bombing of a Bali nightclub and will turn him over to Jakarta, a Pakistani intelligence official said Wednesday.

The official did not say when or where Umar Patek was arrested, but according to the Philippines army, who has also been hunting him, he was seized on Jan. 25 along with a Pakistani associate believed to have been giving him shelter.

The arrest of Patek, who has a $1 million American price on his head, is a major victory in the global fight against al-Qaida and – since he was taken alive – could provide very valuable intelligence about regional militant networks and possible future plots.

Mar 31 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for March 30, 2011-

DocuDharma

Mar 31 2011

On the Immorality of Supporting an Amoral Dictator

The responses to my previous entry were exactly what I hoped they would be: lively.  And I’m not done yet, not by a long shot.  I’m going to expand upon a comment I made in the other thread.

My main argument in this discussion is not directed at those who oppose Obama. It is, rather, against those who claim to be progressives, yet still support him knowing what he is and what he does.  In short, the people of whom I write (and they know who they are) are not progressive, or even liberal.  They are right-wingers who, for various reasons, choose to cloak themselves in the illusion of liberalism.  Maybe they figured they could operate to silence left-wing opposition to their preferred policies better as infiltrators.  Maybe, being only slightly to the left of their hyper-partisan brethren, they found themselves excluded from their preferred political party, the Republicans.

Or maybe they were simply too incompetent to get a seat at the table with the big-money filth and are using the left-wing movement (such as it is) to get there.  One could write volumes of speculation as to how and why right-wingers came to dominate what passes for the left-wing movement, and still not reach a definitive explanation.  And really, does it matter?  The point is that they do dominate us.  They control the discussion, the purse strings, and the major blogs.

Now you’re probably asking at this point who the hell I think I am to decide who’s a progressive (or a liberal) and who isn’t.  The problem with asking that question is that it’s the wrong one.  I don’t make that decision.  Instead, what people should ask themselves is, “what makes a liberal-progressive?”  Is it a set of principles and beliefs?  And on what are they based?  Phony liberal-progressives expose their ideology by their words and their actions, and therefore distinguish themselves from those of us who do follow an established set of moral principles and beliefs.

This is a major reason why morality is so important in shaping political beliefs.  Those who advocate gray areas of ideological thought are following the Nietzsche philosophy of moral relativism, which when broken down to its simplest form boils down to the notion that there is no such thing as a fixed notion of right and wrong.  Remove morality from the equation and you end up with the neocons, who rationalize everything they do by the principle of might makes right.  In other words, the moral relativist argues that the ends justify the means.  A liberal or progressive, however, might argue that the reverse is true: the means are what justify the ends.

The fact is that Obama is thoroughly amoral, for his is the right-wing principle of power, and moral relativism is what he and his ilk use to rationalize the abuse of that power. Actively supporting Obama and the Democrats, after all they’ve done, is immoral. So is not actively opposing him in some way be it great or small.  Just as it was morally wrong for Germans not to oppose Hitler and the Nazis, so too is it morally wrong for Americans not to stand up to Obama and the rest of the far right and do whatever we can legally do to remove them from power.  One cannot be progressive and support someone who has, since taking office:

Extended the Patriot Act without making any reforms

Pushed for mandatory DNA testing of those arrested for crimes, regardless of whether they have been convicted

Dramatically increased government secrecy, blocking more FOIA requests in 2009 than Bush did in 2008

Cut a secret deal to kill the public option, while campaigning on its behalf

Cut a deal to exempt abortion services from health care reform

Continued to defend the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy” from legal challenges

Granted waivers for 30 companies, including McDonald’s, exempting them from health care reform

Announced a $60 billion sale of arms to the Saudi Arabian dictatorship, the largest arms deal in history

Won the right to invoke “state secrets” protecting the Bush administration from criminal prosecution

Failed to disclose visits by industry executives while crafting health care reform legislation

Authorized the assassination of US citizens abroad, an unprecedented declaration of executive power

Censored reporters covering military tribunals at Guantanamo

Fought for government immunity in prosecutions for domestic spying

Awarded $250 million in government contracts to Blackwater

Dramatically increased the use of drone bombers in Pakistan, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties

Won the right to keep identities of prisoners at Bagram “black site” a secret

Cracked down on government whistleblowers more than any President in history

Used cluster bombs in Yemen, resulting in the deaths of 14 militants, and 35 women and children

Continued Bush policy of blocking use of the Endangered Species Act to prevent climate change

Sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan

Gave permits to BP and other oil companies, exempting them from environmental protection laws

Appointed Lawrence Summers as his top economic adviser

Appointed Timothy Geithner to run the Treasury

Passed a massive bailout of Wall Street, at the taxpayers’ expense

Appointed Monsanto executive Michael Taylor to the FDA

Appointed former Monsanto lobbyist Islam Siddiqui as America’s Chief Agriculture Negotiator

Sided with utility companies in lawsuit to stop greenhouse gas emissions

Successfully protected Bush officials from prosecution for torture

Pushed for a 5 year prison term for Charles Lynch, the operator of a medical marijuana dispensary, legal under California law

Proposed a three year freeze on domestic spending, exempting cuts from the Pentagon and Homeland Security

Argued that the widespread use of Predator drones is a justifiable form of self-defense

Revived “Prompt Global Strike” weapons system, considered too controversial by Bush Administration

Backed off on his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo

Reaffirmed his opposition to same-sex marriage

Announced over $8 billion in loan guarantees to promote nuclear power

Promised $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next decade

Successfully prosecuted child soldier Omar Khadr using [a false confession] obtained through torture

Granted 27 waivers to oil companies drilling in the few weeks following the Deepwater Horizon disaster

Operated a “black site” at Bagram airbase, where the Red Cross has reported detainee abuse

Won the right to deny habeas corpus to detainees

Once wrote: “I trust that you will continue to let me and other Democrats know when you believe we are screwing up. And I, in turn, will always try and show you the respect and candor one owes his friends and allies.” (We all know his words proved hollow as he relentlessly attacked his own party’s base in last year’s midterm elections, both directly and through subordinates.)

Eased restrictions on the use of child soldiers in Africa

Blocked UN human rights investigations at Guantanamo

Launched FBI raids on antiwar activists in Chicago and Minneapolis

Used a signing statement to ignore labor and environmental standards for the IMF and World Bank

Supports the coup government in Honduras

Reversed his position on drug reimportation to appease the pharmaceutical industry

Dropped charges against the CIA for destroying videotapes documenting torture of detainees

Violated his own ban on lobbyists working for the administration

Appointed Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff

Deported record numbers of undocumented immigrants*

Continued renditions of alleged terrorists to countries where they could be tortured

Opposed marriage equality by appealing challenges to DOMA, the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act”

Blocked the release of photos documenting the torture and abuse of detainees by the US military

Continued the practice of indefinite detentions for alleged terrorists

Refused to sign a treaty banning the use of landmines

Source: http://whatinthefuckhasobamado…

And now usurped the war-making powers of Congress by attacking Libya.

The list goes on for miles, but I trust you get the point.  Morality means taking a principled stand and fighting for those principles without compromising them.  Ask yourself why people know what the GOP stands for and why they don’t know what Democrats stand for.  It’s because, even though those principles are evil, even though they are contradictory, hypocritical, and dishonestly presented, Republicans plainly state what they are – and they have absolutely no qualms about doing whatever it takes, law be damned, to ensure that their principles are turned into political reality.  If the left is going to have any hope of winning the ideological war waged upon us by the far right, we have to adopt a moral stand.  We have to determine what we believe in, what we’re willing to do to fight for those beliefs, and decide what price we’re willing to pay for defending them – how far are we willing to go to ensure that our agenda is implemented?

Again, this is a harsh truth and it offends some people. Tough. The crimes being committed on a daily basis by a lawless executive do not get to be excused or rationalized away simply because it makes some people uncomfortable to challenge him.  Nor are we absolved of opposing that executive by wrapping ourselves in a cloak of moral relativism.  Things that were wrong when Bush and Cheney did them are just as wrong now that it’s Obama doing them.  There is no middle ground on this issue, no gray area, no in-between, no level of complexity so great that it renders making a moral judgment impossible.

So the left in America is faced with a decision: Do we continue to support Obama and the Democrats, knowing what they are, thereby repeating the same failure of the German people to rise up against the Nazis, or do we go all out to defeat both the Democrats and the Republicans by organizing the Left-Wing movement into a powerful force for good and winning back our country?  To choose the first option is to fail a crucial moral test of ourselves as a movement.

Cross-posted from CorrenteWire.

Mar 31 2011

It is Immoral Not to Challenge Obama and the Democrats in 2012

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I seem to recall that someone, late last month, posted an entry arguing that it is immoral for Democrats not to run a primary challenge against Barry Obama in 2012, in light of the things he’s done to institutionalize Bush-Cheney crimes.  (Glenn Greenwald chronicled the latest violation of the Constitution by Obama on his own blog, which you can read here).  This argument is proven truer every day as more crimes are committed against the Constitution and as the concept of the rule of law is increasingly marginalized.

At what point will party loyalists realize that their political organization will not survive if they continue to support this right-wing dictator who has proven to be even worse than his right-wing predecessor?

For that matter, at what point do we as a movement acknowledge that politics and morality are inextricably bound?

Last week I encountered a former political co-worker, who I worked under when volunteering on a mayoral campaign.  The discussion we had led to the realization that although we may agree on certain things, fundamentally she is by no means a liberal.  She is a DLCer to the core.  This was borne out by her defense of torture against Bradley Manning and her conviction of him in her own mind without even considering that the charges against him are more than likely bullshit.  She trusts the military more than she believes in the Constitution, and her statements made it obvious that she thinks there are circumstances in which it should not apply.

And this goes to the heart of the problem facing the left.  Our movement is compromised by people who see shades of gray where only right and wrong exist, and those people are the ones in charge.  Yes, a problem can be complex – more so than many care to admit.  But that does not absolve the left of the responsibility to take a firm moral stand.  In fact, my former colleague told me flat out that she doesn’t think the Democrats stand for anything.  Meanwhile, the Republicans do stand for things – horrible, evil things, but they do stand for them.  We have to make a decision as to what is right and what is wrong, and take a stand for what we know to be right.  When we compromise our principles, people see that and they reject us for lacking a moral foundation.  Torture is wrong and it is a crime, and regardless of your own opinion, the law requires that those who committed it and those who ordered it be punished.  That is not up for debate.  It’s codified by national and international law.  How can we claim to be better than, say, the rulers of Libya, when we refuse to live up to our own stated principles?

Some people are perfectly comfortable with being so hypocritical.  They’re called right-wingers.  They identify themselves by their words and actions.  And we must oppose them at every turn.  But how can we do that if we on the left refuse to allow for morality?  Right-wingers are amoral, their words and actions immoral, the casualties who suffer and die as a result of their amoral policies all too real.  This being the case, why is it considered an affront to sensibility to suggest that refusing to challenge Obama and the Democrats politically is itself immoral?  If we stand for something, we have an obligation to make a moral case for why our beliefs and policy positions are right and those of the other side are wrong.  Furthermore, having a firm sense of morality allows us to identify those who choose to be amoral.  People who argue that the ends justify the means exist in a moral vacuum into which they want to suck us all.  When we lose our sense of morality, our political enemies will most assuredly rush to define us to their advantage, which is a major reason why they are able to win over voters.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it isn’t a bad thing to adopt a moral code, to stick by it no matter what, and to act upon it.  If the left does not challenge Obama next year with truly left-wing candidates, then the left in America is truly dead, and we who are the real Americans will have no other recourse than to escape while we still can.

Cross-posted from CorrenteWire.

Mar 31 2011

from firefly-dreaming 30.3.11

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Essays Featured Wednesday the 30th of March:

It’s Ghost Town at Late Night Karaoke, mishima DJs

TheMomCat most kindly gives us a repeat performance of her Health & Fitness News.

Todays recipes focus on Frittatas

originally posted Saturday at The Stars Hollow Gazette

In Youffraita‘s  Wednesday Open Thoughts  Hoss & the Leprechauns will have you grinning.

How to Grow Vegetables with Little Water from patric juillet shares tricks for making container gardening easier.

Gha!

From RiaD‘s how-to-gardening series Get Growing: Onions & Leeks.

Afternoon music from Timbuk3: The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time!

Tonight #93

Mar 31 2011

Evening Edition

  • Libyan rebels flee east from Gaddafi bombardment

    By Alexander Dziadosz – 1 hr 15 mins ago

    AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels fled in headlong retreat from the superior arms and tactics of Muammar Gaddafi’s troops on Wednesday, exposing the insurgents’ weakness without Western air strikes to tip the scales in their favor.

    It had taken more than five days of allied bombardment to destroy government tanks and artillery in the strategic town of Ajdabiyah before rebels rushed in and chased Gaddafi’s troops 300 km (200 miles) west in a two-day dash along the coast.

  • Japan urges calm over food export fears

    By Shinichi Saoshiro And Risa Maeda – 2 hrs 37 mins ago

    TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan called on the world not to impose “unjustifiable” import curbs on its goods as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive on Thursday, the first leader to visit since an earthquake and tsunami damaged a nuclear plant, sparking the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

    In a briefing to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Japan said it was monitoring radioactive contamination to prevent potential food safety risks and would provide the WTO with quick and precise information.

  • Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret support for Libya rebels

    By Mark Hosenball – 30 mins ago

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

    Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter.

  • UN: High radiation outside Japan’s exclusion zone

    By George Jahn, Associated Press – 57 mins ago

    VIENNA – Recent radiation readings outside the exclusion zone around Japan’s nuclear disaster show radiation substantially higher than levels at which the U.N. nuclear agency would recommend evacuations, agency officials said Wednesday.

    The comments could add to the debate over how far people need to stay away from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, which was crippled in the country’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

  • Assad sees Syria plot, unyielding on emergency law

    DAMASCUS (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad defied calls on Wednesday to lift a decades-old emergency law and said Syria was the target of a foreign conspiracy to stir up protests in which more than 60 people have been killed.

    Angry that their demands were not met, hundreds of protesters chanting “Freedom” marched in the port city of Latakia, where residents said security forces had fired in the air.

  • Yemen’s Saleh makes new offer: opposition snub it

    By Mohammed Ghobari – 32 mins ago

    SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s president has made a new offer to protesters demanding his ouster, proposing he stays in office until elections are held but transferring his powers to a caretaker government, an opposition source said on Wednesday.

    The opposition promptly rejected the offer, with a spokesman calling it “an attempt to prolong the survival of regime.”

  • Obama calls for deep cuts in U.S. oil imports

    By Alister Bull And Patricia Zengerle – 1 hr 34 mins ago

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal on Wednesday to cut U.S. oil imports by a third over 10 years, taking up a challenge that eluded previous U.S. leaders, as high gasoline prices threaten to undermine the country’s economic recovery.

    Obama outlined his strategy in a speech after spending days explaining U.S.-led military action in Libya, where fighting, accompanied by unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, has helped push U.S. gasoline prices toward $4 a gallon.

  • House votes to kill main Obama foreclosure aid

    By Corbett B. Daly – Wed Mar 30, 9:44 am ET

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to kill President Barack Obama’s signature program to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.

    A bill to terminate the program was approved on a 252-170 vote. But the bill is unlikely to clear the Senate.

    It was the last in series of four measures brought forward by newly empowered House Republicans to end government assistance for homeowners hurt by the housing crisis.

  • Rebels retreat from Libya oil port under attack

    By Ryan Lucas, Associated Press – 2 hrs 22 mins ago

    AJDABIYA, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi’s ground forces recaptured a strategic oil town Wednesday and were close to taking a second, making new inroads in beating back a rebel advance toward the capital Tripoli. Western powers kept up the pressure to force Gadhafi out with new airstrikes to weaken his military, hints that they may arm the opposition and intense negotiations behind the scenes to find a country to give haven to Libya’s leader of more than 40 years.

  • Tainted seafood fears spread as Japan plant leaks

    By Mari Yamaguchi And Shino Yuasa, Associated Press – 58 mins ago

    TOKYO – Fears about contaminated seafood spread Wednesday despite reassurances that radiation in the waters off Japan’s troubled atomic plant pose no health risk, as the country’s respected emperor consoled evacuees from the tsunami and nuclear emergency zone.

  • Obama sets ambitious goal to reduce US oil imports

    By Julie Pace, Associated Press – 1 hr 19 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – Seeking to show the public he understands the burden of rising gas prices, President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal of reducing U.S. oil imports by one-third by 2025, and vowed to break through the political gridlock that has stymied similar initiatives for decades.

  • Pro-Ouattara forces seize Ivory Coast capital

    By Associated Press Marco Chown Oved And Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press – 40 mins ago

    ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Fighters supporting Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader seized control of the country’s administrative capital on Wednesday, marking a symbolic victory after months of political chaos sparked when the incumbent refused to step down after the election.

  • Congressional negotiations resume on spending bill

    By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press – 1 hr 3 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – Renewed House-Senate budget negotiations aimed at averting a government shutdown center on possibly cutting $33 billion from current spending levels, a senior congressional aide said Wednesday. Democrats pressed to ease GOP cuts to domestic agency budgets by slowing Pentagon growth and trimming so-called mandatory programs whose budgets run on autopilot.

  • Myanmar military rule ends, but army retains grip

    by Hla Hla Htay – Wed Mar 30, 11:43 am ET

    YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s military made way for a nominally civilian government after almost half a century in power Wednesday, as the junta was disbanded and a new president talked of a “changing era”.

    But the army hierarchy retains a firm grip on power in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country, and many analysts believe strongman Senior General Than Shwe will attempt to retain some sort of control behind the scenes.

  • UN atomic watchdog raises alarm over Japan evacuations

    by Shingo Ito – 2 hrs 44 mins ago

    SENDAI, Japan (AFP) – The UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday radiation in a village outside the evacuation zone around a stricken Japanese nuclear plant was above safe levels, urging that Japan reassess the situation.

    In its first such call, the International Atomic Energy Agency added its voice to that of Greenpeace in warning over radioactivity in Iitate village, where the government has already told residents not to drink tap water.

  • Clinton, Gates try to ease lawmakers’ Libya worries

    by Olivier Knox – 1 hr 13 mins ago

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama ordered his top military and foreign policy advisers to brief lawmakers on Libya Wednesday amid questions, doubts and even anger about his handling of the conflict.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the top uniformed US officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, were to brief the Senate and House of Representatives.

  • FBI chief to successor: be ‘flexible’ in terror fight

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – FBI director Robert Mueller said Wednesday that the best advice he can give his successor is to “be flexible and agile” when responding to threats of terrorism.

    Mueller, who took the helm of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations one week before the September 11, 2001 attacks, is scheduled to leave his job after mid-year.

  • Shutdown threat recedes as budget talks resume

    By Andy Sullivan – 2 hrs 11 mins ago

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The threat of a government shutdown seemed to recede on Wednesday as budget talks between Republicans and Democrats resumed in Congress and aides from both parties said they were more optimistic that a compromise can be found.

    Though lawmakers continued to trade jabs in public, aides said privately that they had a greater sense of optimism they could reach a deal before temporary government funding expires on April 8.

  • House intel chief opposes arming Libyan rebels

    By Susan Cornwell – 50 mins ago

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The influential chairman of the House of Representatives’ intelligence committee said on Wednesday he opposes supplying arms to the rebels fighting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

    “As we publicly debate next steps on Libya, I do not support arming the Libyan rebels at this time,” Representative Mike Rogers said in a statement. “We need to understand more about the opposition before I would support passing out guns and advanced weapons to them.”

  • House Republicans seek IRS probe of AARP

    By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar And Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press – 1 hr 32 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – AARP lobbied for the new health care law and now it stands to profit, Republican lawmakers charged Wednesday as they called for the IRS to investigate whether the powerful interest group representing millions of older Americans should be stripped of its federal tax exemption.

    Three veteran GOP representatives released a report that estimates the seniors lobby could make an additional $1 billion over 10 years on health insurance plans whose sales are expected to pick up under the new law. They also questioned seven-figure compensation for some AARP executives.

  • Ohio House considers legislation restricting union powers

    By Jo Ingles – 31 mins ago

    COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – The Ohio House may vote on Wednesday on a bill that would restrict collective bargaining rights for about 350,000 public employees and ban them from striking.

    A version of the bill was passed by the Ohio Senate earlier this month, and is expected to pass the Republican-dominated House.

    If the bill is enacted, Ohio would become the biggest U.S. state so far this year to impose sweeping collective bargaining curbs on public sector unions.

  • Wisconsin governor releases bond restructuring bill

    MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker released on Wednesday bond restructuring and other plans to close a current year budget gap that were cut from a controversial law to curb the powers of public sector unions.

    Walker had stripped the restructuring from legislation that reduced collective bargaining and other powers for many public sector unions so the Republican-majority state Senate could approve the measure without Democrats, who had fled the state to stall a vote.

  • Private sector adds more than 200,000 jobs

    By Leah Schnurr – Wed Mar 30, 12:29 pm ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. private employers added more than 200,000 jobs in March while planned layoffs fell, underscoring expectations that momentum in the labor market will help underpin the economic recovery.

    The ADP Employer Services report on Wednesday showed that U.S. private employers added 201,000 jobs in March, largely in line with expectations for a gain of 203,000 jobs.

  • First Mercury images in orbit show lots of craters

    By Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – 19 mins ago

    NEW YORK – Think the moon has many craters? New photos from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury show the tiny inner planet has far more impressive battle scars from regular high-speed peltings by space rocks.

    NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting the planet less than two weeks ago, reveals a pock-marked planet full of craters from pieces of asteroids and comets.

  • FDA won’t stop cheap version of preterm birth drug

    By Mike Stobbe, Ap Medical Writer – 25 mins ago

    ATLANTA – Pregnant women will still be able to get a drastically cheaper version of a new expensive drug that prevents premature birth, federal health officials said Wednesday.

    Since the drug was approved, it’s been unclear whether women would have to pay $1,500 per dose for the licensed version or could continue to have it made by specialty pharmacies for $10 to $20.

  • US back to denying same sex couple visas

    By Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press – 41 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – After a brief reprieve, immigration authorities are once again denying applications for immigration benefits for same sex couples following a legal review.

    Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Services agency, said Wednesday that a review by lawyers from the Department of Homeland Security, it was concluded that a law prohibiting the government from recognizing same sex marriages must be followed, despite the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending the constitutionality of the law in court.

  • Fatal bus accidents renew interest in safety bill

    By Joan Lowy, Associated Press – Wed Mar 30, 10:19 am ET

    WASHINGTON – Deadly bus crashes over the past decade have claimed dozens of lives, including college baseball players in Atlanta, Vietnamese Catholics in Texas, skiers in Utah and, this month, gamblers returning to New York’s Chinatown.

    The New York accident, which killed 15 passengers and critically injured several others, as well as recent bus accidents in New Hampshire and New Jersey have rekindled interest in bipartisan legislation that would require regulators to act on longstanding bus safety recommendations.

    • Mar 30 2011

    Punting the Pundits

    “Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

    Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

    Katrina vanden Heuvel: Are there no standards for punditry?

    Last Sunday, ABC’S “This Week” turned to none other than Donald Rumsfeld, the former Bush administration defense secretary, to get his informed judgment of the mission in Libya. Last month, the journal International Finance featured former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan commenting on what is “hampering” the economic recovery.

    Fox News trumped even that, trotting out retired Marine Col. Oliver North, the former Reagan security staffer who orchestrated the secret war in Nicaragua, to indict President Obama for – you can’t make this stuff up – failing to get a congressional resolution in support of the mission in Libya.

    Next we’ll see a cable talk show inviting the former head of BP to tell us what it takes to do offshore drilling safely.

    Susan Feiner: Assault on Public Unions an Affront to Women’s Historic Gains

    Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s slash-and-burn approach to public sector unions — imitated by over a dozen Republican governors across the nation — is the political equivalent of slamming women’s labor history into reverse. Right in the middle of Women’s History Month.

    While women represented 57 percent of the public-sector work force at the end of the recession, women lost the vast majority–79 percent–of the 327,000 jobs cut in this sector between July 2009 and February 2011, according to a January report by the Washington, D.C.-based National Women’s Law Center.

    Of course these job losses–and those still to come–have a bad ripple effect, leading to even more unemployment, spreading the pain far beyond the initially affected workers.

    Ruth Marcus: Obama fills in some important blanks on Libya

    In his speech Monday night to a public thoroughly, and understandably, befuddled about U.S. policy in Libya, President Obama began to fill in some important blanks. The White House would dispute this assessment, but Obama’s remarks came unfortunately late. Rallying the public behind “kinetic military action,” my new favorite phrase, requires explanations sooner rather than later. This is especially true when it is a kinetic action of choice, not necessity; in the nervous aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan; and in the relentless context of a 24-7 news cycle.

    And especially when the run-up to action has been so herky-jerky, with clashing messages about the wisdom and feasibility of a no-fly zone and a confusing bifurcation of means and ends. It is U.S. policy that Moammar Gaddafi should – indeed, must – go, but that is not the stated aim of the military action.

    Amy Goodman: Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court: Tinkering With the Machinery of Death

    On March 28, the Supreme Court refused to hear the death penalty case of Troy Anthony Davis. It was his last appeal. Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for close to 20 years after being convicted of shooting to death off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah. Since his conviction, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, alleging police coercion and intimidation in obtaining the testimony. Despite the doubt surrounding his case, Troy Anthony Davis could be put to death within weeks.

    Davis is now at the mercy of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole, which could commute his sentence to life without parole. It will be a tough fight, despite widespread national and international support for clemency from figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter.

    P.J. Crowley: Budget Paralysis and the New Middle East

    The Middle East sits at a precarious pivot point, a transformational moment that rivals the fall of the Berlin Wall. Country by country, whether they remain autocratic, become democratic or fall somewhere in between, the Middle East will not be the same.

    From the individual street vendor who lit the spark in Tunisia to the massive protests in Tahrir Square to the current standoff with Muammar Gaddafi, none of this has been scripted and ultimate outcomes are far from certain. Eastern Europe benefited from the centripetal pull of NATO and the EU, and received immediate and sustained assistance from the United States and the West to order to achieve today’s remarkable regional stability and integration.

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: The Department of Justice: Indicting Immigrants, Ignoring Wall Street Crooks

    If you’re a banker who bought your estate with the millions you made from mortgage fraud, relax. The Justice Department isn’t looking for you. But if you’re an illegal immigrant who’s working on that banker’s estate, look out. The Department of Justice is ignoring your boss and devoting most of its resources to catching you.

    And the Justice Department’s “mortgage fraud” unit doesn’t prosecute bankers. It protects them.

    Joe Nocera of the New York Times contrasts the legal treatment that was given to one high-flying borrower with that received by Angelo Mozilo, CEO of the fraudulent lender Countrywide. But if stories like this one are bad, the numbers are even worse.

    John Nichols: Wisconsin Judge Checks and Balances a Lawless King, er, Governor

    A week after Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that was meant to delay the publication and implementation of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union, pro-corporate power grab, Walker’s legislative allies pressured state bureaucrats to publish the measure and then claimed they were free to implement it.

    But the law does not work that way. Governors are not kings. They do not get to violate the law at will. And they do not get to dismiss orders from judges.

    Judge Sumi made that “crystal clear” Tuesday, after a day of testimony that described the pressure placed on the state’s Legislative Reference Bureau by Walker’s consigliere, state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, to publish the governor’s anti-labor plan — even though authorization from Secretary of State Doug La Follette was required, and La Follette was prevented from giving that authorization because of the TRO.

    Robert Dreyfuss: The ‘Obama Doctrine,’ Libya and Iran

    Does Libya set a precedent? If a revolt breaks out again in Iran, and the regime cracks down with brutal force, will the United States support a Libya-style response? The New York Times, in its coverage of Libya, is already talking about imposing a no-fly zone against Syria. Is there an “Obama Doctrine” emerging?

    It looks like it. And, unfortunately, it seems focused on the idea of humanitarian interventionism, with some add-ons and codicils, that make it broader than that. For instance, in his speech, President Obama spoke of “challenges that threaten our common humanity” as motivation for US intervention abroad, but then added that such interventions could occur in “maintaining the flow of commerce,” which sounds suspiciously like a declaration that the United States will go to war to protect the flow of oil.

    Peter Rothberg: Tell Facebook to Unfriend Coal

    The iconic social networking site Facebook has been a useful, even indispensable, tool in fomenting social change, and even revolution, across the globe. But with more than 600 million members (and growing!), Facebook also burns more energy each day than numerous nations.

    And what powers Facebook? Coal, the number-one contributor to climate change. At current growth rates, data centers and telecommunication networks-two key components of the “cloud” that Facebook depends on-will consume about 1,963 billion kilowatts hours of electricity in 2020. That’s more than triple their current consumption and more than the current electricity consumption of France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined.

    Mar 30 2011

    On This Day in History March 30

    This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

    Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

    March 30 is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 276 days remaining until the end of the year.

    On this day in 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox,” and President Andrew Johnson’s “polar bear garden.”

    Alaska Purchase

    Russia was in a difficult financial position and feared losing Russian America without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British, whom they had fought in the Crimean War (1853-1856). While Alaska attracted little interest at the time, the population of nearby British Columbia started to increase rapidly a few years after hostilities ended, with a large gold rush there prompting the creation of a crown colony on the mainland. The Russians therefore started to believe that in any future conflict with Britain, their hard-to-defend region might become a prime target, and would be easily captured. Therefore the Tsar decided to sell the territory. Perhaps in hopes of starting a bidding war, both the British and the Americans were approached, however the British expressed little interest in buying Alaska. The Russians in 1859 offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Russia’s greatest regional rival, Great Britain. However, no deal was brokered due to the American Civil War.

    Following the Union victory in the Civil War, the Tsar then instructed the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl, to re-enter into negotiations with Seward in the beginning of March 1867. The negotiations concluded after an all-night session with the signing of the treaty at 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867, with the purchase price set at $7.2 million, or about 2 cents per acre ($4.74/km2).

    American public opinion was generally positive, as most editors argued that the U.S. would probably derive great economic benefits from the purchase; friendship of Russia was important; and it would facilitate the acquisition of British Columbia.

    Historian Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer summarized the minority opinion of some newspaper editors who opposed the purchase:

       “Already, so it was said, we were burdened with territory we had no population to fill. The Indians within the present boundaries of the republic strained our power to govern aboriginal peoples. Could it be that we would now, with open eyes, seek to add to our difficulties by increasing the number of such peoples under our national care? The purchase price was small; the annual charges for administration, civil and military, would be yet greater, and continuing. The territory included in the proposed cession was not contiguous to the national domain. It lay away at an inconvenient and a dangerous distance. The treaty had been secretly prepared, and signed and foisted upon the country at one o’clock in the morning. It was a dark deed done in the night…. The New York World said that it was a “sucked orange.” It contained nothing of value but furbearing animals, and these had been hunted until they were nearly extinct. Except for the Aleutian Islands and a narrow strip of land extending along the southern coast the country would be not worth taking as a gift…. Unless gold were found in the country much time would elapse before it would be blessed with Hoe printing presses, Methodist chapels and a metropolitan police. It was “a frozen wilderness.

    While criticized by some at the time, the financial value of the Alaska Purchase turned out to be many times greater than what the United States had paid for it. The land turned out to be rich in resources (including gold, copper, and oil).

    Senate debate

    When it became clear that the Senate would not debate the treaty before its adjournment on March 30, Seward persuaded President Andrew Johnson to call the Senate back into special session the next day. Many Republicans scoffed at “Seward’s folly,” although their criticism appears to have been based less on the merits of the purchase than on their hostility to President Johnson and to Seward as Johnson’s political ally. Seward mounted a vigorous campaign, however, and with support from Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, won approval of the treaty on April 9 by a vote of 37-2.

    For more than a year, as congressional relations with President Johnson worsened, the House refused to appropriate the necessary funds. But in June 1868, after Johnson’s impeachment trial was over, Stoeckl and Seward revived the campaign for the Alaska purchase. The House finally approved the appropriation in July 1868, by a vote of 113-48.

     1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.

    1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.

    1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.

    1814 – Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Declaration which would later inspire Italian Unification.

    1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States.

    1842 – Anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

    1844 – One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

    1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas – “Border Ruffians” from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.

    1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.

    1863 – Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.

    1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre, by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The media call this Seward’s Folly.

    1870 – Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

    1885 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.

    1909 – The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.

    1910 – The Mississippi Legislature founds The University of Southern Mississippi.

    1912 – Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.

    1918 – Outburst of bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate.

    1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph.

    1940 – Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.

    1944 – World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria.

    1945 – World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdansk.

    1949 – A riot breaks out in Austurvollur square in Reykjavik, when Iceland joins NATO.

    1954 – The Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.

    1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.

    1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the US Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.

    1972 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

    1976 – The first Land Day protests are held in Israel/Palestine.

    1979 – Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.

    1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

    1982 – Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

    2006 – The United Kingdom Terrorism Act 2006 becomes a law.

    2009 – Twelve gunmen attack the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan.

    Holidays and observances

       * Christian Feast Day:

             o Blessed Amadeus IX of Savoy

             o John Climacus

             o Quirinus of Neuss

             o Tola of Clonard

             o March 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

       * Festival of Salus (Roman Empire)

       * Land Day commemoration (Palestine / Israel)

       * National Doctors’ Day (United States)

       * Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

    Mar 30 2011

    Getting Away With Fraud But Only If You’re A Bank

    (2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

    You can get away with defrauding people of possibly trillions of dollars but don’t do it if you’re a borrower or undocumented immigrant working on the banker’s estate.

    The Department of Justice: Indicting Immigrants, Ignoring Wall Street Crooks

    by Richard (RJ) Escow

    If you’re a banker who bought your estate with the millions you made from mortgage fraud, relax. The Justice Department isn’t looking for you. But if you’re an illegal immigrant who’s working on that banker’s estate, look out. The Department of Justice is ignoring your boss and devoting most of its resources to catching you.

    And the Justice Department’s “mortgage fraud” unit doesn’t prosecute bankers. It protects them.

    Joe Nocera of the New York Times contrasts the legal treatment that was given to one high-flying borrower with that received by Angelo Mozilo, CEO of the fraudulent lender Countrywide. But if stories like this one are bad, the numbers are even worse.  

    If you also take a qualitative look at some of the federal government’s other well-publicized mortgage fraud efforts, like its “Stop Fraud” website, the picture becomes pretty stunning — if not downright infuriating.

    Mortgage Brokers Go Free While Mortgage Customer Goes to Jail

    by David Dayen

    Joe Nocera’s story over the weekend about a man thrown in jail for signing his name on a liar loan is a textbook example of the two-tiered system of justice in this country. On the one hand you have the banks, who systematically committed fraud on millions of loans, and for their trouble received hundreds of billions in bailout money and access to cheap money. On the other hand you have a customer, who gets taken to jail for his one loan transgression. Never mind that for many millions of customers, they didn’t even know they were lying on their loans; shady mortgage brokers falsified their records, forged their signatures and altered the terms and conditions repeatedly during the run-up of the housing bubble. And that’s possibly true of Charlie Engle as well, as Nocera illustrates.

    As for the loans themselves, on one of them Mr. Engle claimed an income of $15,000 a month. As it turns out, his total income in 2005, according to his accountant, was $180,000, which amounts to … hmmm …$15,000 a month, though of course Mr. Engle didn’t have the kind of job that generated monthly income. (In addition to real estate speculation, Mr. Engle gave motivational speeches and earned around $50,000 a year as a producer on the hit show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”)

       The monthly income listed on the second loan was $32,500, an obviously absurd amount, especially since the loan itself was for only $300,000. It was a refinance of a property Mr. Engle already owned, allowing him to pull out $80,000 of the $215,000 in equity he had in the property.

       Mr. Engle claims that he never saw that $32,500 claim and never signed the papers. Indeed, a handwriting analysis conducted by the government raised the distinct possibility that Mr. Engle’s signature and his initials in several places in the mortgage documents had been forged. As it happens, Mr. Engle’s broker for that loan, John J. Hellman, recently pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud for playing fast and loose with a number of mortgage applications. Mr. Hellman testified in court that Mr. Engle had signed the mortgage application. Early this week, Mr. Hellman received a reduced sentence of 10 months, less than half of Mr. Engle’s sentence, in no small part because of his willingness to testify against Mr. Engle.

    The specifics of the case are quite disturbing – the IRS man with an axe to grind, the confused jury – but the general impression is perhaps worse. A loan is a contract between two people. When that loan is fraudulent, to the extent that the fraud is willingly entered into by both parties, they should in any reasonable world share the blame. But not only did Engle suffer disproportionately by losing all his equity when the bubble popped, he lost his personal freedom in a crime that his mortgage lender was all too happy to facilitate and may have even perpetrated.

    This is the Obama administration Justice Department at work. Meanwhile the banksters are now trying to keep this all out of court:

    Are Banks Scheming to Gut the Role of the Courts in Foreclosures?

    by Yves Smith

    I may be overreacting but given the sorry behavior of banks throughout the crisis and its aftermath, better to be vigilant than sorry.

    The Wall Street Journal provided a very sketchy summary of the counterproposal that the banks will put on the table in the foreclosure fraud settlements this week:

       The 15-page bank proposal, dubbed the Draft Alternative Uniform Servicing Standards, includes time lines for processing modifications, a third-party review of foreclosures and a single point of contact for financially troubled borrowers. It also outlines a so-called “borrower portal” that would allow customers to check the status of their loan modifications online.

       But the document doesn’t include any discussion of principal reductions. Nor does it include a potential amount banks could pay for borrower relief or penalties.

    This seems innocuous, right?

    Think twice. It depends on what they mean by “third party review of foreclosures”. I strongly suspect that the intent is to pull as many contested foreclosures as possible out of the court process, particularly those that involve chain of title issues, since enough adverse rulings have the potential to blow up the entire mortgage industrial complex.

    Yup, getting away with fraud unless you’ve already lost your shirt or you have no papers and work for a banker. You rock, Mr. Rule of Law.

    Load more