Undernews For 13 March 2011

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SHOP TALK

Your editor is back from a longer than usual road trip and the emailings should turn regular again.

Morning line: Rise of the new mercenaries
Sam Smith

One of the things that has perplexed me about the current chaos is how did so many Republicans become so bizarrely crazy so fast? The closest example that comes to mind is the McCarthy era – but that only targeted a progressive minority and not all union members and the middle class. Further, McCarthy was brought down with the help of other Republicans who saw the damage he was doing to their cause. Has any leading Republican spoken out firmly against Scott Walker?

While it is easy to blame it on the fiscal crisis, that seems a bit too simple. For example, consider the number of Republican politicians who have announced their retirement in the face of potential more rightwing opposition. I suspect what’s scaring these folks is not ideology but money. They are not facing a grass roots rebellion but political mercenaries well paid by forces recently liberated by the Supreme Court decision on corporate personhood.

One of the ways you can tell they’re mercenaries is because true conservatives act more like Ron Paul, people with a solid record of commitment to particular ideas. Can you imagine John Boehner actually having a coherent set of principles? Or Scott Walker doing anything based on ideals rather than campaign cash flow?

We have been educated to treat politics as a battle of ideas. In America it no longer is. It is the elite and their well financed mercenaries on the one side and their victims on the other. A milder and less violent variety of what’s going on in Libya but still pretty damn ugly.
Head of Madison firefighters boosts general strike
Raw Story - Joe Conway, president of the Madison firefighters’ union, said recently that the political situation has grown so dire in Wisconsin, he’d support a general strike. “We should start walking out tomorrow, the next day … See how long they can last,” he told reporters with The Uptake. “This is a nation-wide movement to attack all working men and women in Wisconsin and the United States.”
How Washington reports an earthquake
Don't you feel better now?

National Journal - 11:05 a.m. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., said in a statement he is "monitoring closely the tsunami warnings that have been issued for parts of the United States, including Hawaii, Alaska, and parts of the West Coast" and urges all Americans in areas potentially affected to heed these advisories.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and all those affected by this devastating natural disaster, including the thousands of American citizens in Japan. America has no better friend and ally in Asia than Japan, and we in the United States must stand ready to mobilize any assistance we can to help as quickly as possible. The people of the United States stand in solidarity with the people of Japan through the difficult days ahead."

10:46 a.m. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement:

"I join President Obama in offering our sincere condolences for the loss of life and damage caused by the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. We are closely monitoring the tsunamis that may impact other parts the world, including Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States."

10:40 a.m. Deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the U.S. remains in "close contact" with the Japanese government to "assess their immediate needs" and determine the appropriate response.

10:33 a.m. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor says that President Obama called Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan this morning at approximately 10:15 a.m. to discuss the earthquake and tsunami. More details to come later.
Bernie Sanders introduces surtax on upper income Americans
Raw Story - Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a bill that would establish a surtax on millionaires and strip tax deductions for oil companies -- a proposal he claims would cut the deficit by about $50 billion. The Emergency Deficit Reduction Act would accomplish this by raising taxes by 5.4 percent on annual income over $1 million. A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found late February that 81 percent of Americans believe a surtax on millionaires is an acceptable way to close the budget shortfall.
Michigan Republicans establish financial martial law
Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing - Republican Michigan governor Rick Snyder, along with the state's Republican house and senate, have passed a controversial bill that allows the governor to dissolve the elected governments of Michigan's towns and cities, replacing them with unaccountable "emergency financial managers" who can eliminate services, merge or eliminate school boards, and lay off or renegotiate unionized public employees without recourse. Republican senator Jack Brandenburg -- who supported the measure -- calls it "financial martial law."

While local governments are subject to electoral recall by residents, the "managers" the governor appoints will answer only to the state legislature. There are no limits to the salary "managers" may draw (an amendment that would have limited their compensation to $159,000, which is the governor's own salary, was defeated). "Managers" will be able to govern as they see fit. Practically speaking, this opens the door to the kind of "governance" we've seen in occupied Iraq, where high-paid appointees who don't answer to the governed get to award no-bid contracts to their pals, with little or no oversight or control.
What Wall Street costs us
National People's Action and the Public Accountability Initiative - Wall Street banks caused the economic crisis that has left millions unemployed, foreclosed-on, and without prospects in the worst economy since the Great Depression. This crisis has, in turn, caused massive tax revenue shortfalls for the federal government and for state governments across the country: nearly $300 billion combined for 50 states in the years since the crisis began. To deal with these budget woes, politicians are cutting public spending: laying off teachers, attacking public sector workers, raiding pensions, closing hospitals, and eliminating essential services for children, veterans, and the elderly.

Raising revenue from the wealthy, bailed-out banks that caused the crisis would be a far more sensible way to address these budget woes.

Key findings:

* This year Bank of America is receiving the "income tax refund from hell" - $666 million for 2010, according to its annual report filed in late February 2011. This is following a $3.5 billion refund reported in 2009. Bank of America's federal income tax benefit this year is roughly two times the Obama administration's proposed cuts to the Community Development Block Grant program ($299 million).

* Six banks - Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley together paid income tax at an approximate rate of 11% of their pre-tax US earnings in 2009 and 2010. Had they paid at 35%, what they are legally mandated to pay, the federal government would have received an additional $13 billion in tax revenue. This would cover more than two years of salaries for the 132,000 teacher jobs lost since the economic crisis began in 2008.

* Wells Fargo reportedly received a $4 billion federal income tax refund on $18 billion in pre-tax income in 2009, and paid 7.5% of its pre-tax income of $19 billion in 2010 in federal taxes. Its net federal income tax benefit for 2009 and 2010 combined, $2.5 billion, is equal to the Obama administration's proposed cuts of 50% to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

* Banks use a variety of mechanisms to avoid corporate income taxes, including offshore tax shelters. 50% of the six banks' 1,871 foreign subsidiaries are incorporated in jurisdictions that have been identified as offshore tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands.

* Bank of America operates 371 tax-sheltered subsidiaries, more than any other big bank studied, and 204 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands alone, according to its latest regulatory filings. 75% of Goldman Sachs's foreign subsidiaries are incorporated in offshore tax havens.

* The banks' private banking arms also protect the wealth of rich clients from taxation through offshore investment strategies. Bank of America's wealth management arm encourages clients to register their yachts in foreign jurisdictions for tax reasons.

* Closing special tax loopholes on the financial sector and implementing sensible revenue-raising initiatives such as the Financial Speculation Tax could generate over $150 billion in federal tax revenue each year.
The unreported illness cause by the BP disaster
Dahr Jamail, Truth Out - Residents who live along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, all the way from Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, to well into western Florida, continue to tell me of acute symptoms they attribute to ongoing exposure to toxic chemicals being released from BP's crude oil and the toxic Corexit dispersants used to sink it.

Independent blood testing by environmental groups and independent scientists along the Gulf is finding exceedingly high concentrations of chemicals in people's veins ... people who live near the Coast, former BP cleanup workers and even one man who lives 100 miles from the coast ... everyone is testing positive with BP's toxic chemicals in their blood stream.

Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause headaches; nausea; vomiting; kidney damage; altered renal functions; irritation of the digestive tract; lung damage; burning pain in the nose and throat; coughing; pulmonary edema; cancer; lack of muscle coordination; dizziness; confusion; irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat; difficulty breathing; delayed reaction time; memory difficulties; stomach discomfort; liver and kidney damage; unconsciousness; tiredness/lethargy; irritation of the upper respiratory tract; and hematological disorders
H Clinton aide says Manning is being mistreated
Guardian, UK - Hillary Clinton's spokesman has launched a public attack on the Pentagon for the way it is treating military prisoner Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of handing the US embassy cables to WikiLeaks.

PJ Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs at the US state department, said Manning was being "mistreated" in the military brig at Quantico, Virginia. "What is being done to Bradley Manning is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid on the part of the department of defence," he said.

Crowley's comments signal a crack within the Obama administration over the handling of the WikiLeaks saga in which hundreds of thousands of confidential documents were handed to the website.

Asked about the controversy at a White House press conference, Obama revealed he had asked the Pentagon "whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are."

Obama would not respond specifically to Crowley's comments, which are the first critical remarks from within the administration about the handling of Manning. The prisoner is being held for 23 hours in solitary confinement in his cell and stripped naked every night.
Walker doesn't like art, either
Journal Sentinel - Gov. Scott Walker's two-year, $59.2 billion budget proposal recommends reductions in funding for the state's arts board and an elimination of the Percent for Art public art program. Walker's proposes cutting $1.6 million or about 68% percent of the budget for the Wisconsin Arts Board, which would be merged into the Department of Tourism, according to Walker's plan. The arts board provides funds for artists and arts groups throughout the state as well as education programs and networking opportunities for artists.

The state's Percent for Art program, which was established more than 30 years ago and requires a small percentage of the budget of select capital projects be spent on public art, would be eliminated under Walker's plan. This would cut $500,700 from the overall budget.
Wisconsin firefighters withdraw funds from bank that supported Walker
Alternet - Wisconsin firefighters collectively began withdrawing their funds from Madison's M&I Bank -- whose executives and board members were among the highest donors to Governor Scott Walker's campaign. Heeding a call by Firefighters Local 311 President Joe Conway to 'Move your money,' union members withdrew over $100,000 from the bank, with some reports stating that number is as high as $192,000. . .Update: Stranded Wind over at DailyKos says the ante has been upped to $600,000. "
Asian American population growing
New America Media - With data reported from 27 states, [all] showed double or even triple-digit growth in their Asian populations. The top five states with the highest increases in the Asian population compared to ten years ago are: Nevada, up 116 percent; North Carolina, up 85 percent; Delaware, up 78 percent; Arkansas, up 77 percent; and Indiana, up 74 percent... In some of the larger states like California, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois, the Asian population growth is outpacing the much celebrated Hispanic growth.
The real David Broder
FAIR - Washington Post columnist and political reporter David Broder was an enormously influential figure in Beltway media circles--"the best political reporter of his generations," wrote his Post colleague Dan Balz. ABC's George Stephanopoulos declared that "for generations of policy makers, journalists and political junkies, Broder was the gold standard."

Broder's work was frequently criticized, something that the Washington Post actually noted in an editorial honoring him:
Mr. Broder was often called "the Dean," a position that is now likely to go unfilled in the Washington press corps. His detractors used the term sarcastically; they came mostly from the political left and found him much too moderate.

The Post suggested Broder's worldview was probably due to "his temperamental aversion to ideology." The Associated Pres s wrote that his "even-handed treatment of Democrats and Republicans set him apart from the ideological warriors on U.S. opinion pages." In the Los Angeles Times, Paul West wrote that in recent years "it became fashionable to disdain Broder's centrist instincts and wariness of extreme political outsiders."

The notion that Broder's moderate "centrism" was not an ideology in itself is a common view in the media--and is totally mistaken. Broder expressed a strong point of view on a range of issues. The fact that such views are portrayed as an absence of ideology speaks volumes about the prevailing ideology of the mainstream media.

Broder was a consistent supporter of U.S. military attacks.
The GOP platform
A GOP New Hampshire legislator told a constituent “the world is too populated” and that there are too many “defective people.” When asked what should be done with these “defective people” that are mentally ill, Martin Harty suggested sending them to Siberia, something that he said Hitler was “right” to do
Decline of honey bees now a global problem says UN group
Independent, UK - The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon, scientists working for the United Nations have revealed. Declines in managed bee colonies, seen increasingly in Europe and the US in the past decade, are also now being observed in China and Japan and there are the first signs of African collapses from Egypt, according to the report from the United Nations Environment Program.
David Simon's responds to Snoop's drug arrest
The Wire actress Felicia "Snoop" Pearson was arrested as part of a large-scale drug raid in Baltimore and surrounding counties. Slate asked David Simon, creator and executive producer of The Wire (and currently in production on Treme), for comment. An excerpt from his statement

David Simon - In an essay published two years ago in Time magazine, the writers of The Wire made the argument that we believe the war on drugs has devolved into a war on the underclass, that in places like West and East Baltimore, where the drug economy is now the only factory still hiring and where the educational system is so crippled that the vast majority of children are trained only for the corners, a legal campaign to imprison our most vulnerable and damaged citizens is little more than amoral. And we said then that if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury's verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses¬absent proof of violent acts¬are alleged.

Both our Constitution and our common law guarantee that we will be judged by our peers. But in truth, there are now two Americas, politically and economically distinct. I, for one, do not qualify as a peer to Felicia Pearson. The opportunities and experiences of her life do not correspond in any way with my own, and her America is different from my own. I am therefore ill-equipped to be her judge in this matter.
Study: Naps are good for you
Discovery - Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley studied 44 college-aged participants at two different times of day -- once at noon and again at 6 p.m. Half the group was allowed to take a nap from 2 p.m. to 3:40 p.m., while the rest stayed awake throughout the day.

At noon and 6 p.m., researchers measured how both groups performed in facial memory tests, finger tapping memory tests and an alertness test. The "Nap" group performed significantly better at learning tasks when tested later in the day in comparison to subjects who did not take a lengthy nap.
Cancer survival rate improves
New York Times - About one in every 20 adults in the United States has survived cancer, including nearly one-fifth of all people over 65, according to new federal data. The numbers, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute, indicated that the number of cancer survivors increased by about 20 percent in just six years, to 11.7 million in 2007, the latest year for which figures were analyzed, from 9.8 million in 2001. In 1971, the number of cancer survivors was three million.
Why urban vertical density is not the answer
From an interview with James Howard Kuntsler in Grist Magazine

Oddly, the main reason we're done with skyscrapers is not because of the electric issues or heating-cooling issues per se, but because they will never be renovated. They are one-generation buildings. We will not have the capital to renovate them - and all buildings eventually require renovation! We likely won't have the fabricated modular materials they require, either - everything from the manufactured sheet-rock to the silicon gaskets and sealers needed to keep the glass curtain walls attached.
The case for randomly elected legislators
The Review once suggested this, believing that the randomly selected would set a standard towards which normal politicians could strive

Improbable Research - The Italian research team that received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2010 for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random has extended its work (as well as gained some team members).

“We study a prototypical model of a Parliament with two Parties or two Political Coalitions and we show how the introduction of a variable percentage of randomly selected independent legislators can increase the global efficiency of a Legislature, in terms of both number of laws passed and average social welfare obtained. We also analytically find an “efficiency golden rule” which allows to fix the optimal number of legislators to be selected at random after that regular elections have established the relative proportion of the two Parties or Coalitions. These results are in line with both the ancient Greek democratic system and the recent discovery that the adoption of random strategies can improve the efficiency of hierarchical organizations…. [We] think that the introduction of random selection systems, rediscovering the wisdom of ancient democracies, would be broadly beneficial for modern institutions.”
Obama aids GOP in its war against labor
Huffington Post - When House Republicans targeted the budget of the National Labor Relations Board, the agency shot back, warning that such cuts would force it to largely cease operations for an extended period of time, creating a backlog of thousands of cases.

It was one of the few counterattacks from the Obama administration, which was otherwise busy proposing its own cuts and endorsing the Republican call for slashing spending -- and it didn't last long. The White House demanded that the NLRB scrub the statement defending the agency from its website, an NLRB spokesperson told The Huffington Post.

The link to the statement, issued Feb. 18, can still be found on the website, under the heading: "Top NLRB officials respond to House budget proposal." But click through and a new statement, dated Feb. 22, appears: "The content in this statement has been removed. For further information on this subject, please see the President's Statement of Administration Policy regarding the budget, which can be found on the OMB website."

The Office of Management and Budget, an arm of the White House, reached out to the NLRB and told the agency to back off and take down the statement, according to the NLRB spokesperson.
How Wall Streeters could – but won’t – be sent to prison
Unsilent Generation - “Contrary to prevailing propaganda, there is a fairly straightforward case that could be launched against the CEOs and CFOs of pretty much every US bank with major trading operation,” writes Yves Smith in her popular Naked Capitalism blog. “l call them ‘dealer banks’ or ‘Wall Street firms’ to distinguish them from very big but largely traditional commercial banks.” She proceeds to lay out the case, the key points of which I have excerpted below:

|||||| Since Sarbanes Oxley became law in 2002, Sections 302, 404, and 906 of that act have required these executives to establish and maintain adequate systems of internal control within their companies. In addition, they must regularly test such controls to see that they are adequate and report their findings to shareholders (through SEC reports on Form 10-Q and 10-K) and their independent accountants. Knowingly making false section 906 certifications is subject to fines of up to $1 million and imprisonment of up to ten years; “Wilful” violators face fines of up to $5 million and jail time of up to 20 years.|||||

The responsible officers must certify that, among other things, they “are responsible for establishing and maintaining internal controls” and making sure everyone concerned knows about them–and beyond that - for taking steps to have these controls evaluated and reported.
The GOP platform
Bills filed by two GOP Florida legislators would require the state Division of Recreation and Parks to hire Nicklaus Design to build courses in state parks in every region of the state, creating a Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail around Florida.
Obama adjusts his war on education
Christopher Fons, Counterpunch - For the last 9 years students, teachers and administrators in the US took part in lots of running around chasing the unattainable 2014 goal of 100 per cent proficiency in reading and math or risk having their budgets cuts, schools closed or administration fired. Chasing yearly gains for this impossible goal (which improved little nationwide ) was mostly a waste of time and resources. The districts that put off the deadline and resisted the law were correct. The 100 per cent compliance was a setup for union busting, charter schools and privatization.

Lesson learned. Prescription in the future: resist all mandates that are designed to destroy public education and punish the poor and the disabled.

Now Obama proposes a much more nebulous goal that can mean just about anything to anyone: 100 per cent "college and career readiness" by 2020, this in a country where around 28 per cent of the population has a Bachelor's degree.

Nothing for vocational education?....

President Obama has already endorsed the wholesale firing of teachers in Rhode Island signaling, like Ronald Reagan with the Air Traffic Controllers in the early 1980's, a war on teachers' unions in urban districts (probably his strongest supporters). This part of the plan would be the greatest attack on public schooling, particularly for the poor and minorities, ever to come from the national government. . .
The Gates Foundation – the Koch brothers of schools – to spend millions to rig education system
Valerie Strauss, Washington Post - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is spending at least $3.5 million to create a new organization whose aim is to win over the public and the media to its market-driven approach to school reform, according to the closely held grant proposal.

The organization is tentatively called "Teaching First," … The Gates proposal lays out a strategy to win public approval for the foundation’s investment of more than $335 million in teacher effectiveness programs in four school districts that involve controversial initiatives including linking teacher pay to student standardized test scores. Critics (including me) say this "value-added" model-based test scores is unfair measure of how well a teacher is doing because there are many factors that go into how well a student does on a test.

The proposal calls for supporting local groups that promote the value-added evaluation systems, and who even get involved in unions so they can demand this approach in collective bargaining for teachers contracts.

But in a section entitled "Risks," the proposal says that one big risk "is that Teaching First will be characterized as a tool of the Foundation." To avoid that, it says, "Teaching First will need to be very careful about the national partners it brings into the work" and should "maintain a low public profile" and :ensure publicity and credit accrue to local partners whenever possible."
California latino population up 28%
New America Media - New U.S. Census data found that the Latino population in California has grown by three million people, or 28 percent, in the past decade, and the majority of young people in California are Latino, reports La Opinión.

California’s population is 38,253,952, and Latinos make up 37 percent of the state. Latinos constituted 32 percent of the population in 2000. While the Latino population grew by 28 percent in the last decade, the growth rate was slower than the 45 percent increase found in the 2000 Census.
Rich folks' railroads

Caroline Lucas, Guardian, UK - The government has finally launched its long awaited consultation on the high speed rail link between London and Birmingham known as HS2. This is a brand new railway line that is designed to run at 250mph …

The whole project is characterized by rhetoric about economic growth, reducing the north-south divide and making the nation more prosperous. This does not at all reflect the reality. In fact, it is an expensive, environmentally damaging, and badly thought through transport project.

The project relies on the notion that the time savings for high income passengers would translate into huge economic gains and, in some mysterious way, propagate prosperity and happiness along the viaducts, through the tunnels and along the swathe of concrete, overhead wires, access roads and electrical gear that would race though Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire…

HS2 sits alongside an assumption that long distance car travel will increase by 44% by 2033 and air travel by 178% by the same year. The new line will produce an 8% shift away from air and the same away from roads….

We want excellent rural public transport so that there is a real choice between the car and its alternatives. We want a transport system driven by social justice and fairness, providing high quality choices to all income groups and all localities. HS2 is a rich person's railway with an assumption that 30% of its passengers will earn more than £70,000 a year and, as such, seems to me to be a socially regressive project.
Gingirch blames extra marital affairs on love for country
Newt Gingrich told Christian Broadcast Network's David Brody that "there's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate."
Homeland Insecurity engaged in entrapment with fake sex website
Smoking Gun - In an aggressive bid to entice prospective “sex tourists,” the Department of Homeland Security last year launched an undercover web site that purported to arrange trips from the U.S. to Canada, where clients could engage in sexual activity with minors, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The “Precious Treasure Holiday Company” web site was active until a few weeks ago when its Massachusetts-based web hosting firm removed the site from its servers, apparently in response to a complaint about its content. Now, visitors greeted with the message, “This site has been suspended.”

After a year online, the DHS undercover site may have fallen victim to its own sleazy, overt come-on. As seen at right, the site’s front page carried three symbols that an FBI intelligence bulletin has identified as being used by pedophiles. Additionally, the site’s acronym, PTHC, is an allusion to “preteen hardcore” pornography. The site’s carefully misspelled motto--“We Help Make Your Fantasy’s Come True!”--also does little to mask its illicit intentions.

An account executive with the hosting firm, who appeared unaware that “Precious Treasure Holiday Company” was a government operation, said that following a site’s suspension an internal investigation is launched. Upon the review’s completion, a site is either reinstated or terminated. The executive, Jason Crawford, added that if a customer’s site is found to contain illicit material like child pornography, the FBI is contacted.

[Five years ago, FBI agents concocted a similar sting, launching “Wicked Adventures Travel,” a web site purporting to offer pedophiles "exotic excursions" to the Philippines and Thailand. That operation yielded at least one felony conviction.]
UN: Eco farming could increase food production
Common Dreams - A move by farmers in developing countries to ecological agriculture, away from chemical fertilisers and pesticides, could double food production within a decade, a UN report says. Insect-trapping plants in Kenya and ducks eating weeds in Bangladesh's rice paddies are among examples of recommendations for feeding the world's 7 million people, which the UN says will become about 9 billion by 2050.

"Agriculture is at a crossroads," says the study by Olivier de Schutter, the UN special reporter on the right to food, in a drive to depress record food prices and avoid the costly oil-dependent model of industrial farming.

So far, eco-farming projects in 57 nations demonstrated average crop yield gains of 80 per cent by tapping natural methods for enhancing soil and protecting against pests, it says.

Recent projects in 20 African countries resulted in a doubling of crop yields within three to 10 years. Those lessons could be widely mimicked elsewhere, it adds.
Duncan flunks big time: 82% of schools oould fail to meet federal standards
LA Times - The Obama administration estimates that 82% of the nation's public schools could fall short of federal standards this year, grades that are not only embarrassing but also mean government intervention for some of them. In a report to Congress on Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan was urging Congress to change the federal standards so that failing grades are awarded only to the schools most in need of help. The law known as No Child Left Behind set up an aggressive review designed to make all public school students proficient in reading and math by 2014.
Polls: collective bargaining
A new Bloomberg National poll finds Americans 64% of respondents, including a plurality of Republicans (49%), say employees should have the right to collectively bargain for their wages.
Department of Good Stuff: Movies
'Inside Job', out on DVD now and Oscar winner for Best Documentary, about the greedy reckless criminal behavior of financial firms and the deregulation under Reagan, Clinton, & Bush II that caused the 2008 economic meltdown. It's entertaining & easily understandable, and you'll get pissed off, especially at Obama, who hired Wall St. insiders (Geithner, Summers, etc.) who were responsible for the mess. -Scott McLarty
Recovered history: Rep. King's role models
Rep. Peter King's nasty assaults on the Muslim community are not without precedent. When southern racist members of Congress wanted to seem reasonable they went after civil rights groups on the grounds that they were radical extremists, often tying them to communism. the repugnant King is doing the same thing with Muslims.
Why evangelicals hate what Jesus believed
Phil Zuckerman & Dan Cady, Huffington Post - The results from a recent poll published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveal what social scientists have known for a long time: White Evangelical Christians are the group least likely to support politicians or policies that reflect the actual teachings of Jesus. It is perhaps one of the strangest, most dumb-founding ironies in contemporary American culture. Evangelical Christians, who most fiercely proclaim to have a personal relationship with Christ, who most confidently declare their belief that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, who go to church on a regular basis, pray daily, listen to Christian music, and place God and His Only Begotten Son at the center of their lives, are simultaneously the very people most likely to reject his teachings and despise his radical message.. ..

What's the deal?

Before attempting an answer, allow a quick clarification. Evangelicals don't exactly hate Jesus. . . . They do love him dearly. But not because of what he tried to teach humanity. Rather, Evangelicals love Jesus for what he does for them. Through his magical grace, and by shedding his precious blood, Jesus saves Evangelicals from everlasting torture in hell, and guarantees them a premium, luxury villa in heaven. For this, and this only, they love him. They can't stop thanking him. And yet, as for Jesus himself -- his core values of peace, his core teachings of social justice, his core commandments of goodwill -- most Evangelicals seem to have nothing but disdain.
Mechanical engineers raise concern about over-population
A report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers finds the world is hurtling towards population overload placing billions at risk of hunger, thirst and slum conditions.

This is the first report of its kind by the engineering profession. Unless the engineering solutions highlighted in the report are urgently implemented then the projected 2.5 billion more people on earth by the end of this Century (currently there is 6.9 billion) will crush the earth's resources.

Urbanization will soar. 'Mega-cities' of more than 10 million people will rise to 29 by 2025 and the urban population will increase from 3.3billion (2007) to 6.4 billion (2050). Food will also become an increasingly precious commodity and developed areas such as the UK will be forced to stamp out its 'throwaway' lifestyle. Water consumption will increase by 30% by 2030 and there is projected to be a 50% hike in water extraction for industrial use in Asia. This, the report states, could create civil unrest and land battles for resources as climate change looms.

Lead Author, Dr Tim Fox, said: "Up to 1 billion people could be displaced by climate change over the next 40 years and we are likely to see an increase in unrest as resource shortages become clear. The term Nimbyism will become obsolete. No-one's back yard will be immune from these effects. "
Great moments in research
Improbable Research - Does the phase of the moon affect the Gross Domestic Product of a country? One of the few to have formally pursued this question is Dr. Stephen Keef, Teaching Fellow at the School of Economics and Finance of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His latest paper Are investors moonstruck? Further international evidence on lunar phases and stock returns (published in the Journal of Empirical Finance Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 56-63) investigates the influences of the new moon and the full moon on the daily returns of 62 international stock indices for the period 1988 to 2008. After accounting for the so-called Monday Effect, the Turn-of-the-Month Effect and the Prior Day Effect it was determined that :

“The overall enhanced new moon effect is independent of GDP. An overall full moon effect is absent.”

Dr. Keef has also performed : A meta-analysis of the international evidence of cloud cover on stock returns
Amtrak police chief blasts TSA intrusion at station
Don Phillips, Trains - In late February, the Transportation Security Administration took over the Amtrak station in Savannah, Ga., and thoroughly searched every person who entered. None of the passengers got into trouble, but the TSA certainly did - big time.

Amtrak Police Chief John O'Connor said he first thought a blog posting about the incident was a joke. When he discovered that the TSA's VIPR team did at least some of what the blog said, he was livid. He ordered the VIPR teams off Amtrak property, at least until a firm agreement can be drawn up to prevent the TSA from taking actions that the chief said were illegal and clearly contrary to Amtrak policy.

"When I saw it, I didn't believe it was real," O'Connor said. When it developed that the posting on an anti-TSA blog was not a joke, "I hit the ceiling."

O'Connor said the TSA VIPR teams have no right to do more than what Amtrak police do occasionally, which has produced few if any protests and which O'Connor said is clearly within the law and the Constitution. More than a thousand times, Amtrak teams (sometimes including VIPR) have performed security screenings at Amtrak stations. These screenings are only occasional and random, and inspect the bags of only about one in 10 passengers. There is no wanding of passengers and no sterile area. O'Connor said the TSA violated every one of these rules.
Traffic congestion rose ten percent in 2010
INRIX, which provides traffic and navigation services, reports that traffic congestion increased nationwide for 11 consecutive months in 2010 with drivers experiencing increased traffic congestion nearly every hour of the day.

Despite only modest employment gains in 2010, drivers are experiencing an average 10 percent increase in travel times. If unemployment drops to 7 percent by 2012 as economists’ predict, 9 million more daily work trips will jam our nation’s road network. In fact, 70 of the top 100 most populated cities in the U.S. are experiencing increases in traffic congestion. Nine cities already have surpassed their 2007 peak. The Top 10 most congested U.S. cities are:

1. Los Angeles: On Thursday at 5:30 p.m., the average trip takes 71 percent longer than normal. Los Angeles’ freeway system is more congested than that of any other city in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

2. New York: On Friday at 5:15 p.m., the average trip takes 47 percent longer than normal

3. Chicago: On Friday at 5:15 p.m., the average trip takes 41 percent longer

4. Washington, D.C.: On Thursday at 5:30 p.m., the average trip takes 51 percent longer than normal

5. Dallas: On Friday at 5:15 p.m., the average trip takes 36 percent longer than normal

6. San Francisco: On Thursday at 5:30 p.m., the average trip takes 63 percent longer than normal

7. Houston: On Friday at 5:15 p.m., the average trip takes 33 percent longer than normal

8. Boston: On Friday at 5:30 p.m., the average trip takes 33 percent longer than normal

9. Philadelphia: On Friday at 5:15 p.m., the average trip takes 29 percent longer than normal

10. Seattle: On Thursday at 5:15 p.m., the average trip takes 49 percent longer than normal

Americans traveling the nation’s worst traffic corridors experience up to 80 hours of delay annually on the afternoon commute alone. Over 500 miles of roads were congested 25 hours a week or more, nearly 200 of those miles were congested 40 hours a week or more – higher than any previous year.

Of the 341 corridors of at least 3 miles long that experience heavy traffic congestion every day, the Top 10 Worst U.S. Traffic Corridors were:

1. New York: An 11 mile stretch of I-95 SB (NE Thwy, Bruckner/Cross Bronx Expys) from Conner St to the Hudson Terrace exit that takes 43 minutes on avg. with 30 minutes of delay

2. Los Angeles: A 20 mile stretch of the Riverside Fwy/CA-91 EB from the CA-55/Costa Mesa Fwy interchange to the McKinley St. exit that takes 57 minutes on avg. with 37 minutes of delay

3. Los Angeles: A 13 mile stretch of the San Diego Fwy/I-405 NB from I-105/Imperial Hwy interchange through the Getty Center Dr. exit that takes 41 minutes on avg. with 28 minutes of delay

4. Chicago: A 16 mile stretch of I-90/I-94 EB (Kennedy/Dan Ryan Expys) from the I-294/Tri-State Tollway to the Ruble St. exits that takes 49 minutes on avg. with 32 minutes of delay

5. Los Angeles: A 15 mile stretch of the Santa Monica Fwy/I-10 EB from CA-1/Lincoln Blvd. exit to Alameda St. that takes 42 minutes on avg. with 28 minutes of delay

6. New York: A 16 mile stretch of the Long Island Expy/I-495 EB from the Maurice Ave. exit to Mineaola Ave./Willis Ave. exit that takes 45 minutes on avg. with 29 minutes of delay

7. Los Angeles: A 17.5 mile stretch of I-5 SB (Santa Ana/Golden St Fwys) from E. Ceasar Chavez Ave to Valley View Ave. exits that takes 45 minutes on avg. with 30 minutes of delay

8. New York: A 10 mile stretch of I-278 WB (Brooklyn Queens/Gowanus Expy) from NY-25A/Northern Blvd. to the NY-27/Prospect Expy. Exits that takes 37 minutes on avg. with 24 minutes of delay

9. Pittsburgh: An intense 3 mile stretch of Penn Lincoln Pkwy/I-376 EB from Lydia St. to the US-19 TK RT/PA-51 exit that takes 17 minutes on avg. with 13 minutes of delay in the morning peak period

10. Los Angeles: A 13 mile stretch of the San Bernadino Fwy/I-10 EB from City Terrace/Herbert Ave. to Baldwin Park Blvd. that takes 37 minutes on avg. with 24 minutes of delay

Unique patterns include:

• Worst Traffic Day: Thursday

• Worst Week Day Morning: Tuesday

• Worst Commuting Hour: Friday 5-6 p.m.

• Worst Evening Commute: Friday

• Best Week Day for Traffic: Monday

• Best Week Day Morning: Friday morning

• Best Week Day Commuting Hour: Friday 6-7 AM

• Best Week Day Afternoon: Monday

Turning Information into Insight and Taking Action

The full report
Entropy update
Sign On San Diego - This year, there are dozens of San Diego Unified elementary schools that devote about an hour each week to teaching students the basics of musical instruments. Next year, there might only be one. The district’s visual and performing arts curriculum faces a $2.8 million cut from its $3 million budget this year as officials try to fill the projected $120 million hole in the district’s $1.2 billion operating budget. That’s among many programs threatened by the district’s dire financial situation.
State attorneys general close to changing foreclosure procedures
NY Times - A broad agreement could be struck within two months to overhaul how millions of foreclosures are handled by the nation’s biggest banks and to expand the use of home loan modifications, according to Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa.

All 50 state attorneys general, along with federal regulators, have been stepping up pressure on the mortgage servicers over their foreclosure lapses in recent days and presented them with an outline of a settlement late last week.

The attorneys general and federal government agencies are pressing for a financial settlement that could total over $20 billion. When asked about these estimates, Mr. Miller and three other attorneys general declined to comment on Monday.
The end of credit card swipes?
MSNBC - In 2005, Eurozone banks converted their [credit] cards to the "chip and PIN" system, in which a more secure microchip embedded in the card performs most of the security functions. Because U.S. banks are still using the old [card swipe] system, most European banks and merchants still have to accept the old-fashioned cards and the fraud that comes with them -- and they are sick of it.

The European Payments Council recently passed a resolution mandating that use of "use of magnetic stripe fallback (be restricted) to exceptional cases" and allowing banks to "to refuse magnetic stripe transactions if they so wish."
Obama openly joins the Bush family in pushing No Child scam
Perry Bacon Jr, Washington Post - When President Obama started his new push for education reform last week, he was joined by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, but he pointedly never mentioned Bush's brother George W.

The omission was striking because on education, Obama is pushing an agenda very similar to his predecessor's. The Obama administration casts its education proposals…. as an overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law that Bush championed.

In fact, Obama is revising more than revamping the law. The centerpiece of No Child Left Behind, annual testing of students in reading and math, is backed by the Obama administration, even as many teachers and parents have complained about the testing component since the law's creation in 2002. Under Obama's proposal, scores in other subjects could also be used to measure students' progress.

Strict accountability for schools, including replacing principals and staff if their students consistently perform poorly on standardized tests, strong support of charter schools and greater efforts to closely evaluate teachers all were part of Bush's policies, and now Obama's education blueprint. But Obama's proposal would change the way schools are evaluated, placing more emphasis on academic growth than the current pass-fail approach.
Why Obama shouldn’t be messing with the Bushes on this issue

Project Censored, 2007 - The architect of No Child Left Behind, President Bush’s first senior education advisor, Sandy Kress, has turned the program, which has consistently proven disastrous in the realm of education, into a huge success in the realm of corporate profiteering. After ushering NCLB through the US House of Representatives in 2001 with no public hearings, Kress went from lawmaker¬turning on spigots of federal funds¬to lobbyist, tapping into those billions of dollars in federal funds for private investors well connected to the Bush administration.

A statute that once promised equal access to public education to millions of American children now instead promises billions of dollars in profits to corporate clients through dubious processes of testing and assessment and “supplemental educational services.” NCLB¬the Business Roundtable’s revision of Lyndon Johnson’s Education and Secondary Education Act created a “high stakes testing” system through which the private sector could siphon federal education funds. The result has been windfall corporate profit. What was once a cottage industry has become a corporate giant. “Millions of dollars are being spent,” says Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy, “and nobody knows what’s happening.”

The wedding of big business and education benefits not only the interests of the Business Roundtable, a consortium of over 300 CEOs, but countless Bush family loyalists. Sandy Kress, chief architect of NCLB; Harold McGraw III, textbook publisher; Bill Bennett, former Reagan education secretary; and Neil Bush, the president’s youngest brother, have all cashed in on the Roundtable’s successful national implementation of “outcome-based education.” NCLB’s mandated system of state standards, state tests, and school sanctions has together transformed our public school system into a for-profit frenzy.

Alternet 2007 - So here's a tidy little racket: After being installed president thanks to a voting fracas in a state conveniently governed by your brother, cook up a national educational curriculum and place at its center the standardized test. Give the curriculum a name with a wink and a nudge, like, oh, "No Child Left Behind." Then, funnel taxpayer money to equipping schools with a gimmicky learning device focused on standardized tests and sold by your other brother, the sadly anonymous one, whose only (fading) claim to fame is a role in the Savings and Loan scandal of the late 80s.

Despite having no experience in education, Neil Bush is the founder of a Texas-based company called Ignite! Learning, which, since 1999 has peddled strange little devices called "Curriculums on Wheels" to schools state and nationwide. . .

Despite glowing testimonials on Ignite!'s website, many teachers are unimpressed, arguing the COWs focus on rote memorization rather than critical thinking skills. Citing the absence of any evidence whatsoever that these devices actually work--they have yet to be peer reviewed--one group has described the COW as "a very expensive device with limited use."
Obama's Gitmo morass
Suzanne Ito, ACLU - President Obama issued an executive order that institutionalizes the indefinite detention of detainees in U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay. As ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero told the Washington Post, "It is virtually impossible to imagine how one closes Guantánamo in light of this executive order."

Furthermore, the Obama Administration reversed its January 2009 decision to stop bringing new military commission charges against Guantánamo detainees and announced that new trials will resume shortly.

In a statement in response to the Obama administration's announcements yesterday, Anthony Romero said:

"The best way to get America out of the Guantánamo morass is to use the most effective and reliable tool we have: our criminal justice system. Instead, the Obama administration has done just the opposite and chosen to institutionalize unlawful indefinite detention – creating a troubling 'new normal' – and to revive the illegitimate Guantánamo military commissions."
Pro Publica checks out the numbers on the mortgage meltdown
• Only a fraction of struggling homeowners are getting help.…
• Mortgage servicers are only reaching a small fraction of struggling homeowners.…
• The largest servicers, especially Bank of America, have left most struggling homeowners in limbo without either modifying or foreclosing.
• HAMP itself hasn't made much difference: It hasn't led to an increase in modifications.…
• Just over one in five homeowners who applied for a HAMP mod have received a permanent modification…
• And in one quarter of rejections, mortgage servicers - notorious for losing documents - have cited missing documents as the reason.
• Here are your overall chances of getting a mod with each of the top servicers.
• Treasury claims servicers are improving, but its own data show otherwise.
• When servicers offer a mod, it's generally more affordable than mods used to be.…
• But instead of mods, servicers have recently been offering more repayment plans, which actually increase struggling homeowners' payments.
• In the end, most government funds set aside to help homeowners are still unused.

Great moments in the law
Reuters - A judge sporting full robes and a wig rugby-tackled a sex offender to the floor to prevent him from fleeing the court where he was on trial, the Press Association reported on Tuesday. . ."As he went through the door, his honor Judge Marks Moore grabbed him round the throat to try to bring him down. . .The judge gave chase. Just as Mr Reid was about to open a push-handle fire door, Marks Moore rugby-tackled him around the throat and waist and brought him crashing to the ground, landing on top of him."
Personal to our DC readers
What's the excitement about? I thought everyone knew that to get gray, you put green and brown together - Josiah Swampoodle
The Supreme Chamber of Commerce strikes again
Reuters - The Supreme Court let stand a ruling that drug companies can pay rivals to delay production of generic drugs without violating federal antitrust laws.The justices refused to review a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the dismissal of a legal challenge to a deal between Bayer AG and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's Barr Laboratories. Bayer paid Barr to prevent it from bringing to market a version of the antibiotic drug Cipro.

The deal, involving Bayer's 1997 settlement of patent litigation with Barr, was challenged by a number of pharmacies, which appealed to the Supreme Court. More than 30 states and various consumer groups supported the appeal.The Federal Trade Commission has opposed such deals, saying they violate antitrust law and cost consumers an estimated $3.5 billion a year in higher prescription drug prices. It has supported legislation pending in Congress to prohibit such settlements, which it says have increased in recent years.
The real GOP platform
Florida Governor Rick Scott wants to balance the budget by slashing at least $2 billion from education, and has proposed $1.7 billion in tax cuts for property owners and corporation. . . .
Down East Journal: Food for thought
Sam Smith

The other evening William Shuttleworth recalled a conversation he had with a woman who lived in Bath with her daughter in a subsidized house for $200 a month and on a food budget of $5 a day for the two of them.

Bath is a Maine town of about 9,000 people, best known as the home of the Bath Iron Works but it’s also a place where about 9% of the population lives in poverty.

Shuttleworth’s reaction to the conversation was to put himself on a similar diet for a month. At a community gathering sponsored by the alternative agriculture center, Wolfe’s Neck Farm, Shuttleworth handed out a page that described everything he ate last October at a total cost of $63.80 for the entire month. For example, on October 18 it was brown rice, raisins, free tomatoes and greens, baked potato and cheese sauce. It was hard and Shuttleworth remained hungry most of the time.

Shuttleworth was driven by more than random curiosity. He is regional superintendent for Bath area schools and more than a few of his students go through something like this on a regular basis.

Besides, as he wrote in one of his newsletters, “I am a 62 year old man that grew up in abject poverty, sold blood to go to college, drafted during the prime years of my life, worked three jobs for over 25 years and look what I got out of it.....the privilege to serve 2,500 kids, see their shining, hopeful faces wanting to be their best, working with people I care deeply about and knowing that this work is truly sacred work. Remember the Inuit word for children means the same as their word for sacred.”

During Shuttleworth’s tenure as regional superintendent, many meals have been converted from delivered cellophane covered corporate packages to school cooked food. Nutrition has been worked into the curriculum along with topics like bee keeping and the life cycle of a plant. New items get field tested for student reaction. The vocational school has a Culinary Café open to the public one day a week. And a student greenhouse is on its way.

The school menu includes notes like these: “Our recipes and cooking processes have been adjusted to reduce salt by 50%. Many of the recipes for desserts now use less sugar and fat…Foods used in the program are baked, steamed, etc., never fired.. . A variety of high fiber vegetables and fruits are offered daily. …All bread and bread products served are at least 51% whole grain rich, including our pizza crust.”

Occasionally Shuttleworth is accosted on the street by a parent who complains about him telling them what to do. He denies the charge, saying he only deals with the school’s food, but it’s a clear sign that he not only is changing what student’s eat but what they think about what they eat, which some, naturally, pass on to their parents.

At a time when so many running our educational systems think it’s just about students coming up with the right answers on tests, it’s good to find someone who understands the importance of food for thought.

ENDS

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