Undernews For September 16, 2009

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September 15, 2009

SWAMPOODLE REPORT

-- The real problem isn't what Joe Wilson, Kanye West and Serena Williams said initially. It might have been wrong, rude or even cruel, but at least it came from the heart. The real problem was their disingenuous apology. To borrow a phrase from Joe Wilson, they lied. Congress should change its rules to allow members to call the president a liar, but prohibit them from apologizing for it afterward. A similar rule could be applied by MTV and at tennis championships. In this way, honesty would might begin its return to a higher status than hypocrisy.

-- I sincerely and deeply apologize to anyone offended by the above.

-- The Senate has defunded ACORN due to the misbehavior of a few of its staff. If the Senate had applied the same principle to Wall Street, there never would have been a bailout.

- Josiah Swampoodle

CONDOMS BETTER THAN CAP AND TRADE

Tree Hugger - A new report coming from Optimum Population Trust and carried out by the prestigious London School of Economics says that expanding access to family planning and contraception is about five times less expensive than low-carbon technology in combating climate change.

Between 2010 and 2050 each $7 spent on basic family planning can reduce emissions more than a ton; to achieve that same level of reduction using low-carbon tech would on average cost $32 per ton.

For more specific comparison, wind power would cost $24/ton, solar $51/ton, carbon capture and storage $57-83/ton.

In total, expanding access to basic family planning throughout the globe would save 34 gigatons of carbon emissions over the next 40 years, the report concluded.

On the significance of these findings, OPT's chairman Roger Martin said:

"It's always been obvious that total emissions depend on the number of emitters as well as their individual emissions . . . The taboo on mentioning this fact has made the whole climate change debate so far somewhat unreal. Stabilizing population levels has always been essential ecologically, and this study shows it's economically sensible too.

Planet Green - Between the nearly 80 million people added to the planet every year, and recent calculations projecting a population of 7 billion by 2011, prospects for a healthy future are not great. We are running out of resources, and polluting the only environment we have to live in. . . The UN has been issuing warnings for years now, and upon the release of a 2007 report, the director of the Environment Program said, "The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns."

Diminishing Returns In 1900, 7.91 hectares of land was available for every person, and by 2005 that share had dropped to 2.02 hectares, and is expected to fall further to 1.63 by 2050. Demand for resources, however, has only been growing, and stands at about 22 hectares per person. Not exactly sustainable.

Feeding the population has become an increasingly difficult task, especially as regions that already struggle agriculturally, Africa in particular, become drier because of global warming. With animals going extinct faster than ever, biodiversity is plummeting. Some have predicted that the oceans will be depleted of all the species now being fished if current consumption and fishing practices continue, since, according to the same UN report, we are catching 250 percent more fish than the oceans can produce. Also associated with population-induced environmental degradation are the "dead zones"--areas that cannot support marine life because of depleted oxygen supplies--that have expanded and multiplied around the world.

The damage will be irreversible if sufficient action is not taken immediately, and the magic number, according to leading scientists, is 350. That's the safe upper limit for carbon, measured in parts per million, that our atmosphere can handle before the harm caused by climate change is completely irreversible.

OBAMA BACKS RENEWAL OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL PATRIOT ACT PROVISIONS

Wired - The Obama administration has told Congress it supports renewing three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year's end, measures making it easier for the government to spy within the United States. . .

These are the three provisions due to expire:

- A secret court, known as the FISA court, may grant "roving wiretaps" without the government identifying the target. Generally, the authorities must assert that the target is an agent of a foreign power and/or a suspected terrorist. The government said Tuesday that 22 such warrants - which allow the monitoring of any communication device - have been granted annually.

- The FISA court may grant warrants for "business records," from banking to library to medical records. Generally, the government must assert that the records are relevant to foreign intelligence gathering and/or a terrorism investigation. The government said Tuesday that 220 of these warrants had been granted between 2004 and 2007. It said 2004 was the first year those powers were used.

- A so-called "lone wolf" provision, enacted in 2004, allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of an individual even without showing that the person is an agent of a foreign power or a suspected terrorist. The government said it has never invoked that provision, but said it wants to keep the authority to do so.

BANKS CUTTING LENDING TO DANGEROUS LEVEL SAY SOME EXPERTS

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, UK - Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said US bank loans have fallen at an annual pace of almost 14 percent in the three months to August. "There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s," he said. "The rapid destruction of money balances is madness.". . .

Similar concerns have been raised by David Rosenberg, chief strategist at Gluskin Sheff, who said that over the four weeks up to August 24, bank credit shrank at an "epic" 9 percent annual pace, the M2 money supply shrank at 12.2 percent and M1 shrank at 6.5 percent.

"For the first time in the post-WW2 [Second World War] era, we have deflation in credit, wages and rents and, from our lens, this is a toxic brew," he said.

It is unclear why the US Federal Reserve has allowed this to occur.

Chairman Ben Bernanke is an expert on the "credit channel" causes of depressions and has given eloquent speeches about the risks of deflation in the past.

He is not a monetary economist, however, and there are indications that the Fed has had to pare back its policy of quantitative easing (buying bonds) in order to reassure China and other foreign creditors that the US is not trying to devalue its debts by stealth monetization.

Mr Congdon said a key reason for credit contraction is pressure on banks to raise their capital ratios. While this is well-advised in boom times, it makes matters worse in a downturn. . .

US banks are cutting lending by around 1pc a month. A similar process is occurring in the eurozone, where private sector credit has been contracting and M3 has been flat for almost a year.

GHOST FLEET OF SINGAPORE

Daily Mail, UK - The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. It is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination. . . The 'ghost fleet' near Singapore. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies. Photo

POLICE BLOTTER

Bloomberg - James McDonald, chief executive officer of New York investment firm Rockefeller & Co., died from a single gunshot wound that was probably self- inflicted, officials in Massachusetts said. His body was found in a car behind an auto dealership in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County district attorney's office in New Bedford. While police didn't find a note, McDonald had called his wife earlier in the day, Miliote said. McDonald, who was 56, headed Rockefeller & Co. for more than eight years, building the former family office founded by oil man John D. Rockefeller in 1882 into a wealth manager with $25 billion in client assets. Paris-based Societe Generale SA last year bought 37 percent of Rockefeller Financial Services, parent of Rockefeller Co., to add wealthy clients in the U.S. .

MORE THAN 12 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED FOR POT POSSESSION

San Francisco Weekly - According to the just-released Uniform Crime Reports, U.S. law enforcement made 847,863 arrests on marijuana charges, 89 percent of which were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. More Americans were arrested for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined. During 2008, one American was arrested for marijuana every 37 seconds.Marijuana arrests reached an all-time high at more than 872,000 in 2007. More than 12 million American citizens have been arrested on marijuana charges since 1965.

UN REPORT: ISRAEL SHOULD FACE WAR CRIMES PROSECUTION

Independent, UK - Israel targeted "the people of Gaza as a whole" in the three-week military operation which is estimated to have killed more than 1,300 Palestinians at the beginning of this year, according to a UN-commissioned report. A UN fact-finding mission led by the South African judge Richard Goldstone said Israel should face prosecution by the International Criminal Court unless it opened independent investigations of what the report said were repeated violations of international law, "possible war crimes and crimes against humanity" during the operation.

Using by far the strongest language of any of the numerous reports criticising Operation Cast Lead, the UN mission, which interviewed victims, witnesses and others in Gaza and Geneva this summer, says that, while Israel had portrayed the war as self-defense in response to Hamas rocket attacks, it "considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole. In this respect the operations were in furtherance of an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population for its resilience and for its apparent support for Hamas, and possibly with the intent of forcing a change in such support," the report said.

WHITE HOUSE TRACKING AND STORING WEB COMMENTS

Washington Times - The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users. . . Defenders of the White House actions said the Presidential Records Act requires that the administration gather the information and that it was justified in taking the additional step of asking a private contractor to "crawl and archive" all such material. . . Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for National Archives and Records Administration, said the presidential records law applies to "social media" and to public comments "received by the president or immediate staff.". . . The National Legal and Policy Center, a government ethics watchdog, said archiving the sites would have a "chilling effect" on Web site users who might wish to leave comments critical of the administration.

REPORT FINDS WIDESPREAD STAFF SEXUAL ABUSE OF PRISONERS

Washington Post - The men and women charged with ensuring an orderly and safe environment behind bars too often use their positions to sexually abuse prisoners. So concludes a recently released report from the Justice Department Office of Inspector General, which documents a litany of problems that still plague the nation's federal prisons. . . Reports of abuse arose in all but one of the 93 locations and involved male and female employees. Not surprisingly, allegations were made most often against staff who interacted most with inmates -- namely, those in food services, recreation, vocational and educational training.

BATTERIES FROM SALT AND PAPER?

Tree Hugger - A new battery made of salt and paper could prove to be an environmentally benign replacement for lithium batteries in things like smart cards, RFID tags, and other low power portable devices. Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden are testing out a prototype, and while it has a few down sides compared to lithium, it certainly has upsides as well.Technology Review reports that the new battery is made simply of pressed mats of tangled cellulose fibers acting as the electrodes, and a salt solution acts as the electrolyte - the simple ingredients mean cheap, easy manufacturing and the potential to replace lithium batteries in a range of small portable devices. Now that the researchers have the design down, they're working on making the paper and salt batteries more comparable to lithium in capabilities. . . . One thing that is fascinating about the design is not only that it could be more ecologically sound than lithium thanks to its ingredients, but that the cellulose that comprises the paper layers is made from a polluting algae found in seas and lakes.

MEDIA MOGULS SPLIT ON WHETHER TO CHARGE FOR WEB VISITS

Editor's Weblog - An American Press Institute study which surveyed industry executives across the US and Canada reported that 58% of respondents are currently considering initiating paid access to their websites. . . Almost half of the respondents (49%) were undecided on a timescale for introducing paid online content, and when asked about whether revenue from charging online would significantly contribute to the future of newspapers, 51% thought it somewhat or very likely, the rest considering it unlikely or unknown. There is no consensus in the industry, therefore, on whether charging for online content is the best way forward or now. The paid online content approach that survey participants considered the most likely was a free homepage with headlines and access to story summaries, with the full text of stories behind a pay wall requiring a monthly subscription. Micropayments were far down the list with regards to how likely respondents said they were to use them, but the study made a case for their usefulness. People typically read 4 out of perhaps 40 newly available articles online on any given day, and therefore if they were paying for this they would be wasting 90% of the purchase price.

27 PERCENT OF NEW YORK BLACKS UNEMPLOYED OR UNDEREMPLOYED

The Fiscal Policy Institute finds that job loss and wage declines are hitting New Yorkers hard - with some groups experiencing staggering levels of unemployment. Joblessness in New York State has increased by almost 400,000 since early 2008. The overall unemployment rate is just the tip of this economic iceberg. The official unemployment rate for black men jumped from 8.4 percent in the first half of 2008 to 18.3 percent in the first half of 2009. "Black men typically have higher unemployment rate than other groups," said James Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute and principal author of the report. "But this jump of ten percentage points is an eye-popping increase from just a year ago. Black men are clearly bearing a disproportionate impact of the job loss in New York."

The official unemployment rate is far from the end of the story. The "real unemployment rate" includes people forced to work shorter hours or who are so discouraged they have given up looking for a job. Using the same methodology as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, FPI found that the real unemployment rate for New Yorkers overall is 14.1 percent. For men in New York State it is 12 percent for whites, 17 percent for Hispanics, and 14 percent for Asian and others. For black men, however, the real unemployment rate is a staggering 27 percent. For women in the state, the rates are 11 percent for whites, 18 percent for blacks, 19 percent for Hispanics, and 11 percent for Asian and others.

PELOSI: PRIVATE GIFTS VS. PUBLIC OPTION

David Sirota, Open Left - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time [has] suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. According to CNN, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said they would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance - whether or not it is the public option favored by most Democrats." When "asked if inclusion of a public option was a non-negotiable demand - as her previous statements had indicated Pelosi ruled out any non-negotiable positions," according to CNN. . . . This announcement came just hours before Steve Elmendorf, a registered United Health lobbyist and the head of United Health's lobbying firm Elmendorf Strategies, blasted email invitation throughout Washington, D.C. I just happened to get my hands on a copy of the invitation from a source. Check it out

AFGHAN TROOP INCREASE OF THE MONTH

Washington Post - The nation's top military officer told Congress on that the U.S. war in Afghanistan "probably needs more forces" and sought to reassure lawmakers skeptical of sending additional troops that commanders were devising new tactics that would lead to victory over a resurgent Taliban. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that 2,000 to 4,000 additional military trainers from the United States and its NATO partners will be needed to "jump-start" the expansion of Afghan security forces and strongly suggested that more U.S. combat troops will be required to provide security in the short term. "A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably needs more forces," Mullen said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

WATCHLIST: MEDINA, WASHINGTON MONITORS EVERY VEHICLE THAT ENTERS TOWN

Seattle Times - Cameras installed at Medina intersections monitor every vehicle coming into the city. The cameras capture all license-plate numbers, in a crime-prevention measure that one council member says "outweighs concern over privacy.". . City signs have a unique way of greeting people. In Issaquah, for instance, motorists are told they're entering "a special place where people care." For years, Bothell invited people to stay "for a day or a lifetime." In Medina, a new sign bears this warning: "You Are Entering a 24 Hour Video Surveillance Area.". . . Under the "automatic license plate recognition" project, once a car enters Medina, a camera captures its license-plate number. Within seconds, the number is run through a database. . . Medina - a city of 3,100 with an average household income of $222,000 - had discussed the idea for years as a way to discourage crime, city officials said. Last year, there were 11 burglaries. . . Medina City Councilmember Lucius Biglow said crime prevention "outweighs concern over privacy. Privacy is considerably less nowadays than it was, say, 50 years ago."

DOWN EAST NOTES

The Coast Guard is planning its first tidal power project with plans for a small underwater turbine to augment electricity generated at its station in the nation's northeastern corner, which is home to some of largest tidal variations in North America. . . Among the Maine laws passed this season is one that allows brew pubs to sell half-gallon jugs known as growlers, requires employers to provide clean private space for nursing mothers, and outlaws the use of the word "squaw" in naming places in Maine. . . On June 18, 2002, a Belfast City Council meeting was filmed for the first time and broadcast to every cable subscriber within the city limits. Then-Mayor Mike Hurley appeared in a black tie and yellow boutonniere. . Seven years later, there is no hard data on how many people watch the meetings from home. As to how the broadcasts have affected the way city government operates, it depends who you ask. . .. . Hurley said he was once recognized by a young man who seemed befuddled that the "show" Hurley appeared on was so boring. . . Bishop Richard Malone, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, asked parishes to pass a second collection plate during services this weekend to help raise funds for the group seeking to repeal the recently passed marriage law that . . . allows the state to recognize same-sex civil marriages. . . A group called Catholics for Marriage Equality announced Friday it is encouraging Catholics to place notes in opposition of the repeal effort into the plate as it is passed. . . Details

PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE COULD COST $30K IN 20019

Kaiser Family Foundation - If we assume that premium increases over the next ten years will average what they did over the last five (about 6.1% per year), the average premium for a family policy in 2019 will be $24,180. That's a big number. On the other hand, if we assume increases revert to the average of the last ten years-an average annual increase of about 8.7% and a very plausible scenario-premiums in 2019 will average a whopping $30,803, a very scary number.

WELLS FARGO EXEC USES FORECLOSED BEACH HOME FOR PARTIES AND WEEKENDS

NY Post - A Wells Fargo executive who oversees foreclosed properties allegedly hosted parties and spent long summer weekends in a foreclosed $12 million Malibu beach house. The previous owners of the home were financially devastated in Bernard Madoff's fraud, real-estate agent Irene Dazzan-Palmer said. The couple signed the property over to Wells Fargo last spring, and the bank subsequently denied requests to show the house to prospective buyers, Dazzan-Palmer said. Neighbors told the LA Times that they believe Cheronda Guyton moved in last May. They got her name from security guards. . . . Wells Fargo promised to investigate.

EIGHT STATES ALLOW INSURANCE COMPANIES TO DENY WOMEN COVERAGE IF BEING BATTERED IS A "PREEXISTING CONDITION."

Reality Based Community - Per the estimable Ryan Grim: In eight states and DC, domestic violence victims (even those who have moved out on the batterer) can be refused health insurance because battering is a "pre-existing condition." In 2006, Republicans killed a legislative provision that would have forbidden that practice. Mike Enzi, now one of the "Gang of Six" joined in, and defended, the effort to kill the provision, reasoning that it would increase insurance rates.

MIT STUDENTS PHOTOGRAPH SPACE FOR $150

Detention Slip - Some MIT students rigged up a used digital camera, weather balloon, cell phone and Styrofoam beer cooler to take photos of outer space. The total cost was $148 and didn't require any special hacking of the components. How they did it

GREAT THOUGHTS OF MSNBC

MSNBC's David Shuster called the Tenth Amendment 'a bunch of baloney'

MUSIC LESSONS HELP MEMORY

Guardian - Learning a musical instrument at school improves children's behaviour, memory and intelligence, a government-commissioned study has found. Professor Susan Hallam, of the Institute of Education, University of London, analysed scores of researchers' studies on the benefits of music to children. She found researchers had discovered that learning to play an instrument enlarges the left side of the brain. This leads musically-trained pupils to remember almost a fifth more information. . .The government hopes to double the number of children, aged seven to 11, who are given a chance to learn an instrument for free by 2011. The government says that now over half of primary-aged children - 1m - learn an instrument. A study contrasting the impact of music lessons with that of drama classes found music lessons, over time, increased pupils' IQ by seven points, compared to 4.3 points for drama lessons.

DOCTORS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT PUBLIC OPTION

NPR - When polled, "nearly three-quarters of physicians supported some form of a public option, either alone or in combination with private insurance options," says Dr. Salomeh Keyhani. She and Dr. Alex Federman, both internists and researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, conducted a random survey, by mail and by phone, of 2,130 doctors. They surveyed them from June right up to early September.

Most doctors - 63 percent - say they favor giving patients a choice that would include both public and private insurance. . . In addition, another 10 percent of doctors say they favor a public option only; they'd like to see a single-payer health care system. Together, the two groups add up to 73 percent.

When the American public is polled, anywhere from 50 to 70 percent favor a public option. So that means that when compared to their patients, doctors are bigger supporters of a public option. . .

The survey even found widespread support for a public option among doctors who are members of the American Medical Association, a group that's opposed to it. The AMA fears a public option eventually could lead to government putting more limits on doctors' fees.

VANCOUVER'S CHIEF OF WAR ON DRUGS DECLARES IT A FAILURE

The Province, Canada - The author of Vancouver's ground-breaking Four Pillars drug strategy criticized the federal government's "utterly failed" approach to drug use in his resignation notice this week.

Donald MacPherson said in an e-mail to city staff: "[A] war-on-drugs approach has utterly failed over the past 40 years and must come to an end. The emperor truly has no clothes in this case.

"People who use drugs should not be criminalized, especially those that develop addictions and/or have mental-health problems or are vulnerable in some other way." MacPherson said he was resigning after 12 years as the city's drug-policy coordinator -- the only municipal position of its kind in Canada -- "for personal reasons." . . .

MacPherson blamed the criminalization of drugs for social ills and associated problems.

ALTERNATIVE AMERICA

Green response to Obama's healthcare speech
Jesse Walker, Reason on the paranoid center and how the panic over right-wing violence is being used to marginalize peaceful dissent.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has compiled a list of the most corrupt members of Congress.
Truth Out - America is the harshest country in the world for the legal punishment of children
Utne Reader - Why the water wars won't come
Chris Hedges - Stop begging Obama and get mad
National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance want to meet with Obama to talk about getting out of Afghanistan
David Swanson has written a new book, "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union".

SCHOOL BOARD CONSIDERING SELLING NAMING RIGHTS TO CORPORATIONS

News Journal, FL - Football uniforms with a manufacturer's logo just like the Nike insignia Florida Gator star quarterback Tim Tebow wears.

A computer lab named for a bank that forks over big money to pay for upgraded equipment.

A high school theater named for a patron of the arts.

Any of those -- and more -- could be coming to Volusia County schools under an advertising and naming rights agreement the School Board will consider Tuesday.

It would give School Partnerships, a company founded last spring by longtime Volusia school supporter Nancy Holman, exclusive rights to sell naming rights for school facilities and advertising to appear on district property, uniforms, Web sites or printed materials. . .

The Volusia proposal is part of a growing trend around the nation as school districts struggle financially in the weak economy. Orange County schools, for example, hired a sales and marketing manager in July who will do much the same job as Holman would under the local contract.

FURTHERMORE. . .

SUPPORT FOR AFGHAN WAR HITS NEW LOW

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