again, it's all about MONEY... impact how these corporations make profit, and they sit up and take
notice every time.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/5/4/23052/21757/146#c146

Feinstein and her husband are worth what? Hundreds of millions.. classic case of conflict of interest.. CYA due to her husband's defense companies.

this is weak.

Some thoughts on torture from David Swanson:

First, torture DID work. It forced false agreement with war lies, helping to launch a long-desired illegal war. And it persuaded many Americans that some very scary and very foreign people were out to get them, people so scary that they had to be tortured in order to talk with them, people whose every false utterance, aimed at stopping the pain, instead generated color-coded horror warnings.

Second, torture has boosted recruitment for anti-U.S. organizations tremendously, horribly damaged the United States' image, stripped U.S. diplomats of the power to address human rights abuses abroad, as well as stripping U.S. citizens of a clear moral right to protest being tortured, and set an example that has spread far and wide. Torture has brutalized participants and witnesses, and we are all witnesses, and it has destroyed lives both through torture to the point of death and through torture to the point of unbearable life.

Third, if you're going to violate particular laws and treaties, you can either repeal them and leave all the other ones intact, or you can simply proceed criminally, thereby assaulting the whole structure of law, leaving everyone in doubt whether ANY laws will be enforced against important people. Our government has taken the latter approach and redefined crimes as "policy differences," which is why torture is ongoing and no criminal penalty will deter its future expansion or the commission of other crimes of whatever sort by high officials.

Fourth, if torture had produced life-saving information, we would have long since heard that fact shouted from every television studio. In fact, we did hear such claims made. They just all turned out to be fictional.

Regarding the nonsensical notion democrats "did not know" or "were not informed" about the enhanced interrogation techniques; this from Mr. Greenwald:

Jay Rockefeller was one of the key Democrats briefed on the torture methods who never objected. But it's far worse than that. In September, 2006, Rockefeller was one of 12 Senate Democrats to vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act, one of the principal purposes of which was to explicitly authorize the CIA's "enhanced interrogation program" to proceed (even though it continues to be illegal under the Geneva Conventions). Thus, not only did Rockefeller remain silent when continuously briefed on illegal torture methods by the CIA, he then voted to legalize those methods by voting in favor of one of the most Draconian laws in modern American history. That law also retroactively immunized government officials from any liability for past lawbreaking.

Rockefeller is not just any Democrat. He is the individual whom the Democratic Senate caucus thereafter elected -- and still chooses -- to lead them on all matters relating to intelligence. Just consider how compromised he is and they are when it comes to investigating abuses by the intelligence community over the last six years. Rockefeller was complicit in all of those abuses, and the Democrats voted for him -- and still support him -- as their Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. How can Rockefeller possibly preside over meaningful investigations into conduct and policies -- including the destruction of the videotapes and the conduct which those videotapes would reveal -- of which he approved? And how can Senate Democrats pretend to be outraged at such policies when the leader they chose supports them?

Rockefeller and 12 senate democrats approved the Military Commissions Act. Key here: "That law also retroactively immunized government officials from any liability for past lawbreaking".

Timeline:  May of 2006:

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told her caucus members during their weekly closed meeting Wednesday "that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it," spokesman Brendan Daly said.

Senate vote on the MCA: September 2006.

QUID PRO CO.

Pelosi has ZERO credibility here.. she preemptively took impeachment off the table, thus destroying one of the foremost tools for checks and balances of the executive in our system. this action in fact calls into question the very credibility of our entire governing system. it's means Treason is OK, among other obvious crimes.

IF this is how we roll, then why even bother having a congress?

It appears to me she took impeachment off the table because she knew democratic senators like Rockefeller were going to approve the MCA which is totally about using the "enhanced interrogation techniques" (torture).

So what this comes down to now, in May of 2009, is it's obvious congressional democratic leaders were/are complicit with torture. so now we have this in addition to numerous democrats being complicit with the rush to war in Iraq, even tho' the IAEA was well on their way to proving NO WMD's in Iraq, and in spite of people in the State Department on record stating there was no al Qaeda in Iraq at the time of 9/11, because Hussein's people kept them out.

two strikes and your OUT as far as I am concerned.

There will be NO significant prosecution of those responsible in the previous administration.. again, note the "retroactive immunity". of course this doesn't cover torture done after the MCA passed, but it doesn't matter.. it all gets lumped into one giant "Get out of jail Free" card for those responsible.

it's over, folks. No more moral high ground for the U.S., no more lecturing China, N. Korea, etc., about "human rights".

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/09/democrats/

http://www.counterpunch.com/swanson04302009.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051101950.html

The Weavers's performing career was abruptly halted in 1953 at the peak of their popularity when blacklisting prompted radio stations to refuse to play their records and all their bookings were canceled. They briefly returned to the stage, however, at a sold-out reunion at Carnegie Hall in 1955 and in a subsequent reunion tour, which produced a hit version of Merle Travis's "Sixteen Tons" as well as LPs of their concert performances. "Kumbaya", a Gullah black spiritual dating from slavery days, was also introduced to wide audiences by Pete Seeger and the Weavers (in 1959), becoming a staple of Boy Scout and Girl Scout campfires.

In the late fifties, the Kingston Trio was formed in direct imitation of (and homage to) the Weavers, covering much of the latter's repertoire, though with a more button-down, uncontroversial and mainstream collegiate persona. The Kingston Trio produced another phenomenal succession of Billboard chart hits, and, in its turn spawned a legion of imitators, laying the groundwork for the 1960s commercial folk revival.

In the documentary film Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007), Seeger states that he resigned from the Weavers when the three other band members agreed to perform a jingle for a cigarette commercial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger

"My concern about this is that in our appropriate zeal to help the four or five percent of Americans who might be faced with bankruptcy, we don't unduly raise the costs of homeownership on the 95 percent who never will."

Apparently Bayh (and anyone else sharing his sentiment on this) is so stupid he doesn't realize that adding to the already hundreds of thousands of foreclosures this year will further drive down the value of real estate- worse than now.

Of course if his goal is to destroy the value of real estate to the point big developers and speculators can get tons of land on the cheap, then he's doing a great service for the wealthy class.

Tester is the BIG disappointment here... he campaigns on the premise of being a good ol' boy.. ya know.. just one of the people.. then as soon as he gets elected he kicks people in the head when their down.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/in-their-own-words-why-de_n_194589.html

Frankly, I don't see where/how we're going to get 1 million or more green collar jobs, given the high tech nature of renewable energy (low labor intensive).

Chicago's Crains Business Report is out with some numbers regarding the stimulus money going to Chicago for infrastructure projects:

Metropolitan Chicago will receive more than $25 million in federal funding for various construction and Army Corps of Engineers projects.

The amount, announced Wednesday by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is part of $4.6 billion to be distributed nationwide under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Illinois will receive more than $300 million.

Six Chicago-area projects are expected to generate 514 jobs.

The largest is a $21.1-million endeavor to repair and stabilize the main structure protecting Chicago Harbor. Another $1.6 million will be used to complete a levee on the Des Plaines River, and $1.1 million will go toward increasing dredging capacity in the Calumet Harbor and Calumet River.

Other Chicago projects include:

• $500,000 to complete construction of a stream channel to help protect North Park University's administration building on the Northwest Side.
  
• $350,000 to complete the second phase of a mandatory study of the Des Plaines River.

Note the 514 estimated jobs created number. Not sure how this breaks out in terms of direct (construction workers on site) vs. indirect (truck drivers delivering materials to the site) but even if you double the number of jobs to 1,000 +, you don't get many jobs for the $25 million expenditure.

my other issue is the bulk of the money being spent on the Chicago Harbor project-- yes, this is an infrastructure project, but it's also a project the city/state has had sitting on the back burner for years- because they didn't want to spend the money. now they have the money (from we the taxpayers) that project gets priority over others.

some of this money should have been spent on low income housing, which would have employed standard carpenters and masons... these type of infrastructure projects tend to require more specialized labor forces.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=33872&seenIt=1

$500.

TAKERS???

payable to Habitat for Humanity.

everyone here and over at the orange site are just spinning their wheels on this.. getting nowhere.

"By 2025, a network of bullet trains connecting major cities is to feature magnetically levitated, or maglev, linear motor trains running at speeds of more than 310 mph."

and "third world" nation China is investing $1 Trillion thru year 2020 on their rail system.

By comparison, Obama's stimulus plan allocates $8 Billion for high speed rail for us; for an incomplete
system. the proposed plan has no east to west coast line, nor can passengers in Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago get on a train and get to Orlando or Miami, FL due to gaps in the system.

WHY the incomplete system? think the airline and auto manufacturer lobbies have anything to do with this?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-bullettrain24-2009mar24,0,2177731.story

"Timothy Geithner is putting the finishing touches on a plan that will dump $1 trillion of toxic assets onto the US taxpayer.  The plan, which goes by the opaque moniker the "Public-Private Investment Fund" (PPIF), is designed to provide lavish incentives to hedge funds and private equity firms to purchase bad assets from failing banks. It is a sweetheart deal that provides government financing and guarantees for illiquid mortgage-backed junk for which there is no active market."

Details of the plan remain sketchy, but the PPIF will work in concert with the Fed's new lending facility, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, which will start operating in March and will provide up to $1 trillion of financing for buyers of new securities backed by credit card, auto and small-business loans. Geithner's financial rescue "partnership" will also focus on cleaning up banks balance sheets by purging mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

In Monday's New york Times, Paul Krugman summed up the Geithner plan like this:

    "Now the administration is talking about a "public-private partnership" to buy troubled assets from the banks, with the government lending money to private investors for that purpose. This would offer investors a one-way bet: if the assets rise in price, investors win; if they fall substantially, investors walk away and leave the government holding the bag. Again, heads they win, tails we lose.
    Why not just go ahead and nationalize?"

Why not, indeed, except for the fact that Geithner's and his boss's main objective is to "keep the banks  in private hands" regardless of the cost to the taxpayer.

it's over, folks. change has NOT come to Washington.

Obama and team (Geithner, Summers, Bernanke) obviously feel rescuing the incompetent, reckless Zombie banks is way more important than helping the poor and middle class get thru this recession in one piece.

http://www.counterpunch.com/whitney02262009.html

now today it's the "revelation" Citibank is planning on building a $10 Million dollar executive suite. what will tomorrow or next week's bank scandal be?

I'm afraid these relatively small potato (when compared to the final cost [$3-4 Trillion] of this travesty) issues, while certainly annoying and disgusting, are meant to distract us from the larger issues:

i.e. the total cost, above mentioned, and the fact Obama/Geithner/Summers refuse to nationalize the troubled banks and AIG and use this crisis to help the poor and middle class.

WHERE are the "bold moves/changes" promised by Obama? certainly not in the financial sector where, had mccain been elected, he would be handling this exactly the same way as Obama-- thrown Trillions of dollars to the entitled/investor/wealthy class.

here's the equation: Trillions of dollars to the entitled/investor/wealthy class, and $8 per week less taxes and a $25 bi weekly raise in unemployment benefits to the rest of us saps.

IF Obama doesn't get it, doesn't realize we are looking at this massive inequity and how this is fueling our outrage, then he's dumber than I thought.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Mr. Schultz: "It's put up or shut up time for the democrats".

http://www.bigeddieradio.com/

Please see video clip three for Mr. Schultz's reminder regarding why unions are important and how the unions helped elect Barack Obama.

Also see video clip three for Lou Gerard's (President of the United Steelworkers) take on the "secret" ballot red herring.

Mr. Schultz flat out stated any congressional democrat not supporting EFCA will be "taken out". Mr. Schultz posed the following question "Will democrats have a spine and stand up for EFCA?"

It's about time we had a strong progressive voice on TV that supports the poor and middle class, who supports our working men and women, and who does it without equivocating or making lame excuses.

I strongly support Mr. Schultz's voice and hope other pro-union, progressive folks will join me. Here's hoping Mr. Schultz gets on MSNBC
full time!!

he Anglo-Dutch group is close to announcing a partnership with the Turkish state oil business TPAO to build a gas export pipeline and reopen gas extraction in the northern republic of Kurdistan.
The pipeline is believed to run alongside an existing one which connects the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan with the giant Iraqi oilfield in Kirkuk. A Shell spokesman said the company has yet to sign any contracts but admitted it had been in talks about re-entering Iraq.

Shell was one of the biggest players in Iraq from the 1920s right up until nationalisation of the oil industry by Saddam Hussein in 1972.

The US administration has been running the country's oil industry since the invasion in 2003 but the Iraq government is poised to pass new legislation designed to encourage international oil and gas companiesto resume exploration and production in the country.

Last month Shell's Matthias Bichsel, a senior exploration executive, confirmed that the company had met Iraqi officials in Oman, where Shell has a large gas project, to discuss plans for rebuilding Iraq's gas industry. The company has also reportedly held talks over carrying out oilfield development in Kirkuk in the north and in the Maysan oilfield in the south.