Krugman: The President Should Draw A Line On Debt Ceiling, Or Hand White House Keys To Tea Party
May 18, 2011 No CommentAs the U.S. taps out its credit limit and the debt ceiling vote approaches, you can tell Paul Krugman is approaching a state of chronic hopelessness over Obama’s strategy: So hitting the debt ceiling would be a very bad thing. Unfortunately, it may be unavoidable. Why? Because this is a hostage situation. If the president and his allies operate on the principle that failure to raise the debt ceiling is an unthinkable outcome, to be avoided at all cost, then they have ceded all power to those willing to bring that outcome about. In effect, they will have ripped up the Constitution and given control over America’s government to a party that only controls one house of Congress, but claims to be willing to bring down the economy unless it gets what it wants. Now, there are good reasons to believe that the G.O.P. isn’t nearly as willing to burn the house down as it claims. Business interests have made it clear that they’re horrified at the prospect of hitting the debt ceiling. Even the virulently anti-Obama U.S. Chamber of Commerce has urged Congress to raise the ceiling “as expeditiously as possible.” And a confrontation over spending would only highlight the fact that Republicans won big last year largely by promising to protect Medicare, then promptly voted to dismantle the program. But the president can’t call the extortionists’ bluff unless he’s willing to confront them, and accept the associated risks. According to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, Mr. Obama has told Democrats not to draw any “line in the sand” in debt negotiations. Well, count me among those who find this strategy completely baffling. At some point — and sooner rather than later — the president has to draw a line. Otherwise, he might as well move out of the White House, and hand the keys over to the Tea Party. Like Digby, I don’t believe the Republicans will do it. They’ve already said they won’t do it, and if that’s true , Obama is merely using the debt ceiling crisis as cover for what he wants to do, anyway.
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President pledges cash to support Egypt and Tunisia after criticism US has been too slow to support uprisings Barack Obama is to announce that the United States and the west will pour billions of dollars into the Middle East in support of Egypt, Tunisia and other countries embracing democracy, a move the White House portrayed as being on the scale of aid to former communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Speaking in Washington, the president will attempt to reposition the US as a champion of the newly-emerging Arab democracies. His speech comes amid criticism that the US has been too slow to support the uprisings, and has adopted contradictory approaches in its dealings with different countries. It is his most important speech on the Middle East since Cairo in 2009, when he called for a new beginning in relations between the US and the Muslim world. The support for Obama in the Arab world in 2009 has since dropped sharply. The speech will deal mainly with the Arab spring, hailing the benefits of democracy and respect for human rights, in spite of America’s long-time support for authoritarian regimes in the region. Senior Obama administration officials, briefing on the speech, said he will take a fresh look at the Middle East after a decade of tension and division. With the winding down of the Iraq war and the death of Osama bin Laden, “we are turning a page”, one official said, adding that the democracy movements reinforced this. The official suggested that the best way to support democracy was through economic reform, and drew comparisons with the massive injection of American aid to Europe after the war, and with the support given to central and eastern Europe in 1989. The US is to relieve Egypt of up to $1bn in debt and lend or guarantee up to $1bn. The World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral institutions to provide a further $2bn-3bn. The official described Tunisia and Egypt as beacons, models to encourage others to pursue democracy. “It is the beginning of a long-term effort,” an official said. The speech is expected to last 45 minutes, a long one by Obama’s standards. He is to devote a big portion to castigating countries such as Iran and Syria. The US Treasury announced sanctions on Wednesday targeted for the first time at Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad over the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Six other Syrian officials were also added to the sanctions list. “The actions the administration has taken today send an unequivocal message to President Assad, the Syrian leadership, and regime insiders that they will be held accountable for the ongoing violence and repression in Syria,” said David Cohen, the acting Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. The European Union on Tuesday imposed fresh sanctions against Syria but did not include Assad. The US assets freeze on Assad is mainly symbolic as the Syrian leader has few assets in the country but it is a sign the US has lost patience with a president it once hoped might initiate reforms. The US is facing criticism for engaging in military action to bring down the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, but refusing to become sucked into similar action in Syria. It has also faced criticism for being slow to cut ties with traditional US allies such as the former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak. The US issued only a mild rebuke over the violent suppression by another ally, Bahrain, of pro-democracy protesters. Obama’s speech comes after intensive debate within the White House between those arguing that the US should be at the forefront of the democracy movement, and those whose concern is US national security and protection of oil supplies. The few billion dollars proposed so far is not comparable to the vast sums the US sent to Europe after 1945, and some of it has already been announced by the World Bank and the IMF. Obama will next week urge the leaders of the G8 rich countries to provide aid when he meets them at a European summit. On Tuesday, Obama pledged several hundred millions of dollars in aid to King Abdullah of Jordan, even though that country has not been at the forefront of the democracy movement. This could raise questions about the value of the billions of dollars to Egypt and Tunisia as incentives to the democracy movement. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said that the president saw a historic moment of opportunity. “In the last decade, our focus in the region was largely on Iraq, which was a military effort, and on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the fight against al -Qaida,” Carney told reporters. “That fight against al-Qaida continues, but there is an opportunity in that region to focus on advancing our values and enhancing our security, and that’s what the president looks forward to discussing in his speech.” As part of the attempt to portray the US as fully behind the reform movement, the White House yesterday released details of a call between John Brennan, a White House adviser on national security, and President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, urging him to sign a political agreement that would allow Yemen “to move forward immediately with its political transition”. Obama will also express his continued hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He will discuss the issue with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, at the White House tomorrow, and is to address the conference of the Israeli lobbying organisation Aipac on Sunday before leaving for Ireland and Britain. A poll published on Tuesday by the Washington-based Pew organisation found that President Obama remains unpopular among countries polled in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world, except Indonesia. US foreign policy Barack Obama Arab and Middle East unrest Egypt Middle East Tunisia United States Africa Aid Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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DJ Balloon Mezziah Handmade tortillas The Presidents of the United States of America – Loose Balloon Balloon Banner DIY 10) Use the needle to add another balloon set, push each set along the twine at intervals of 5 or 6 inches. If you’re going for the same rainbow look we used, you’ll thread all the red sets first, then all the orange sets, … Balloon Juice » Shit Magnetry But having her in the race might well be helpful to Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Mitch Daniels, and other comparatively mainstream Republicans. If they can resist the lure of moving right to compete for her base, which would backfire, … Balloon Juice » Today in President Nelson Technically, last night’s vote was on the motion to proceed on the bill. Supporters outnumbered opponents, 52 to 48, but with Republicans filibustering the measure, Dems needed a 60-vote supermajority just to initiate a debate on the … Balloon Juice » Grifters attract grifters… Grifters attract grifters… by Dennis G. OK, I’ll admit to treating Newt Gingrich the way some folks treat the latest pearl of wisdom from Megan McArdle. And focusing on Newt while he is busy pissing on and pissing off his base may seem … Balloon Juice » Open Thread I reloaded a page last night and the “waiting for www balloon -juice com” was still in the status bar this morning. Reply. Comrade Mary – May 18, 2011 | 10:37 am · Link. Hey, careful turning on that fan so close to Tunch. … martinmelia says: 24th hot air balloon birthday card http://tinyurl.com/3h66532 #Birthday @AddThis
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In theory, self-compassion makes good, healthy sense. Go easy on yourself, the research suggests, and you’ll be happier, healthier, slimmer, too. But with America’s breathless pace of living, the practice of meditating on loving-kindness has been a hard sell. In our high-speed nation, which values “doing” more than “being,” exhaustion more than rest, punishing discipline more than loving-kindness, many have considered self-compassion a snooze. Several celebrities have done their part to wake up Americans to a kinder, gentler way of life, and they’ve succeeded in rousing interest. Think: Oprah’s endorsements of spiritually enlightened ideas a la Geneen Roth, or Julia Roberts’ cinematic translation of “Eat Pray Love.” Most recently, Lady Gaga, the artiste formerly known as Stefani Joanne Germanotta, took it upon herself to spread the self-compassionate word on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Time will tell the impact of this latest wake-up call, but, in the meantime, I can tell you a thing or two about the gal behind Gaga’s caring message. In case you missed the monster musician on “Ellen,” let me catch you up to speed. When America’s most beloved talk-show host asked the world’s biggest pop star about starting the day with self-kind thoughts, Gaga explained: “My yoga teacher Tricia always says: ‘Please try every day to have 15 minutes of compassionate thoughts by yourself.’ I have narrowed it down to five because 15 drives me mental. It’s very helpful!” DeGeneres shared her heart-felt support with the nouveau poster child for self-compassion: “I think if everyone did that, I think the world would be a kinder place!” When the popular princess of pop added: “Love yourself. Love who you are,” self-compassion practice catapulted from good idea to real possibility for adoring fans everywhere, as well as joke fodder for at least one late-night talk show host. On “The Late Late Show,” the incorrigibly insensitive Craig Ferguson added his two Scottish shillings: “I think Lady Gaga’s right actually. I think you should probably love yourself and love who you are, but I’m incapable of that. So I’m just gonna stay hatin’ myself, and be angry about it, and it feels kind of comfortable.” Jokes aside, as a psychotherapist who prescribes loving-kindness for the range of eating problems, this declaration of self-compassion not only thrilled me, it inspired me to track down the yogini who got Gaga to be nicer to herself: Tricia Donegan. Donegan, the owner and director of New York’s Bikram Yoga Lower East Side, stepped out of her hot yoga studio to answer her “celly,” as she calls her cell phone, and a few questions about Gaga’s five minutes of self-love. (Lady Gaga isn’t the only celebrity benefitting from Donegan’s love-yourself prescription. The soccer star turned Bikram inspiration has influenced Robert Downey, Jr., Chelsea Clinton and George Stephanopoulos, among other celebrities, while they were sweating it out in downward-facing dog.) Q. What prompted you to prescribe self-compassion practice to Lady Gaga? A. I knew her before she became Lady Gaga, and she was creative, brilliant and giving. Everything she gave out was so super-generous and clear, but then she had problems with so many people wanting to be close to her. It was hard for her to distinguish who was genuine and who was not. If she were more compassionate with herself, [I told her], everything would be clearer. If she focused more on herself, she could keep giving like she did before she was Lady Gaga. Q. Do you prescribe self-compassion for one and all? A. Most Americans don’t have a lot of self-compassion. To be successful, to improve themselves, they try to motivate themselves with self-criticism. I don’t think self-criticism is motivation for change. If it were, there wouldn’t be so many yo-yo diet books out there. I think self-compassion is all the motivation you need. If you do incorporate self-compassion, eating healthy is easy. If you like yourself, you put the right things in your body, and the benefits explode from there. Q. Isn’t Bikram a kick-ass style of yoga? What’s self-compassion got to do with Bikram? A. Bikram is an extremely cardiovascular, hard-working, change-your-life work-out. I have to sneak in self-compassion, but that’s fine with me. I was raised in this culture by intelligent, loving, supportive, career-oriented parents. I was raised to be super-compassionate to others, but not compassionate to myself. Q. How do you sneak in self-compassion? A. When you spend 90 minutes with a lot of people in room that’s over 120 degrees, everyone’s too hot. It doesn’t matter if you’re a celebrity, a marathon runner or a 250-pound woman on Food Stamps, the room levels the playing field. No matter how smart you are, how much money you make, we’re all the same. You’re going to become more aware of others, more aware of yourself, and eventually start to see yourself as no different from anyone else. Even if you don’t know why you came in, you come out nicer. Q. Is that how self-compassion works for you? A. Self-compassion helps you feel more connected, less isolated, [especially when times are tough, as they were for Donegan when, six months before she opened the studio, her brother died in a car accident.] Your story is my story. We’re all going to feel the same way at some point. Now that I have a three-and-a-half year-old kid, self-compassion is a huge focus. She’ll find self-esteem, she’ll find self-confidence, she’ll do what she wants to do, but I want her to be able to leave this world a better place. Q. Do you recommend any special self-compassion practice? A. I try to keep it simple. Every morning when you first wake up, before you get on Facebook, sit down with a cup of hot water and lemon and think compassionate thoughts about yourself. If you get stuck on critical thoughts, repeat the last [compassionate] phrase like a mantra. Do that for five minutes, 21 days in a row. Q. Why 21 days? A. It’s less overwhelming. When I try to change something about myself, one month is too long. But I’ve got five minutes. I’ve got 21 days. Once you get your groove on in the morning, you can do it all day long. Q. And then what? A. After that, it’ll stick. The longer you practice, the more the rest of us will feel it. Self-compassion enables us to find generosity. It helps us give more than we think we have. ##Got five minutes? Got 21 days? You probably won’t look as fabulous as Lady Gaga three weeks from now, but why not try it and see? * * * * * Jean Fain is a Harvard Medical School-affiliated psychotherapist specializing in eating issues, and the author of “The Self-Compassion Diet.” For more information, see www.jeanfain.com. Got a comment? Please post it below.
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The late 80s/early 90s sitcom Rosanne attempted to entertain while revealing tough truths about the life of America’s white working class. The show was canceled long ago, but it’s star is still up to the same tricks. In a hard-hitting piece for New York magazine called “And I Should Know,” Rosanne Barr dissects modern celebrity
Continue reading …Walmart, Big-Box Retailers Struggle To Get Shoppers Into Stores As Sales Drop
May 18, 2011 No Comment
Walmart continues to turn a profit. But it’s doing so in spite of American consumers, not because of them. And the world’s largest retailer is only one of America’s big-box retailers that has seen domestic sales drop and foot traffic decrease. With consumers across the country grappling with rising prices and and high unemployment, diminished demand shows few signs of a quick turnaround, regardless of revamped low-price guarantees. Walmart earned $3.4 billion in profit last quarter, but it came largely on the back of strong overseas sales, which rose 11.5 percent, Reuters reported on Tuesday. That international success only highlights the steady decline of Walmart’s domestic business, as the retail giant posted its eighth consecutive decline in same-store sales, or sales at stores that have been open over a year. And while the 1.1 percent decline is slightly less severe than that expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, it’s now been two years since domestic sales have been a source of growth for the company. Despite that dwindling source of revenue, Walmart’s sales rose 4.4 percent overall, to $103.42 billion, due to the growing importance of the company’s overseas consumers. It’s not that those shopping at Walmart are buying less. On the contrary, the average Walmart shopper actually bought more last quarter. The real problem, instead, is the dwindling number of people even stepping foot inside the stores at all. The decline highlights the plight of working Americans, who have borne the brunt of a recession that has left the country with 9.0 percent unemployment, as many corporations have remained competitive by increasing productivity, rather than hiring additional workers. Compounding the pressures of the jobs crisis are skyrocketing food and gas prices that the Federal Reserve continue to insist aren’t indications of inflation. And that’s before taking into account the debt: 28.4 percent of all single-family homes with mortgages are now “underwater,” meaning the borrowers owe more than the house is worth, according to Zillow. Walmart’s trends are reflected across the retail industry. Home Depot on Tuesday reported sales dropped by 0.2 percent, despite Spring typically being one of the company’s strongest seasons, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company raised profits from one year ago, nevertheless. Like Walmart, Home Depot saw the number of total customers fall by 1.9 percent, but the amount spent by the average customer rise 1.5 percent. Home Depot’s largest home improvement competitor, Lowe’s, was hit even harder by the dual effects of recession and weather, as number of visits to older stores fell by 3.4 percent, Bloomberg reports. In the sales department, where the company saw a 1.6 decline, the largest problem for Lowe’s seems to be that the projects being pursued by customers are smaller than usual. The company expects 84 percent of customers projects within the next six months will cost less than $500, CEO Robert Niblock said in a conference call, Bloomberg noted.
Continue reading …Area 51: What REALLY Goes On At This Top Secret Military Installation (PHOTOS)
May 18, 2011 No Comment
AREA 51 sits inside of the largest government-controlled land parcel in the United States, the Nevada Test and Training Range. It’s a little smaller than Connecticut, three times the size of Rhode Island, and more than twice the size of Delaware. It is the most famous military installation in the world and the most secret. Everything that goes on at Area 51 is a black operation, and most of what goes on at the Nevada Test and Training Range is classified. These operations take place in the name of national security and they all involve cutting-edge science. “AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base” is the first book based on recently declassified documents and interviews with firsthand eyewitnesses to base history–seventy-four individuals linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and served the base proudly and secretly for extended periods of time.
Continue reading …Sen. Jon Kyl hinted on FOX News Sunday that the rightward ‘Gang of Six’ aren’t making much progress in their efforts to come up with a deficit-reducing compromise bill that will possibly cut benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. All I can say is: Hallelujah! FOX News Sunday: Wallace: Senator Kyl, you are a member of the bipartisan congressional group that is meeting with Vice President Biden trying to work out raising the debt limit, cutting the deficit. Have you made any real progress yet, sir? KYL: We’re focused right now on things we agree on. And there are some things, but it’s pretty small ball compared to the overall job that we’re going to have to do. We’re talking maybe about, optimistically, a couple hundred billion dollars when there’s probably $2 trillion in savings that we’ve got to achieve in order to really get a handle on our out-of- control spending. If it’s pretty small then that’s a very good thing. I’d rather have no deal than a compromise that will hurt the working class of America and help destroy our social safety nets. Sen. Durbin is buying into the austerity gasbags and throwing his progressive values down the tubes. Here’s Senator Kyl saying that increasing revenues by tax increases is off the board. WALLACE: Senator Kyl, you know, I think a lot of people are looking to see is there going to be give from both sides, which I think most outside observers would think there is going to have to be to get a deal. We do have a divided government.Question: is there a single tax of any significance that you would be wiling to raise as part of a deal? KYL: No. In terms of tax rates, Republicans agree with the president that we need tax reform in order to eliminate loopholes so that we can reduce rates. But you don’t want to raise tax rates in order to try to raise revenues. That simply relieves the burden from Congress to affect the spending, savings, that we need to do and puts the burden back on the taxpayers again.When I talked about a couple of hundred — trillion dollars in savings, that’s the down payment. Over 10 years, we’ll have to do probably double that, if not more. In order to get back to the historic level of spending that we’ve had in this country of a little bit over 20 percent.The Paul Ryan budget gets us under 20 percent of GDP over 10 years. The Obama budget keeps us at levels above 23 percent of GDP. It’s about 25 percent right now. Spending is the problem. Not revenue.So, no, we will not agree to raise tax rates in order to generate revenues to prevent us from making the savings that we need to achieve. After listening to what Kyl has just said, why does Sen. Durbin get all excited over the prospect that a ” stage has been set ” for meaningful conversations? It’s utterly ridiculous. DURBIN: Well, elimination is not necessary for the critical programs, but reform is necessary. I just listened very carefully to what Jon Kyl said. And I believe he has set the stage for us to enter into a meaningful conversation. And it has to be a conversation where Democrats are prepared to talk about the future of major entitlement programs, reform that is not going to deny the basic protections, which we put in the programs, but acknowledges the fact that we have serious economic problems ahead of us if we don’t have some reform in both Medicare and Social Security. Comments like these from Durbin get me very nervous. All the Republicans in Congress, including those on the most dangerous Gang in America, are refusing to raise taxes at any level. How is it possible to have a serious negotiation on any type of reform if revenue raising isn’t part of a deal? And reforming the tax code is not the be-all-end-all solution that will save our country. WTF is wrong with Sen. Durbin? His pandering to Kyl for a deal is really sickening.
Continue reading …Boston Globe’s Pierce: ‘Half the Country Sinks’ While GOP Denies Global Warming
May 17, 2011 No Comment“Today on the program, we'll ask whether Americans are losing the skills of true debate and with it a central pillar of this democracy,” BBC's Jonny Dymond told listeners of the May 15 “Americana” podcast . Yet when it came to Dymond's guests, there was no dissent from the liberal line.
Continue reading …There is someone who even tops Donald Trump’s Birtherism and that’s Jerome Corsi of WND. A QUESTION OF ELIGIBILITY Nordyke numbers expose Obama document fraud? Newly found details about birth registration show president’s certificate out of sequence It’s been said that there’s a sucker born everyday and that makes people like Jerome Corsi a ton of cash. Conspiracy theories seem to be recession proof. Maybe each state that has budgetary problems should start a phony Obama conspiracy and sell books, t-shirts and mugs based on it. Lou Dobbs can then go from state to state and just ask the questions that everybody wants answers to.
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