Both Progressives and Conservatives Eviscerate the House GOP for “Cut, Cap & Mangled” Shenanigans
July 19, 2011 No CommentEzra on the “cut, cap and balance” nonsense from the House Republicans: Perhaps CC&B would be an understandable policy fantasy in normal times. But three years after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? We’ve been violently reminded that there are times when economies contract, and contract fast. Individuals and businesses stop spending, and states and cities have to cut back sharply. The only way to prevent massive layoffs, the only way to give the unemployed some help and the underpaid some relief, is for the federal government to spend. And yet we want to write into the Constitution a requirement that spending remain at 18 percent of the previous year’s GDP? That is to say, a requirement that the federal government needs to make recessions worse rather than drawing on its unique capacity to make them better? Are we mad? And Republicans, frankly, know much of this. Ronald Reagan’s entire presidency would’ve been unconstitutional under CC&B. Same for George W. Bush’s. Paul Ryan’s budget wouldn’t pass muster. The only budget that might work for this policy — if you could implement it — would be the proposal produced by the ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee. But that proposal was so extreme and unworkable that a majority of Republicans voted it down. The only reason CC&B is faring any better is that it doesn’t get specific about what it would require. But properly understood, that makes it much worse policy — and that’s before you realize we’re talking about a constitutional amendment, not a simple budget. Ultimately, though, the real sin here isn’t that bad policy will pass. It’s that we’re wasting precious time on bad policy that won’t. Everyone involved knows this will never pass the Senate or the White House. Perhaps that would be okay if we didn’t have anything better to do. But we have two weeks before we crash the economy into the rocks of the debt ceiling. It’s not a good sign that instead of moving towards compromises and tough choices, the House GOP is daydreaming and sloganeering. Oh, it’s not just us – progressives – beating up on the crazy House Republicans. Even conservatives are piling on the mockery. From Bruce Bartlett, former economic advisor to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush : “This is quite possibly the stupidest constitutional amendment I think I have ever seen. It looks like it was drafted by a couple of interns on the back of a napkin … [It was] designed solely for the purpose of appealing to ignorant Tea Party types.” And from Daniel Foster, News Editor of National Review : “Memo to House GOP: passing a plan that will never become law is *almost* as irresponsible as passing no plan at all.” Ouch! And to rub salt on the wound, David Rogers from the POLITICO speculated that “even Ronald Reagan might have opposed” this stunt. Yet, here they are … moving forward with their crazy stunt with “no backup plan after vote.” Let’s go over again what can potentially happen if the House Republicans do not get out of the way of averting a default crisis. If the U.S. is allowed to default on our debt, America as well as 7,000 individual cities will lose their top credit rating which will affect everything – from credit card rates to hospitals . If the U.S. defaults on our debt, the stock market will plummet, mortgage rates will rise, and jobs will be lost – for an American family, this could mean losing thousands from retirement savings and adding thousands to a mortgage . As mentioned yesterday , the “Cut, Cap and Balance” nonsense has no chance of passing the Senate, is even running into trouble in the House, and the President has already threatened to veto it . It is a reckless plan that amounts to the Ryan budget on steroids. It would require even deeper cuts to Medicare and Social Security than the controversial Ryan plan, and it would go further to protect tax breaks for the wealthy. It’s been 200 days since the Republicans took power in the House, and yet there has been no discussion of a real jobs plan. They keep continue to ram through their crazy legislation, protecting tax giveaways to millionaires, while slashing and burning programs in a way that destroys jobs and rip apart our country’s social safety nets. Sooner or later the Democrats in Washington will have to effectively stand up and let these guys know – through actions, not just tough words. Enough is enough.
Continue reading …Both Progressives and Conservatives Eviscerate the House GOP for “Cut, Cap & Mangled” Shenanigans
July 19, 2011 No CommentEzra on the “cut, cap and balance” nonsense from the House Republicans: Perhaps CC&B would be an understandable policy fantasy in normal times. But three years after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? We’ve been violently reminded that there are times when economies contract, and contract fast. Individuals and businesses stop spending, and states and cities have to cut back sharply. The only way to prevent massive layoffs, the only way to give the unemployed some help and the underpaid some relief, is for the federal government to spend. And yet we want to write into the Constitution a requirement that spending remain at 18 percent of the previous year’s GDP? That is to say, a requirement that the federal government needs to make recessions worse rather than drawing on its unique capacity to make them better? Are we mad? And Republicans, frankly, know much of this. Ronald Reagan’s entire presidency would’ve been unconstitutional under CC&B. Same for George W. Bush’s. Paul Ryan’s budget wouldn’t pass muster. The only budget that might work for this policy — if you could implement it — would be the proposal produced by the ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee. But that proposal was so extreme and unworkable that a majority of Republicans voted it down. The only reason CC&B is faring any better is that it doesn’t get specific about what it would require. But properly understood, that makes it much worse policy — and that’s before you realize we’re talking about a constitutional amendment, not a simple budget. Ultimately, though, the real sin here isn’t that bad policy will pass. It’s that we’re wasting precious time on bad policy that won’t. Everyone involved knows this will never pass the Senate or the White House. Perhaps that would be okay if we didn’t have anything better to do. But we have two weeks before we crash the economy into the rocks of the debt ceiling. It’s not a good sign that instead of moving towards compromises and tough choices, the House GOP is daydreaming and sloganeering. Oh, it’s not just us – progressives – beating up on the crazy House Republicans. Even conservatives are piling on the mockery. From Bruce Bartlett, former economic advisor to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush : “This is quite possibly the stupidest constitutional amendment I think I have ever seen. It looks like it was drafted by a couple of interns on the back of a napkin … [It was] designed solely for the purpose of appealing to ignorant Tea Party types.” And from Daniel Foster, News Editor of National Review : “Memo to House GOP: passing a plan that will never become law is *almost* as irresponsible as passing no plan at all.” Ouch! And to rub salt on the wound, David Rogers from the POLITICO speculated that “even Ronald Reagan might have opposed” this stunt. Yet, here they are … moving forward with their crazy stunt with “no backup plan after vote.” Let’s go over again what can potentially happen if the House Republicans do not get out of the way of averting a default crisis. If the U.S. is allowed to default on our debt, America as well as 7,000 individual cities will lose their top credit rating which will affect everything – from credit card rates to hospitals . If the U.S. defaults on our debt, the stock market will plummet, mortgage rates will rise, and jobs will be lost – for an American family, this could mean losing thousands from retirement savings and adding thousands to a mortgage . As mentioned yesterday , the “Cut, Cap and Balance” nonsense has no chance of passing the Senate, is even running into trouble in the House, and the President has already threatened to veto it . It is a reckless plan that amounts to the Ryan budget on steroids. It would require even deeper cuts to Medicare and Social Security than the controversial Ryan plan, and it would go further to protect tax breaks for the wealthy. It’s been 200 days since the Republicans took power in the House, and yet there has been no discussion of a real jobs plan. They keep continue to ram through their crazy legislation, protecting tax giveaways to millionaires, while slashing and burning programs in a way that destroys jobs and rip apart our country’s social safety nets. Sooner or later the Democrats in Washington will have to effectively stand up and let these guys know – through actions, not just tough words. Enough is enough.
Continue reading …CNN Political Producer: ‘We Know There Are a Lot of Businesses Who Have Been on a Hiring Streak’
July 19, 2011 No Comment
Today on the 2:00 pm segment of CNN Newsroom, anchor Randi Kaye spoke with CNN political producer Shannon Travis about criticism directed at President Barack Obama: TRAVIS: Yes, really, really quickly, billionaire Steve Wynn, you've seen his resorts all over Las Vegas. He's blasting President Obama. I'm going to read this quote from a call, an earnings call yesterday. Quote, “I'm saying it bluntly that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime”. Those are from Steve Wynn. We know there are a lot of businesses who have been on a hiring streak, Randi, but this is what Steve Wynn, billionaire real estate mogul in Las Vegas thinks about the Obama administration. What hiring streak is Travis talking about?
Continue reading …Joe Conason interviews Bill Clinton , who probably knows why Obama’s dragging this out but can’t resist offering advice anyway: Former President Bill Clinton says that he would invoke the so-called constitutional option to raise the nation’s debt ceiling “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me” in order to prevent a default, should Congress and the President fail to achieve agreement before the August 2 deadline. Sharply criticizing Congressional Republicans in an exclusive Monday evening interview with The National Memo, Clinton said, “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy.” Lifting the debt ceiling “is necessary to pay for appropriations already made,” he added, “so you can’t say, ‘Well, we won the last election and we didn’t vote for some of that stuff, so we’re going to throw the whole country’s credit into arrears.” Having faced down the Republican House leadership during two government shutdowns when he was president — and having brought the country’s budget from the deep deficits left by Republican presidents to a projected surplus — Clinton is unimpressed by the GOP’s sudden enthusiasm for balanced budgets . But he never considered invoking the Fourteenth Amendment — which says “the validity of the US public debt shall not be questioned” – because the Republicans led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich didn’t threaten to use the debt ceiling as a weapon in their budget struggles with him.
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Residents in city of Homs claim government forces and ‘death squads’ are firing indiscriminately on civilians Spiralling violence took hold of the Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday as troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed 16 people in an apparent escalation of a security crackdown against a focal point for pro-democracy protests. This brings the death toll in the country’s third biggest and most mixed city in the past few days alone to at least 40 people, in addition to an estimated 1,500 killed since the Syrian uprising began five months ago. The latest fatalities added to mounting concern that events in Homs, which has a population of 1.5 million, are taking on a dangerously sectarian character. In a grimly familiar pattern, Tuesday’s dead included three mourners at a funeral for 10 people who were killed by security forces on Monday, activists said. “We could not bury the martyrs at the city’s main cemetery, so we opted for a smaller cemetery near the mosque when the militiamen began firing at us from their cars,” one mourner told Reuters. “We have to leave, we can’t stay – it’s too
Continue reading …Residents in city of Homs claim government forces and ‘death squads’ are firing indiscriminately on civilians Spiralling violence took hold of the Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday as troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed 16 people in an apparent escalation of a security crackdown against a focal point for pro-democracy protests. This brings the death toll in the country’s third biggest and most mixed city in the past few days alone to at least 40 people, in addition to an estimated 1,500 killed since the Syrian uprising began five months ago. The latest fatalities added to mounting concern that events in Homs, which has a population of 1.5 million, are taking on a dangerously sectarian character. In a grimly familiar pattern, Tuesday’s dead included three mourners at a funeral for 10 people who were killed by security forces on Monday, activists said. “We could not bury the martyrs at the city’s main cemetery, so we opted for a smaller cemetery near the mosque when the militiamen began firing at us from their cars,” one mourner told Reuters. “We have to leave, we can’t stay – it’s too
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enlarge Credit: Associated Press Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has never been one to shy away from controversy . Whether she understands the subject or not, she will belt out anything that crosses her mind if she thinks it will build her street cred with the Tea Party faithful. She is, after all, a Constitutional expert dontchaknow. Monday was no exception. After touring flood damaged areas of Iowa with fellow Republican Steve King, she used the occasion to inject race into the mix : Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann pointed to one program in particular Monday when talking about wasteful government spending: a multibillion dollar settlement paid to black farmers, who claim the federal government discriminated against them for decades in awarding loans and other aid. The issue came up after Bachmann and Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa toured flooded areas along the Missouri River. During a news conference, they fielded a question about whether farmers affected by the flooding also should be worried by proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts. Bachmann seconded King’s criticism, saying, “When money is diverted to inefficient projects, like the Pigford project, where there seems to be proof-positive of fraud, we can’t afford $2 billion in potentially fraudulent claims when that money can be used to benefit the people along the Mississippi River and the Missouri River.” Inefficient projects? Of course neither King nor Bachmann can cite any actual fraud, they just throw it out there to see what sticks to the wall. When asked by the AP for his thoughts on Bachmann’s statements, John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association had this to say: “Why continue to take from those people who haven’t taken part in federal programs equally and give to another group of farmers who have taken part in federal programs?” Boyd asked. “I think taking resources from a group of people who have been historically denied any relief at the Department of Agriculture is a bad idea. For the flood victims that deserve redress … they should provide those people with relief, too.” Later in the article Boyd was quoted as saying “If Ms. Bachmann wants to be president of the United States, she should treat all people fairly.” Mr. Boyd, I applaud your statement, but unfortunately, in Michele Bachmann’s America, only wealthy, white Christians are worthy.
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Court of appeal quashes convictions of 20 eco protesters citing non-disclosure of taped evidence by undercover Mark Kennedy The convictions of 20 environmental protesters for attempting to shut down a power station were quashed on Tuesdayafter three court of appeal judges ruled that crucial evidence recorded by police spy Mark Kennedy had been withheld. The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said that the convictions were “unsafe because of significant non-disclosure” of secret surveillance tapes recorded by Kennedy. He said: “We have reached the clear conclusion that all these appeals against conviction will be allowed.” The campaigners left the high court in London vindicated in their belief that their original convictions had been a miscarriage of justice. However, police and prosecutors are left facing questions over their conduct in securing the unsafe convictions. Seven inquiries have so far been launched into the prosecution of the campaigners and the infiltration of Kennedy into the ranks of the protest movement. Two inquiries, one of which is led by a retired court of appeal judge, are scrutinising whether police or the Crown Prosecution Service were responsible for suppressing the vital evidence which cleared the names of the 20 protesters. The failure to disclose the Kennedy tapes also led in January to the abandonment of the trial of six other campaigners arrested over the same plot. In all, none of the 114 protesters arrested in a controversial police operation two years ago have been convicted. From the beginning, the £300,000 operation was criticised as it stemmed from the largest number of pre-emptive arrests of political activists in the UK. It later emerged that the activists had been infiltrated by Kennedy, who had spent seven years undercover in the environmental movement, using the name Mark Stone, sparking claims that his deployment was a waste of public funds. Acting on intelligence from Kennedy, police burst into a primary school during the night in April 2009 and arrested the activists hours before the planned break-in at Ratcliffe-on Soar power station. Using his fake identity, the spy helped organise the planned protest. Kennedy was later exposed by environmental campaigners and, growing sympathetic to their cause, revealed that he had covertly recorded the meetings of the activists. He said these tapes would help exonerate them. On Tuesday, Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, told the court of appeal: “It is clear that there was a non-disclosure of material which would have been supportive of the defence case advanced at trial.” He identified the tapes and a statement made by Kennedy as the evidence, adding that the Crown Prosecution Service “accepts that the conviction is unsafe”. He said he would give an explanation for the ruling this morning. On the steps of the high court afterwards, Mike Schwarz, the lawyer for the activists, said they would make a fuller statement after hearing the judges’ reasons. He said the quashing was a “small success in the context of a bigger picture” of the policing of protest. The 20 activists had been found guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass in December after a three-week trial at Nottingham crown court. Judge Jonathan Teare gave the activists a range of sentences ranging from 18 months’ conditional discharge to 90 hours’ unpaid work. Teare told them that they had “acted with the highest possible motives” and were “all decent men and women with a genuine concern for others and in particular for the survival of planet Earth in something resembling its present form”. During their trial, the 20 activists had admitted that they were going to break into the power station, but argued that they had a “lawful excuse” to do so as they were acting to prevent the greater crimes of death and serious injury caused by climate change. They said they would have stopped the emission of 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Some police officers are furious that the campaigners have now walked free even after they admitted that they were going to occupy the power station. At December’s trial, the prosecution had said the campaigners were motivated by a desire to get publicity for their cause. During Tuesday’s court of appeal hearing, Matthew Ryder, the campaigners’ QC, called on the three judges to carry out a detailed investigation of how and why Kennedy’s evidence was suppressed. He said the campaigners were still “in the dark” and had “legitimate concerns” to find out what had happened. But Lord Judge questioned why it was necessary for the judges to do that, when there were already seven inquiries. He asked for a full list of the inquiries and their remits. Following allegations in the Guardian, Sir Christopher Rose, a former court of appeal judge, was appointed to examine claims that prosecutors suppressed Kennedy’s evidence. His appointment by Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, followed three internal inquiries into the claims by his agency. The investigation into the alleged suppression of the tapes by Nottinghamshire police is being conducted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Mark Kennedy Protest Coal Police Carbon emissions Court of appeal Energy Rob Evans Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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Government support for ethanol has led to an increase in corn production and a steep rise in soybean imports Demand for biofuels in the US is driving this year’s high food prices, a report has said. It predicts that food prices are unlikely to fall back down for another two years. The report, produced by Purdue University economists for the Farm Foundation policy organisation , said US government support for ethanol, including subsidies, had fuelled strong demand for corn over the last five years. A dramatic rise in Chinese imports of soybeans was also putting pressure on prices and supply, the report said. Since 2005, a growing number of US farmers have switched to corn and soybeans from other crops. Farmers in other countries have also switched to corn but, the report said, the demand kept growing. “In 2005, we were using about 16m acres [6.4m hectares] to supply all of the ethanol in the United States and Chinese soybean imports,” Wallace Tyner, one of the authors said. It took 18.6m hectares (46.5m acres) last year, just to satisfy that demand. The US department of agriculture reported earlier this month that US ethanol refiners were for the first time consuming more corn than livestock and poultry farmers. It took 27% of last year’s corn crop to meet the demand for corn ethanol. Only about 10% went to make ethanol in 2005, Tyner said. The Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has estimated that 40% of the US corn crop now goes to make ethanol. But Tyner said the cobs and husks of corn used to make ethanol would go on to be used for animal feed. The other driver of rising food prices was China, which has been building up its soybean reserves since the last big global food price rises of 2008. But the report focused strongly on a US government mandate for ethanol production and $6bn (£3.7bn) in annual subsidies for ethanol refineries. Others have also been putting the corn ethanol industry in the spotlight. In an interview with the Financial Times, General Mills, which produces Cheerios cereal, Häagen-Dazs ice-cream and other major brands, also blamed ethanol subsidies for driving up food prices. Ken Powell the company’s chief executive said the price of corn and oats was up by 30 to 40% over last year. “We’re driving up food prices unnecessarily,” Ken Powell, chief executive of General Mills, said in the interview . “If corn prices go up, wheat goes up. It’s all linked.” Even if US ethanol production plateaus, as the report predicts, food prices are unlikely to recede – at least within the next year – because global soybean and corn crops are now in relatively tight supply. The authors warned there just was not enough cropland available to shift to corn and soybeans. “We don’t think these prices are going to come down in a year,” said Tyner. “It’s going to take at least a couple of years to see a significant reduction in price.” The report warned that US corn and soybean stocks were also dangerously low, with the department of agriculture projecting supplies at about half typical levels. “These are scary, scary numbers,” said Christopher Hurt, another author. “The cupboard is absolutely bare. We just are going to get out of this, at least on the basis of crops for this year.” Biofuels Food Farming Energy Renewable energy United States China Food & drink industry Commodities Energy industry Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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Announcement expected from humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia based on data from the food security and nutrition analysis unit The UN is expected on Wednesday to declare that parts of southern Somalia are now in famine amid the worst drought to hit east Africa in 60 years. Mark Bowden, humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, is expected to make the announcement in Nairobi, based on data from the food security and nutrition analysis unit, part of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The drought in east Africa has left an estimated 11 million people at risk, but Somalia has been the worst hit country as it is already wracked by decades of conflict. There has not been an official famine since 1984-85 , when about 1 million people in Ethiopia and Sudan died. A famine is measured by rates of hunger, malnutrition and deaths, but the key to it is that it must be widespread. Technically, a famine is a crude mortality rate of more than two people per 10,000 per day; acute malnutrition reaching more than 30%; water consumption becoming less than four litres a day; and intake of kilocalories of 1,500 a day compared with the recommended 2,100 a day. The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it was seeking further security guarantees from armed rebels in Somalia in order to deliver greater amounts of assistance and prevent more hungry people from becoming refugees, Reuters reports. Al Shabaab, Islamist insurgents affiliated to al-Qaida, control pockets of the capital Mogadishu and parts of southern and central Somalia. The group last week said it would allow foreign aid agencies into territories it controlled, reversing a ban imposed two years ago on the grounds that they were anti-Muslim. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Somalia due to the drought and conflict, and refugees are dying of causes related to malnutrition either during the journey or very shortly after arrival at aid camps. On Sunday, the UNHCR began emergency airlift flights in Nairobi to help hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. A giant cargo jet chartered by UNHCR landed in Nairobi with 100 tonnes of tents for the Dadaab refugee camp complex near the Kenya-Somalia border. The airlift will support efforts to help more than 430,000 Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia, including 164,000 who have arrived in the two countries since the beginning of the year. Three thousand continue to arrive daily, fleeing continuing insecurity, drought and hunger in Somalia. UN agencies have asked for $1.6bn to pay for essential programmes in east Africa, but have only received half that amount. Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti are all facing a crisis that is being called the worst in 50 years. One in 10 children in parts of Somalia is at risk of starving to death, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said last week. The independent aid agency, one of very few with access to Somalia’s worst-hit areas, said that even in the Bay and Lower Shabelle regions, Somalia’s traditional breadbaskets, nearly 11% of children under five had severe acute malnutrition . An appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee , an umbrella group of UK charities, has raised £20m since it launched its east Africa appeal. Famine Malnutrition Somalia Africa United Nations Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
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