Progress Now Action

For several years now the evidence of the Alberto Gonzales gang's manipulation of the Federal Civil Service within the Department of Justice has been well publicized. The fact that right-wing political ideologues were being approved for career professional positions based on social issue orthodoxy, rather than competence and qualifications, is yet another blight on the scandalous legacy of the current occupant of the White House.

Today's report in the Washington Post reveals that this practice of burrowing right-wing political operatives into the Civil Service is also in-place in the scientific agencies. Perhaps this is the mis-administration's strategy for making permanent the Republican obsession for combating the truth of science with their twisted political and social priorities.

The Center for Public Integrity is soon to release their "Broken Government" study. The fund-raising teaser release promises 120 specific cases. This kind of investigative effort to hold the Bushies accountable as the mis-administration fades into oblivion is crucial.  Revealing and acting on the depth and breadth of this conspiracy is vital to the success of any reforms and corrects to the offenses of the past eight years.

The Obama-Biden Administration will be stretched and tested to uncover and flush-out these right-wing activists who have burrowed their way into the Civil Service like so many termites. The evidence of these infestations must be met with quick action.

Executive appointees selected for positions above these people must be prepared to take every possible action within the laws and regulations of the Civil Service structure to either get them dismissed, or make it too hard for them to stay and accomplish their nefarious goals. Attention to the selection of the Administrator of the Office of Personnel Management will be a key to success in this area.

Various Executive agency inspectors general must be supported in investigating these political opportunists. IF they are found to be substantially unqualified for the job description that they were hired to fill, then it should be clear grounds for dismissal as an unlawful appointment.

The Obama-Biden appointees who are saddled with these burdens must enforce clear, precise and enforceable performance standards. When confronted with qualitative requirements to enforce and perform based upon laws and regulations that these infiltrators are likely to hold ambitions to undermine and avoid, could more easily force them to resign.

Even in its demise the minions of the current mis-administration are appearing to be increasingly unwilling to follow the current occupant of the White House and the vice out of Washington. This certainly adds to the challenge and urgency of establishing the new administration's executive leadership. Too many months and too many acting, caretaker, leaders in the executive departments will make it all the harder to untangle the tentacles of the Bush parasites.

Failed U.S. health care is a major contributor to our systemic economic crisis. Indeed, the excesses of Wall St. and the subprime mortgage catastrophe mirror U.S. health care policy – both are typified by privatized profit (for investors and insurers), and socialized risk (for taxpayers and consumers). Inflated U.S. health care costs – 16% of GDP and rising – are major contributors to an inflationary economy. Redress of this single aspect of an out-of-control U.S. economy would lift all boats. Comprehensive health care reform would improve the economic status of all, relieving health access concerns of families, individuals and businesses, large and small.

So-called "legacy costs" alone, comprised largely of retiree health and pension benefits, have contributed significantly to General Motor’s negative cash flow, prompting yet another request for government bailout. In 2005, costs of health care coverage to GM amounted to $5.6 billion for 1.1 million employees, retirees and their dependents. In 2005 BusinessWeek reported that legacy costs added $1,600 to the cost of each GM vehicle.

It’s time to confront the crippling economic effects of employment-linked health coverage that reduces competitiveness of businesses in the world marketplace, reduces effective employee take-home pay, and adds to the costs paid by all for goods and services (note above cost added to each U.S. -made car). State and city budgets, too, are depleted by escalating health costs for employees and retirees.

Progressives leaders must do a better job of promoting civic discourse while clearly defining issues, like health care reform. Democrats shoud cease parroting right-wing framing and code words intended to distort the issue, e.g., "government health care" or "socialized medicine," as a couple of recent Colorado candidates have done. We need to refute Republican "free-market" advocacy that treats health care as a commodity to be exploited for maximum profit, with top-skimming of over 25% of health care dollars for private insurance shareholder profits, CEO salaries, excessive administrative costs, marketing, lobbying, etc. "Free-market" health care is as perverse an incentive as free-market police and fire protection would be, leaving everyone vulnerable, at the mercy of the marketplace.

Barack Obama showed promise broaching issues during the campaign. He made a start at explaining the high cost of privatizing Medicare (13% higher than traditional Medicare), and the failure of Medicare prescription drug reform that prohibits negotiation of bulk drug rates, as the VA does to save money. The 2003 reform was a giveaway to insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies, with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated costs to benefit their bottom lines. Now is the time to make the case for an improved Medicare for All - a public insurance with true free choice of providers and hospitals. By contrast, for-profit insurance choices are narrowly limited to "in-plan" providers, necessitating change of providers with change of insurance.

Comprehensive health care reform shoud be part of a broad economic remedy. U.S. health costs are almost double those of all other industrialized nations, and growing; yet we still experience worse overall health outcomes. Increasing numbers of underinsured pay escalating costs for decreasing coverage. Taxpayers currently pay for over 60% of health care costs, including 70% of legislators’ health coverage. By many accounts, that is enough to provide single-risk-pool coverage for all.

In fact, single-payer health care is the only model of reform that has demonstrated in over 20 federal and state studies the capacity to save money and provide comprehensive coverage for all.

It is time for reform that benefits the worker as well as the CEO.

First posted on Huffington Post 11-13-08

This is beyond the pale- Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, testifying on the House side, defended the administration's handling of the massive $700 billion bailout for the financial industry and said it should remain off-limits for Detroit, no matter how badly the automakers need help.

This is what U.S. auto executives testimony on the Hill said, from AP:

WASHINGTON – Detroit's Big Three automakers pleaded with Congress on Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse.

From the NYT:

Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee, said he would not support legislation to aid the auto companies and seemed prepared to let one or all of them collapse...

“Spending billions of additional federal tax dollars with no promises to reform the root causes crippling automakers’ competitiveness around the world is neither fair to taxpayers nor sound fiscal policy,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement.

But for the Bush and the Republicans it is all about politics.

OBAMA CITY, JAPAN:  Banners on parade and dancing in the streets with shouts in English "YES WE CAN"

KENYA:  Dancing in the streets - 2 days of national holiday declared amid chants of "YES WE CAN"

FRANCE:  People pour into the streets of Paris amid dancing and singing there are shouts "YES WE CAN"

LONDON, SOUTH AFRICA....ALL OVER THE WORLD: The REVOLUTION has been legitimized, accepted and praised.

              WE actually won the 2nd revolution for the United States of America.

The McCain Campaign is out answering the internet blogosphere again.

A continuation of the policy of smoke and mirrors...

"SO, Mr. McCain, what about the Economy?"

  "uh, uh, HEY! Look over here...Obama stubbed his toe and he didn't bleed - proves he's a vampire!!!
Afterall,we knew he had to be...

He runs with alien terrorists from MARS!!!!!

The Washington Post has films of the landing and met with their leader.....

We are demanding right here and now....RELEASE THE FILM!!!!!"

YES McCAIN and his Campaign are LIKE BUSH in one major way...

They will SAY anything (LIE); They think WE are STUPID; And when all else fails, blame the Democrats!

Reports are coming in that Barack Obama's Colorado appearances today were record breaking. One Democratic Party insider says that the Denver Rally pulled in over 100,000 supporters.

I was within a softball toss of Barack in Fort Collins. One early estimate claims 45,000 attended; it sure looked like a lot more than that to me.  The Eastern half of the CSU Oval was filled with people, and more were crowded into the Southwest quarter of the Oval.

If I were priviledged enough...I would paste in one of my low-res pictures of the crowd.  But, even Barack said that the setting was incredible.  The trees surrounding the Oval were in full color.

Barack's message has evolved, even from the acceptance speach at Mile High.  Focused, positive and thoroughly inspiring.

I was struck by several uses of "the future" today.  Each time was full of hope and desire for the best for all Americans.  Barack's comments were on-target for a number of topics:  the economy, healthcare, primary education, secondary education, jobs and how John McCain is out of touch.

The program started with a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and an a capella performance of the National Anthem.  Betsy Markey gave one of her best speaches as did Governor Bill Ritter.

Other news organizations will have a full transcript of the speach.  The press contingent was impressive.  But, news coverag does not compare to being there...being there to see the future President.

This was not the one-word headline I expected to see in this morning's Foreign Policy magazine Morning Brief email.  Similarly, the Financial Times brought gloomy articles confirming the depth of the current fiscal decline.

"Falling by more than 20 percent over seven straight trading days, the U.S. stock market's recent performance now meets the standard definition of a crash."  - FP Morning Brief, 10 October 2008

this is the first attention grabbing fact from FP.  Realistically a seven point consecutively repeated 20% downward trend line is what I've always called a "death-slide." 

It's a very effective way to get the attention of executive decision-makers and mid-level managers.  I've seen motivation and attention to detail factors show a marked increase. 

"Investors have lost an estimated $8.4 trillion dollars so far this year, with the Dow Jones industrial average sinking another 678 points or 7.3 percent Thursday."  - FP Morning Brief, 10 October 2008 

My proposal is to add this figure to the existing National Debt burden enacted by the current occupant of the White House.  In addition to being a condemning legacy of this presidency, it should be a lesson in who, and how, to elect the next president.

Personally, I'm watching the value of my supposedly solid Federal employee Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) account in a similar decline.  Holding a large percentage of my shares in a Standard & Poors 500 fund isn’t such a happy place at the moment.

Gotta hand it to Doug Lamborn to be stand tall with Phil Graham in believing Americans are "whiners". 

Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008.

Doug Lamborn is one of 28 Republicans to vote against this bill.

Final vote tally-  Yay- 368 to Nay- 28 (all Republicans)

Hey, even wingnuts Musgrave and outgoing Tancredo voted yay.

The failure is for the Democrats to make a stand for taxpayers especially Speaker Pelosi.  As Kos duly notes:

Pelosi thinks we're stupid by kos Mon Sep 29, 2008 at 07:34:43 AM PDT

Pelosi:

We sent a message to Wall Street - the party is over.

Sure, the party is over. But we weren't invited to the party, yet we're the ones left cleaning up the mess and paying for the house they burned down.

The message? There are no repercussions to your actions. The plebes will bail you out. And somehow, we're supposed to think this is a big victory?

Markos ends with:

... And since half the money will be disbursed before the Obama Administration takes over, that's $350 billion that will be distributed to Bush's friends before the year is over, further stressing our nation's finances and hamstringing the Obama Administration...

As for "doing something" in this crisis, there's a perception that Bush's plan is the only one. It's not. It's just that none of the others alternatives have been allowed to see the light of day. But for one, how about taxing any number of Wall Street transactions, as well as temporary increasing the tax rate for those at the highest income levels -- you know, those who have most benefited from this "party"? Make this thing revenue neutral, and my opposition melts away.

From an email sent by Micheal Moore, he writes:

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

Micheal Moore links to this report by the New York Times business journalists Jenny Anderson, Vikas Bajaj and Leslie Wayne:

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

What this means is that all of the crap of derivatives, SIV, CDO, CDL, et.al. that is just paper backed by "trust in the system" meaning each financial institution issues said paper based on internal analysis that is not reviewable by outside firms.  The most worthless of the worthless paper debt held by those corporations that now will want the U.S. taxpayer to pay at premium value- So called Level 3 debt.  Because the "trust" component has been broken between financial institutions.

Moore has this to say on Dems:

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat.

That is called extortion.  But will AG Mukasey do anything?

The healine on Yahoo.com's front page says it all:

Bailout winners, losers

The financial industry is a big winner in the proposed bailout, but not troubled homeowners.

I point out that the passage from AP writer Tom Raum writes:

Homeowners faced with foreclosure or those who have lost their homes get little help from the agreement. Nor will it help people whose houses are worth less than what they owe get refinancing or take out equity loans.

It would do little to halt the slide in home values that are one of the root causes of the current economic slowdown.

"It doesn't deal with the fundamental problems that gave rise to the problem -- or alleviate the credit crisis," said Peter Morici, an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland

A band aid in which the taxpayer gives Wall Street hundreds of billions for nothing in return because it is a case of the fox guarding the hen house.

The Fools on the Hill......

I love that those all-knowing Grand Wizards of all things important, sitting on the Hill in D.C., are JUST figuring out what many have known for 10 friggin' years.
The so-called housing bubble, that churn and burn growth of a market based on air, was the ONLY thing propping up an economy that has needed to do an adjustment since 1998; Staved off by the Republicans in their bids to keep the sleazy corporatists going without oversight.....

UNFETTERED GROWTH without any natural controls is called CANCER....

From Talkingpointsmemo.com, Josh Marshall writes:

Sen. Obama is saying his spending programs may have to be delayed in light of the massive bailout bill...

And remember, if Obama wins, his Treasury Dept. would be administering a lot of this. So are they planning to pay premium prices for the worthless or near worthless paper the banks are trying to dump on the public (in order to recapitalize the banks at public expense)?

AP reporters Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Jeannine Aversa write:

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers Tuesday they risk a recession with higher unemployment and increased home foreclosures unless they act on the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry. 

David Cay Johnston, Poynter Online.com, Pulitzer Prizer winner, asks:

The Administration has scared the markets and some key legislative leaders, but it has not laid out a coherent, specific and compelling need for this enormous proposal, which is the equivalent of a one-time 55 percent income tax surcharge. (Instead the money will be borrowed, so ask from whom and how this much can be raised so quickly if the credit markets are nearly seized up with fear.) [my empahsis-Ken]

Folks this is monumental scam taking place before a complict media...if it is such a crisis then why is Nightline taking a full week on "exotic peoples of the world" of which the Monday installment was on forgotten tribes of Brazillian rainforest.

There are no hard questions being asked by the media.  If there are hard questions being asked by the Senate and House respective committees why are they being held "closed door"?

This, my friends, is to strait jacket the incoming president for doing anything constructive for the American people...expand SCHIP?  Sorry Mr. Bush and his cronies carted off the money.  Fix Medicaid?  Sorry Sec. Treasury Paulson scammed all those tax dollars for his high finance rollers.  Renewable energy development?  Sorry Fed. chairman Benanke said that your tax dollars are spent on the bad debt of financial institutions at buying their worthless securities at premium prices not fire sale pricing. 

This is not a 700 billion USD bailout but at least a 3 trillion dollar bailout.

Call your congressional representative and tell them "NO DEAL".  It is purely political that this so-called crisis happened.  

Remember, Republicans will vote against whatever proposal that comes out of Congress.  They will run against it and win because this is a "win-win" for them in November.

It is time for Democratic groups to start running ads on framing this "crisis" as a "Republican crisis".  But...they won't.

Is it too fast, too big to "fail" or is a con game going on? 

Lori Montgomery, Washington Post reporter, writes:

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern yesterday that they have had no control over when and how federal money has been used to curb the panic on Wall Street...

"My instincts and my gut tell me they made the wrong move. But I don't have all the information they do," said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, who yesterday fielded furious calls from constituents. "People are angry because they see this as their tax dollars bailing out Wall Street speculators. And in some cases, it is."

For Republicans this is all they can say: Rep. Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Republican Conference, yesterday urged the administration to send an "envoy" to Capitol Hill to explain their decisions

An envoy?  Is this what Republicans think that the three co-equal branches of government are, for them, seperate states?  Truly deluded thinking on their part.

Remember when Chrysler was "too big to fail"?  Well it required an act of Congress to release the money.  Why is "Helicopter Ben" allowed to have at his discretion 800,000,000,000 USD via the central bank's reserves?

Edmund Ross, PoliticalBull.net, writes:

With a single act the concept of "conservatism" as espoused by centuries of free market capitalists is washed away. The heart and soul of the ideology; small government, low taxes, and free markets; has been exposed as nothing but a fair weather ideology, something that works when things go well and fails when circumstances do not. The U.S. government bailout of Insurance Giant AIG demonstrates the failure of the conservative ideology and exposes its proponents as frauds.

Yes, he is correct:  conservatism is a fair weather ideology.

BTW- Since Republicans love to resurrect the old Communist threat I believe Darksyde, DailyKos.com, is correct:

Long Live the New Union of Socialist Republicans

Welcome news comrades! We the People are now We the Owners. The People's Insurance Company, formerly known as AIG, was saved for the time being from the forces of capitalism by the new Union of Republican Socialists, formerly known as the GOP...

Now that the People own a major insurance company, it's fair to ask how the People's Insurance Company, along with the People's Mortgage Companies and the People's Investment Banks, will benefit the People who Own them. Can we expect lower premiums, equity sharing, and corporate perks for our hundreds of billions of dollars? Should we start checking our mailbox for dividend checks? Who gets paid first, claimants, bondholders, stockholders, or we the new taxpayer owners?

There is still time for both the unions and business groups to call off this brutal exercise in "mutually assured destruction."

If business and labor will put their money and energy into working together for the good of all Colorado, they can help build the transportation network and education system upon which our future prosperity depends.

The fact is that in this bizarre replay of an Old West gunfight, the anti-union groups are essentially firing blanks. Sure, right-to-work laws exist in 22 states, but Colorado's existing Labor Peace Act already makes it all but impossible to compel workers to join unions or pay agency fees against their will.

[The] Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders have urged Amendment 47's backers to withdraw their measure if the unions call off their nuclear counterstrike.

The unions have agreed to such mutual disarmament, but the backers of Amendment 47 have dug in their heels.

Jonathan Coors, the 28-year-old nephew of beer baron Pete Coors, has been the public name behind this cause.

But don't be fooled by public pretenses. Pete Coors is pushing this fight, too.

Pete, listen to your peers in the business community. Then do the right thing and call off Amendment 47 in response to labor calling off its punitive measures.

Business and labor pulling together for Colorado's future is a much better idea than watching the two sides waste their money and energy in a bitter fight that is certain to have no real winners.

When Democrat Mark Udall debated Republican Bob Schaffer in July, he made no effort to refute Schaffer’s distortions surrounding health care reform. In fact, he essentially short-circuited meaningful debate by adopting the nebulous right-wing description of single-payer health care as “government health care,” thus capitulating to Republican framing of the issue.

Just what is government health care? Is it the more than 60 percent of all health care costs that are paid by taxpayers, including subsidies for inflated costs of private insurances? Private insurers skim the cream and game the system for profit, and count on government (taxpayers) to pick up the health care costs of all whose coverage they reject. Does government health care include the 70 percent of our legislators’ health coverage that is funded by taxpayers?

Democrats who facilely echo GOP talking points grossly misrepresent single-payer health care. In fact, contrary to assertions by the right-wing “free market” chorus, only single-risk-pool insurance provides true free choice of private providers, the same as traditional Medicare before Republicans moved to privatize Medicare (at 12 percent higher cost). Private insurance plans limit choice to “in plan” doctors, often requiring change of providers when plans are changed. Only single payer is capable of providing comprehensive, continuous health care benefits and protection against medical bankruptcy.

Our leaders should vigorously protest the abomination of Medicare prescription drug reform that was written by insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated profits to benefit their bottom lines, while prohibiting negotiation of bulk drug prices.

Instead of privatizing Medicare-for-profit, why not improve and expand its coverage for everyone? Traditional Medicare has lower overhead costs – less than 4 percent – whereas private insurances divert 25 percent or more to profits, lobbying, marketing, exhorbitant CEO salaries and wasteful administrative costs. Profit is a perverse incentive for health insurance, which protects its bottom line by reducing benefits and shifting ever-greater costs to consumers.

The insulated political class in Washington, dependent upon corporate money and privy to 70 percent taxpayer-subsidized health coverage, seem out of touch with the U.S. people. Polls by Pew and others have revealed that increasing numbers – 54 to 65 percent – support a national single-payer health care plan. A recent study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine (3-31-08) that 59 percent of U.S. physicians “support government legislation to establish national health insurance,” an increase of 10 percent since 2002.

Notably, more than 20 federal and state studies since 1990, including the 2007 Lewin Group evaluation in Colorado, have demonstrated that single-payer health insurance is the only reform model that can both save money and provide comprehensive health care benefits for all. The Colorado single-payer proposal and Rep. John Conyers’ national health care bill, HR 676, both deserve serious further study.

We have everything to gain from an honest dialogue about quality-, saftey-centered universal single payer health care, in place of profiteering health insurance gatekeepers.