Saturday, April 30, 2005

Around The 'Sphere. Our all-too-infrequent linkfest aimed at bringing you DIVERSE VIEWS from all over the Blog-o-you-know-what. So we do NOT limit them to one viewpoint....  [The Moderate Voice] 9:43:58 PM     We Don't Not Torture. You should really read Henry Farrell's post on our unpleasant, barely-even-denied practice of shipping prisoners off to Uzbekistan, land of boiling body parts and forcibly removed toenails. Our actions are a travesty and our government's unwillingness, indeed, straight dishonesty,...  [Ezra Klein] 9:07:15 PM     Somebody Is Willing to Bet That the Dollar Will Decline. From Reuters, via the Financial Times: FT.com / Companies / US - Berkshire Hathaway loses currency bet: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway lost $310m in the first quarter from betting against the US dollar, but has nevertheless maintained its roughly $21bn stake against the greenback, the billionaire said on Saturday. At Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, Mr Buffett said Berkshire expects... to announce an insurance acquisition worth less than $1bn, which is barely 2 per cent of the company's $44bn cash stake...... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] 9:06:11 PM     Near Perfect "Einstein Ring" Discovered. April 29 | Universe Today - Gravitational lensing happens when the gravity of a relatively close galaxy acts as a telescope lens to focus the light from a more distant galaxy. It allows astronomers to see distant objects they could never have a hope of observing with current instruments, essentially looking back to moments after the Big Bang (cosmically speaking). The galaxies are never perfectly lined up, though, and the "natural telescope" is a bit blurry. But now astronomer Remi Cabanac has found one of the most complete lenses ever discovered: a near perfect Einstein Ring, magnifying a distant galaxy with incredible clarity.  [The Agonist] 10:00:24 AM     Group Think Insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The last four years of Bush economic policy has been to weaken the US dollar, hoping that it would make US manufactured goods cheaper. The reverse has been the case, all it has done has been to make US imports more expensive. The problem is that there isn't strong demand for our most competitive manufactured export - aerospace - in a high energy environment. And yet the group think drum beat goes on. [BOPnews] 9:55:44 AM     The voice of barbarity . Limbaugh is a monster. That he is heard throughout the country and is regarded as a major media figure is a disgrace to this nation. That's Arthur Silber reacting to the anti-American radio personality's celebration of "Abu Ghraib Day". Faithful Progressive has another complaint about Limbaugh: Moderate and progressive people of faith have been reluctant to enter into the political arena. Frankly, we're more comfortable volunteering at food pantries, homeless shelters, or helping out others in need. Only recently and reluctantly have we recognized the need to stand up for the values- including being slow to judge others-- that we hold dear. But now Rush Limbaugh has seen fit to insult moderate and progressive people of faith on his top-rated radio program. Limbaugh said on his program: "I would submit to you that people on the left are religious, too. Their God is just different. The left has a different God. There's a religious left in this country. "And, the religious left in this country hates and despises the God of Christianity and Catholicism and whatever else. They despise it because they fear it, because it's a threat, because that God has moral absolutes. That God has right and wrong, that God doesn't deal in nuance, that God doesn't deal in gray area, that God says, 'This is right and that is wrong.'" Both of these, of course, are examples of what Limbaugh has always done - turning black into white and encouraging division and hatefulness. If Limbaugh was just some little twerp with a weblog, this would be no big deal. But his show is broadcast widely, his twisted vision of "America" is permeating the culture and reaching even the mainstream media, and his rabid libel of patriotic Americans and non-theofascist religious people is also broadcast on the taxpayers' dime to our troops in the field. FP recommends a national boycott. I think it would be a good idea to contact your reps and demand that Limbaugh be balanced (by Randi Rhodes, for example), on Armed Forces Radio.  [The Sideshow] 9:55:11 AM     We need more ransom for King Richard Robin Hood didn't believe in unfair taxes like George Bush does and he doesn't want to starve the poor to make Wall Street rich. Bush as Robin Hood By JOHN TIERNEY Published: April 30, 2005 Democrats have good reason to be aghast at President Bush's new proposal for Social Security. Someone has finally called their bluff. They tried yesterday to portray him as just another cruel, rich Republican for suggesting any cuts in future benefits, but that's not what the prime-time audience saw on Thursday night. By proposing to shore up the system while protecting low-income workers, Mr. Bush raised a supremely awkward question for Democrats: which party really cares about the poor? ...................... "The amount of income-related redistribution in Social Security is a lot less than people think," said Jeffrey Liebman, a Harvard economist and a former official in the Clinton administration. "If you get the details right, you can design a personal-account retirement system in which groups with high risks of poverty in old age come out at least as well as with the current system." So why are his fellow Democrats so dead set against it? Their usual answer has been that any move to privatization would doom the poor along with the whole Social Security program. If you let the middle and upper classes opt out and finance their own retirement, the argument has gone, there will be no political support for even the modest subsidies that Social Security now provides to low-income workers - just look at what Republicans did to welfare and public housing programs. But the elderly poor are different from the younger poor. For one thing, they're more likely to vote, a fact not lost on even the most hardhearted Republican. They also arouse much more public sympathy. Kicking 25-year-olds off welfare was popular because it was thought to be good for them. Nobody claims that forcing that widow to eat cat food will build character. That's why even the most ardent free-marketeers are not trying to eliminate the safety net for the elderly. The libertarians at the Cato Institute are trying to strengthen it with a proposal that has been introduced by Republicans in Congress. If your individual account left you with a paltry pension, their plan would guarantee you a subsidy to lift you above the poverty line - and well above what many retirees are now getting from Social Security. Democrats like to portray Mr. Bush as King George or Marie Antoinette. But on Thursday night, when he promised to improve benefits for the poor while limiting them for everyone else, he sounded more like Robin Hood, especially when he rhapsodized about poor people getting a chance to build up assets that they could pass along to their children. It was the kind of talk you might expect to hear from a Democrat, except that Democrats don't talk about much these days except the glories of the New Deal. They know that Social Security doesn't even have the money to sustain a program that leaves millions of elderly people in poverty. But it's their system, and they're sticking to it. I never liked John Tierney. He has been advocating overturning rent control in New York for years. When it was tried in the mid-90's, landlords, among the stupidest businessmen on the planet, were planning hundreds of dollar rent increases. Of course, since the tenent lobby is the second largest in the state, the plan was stillborn. And he's an idiot. Bush's "plan" would cut benefits to everyone who makes more than $20K a year. Which is 70 percent of America. Think about that for a minuite. Nearly three out of four American workers would take a benefits cut. That's Robin Hood alright, if you're King John. Because Bush has not planned to raise benefits for the poor, but simply not cut them. So in this mythical world where the market never crashes, people might make more money, some might come out better, but most Americans would be screwed like a Thai hooker visiting Neil Bush in his hotel room. Let's be for real: nothing stops working class people from investing today. They can buy wide screen TV's and rims, they can invest in the stock market, and don't. Over 40 percent of people eligible to participate in 401K's, don't. Across the finanical and educational board. Why? Because they don't trust Wall Street. Simple as that. The complexities of investment would cause some people to live in utter poverty. A WaPo article had an interview with a woman getting her masters in accounting. Hardly a financial illiterate. And she just said she didn't have the time, between her kids and school to worry about investing in social security. And Tierney is also wrong in assuming the conmen at Cato aren't trying to screw the elderly. What they want to do is move this to 100 market-based investing. So everyone has to eventually jump in the market place. In states where this plan has been tried, investment rates have been well under 10 percent, with many people moving back into the state-secured system. If poor people want assets to pass on to their kids, being healthy and not living off them because they have a social security check is a wonderful gift. And there is no law against bank accounts. The utter selfishness of Bush's plan is amazing to behold. Robin Hood is right, but he's King John coming for your gold. [Steve Gilliard's News Blog] 8:57:00 AM     Snatch control It's our vagina and we'll tell you what to do with it House Passes Bill Tightening Parental Rule for Abortions By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: April 28, 2005 WASHINGTON, April 27 - The House passed a bill on Wednesday making it a federal crime for any adult to transport an under-age girl across state lines to have an abortion without the consent of her parents. A vote on a similar bill is expected in the Senate later this spring or early this summer, and backers says its chances are good. The measure, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, passed 270 to 157 and was a victory for abortion opponents, who have been pushing an ambitious agenda now that Congress is under greater Republican control. "This legislation will close a loophole that allows adults not only to help minors break state laws by obtaining an abortion without parental consent, but also contributes to ending the life of an innocent child," said the chief sponsor, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida. The bill, intended to prevent minor girls from going to different states to circumvent more restrictive laws in their home states, applies to adults who accompany girls 17 and under. It also, for the first time, requires doctors who perform abortions on under-age girls to comply with state notification laws, and in some cases to notify the girl's parents in person. Violators could face a $100,000 fine and a year in jail. The bill also imposes a 24-hour waiting period for young women who travel to another state for an abortion, in some cases even if they are accompanied by their parents. Supporters characterize the measure as pro-family, saying it will prevent abusive boyfriends and others from taking vulnerable young women across state lines to receive "secret abortions" against their will. They say that the decision to have an abortion should rest solely with the parents. Amendments that would have allowed grandparents or members of the clergy to accompany the young women were rejected. The measure has the strong backing of the White House, which issued a statement on Wednesday saying the bill "is consistent with the administration's view that parents' efforts to be involved in their children's lives should be protected and the widespread belief among authorities in the field that the parents of pregnant minors are best suited to provide them with counsel, guidance and support." Opponents call the measure misguided and say it would violate a Supreme Court ruling that required state parental notification laws to include alternatives, like permitting abortions with a judge's consent. And they say it would put some young women, like those who are the victims of sexual abuse by their fathers, in serious danger. "Thankfully, most young women involve their parents in the decision to seek an abortion," said Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York. "But under this legislation, those who feel they cannot turn to their parents when facing an unintended pregnancy will be forced to fend for themselves without any help from a responsible adult. Some will seek unsafe abortions close to home. Others will travel to unfamiliar places seeking abortions by themselves." Jen Yes, I'm sure a 16-year old will have no problem whatsoever getting her Mom to drive her to a clinic if her stepfather rapes her. Yeah. Unless she's a 13 year old foster care child in Florida and then the state will force her to carry the baby to term no matter what she wants. Florida girl has abortion blocked By Jeremy Cooke BBC News, New York A pregnant 13-year-old girl in Florida has been told she cannot have an abortion because she lacks the maturity to make such a decision. A state court granted an injunction which prevents the girl from terminating her pregnancy. She is three months pregnant and had planned to have an abortion on Tuesday of this week. The American Civil Liberties Union says it will launch an urgent appeal against the ruling. 'Too young to choose' Florida's department of children and families intervened and took the matter to court, arguing the teenager, who is under the care of the state, is too young and immature to make an informed medical decision. Judge Ronald Alvarez in Palm Beach accepted that argument and has granted a temporary injunction and psychological evaluation, which effectively blocks her from terminating the pregnancy. It is a case which, once again, plays into the heated and divisive debate about abortion in America. The judge's ruling comes in spite of Florida state law which specifically does not require a minor to seek parental consent before an abortion. At what point do the wingnuts go too far with this "culture of life" bullshit and harm someone. Is the State of Florida going to raise the baby? What is she is injured for life in childbirth or dies during it? Where will Jeb! be then? [Steve Gilliard's News Blog] 7:56:50 AM     Iran Threatens to Resume Nuclear Work as Talks Fail. Paul Hughes | Teheran | April 30 Reuters - Iran warned on Saturday it may resume uranium enrichment-related work next week after it failed to reach an agreement with the European Union over the long-term future of its disputed nuclear program. The warning sets up a summer crisis in Iran's long-running nuclear dispute with the West and is likely to lead to heightened U.S. pressure to send its case to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanction. [The Agonist] 7:10:14 AM     We're on the Road to Nowhere. Could you find another image that better expresses that we're living in two Americas? This photo was on the front page of Wednesday's NYT.  It accompanied an article describing how federal and state governments are converting highways to "pay-as-you-go,"... [BAGnewsNotes] 7:07:47 AM

© Copyright 2005 Michael Mussington. Last update: 5/1/2005; 4:29:13 AM.