Morning Must Reads: Full Court Press

For the nay-sayers.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78b06d1a-f226-11df-9118-00144feab49a.html#axzz15e6Mps00
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“The FAO painted a worrying outlook in its twice-yearly Food Outlook on Wednesday, warning that the world should “be prepared” for even higher prices next year. It said it was crucial for farmers to “expand substantially” production, particularly of corn and wheat in 2011-12 to meet expected demand and rebuild world reserves.”

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Could be emerging countries are gobbling up more of the world’s food supply. Could also mean that inflation has taken off, and we are seeing the first signs of hyperinflation as a result of all the spending in this country. Either way, you WILL be paying more.

And growers are switching from corn (meaning higher prices for ethanol laced gasoline for the middle class) to sugar, cotton and soybeans as their prices are bringing in more cash.
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Amazing how that profit motive works isn’t it!

What did I miss?

GOPers are shying away from the Appropriations committee this session.

But as the 112th Congress takes shape, it appears no one’s anxious to accept this once-plum committee assignment

A band of conservative rebels has taken over the House, vowing to slash spending, cut the deficit and kill earmarks.

And of course they’d love a seat on the powerhouse Appropriations Committee so they can translate their campaign zeal into action, right?[...]

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was asked to be an appropriator and said thanks, but no thanks. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a tea party favorite, turned down a shot at Appropriations, which controls all discretionary spending. So did conservatives like Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an ambitious newcomer who will lead the influential Republican Study Committee.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who hopes to be the committee’s chairman, noted, ‘Anybody who’s a Republican right now, come June, is going to be accused of hating seniors, hating education, hating children, hating clean air and probably hating the military and farmers, too…. There’s going to be a lot of tough votes. So some people may want to shy away from the committee. I understand it.’

Power to the people. But, we think your news sources should be shutdown. Senator Rockefeller in his own words. “There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly, in their future.”
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Yes, restrict Freedom of Speech. Is there any other core rights you think should be taken away Senator Rockefeller?
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/11/17/sen_rockefeller_fcc_should_take_fox_news_msnbc_off_airwaves.html

I am sure we will hear from Obama what a great job he did with his takeover of Government Motors. Even NPR highlighted some of the risks still alive for GM especially the absolute failure of financial controls (Hey it is a government entity isn’t it).
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Some other gems: GM is losing market share and is unprofitable in Europe one of its biggest markets.
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The pension funds are still underfunded to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
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But the best is that the stock up over 8% from what the government (taxpayers) received. So who is making money WALL STREET

“n its recent IPO filing, GM said it’s been working on improving its accounting procedures, but as of June 30, “our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at a reasonable assurance level.” In other words, it’s not there yet. Although many risk factors listed in an IPO filing are standard, only companies that have a track record of financial mismanagement tend to confess that more problems could pop up. GM’s most recent admission is not the first time the company has said its finances are sloppy. GM has a history of financial irregularities: The company admitted major mistakes five times from 2005 to 2009 and had to restate earnings for a variety of reasons, like misstating pension accounting and booking questionable transactions with its supplier, Delphi.

Since 2006, GM has promised three times that it would fix its accounting irregularities. The impact of those restatements was minimal, but eventually the company slid into bankruptcy because of a host of other problems. Once they began diving into the company’s books, members of the government’s autos task force said they were shocked how little GM knew about its own finances.”

Forget the economy or unemployment or ongoing military actions; what America needs to do now is…stop Federal funding of NPR.

“House Republicans announced Wednesday they plan to force a floor vote on defunding NPR in response to the firing of analyst Juan Williams last month.

House GOP Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and Rep. Doug Lamborn (Colo.) said that cutting funds to the publicly subsidized news organization was the winner of the conference’s weekly ‘YouCut’ contest, in which the public votes online on spending items they want eliminated.[...]

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has said he will introduce legislation to defund NPR in the upper chamber.”

GM on the auction block. Tax payers take another loss.
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“Bloom said GM has done the right thing and pricing of $33 per share is a “fair deal” even though the partial sale represents a loss of roughly $9 billion on taxpayers’ original investment.”

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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1827687520101118
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Now that is how to make………….I mean lose money hand over fist, don’t you think? Good job Mr President. Thank you Sir for selling the American tax payer down the river yet again.

Kucinich to make a play for the House Oversight Chair.

“Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) announced Wednesday that he would challenge Rep. Edolphus Towns (N.Y.) for the top Democratic slot on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, setting up competition for the role of chief defender of the Obama administration and chief protector of the federal workforce in the 112th Congress.

Towns is currently the chairman of the panel and is planning to slide over to become the ranking member when Republicans take control in January. But some Democrats worry that the New Yorker won’t provide an effective counterpunch to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who will take over as committee chairman. Issa is energetic and media-savvy, and widely expected to launch multiple probes of the Obama administration — as the OGR committee traditionally does when the House and the White House are controlled by different parties.

Kucinich is currently fifth in seniority on the panel’s Democratic roster, making his campaign an uphill climb given that his party typically gives very heavy weight to seniority in making committee choices.”

(h/t to Balloon Juice, where Dennis G. makes a case for Kucinich:

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/11/17/give-dennis-that-chair/#more-53024 )

Pat downs and scans. The real problem is a lack of common sense. Targeting 100% of all people who fly, including Grandma isn’t going to keep us all safe. It will only frustrate many people and create even longer lines.
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When will we wake up and use common sense to fix our problems? The Israelis have used safety measures for over 30 years successfully. 30 years without losing one plane to terrorists.
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We are not adopting the Israeli Security measures because of why?
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101117/D9JI6A0G0.html
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Oh that’s right. We must remain politically correct. That is the liberal way to solve most problems, yes?

Holder spoke in October that the federal judicial system was well equipped to handle this case. Unfortunately the same can’t be said about Holder

Despite the acquittals, which included murder counts for each of the 224 people killed in the bombings, the Justice Department said it was pleased Ghailani faces up to life in prison and said it would seek that sentence.

But senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions, conceded that the one-count conviction, combined with big electoral wins for Republicans this month, will make it harder to close the prison.

Senate Dems also debate earmark ban.

“On Tuesday, Senate Republicans passed a handful of resolutions aimed at tackling the national debt and spending, including a proposal by Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to ban the use of earmarks in the conference. They also called on Democrats to adopt a two-year earmark moratorium.

But most Democrats defend the practice of funneling federal dollars to pet projects in their home states.

The debate over an earmarks ban is a ‘shallow’ issue because it would not save any money, just hand the executive branch more power in deciding how federal dollars are directed to states, said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who secured $160 million in earmarks this year for 140 projects including hurricane-protection and flood-control needs.

‘I know the Republican caucus is focused on earmarks but that is just one very, very small part of the problem,’ she said.’It not only represents less than 1 percent of the budget; it represents just a fraction of the problem.’”

A cold slap in the face for cheerleaders of Spend, Spend, Spend. The markets are telling California (and others) it’s past time to live within your means.

America’s strapped states and cities took another hit Wednesday, with California seeing tepid demand for its latest bond sale and other governments pulling about $700 million worth of borrowing deals this week as investors continued stepping away from the municipal bond market.

The normally staid market has grown volatile the past week, posting its sharpest selloff in nearly two years, as investors demand higher interest rates to buy paper issued by states, cities and counties to finance their operations. Localities have been hammered by a drop in tax revenue amid the downturn—and unlike the federal government, most are barred constitutionally from running deficits

The fragility of government finances was also evident in a move by Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade the city and county of San Francisco, as well as the city of Philadelphia, and by a request by Hamtramck, a small Michigan city, for permission to file for bankruptcy

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620912858864200.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

[And Landrieu is somewhat interested in maintaining leverage over the executive branch.]

Janet Napalitano denies Bill Clinton has applied for a job at TSA as a screener

The TSA has been hit with a number of lawsuits as the revolt against Big Sis, naked body scanners, and invasive groping measures explodes, with one case involving a woman who had her blouse pulled down in full public view by TSA goons who then proceeded to laugh and joke about her exposed breasts

http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-hit-with-lawsuits-as-revolt-explodes.html

Lucy. Charlie Brown. Football.

“In an interview with Wolffe, the President seemed to acknowledge that in pursuing bipartisan support for health reform, he and Democrats got snookered by a previously-thought-out GOP strategy to delay the process for as long as possible in order to politically damage him and the Democratic Party.

Here’s the President on page 75:

“You have to give the Republicans credit, just from a pure political perspective, that they used every instrument available to them in the Senate to prolong the process in such a way that helped drive down support nationally, that gave everybody a sense that somehow Washington was broken,” he told me. “At a time when everybody was worrying about jobs, for us to have to spend six to nine months on this piece of legislation obviously was not helpful.”

In other words, Obama is saying, Republicans were only gaming the process all along. That amounts to an admission that Dems were foolish to let Republicans draw out the process as long as possible, since their game plan was clearly to damage Dems by persuading people that government remained broken, that Obama had failed to change Washington, and that he wasn’t properly focused on fixing the economy.

Separately, I still don’t get why it’s not more broadly accepted that the quest for bipartisan support in particular was one of the main things that led to health reform becoming such a political liability for Dems. It allowed the process to drag on months longer than it had to, which directly led to the failure to pass reform before Scott Brown’s election to the Senate. Brown’s victory then allowed Republicans to argue that health reform had been repudiated by the American people before it had even passed, and forced Dems to use reconciliation to pass reform — which in turn allowed Republicans to further sour the public on the process.”

(and the sad part is that the GOP flat-out stated that was what they were going to do!)

Shock. Republicans love to talk abut fiscal austerity but no one has the intestinal fortitude to put their money where their mouth is huh?

Aw, c’mon, Rusty, the man’s just fantasizing. Hasn’t it occurred to you that many of the regulars here would be thrilled if someone banished you? (I wouldn’t. It’s too much fun responding to you.) But you’re still here (in case you hadn’t noticed).
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Anyway, the FCC couldn’t do what Rockefeller wants even if asked. It has no jurisdiction over cable TV.

Yeah, more examples of Republican talk about fiscal responsibility. Ask them what they’d cut and you get answers like the NEA and NPR which would save us hundreds of thousands of precious dollars. That’s not fiscal responsibility, that’s idealogical warfare. Can’t get answers on REAL cuts though…

1. It’s a partial sale. I don’t know the details, but it’s possible the Govt may yet recover more bailout money.
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2. For the quantity of jobs saved, and the economic destruction averted, $9 billion is a bargain. Are you an ideologue, Rusty, or a pragmatic? The pragmatics are cheering the rescue of GM lustily. The ideologues would apparently rather have seen the Midwest go down the toilet.
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3. “Taxpayer” is orthographically a single word.

Just out of curiosity, how many people pass through Israeli airports each year compared to American airports?

Your health insurance dollars, hard at work for you.

“This morning, Bloomberg reporter Drew Armstrong broke an incredible story revealing that health insurance companies, like UnitedHealth and CIGNA, funneled $86.2 million into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2009 to pay for the Chamber’s multifaceted campaign to kill President Obama’s health reform legislation. In January of this year, the National Journal’s Peter Stone reported that insurers had pumped $20 million into the Chamber for its anti-health reform campaign. Armstrong’s report exposes the true extent to which insurers worked to fool the public and defeat health reform. [...]

In public, health insurance lobbyists and executives promised to support reform and work closely with reform advocates. The top health insurance lobbyist, Karen Ignagni, went to the White House early in the reform debate and promised Obama, “You have our commitment to play, to contribute and to help pass health-care reform this year.”

In private, the health insurance industry worked with conservative think tanks and media, right-wing front groups, and highly ideological trade associations like the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber to kill the bill. By using third party groups and ideological cover, the health insurance industry sought to trick Americans into hating reform.”

(Bloomberg article here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-11-17/insurers-gave-u-s-chamber-86-million-used-to-oppose-obama-s-health-law.html )

Rusty — For once I agree with you. I’ve flown on El Al, and although the service sucks the security is incomparable. But if we’re going to pat down people, we have to leave open the possibility that anyone may get the treatment. Otherwise them evil terrists will find a granny to smuggle a bomb in her skivvies. Of course, they shouldn’t be patting down anyone.
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I’m sure you never watch MSNBC, so you probably don’t know that the former chief of El Al security was on at the end of one of their shows last night. I think it was the one at 10:00 Eastern time, Lawrence O’Donnell. If you can bring yourself to sully your eyes with an MSNBC production, you might enjoy watching it. He eviscerates the TSA. It’s probably available somewhere online.

“There’s currently a shadow bailout of Wall Street coming down the road…”

“…for the low, low price of avoiding allocating a simple $30 million dollars, Congress is looking to give Wall Street a massive amount of space to run wild. And the new Republicans might be leading the charge.

What am I talking about? As Dave Dayen has written, the new Dodd-Frank Bill authorized, but did not appropriate, $35 million dollars for legal services for homeowners. And as Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center said, ‘All of the robo-signing allegations were only discovered, brought to light by aggressive, competent attorneys working very diligently to represent their clients. Homeowners cannot negotiate these kinds of issues without lawyers. Low-income homeowners particularly need the lawyers… we urgently need that funding.’

I’ve heard from people I trust in the field the only thing that can hold Wall Street in check is keeping legal pressure in the courts on them with this foreclosure crisis. And if this $35 million dollar isn’t allocated any number of front line legal aid groups will have to slow down or shut down their operations. The reason you know about robosigners, the reason you know about the complete mockery Wall Street and shady overnight mortgage originators have made of our courts and our property rights, the reason you know about the gaming of the system of the servicers as it plays out in the field, is all because of front line legal aid groups.”

“In other words, Obama is saying, Republicans were only gaming the process all along…”
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…he admitted a year+ after the rest of us figured it out. Healthcare reform was and still is a good idea. The Obama administration’s handling of the whole affair was stunningly clumsy.

And your dessert:

“Negotiation”

(cartoon at the link, h/t to Benen over at the Washington Monthly)

And when you ask Dems what they would do: gut defense, cut income (raise taxes) and mumble about weeding out fraud and waste.

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Fraud and waste are a direct result of an out of control big government and out of control spending.

Fortunately only Angels met with Democrats and Obama as they wrote the bill behind closed doors.

Oh wait it was SEIU, UAW, AFL-CIO, AARP. How much did they spend promoting the bill?

Oh and let’s not forget that after all their efforts they now have waivers.

grape_crush: in a related item (referring to a post you did a month or so ago), the House voted on the President’s pocket veto of HR 3808 yesterday. Here is an excerpt from an email sent by Ohio’s Secretary of State, Jennifer Bruner:
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“The President’s veto of the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010 was sustained by 235 votes of the 435-member House. Democrats voted overwhelmingly in favor of sustaining the veto of this bill that has huge anti-consumer consequences. Just five Republicans joined them.”
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This was the bill that would have made it much easier for banks to forclose without verified paperwork.

Good news! Hadn’t seen that, thanks for the update.

The longer this festers, the longer the economy drags and the only probable change in the outcome?

Lawyers will make money while people will still lose their homes

There are pregnant female suicide bombers over in Palestine right now.
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Enough said.
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I can’t wait until the rectal bomb is invented in, I’m guessing ~5 years. Oh boy will it be interesting to see if the US actually tries to do cavity searches.

“Just out of curiosity, how many people pass through Israeli airports each year compared to American airports?”

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What does it matter? I am sure we have far more TSA workers by the number now than Israel has workers in their airports. The only difference is the number.
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It is the process however which is flawed. TSA Workers here in America are doing the job with what they have been given. What they have been given is a very un-workable program.
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Common sense is not even given a chance. Will their be Muslims singled out in an Israeli like system? I have no doubt. But, as long as we rely upon a politically correct form of security, we shall always remain in danger of another attack. Period.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/11/airport-full-body-scanners-are-made-by.html
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NewRusty: You might want to read about the Bush/Chertoff connection to the scanners and Chertoff’s current connection to Rapiscan who produces them.

Thanks grape_crush. I sent this on to my socialist family.
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We keep memorials to Norman Thomas, Jane Adams, Eugene Debs, Woodie Guthrie, W.E.B. DuBois, Helen Keller, John Dewey and other socialist icons.
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Watch NewRusty’s and the freeper’s heads explode.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_healthcare_world;_ylt=Ang8cXH0hwLVr_A7rtpqd50H_b4F;_ylu=X3oDMTM1MjV0cG5tBGFzc2V0Ay9zL25tL3VzX3VzYV9oZWFsdGhjYXJlX3dvcmxkBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwM2BHBvcwM2BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDd29ybGRjb21wYXJp
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World comparison shows US health care lacking.

Auditors told Congress increasing the retirement will impact the poor and minorities more than others. It will also raise disability claims.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101118/ap_on_bi_ge/us_social_security_retirement_age

Actually, the former head of Israeli security was on Keith Olberman last night. I’m sure its online as well, perhaps at that MSNBC website.

And your point is… ?

Does this mean that the Repubs won’t have enough volunteers to staff their (majority) half of the committee?

Please tell me that the Dems would have a majority on any committee votes – if they stick together.

Is that possible, or would the Repub leadership have to assign juniors to the task, and authorize Congressional Combat Pay to the draftees?

free,

The usual request: What’s the source of your quotes?

Links, please.

free,
You say:
“Fraud and waste are a direct result of an out of control big government and out of control spending.”

- Please give detailed examples of the fraud and waste, with dollar figures for what would be saved by their elimination.

free,

You changed the subject.
How come you’re not trying to refudiate or agreediate with some of the previous comments about TSA?

Issa is a polished *rabid conservative* politician. Kucinich is a less-polished *rabid liberal* politician.

We need someone to keep the mad dog Republicans at bay.

Bring it on!

And you’re happy about this… why?

Predictions:
The Repubs will find a way to work their earmarks into appropriations bills, probably with some obfuscating language.
They will also undo the Democratic reform process that mandated that all earmarks’ lawmaker sponsors be listed.

Liar.

free,

You keep harping on “waivers” as if they are despicable, evil things.
I asked you before, and I ask you again:

What are these waivers, and how are they bad?

Please answer, and be specific!

free,

People are already losing their homes. In some cases people who are current on their mortgages are being *locked in* their homes by contractors sent out by [somebody] to “secure the residence” for [somebody] because [somebody] didn’t have a record of the payments made on the mortgage by the occupants who are now locked in, because [somebody] never got the paperwork to prove that [anyone] owned the house.

Not quite as simple as you want it to be, is it?